Scholar Practitioners as Agents for Positive Social Change
One criticism of PhDs in a discipline is that they can sometimes be too focused on esoteric theoretical matters and there is often a disconnect between scholars and practitioners. Walden University has addressed this concern by formulating from the ground up a distance learning scholar-practitioner model that constantly encourages doctoral students to discuss and refine their goals, motivations, and future applications so that their research remains both academically relevant and congruent with the real world. That the majority of Walden doctoral students are already successful executives in their own fields and continue as practitioners throughout their academic careers only serves to reinforce this model.

Before beginning your research, however, you will complete a Doctoral Foundations course, introducing you to scholarly writing, critical reading, and higher-order learning objectives; by the end of the three-month foundations course, the student will have fully researched a topic and refined appropriate higher-order objectives in a Learning Agreement th.

This research sequence begins with a Research Theory and Design course, introducing epistemology and ontology, as well as the two basic approaches to research: Quantitative (based on a priorihypothesis formation and testing), such as survey and quasi-experimental designs; and Qualitative(based on inductive reasoning and abstracting generalizations and themes from methods of inquiry such as interviews and open-ended questioning), such as Grounded Theory, ethnographic, phenomenological, or narrative research.

I am currently a PhD student at Walden University in the AMDS programme, Finance specialization. I am passionate about applying my individual strengths and competencies as a researcher and I feel my best contributions to society will be in the field of research and education.

After completing my OSSD in the gifted programme at Lisgar Collegiate Institute, Ottawa, I completed my BSc (Hons.) in Biology and Biotechnology at Carleton University, Ottawa (1999) and my MBA at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON (2003).

As a former Analyst in CIBC's Finance and Retail Markets groups, one of the projects I was involved in around 2001 was to develop a comparative analysis database and populate it with metrics relevant to bank stability and performance, such as Tier 1 Capital Ratio. I was to include all Canadian and US Banks and Broker/Dealers. The difference in regulatory capital structures between Canadian and US banks was already apparent at the time; even as recently as 2009, Tier 1 Capital Ratios of Canadian Chartered Banks hovered around 10%–well higher than the OSFI requirement of 7% and more than twice the required amounts by Basel II (Booth, 2009).

As I learn more about research and my discipline, I will necessarily continue to refine my interests; it would be impossible and uninformed to commit to a dissertation topic too early–Walden will not even allowe completion of the final research design course (RSCH 8300 Qualitative) until completion of the core KAM projects, let alone entertain a dissertation prospectus or assemble a committee.

focus on elucidating the impacts of regulation in the banking industry, such as Basel II, and the specific contribution of the various metrics that were instrumental in Canadian bank stability; hopefully, this will lead to future research to optimize regulatory requirements for performance.

Current research interests also include application of Financial Engineering concepts to development Shariah-compliant debt-substitutes for integrating into capital structure and ensuring academic freedom in an era of dwindling tenure-track positions and increasing adjunct faculty. Special interests in research design and methodology.

In order to help provide a more detailed, impartial basis for people who are considering Walden's PhD programmes, I have made available the various PhD programme resources as I collect them for myself.  The Microsoft SkyDrive collection is hosted on http://skydrive.phdstudent.info/  Walden students, please contact me for your personal @Walden.PhDStudent.info email and 25gb Microsoft Skydrive!  Here is the browsable 2010-2011 Walden University Catalogue.

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References:
Booth, L. (2009). The Secret of Canadian Banking: Common sense? World Economics. 10(3):1-18.