Question: Could you introduce yourself Raj and talk about your educational and professional background?
Beekie: I started working in manufacturing and worked in the beverage industry, eventually making my way to the head office. After that, I left to get my undergraduate degree in education. After that, I worked for the Dubuque Community School District in Dubuque, Iowa. After that, I went to corporate America and spent 20 years there, working primarily in the education arm of various corporations, educating people on leadership, management, strategic planning, diversity, and effective communication. Eventually, I made my way here to Saint Mary’s.
Question: What do you enjoy most about working in Saint Mary’s DBA program?
Beekie: It’s so fun to engage with students and work with them on developing an idea that they are later going to turn into their dissertation. It’s always an interesting journey because some students have no clue what they’re going to do, and some students have a very clear about what they want to do. For the students who don’t know what they want to do, you can see them change from topic to topic and then they’ll suddenly read about something and it ignites a passion in them and they become immersed in the topic and become experts. It’s so fun to see that transformation happen.
Question: Do you have a favorite course you teach?
Beekie: You know, it’s like having six children, you can’t pick a favorite. I don’t teach emotional intelligence as a separate course anymore but I think it’s the key to success in life. I think a lot of people who don’t feel they’re successful are unable to manage themselves and are unaware of their own emotions. Emotional intelligence is about self-awareness and self-management. And people who can do both are successful because they don’t make emotional decisions. For me, teaching that class, or aspects of that class in other courses, is a highlight.
Question: What’s your proudest professional accomplishment?
Beekie: Here at Saint Mary’s, we all want to make a difference in someone’s life. When a student who graduated two years ago says to me, “I think about you quite often, thank you for being a professor,” I’m proud to know I made a difference.
Question: I understand you’re interested in pollinators and keep bees. Can you tell me more about that? Also, do you see any overlaps between keeping bees and what you teach?
Beekie: The legend is that my grandfather used to keep bees, and that’s why my name is Beekie. And my uncle kept bees. So, it’s a generational thing. I tell my kids they have to keep bees to keep this generational thing going.
Every student knows I keep bees because I talk about it often. I haven’t incorporated it into my class fully but there is a whole field of study about beekeeping and organizational life, and how organizations working effectively could mirror how bees work in their hives. In business we look at allocation of resources, hierarchy, the emilmination of non-productive units. All of these things happen in a beehive. For example, if a bees think their queen is not performing her job, they replace here. Or when a colony is getting too strong, bees will break off and start a new colony. Kind of like a company branching off and building a new brand somewhere else. So there are a lot of examples I use in my class that are related to beekeeping.
Beekie: Aside from beekeeping, what are your other hobbies?
Beekie: I do a lot of community gardening. I donate about 90 percent of the food I grow to food shelves.
Question: What’s your favorite book?
Beekie: I’m very interested in Stoic philosophy because it is about self-awareness and self-management. So, I really like “The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday. I’d recommend that book to anyone. You can read Epicurus, Seneca, or Marcus Aurelius, but they’re dense. Ryan Holiday has studied them and written a book for the everyday reader.
Question: As you continue here at Saint Mary’s, what are your hopes for the institution’s future?
Beekie: I came in during the early development of the DBA program. I hope to continue to build upon what we have and continue to produce good students and build the brand of the DBA program at Saint Mary’s.
