{"id":120305,"date":"2025-08-13T14:52:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T19:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=120305"},"modified":"2025-08-13T14:52:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T19:52:51","slug":"alumni-spotlight-bobby-brenda-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/community\/alumni-spotlight-bobby-brenda-carter\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Spotlight \u2014 BC\u00b2: Dr. Bobby Carter & Dr. Brenda Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY KIM SMART<\/p>\n

Married Chicago School graduates Bobby Carter, Ph.D., and Brenda Carter, Ph.D., or \u201cBC2\u201d as they like to say, are a dynamic duo. Brenda is a culture strategist and organizational psychologist with over a decade of HR leadership. Bobby is a successful change management consultant who has helped guide Fortune 100 and Fortune 10 companies with global change strategies, retention, and business transformation. While initially a play on their initials, the nickname \u201cBC2\u201d is appropriate for the work the Carters are doing. Their power to help organizations and individuals has been exponentially strengthened by the many challenges and changes they\u2019ve had to navigate themselves as individuals, parents, and graduate students.<\/p>\n

Both had difficult childhoods and transitions into adulthood. Brenda experienced trauma as a child and knew that education was her ticket to a better future. She went to college, dreaming of being a lawyer, but got pregnant her freshman year. Determined not to be \u201ca statistic,\u201d she took just one semester off after giving birth to her daughter, then returned to school full-time while working and parenting, ultimately completing her degree in pre-law.<\/p>\n

Bobby struggled in high school and got his diploma at an alternative school. A week after graduation, he moved to New York to live with his cousins and uncle. He spent a year adapting to a very different culture from the South, then attended community college and got an associate degree in marketing. He then went on to get his bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration.<\/p>\n

Their paths finally crossed at a church event. What was initially just a friendship forged by attending LSAT classes together quickly grew into love. Within a year, they were married. Nine months later, Brenda gave birth to twins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already had my daughter, which Bobby had taken on as his own, and it was like mayhem with all three,\u201d she joked. Yet the resilience and perseverance they\u2019d gained during their childhoods and young adult years helped them through it and would continue to do so.<\/p>\n

While they were adapting to life with three children, the recession was hitting New York hard. The week they learned they were having twins, Bobby got laid off. He was underemployed for a time after that, frustrated that although he had the same degree and skills as others, he wasn\u2019t getting the same opportunities. \u201cThere\u2019s a high level of resilience that\u2019s engrained in us as Black people, but you really have to turn it up when you\u2019re getting so many \u2018nos.\u2019\u201d After reaching out to one of his vendors, he was offered a job in Dallas, so they packed up and moved.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d also moved away from their plans for law school. With the twins now two, they both turned their focus to getting their master\u2019s degrees in organizational leadership at Mercy University. \u201cMy mind was just blown with leadership. My world just opened up,\u201d Brenda says.<\/p>\n

But the road wasn\u2019t easy. \u201cWe had no family here, no one to help. We didn\u2019t even have money for books,\u201d Brenda says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to pull the car up really close to the Barnes & Noble to get their free Wi-Fi signal so we could do our research and submit our assignments,\u201d Bobby added. And juggling it all was hard. They\u2019d take turns doing homework and caring for the kids.<\/p>\n

After graduation, they moved back to New York, where they both worked in change management. Brenda landed a job as global HR COE leader at PepsiCo<\/p>\n

While at PepsiCo, Brenda had a rare one-on-one with CEO Indra Nooyi, who shared her journey and the systemic barriers she faced as a woman of color. The conversation inspired Brenda. Soon after, a colleague introduced her to The Chicago School and the field of Industrial-Organizational Psychology. She applied and was a accepted to the Ph.D. Business Psychology: Industrial and Organizational Track<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve always had an appetite to learn,\u201d Brenda says. \u201cI knew it would be challenging, but I also knew I\u2019d rise to meet it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brenda loved her classes and discussions, and her passion for what she was learning inspired Bobby\u2019s doctoral journey. \u201cI looked at the Business Psychology curriculum and was impressed by the consulting track,\u201d he says. \u201cThe cohorts, the discussion groups, they were filled with professionals at the top of their game, some from Fortune 50 companies. That spoke volumes to me about the type of talent they\u2019re bringing in to be part of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brenda and Bobby earned their Ph.D.s together at the 2024 Dallas commencement. Partners through it all, they were side by side as best friends, spouses, parents, and avid supporters of each other. \u201cWe\u2019ve created a strong foundation we can build almost anything on top of. And it will stand,\u201d Brenda says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kids were part of the journey too,\u201d Brenda says. \u201cOne of the biggest things we\u2019ve taught them is to learn their learning style. The other is perseverance. It\u2019s not always about the low-hanging fruit. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get to the top of the tree, but the reward is so great.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY KIM SMART Married Chicago School graduates Bobby Carter, Ph.D., and Brenda Carter, Ph.D., or \u201cBC2\u201d as they like to say, are a dynamic duo. Brenda is a culture strategist and organizational psychologist with over a decade of HR leadership. Bobby is a successful change management consultant who has helped guide Fortune 100 and Fortune 10 companies with global change strategies, retention, and business transformation. While initially a play on their initials, the nickname \u201cBC2\u201d is appropriate for the work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":120306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[191,113],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1062],"class_list":["post-120305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-psychology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlumni Spotlight \u2014 BC\u00b2: Dr. Bobby Carter & Dr. Brenda Carter - Insight Digital Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bobby Carter, Ph.D., and Brenda Carter, Ph.D., have built a strong foundation, and The Chicago School has been an important part of ot\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/community\/alumni-spotlight-bobby-brenda-carter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumni Spotlight \u2014 BC\u00b2: Dr. Bobby Carter & Dr. Brenda Carter - 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