The SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program was created in 1993 – as part of the Compact for Faculty Diversity with the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) — to address the long-standing national shortage of underrepresented minority faculty.

Ansley Abraham, Ph.D., the founding director of the SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program, started his career at SREB as a research assistant, responsible for writing policy studies on college admissions standards and high school graduation requirements. Data from those studies identified the gap between the two standards, defining the need for remediation at the college level. Then SREB President, Mark Musick, was interested in the dearth of minority faculty and wondered how the McKnight Doctoral Scholars Program model might be adapted for a larger region and tasked Dr. Abraham with taking on the project. Dr. Abraham developed the white paper that was approved by the SREB board for the organization to move forward to develop a state-based program to increase faculty diversity.