Tonya and Will Rivers share a moment during UMSL’s commencement ceremony in December. The Rivers’ story of perseverance during their DBA journey is inspiring to those in the program. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)

Tonya and Will Rivers understand leadership.

Studying leadership and helping others develop leadership skills – individually or in corporate settings – has been a central tenet of their lives through their company, Purposed2Lead, and as faculty members at Webster University. Leadership, in fact, was the focus for Tonya’s dissertation in the Doctor of Business Administration program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

“‘Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.’ That’s a quote by John C. Maxwell, one of our great mentors,” Tonya said. “Leadership is not a title. Leadership is an attribute. Leadership is a skill that is cultivated in human beings to be able to influence others to do things that they may not ordinarily do.”

Actions influence others, and Will and Tonya’s journey through UMSL’s DBA program – overcoming a seemingly never-ending and unfair cavalcade of potential personal roadblocks that would have derailed most people – is an incredible example of leadership.

Without careers devoted to their leadership quest, they might have been derailed, too. Instead, they persevered and participated in a joyous commencement ceremony this past December along with the rest of their 2024 cohort members. Will finished his dissertation defense in November, and Tonya will wrap up that stage in February. Their smiles at graduation – and the smiles of those who know their story best – were well-earned.

“Their success in the program despite the significant life challenges they faced leaves behind an enduring impact on our DBA students,” said Ekin Pellegrini, the associate dean for graduate business programs and founding director of UMSL’s DBA program. “Their many stories of grit are now embedded in the DBA program’s DNA. The wisdom they inspire is continuously shared by senior students mentoring our more junior practitioner-scholars.”

Perseverance in the face of adversity

This dynamic husband-and-wife duo had been strongly encouraged by their mentors to pursue a PhD or doctoral degree as an essential step forward on their career paths. Their search for the right program spanned the nation, but the more they looked at UMSL’s offering close to home, the more they realized it was the perfect fit, for reasons beyond geography. Conversations with Pellegrini and Professor of Information Systems Joe Rottman finalized their decisions, and they joined the class of 2024 cohort, with classes starting in the fall 2021 semester.

Tonya and Will Rivers celebrated at graduation with two of the many faculty members who helped them along their DBA journey, Ekin Pellegrini (left) and Joe Rottman (second from right).

A few months after they started, though, Tonya received word that her father had passed away on Christmas Eve due to a brain aneurysm. Despite past challenges that had strained their relationship and halted communication, the news hit hard.

“Not having the ability to have final conversations that you want to have with someone that you haven’t spoken with in a long time, having a lot of unanswered questions and just not really having closure, that was tough,” Tonya said. “That started my journey of resilience and just trying to stay focused and make it through this program. I have to say that my husband was a huge, huge help in helping me to traverse all those different thoughts and feelings and emotions at that time.”

They couldn’t have known that was just the start of their often-turbulent path.

On Oct. 30, 2022, Will and Tonya were driving to church with Tonya’s mother, Sheila McFadden, when they were in an accident on Interstate 270 near DePaul Hospital that caused their GMC Acadia to go airborne and smash into a utility pole. McFadden died in the accident. Will was in critical condition, with multiple broken ribs, a head injury and blood clotting in his eyes. Doctors, worried about his lungs collapsing, were initially not sure that he would survive. Tonya’s left arm was shattered and required reconstructive surgery.

“It was very difficult to be able to come back from that and then be able to move forward without having all of that play in the back of your mind,” Will said. “From my perspective, I could see the challenge my wife was having, not only have to deal with the fact that her mom had passed, but also the fact that I was in the hospital. She was trying to take care of me and deal with these other issues as well.”

He pauses, holding back tears.

“I still think about that, and how grateful I am to her for what she did and the strength that she showed during that particular time,” he said. “She doesn’t think she was very strong, but she was.”

While Will was in the hospital for more than a month, family and friends rallied to help in every way imaginable – bringing food, helping to clean, serving as Tonya’s personal Uber driver, etc. – as Tonya dealt with her own injuries and painful headaches, in addition to preparing arrangements for her mom to be laid to rest.

As a source of strength, Tonya leaned on her daughter, Ashley, who was in the final semester of her master’s program at Webster University when she lost her grandmother and saw her mom badly injured. Before Will and Tonya were married in August 2016, it was just the three of them living at the house, and they were very close. Tonya described Ashley as her rock through the trauma.

“I don’t know if she knows this, but Ashley’s friends reached out to me and asked what they could they do to help,” Tonya said. “I said, ‘I just need you all to keep her focused. If she needs a hug, if she needs to get out the house, I just need you all to be there for her, because I can’t fully with everything else that’s going on. Help her finish.’ Her friends really rallied around her and helped her to get through this.”

Ashley finished her master’s in data analytics on schedule – and with honors – that December.

Tonya and Will were resilient, too. They had already completed two residencies that fall in their DBA program but missed the final one because of the accident. Once Will was home from the hospital and on the road to recovery, they got back to work.

“Because it was a hybrid type of setup, we didn’t actually fall behind in our work,” Tonya said. “We had completed the assignments that we had already had, and we had another assignment that was given during the residency that we missed. Since we only had that one, the department worked with us so that we could finish what we missed during that window before the next residency began. Somehow – and we know how, by the grace of God – we were not entirely thrown off track, even with that situation happening.”

Tonya and Will Rivers smile at the commencement ceremony.

They were determined to push forward.

“We both had promised my mother that this was something we would do, because we committed to it,” Tonya said. “She would always say ‘Finish what you start.’ We’re both first-generation college students, from undergraduate to our master’s degrees, and now first-generation doctoral candidates and recipients. We want to set the bar to show the next generation and our own families and friends what’s possible, and not from a spirit of adornments and shiny accomplishments but from a spirit of ‘This is what’s possible if you put your mind to it, and these are the types of doors and opportunities that can be afforded to you if you pursue the type of the journeys that we’ve been on.’”

Incredibly, the couple received more shocking news just a few months after the accident: Will was diagnosed with colon cancer in February.

“I had a colonoscopy, and they discovered a polyp that was there. When they did a biopsy off of the polyp, they found that it was cancerous,” Will said. “So then I had another procedure where they actually were able to take part of that section out. They found out that it was Stage 1. It wasn’t very deep, so they were able to cut it out. We had to monitor with additional follow-ups with smaller colonoscopies.”

The most recent follow-up, this past fall, showed Will was still cancer-free.

“There have been different stressors that we’ve experienced pretty consistently,” Tonya said. “Just trying to keep the mental focus to make it to where we are today has been definitely the test, the ultimate test.”

Their DBA connections became like family through the journey.

“Tonya and Will embody love, faith and perseverance,” Pellegrini said. “Their capacity to overcome setbacks with grace and determination to stay focused while also taking time to heal and adapt to a new normal is inspiring and impactful.”

Finishing what they started

Through it all, Will and Tonya’s work in the DBA program was stellar. Both used their dissertations at UMSL to research issues they have encountered during their careers.

For Will, his research in data governance included interviews with 21 data professionals, examining their motivations behind their willingness or resistance to implementing data policies and procedures, utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior and Psychological Ownership as theoretical frameworks.

“Trying to get people to do the right thing was always the biggest challenge, and I’ve heard a lot of other people say the same thing, and so I started to look to see if there was any research or any kind of literature about that,” Will said. “Most of it was anecdotal and dealt with things from an organizational change management perspective. Nobody had really looked at it from the perspective of what the people who actually have to do it are saying or the reasons for the pushback. So I took that approach and came up with some really good research, working with Dr. Dinesh Mirchandani. He’s been extremely helpful. Great guidance, great support.”

Francesca Ferrari (left) and Ekin Pellegrini help Tonya Rivers (center) get ready to walk on the commencement stage.

For Tonya, her dissertation research focused on how coaching could potentially impact IT leaders. Companies, she noted, often try and keep IT at arm’s length, but IT services – and those employees keeping IT services moving – are an essential part of helping companies perform at peak levels.

“Companies wouldn’t be globally exchanging their products and services without IT, so IT is very much a strategic partner,” she said. “I’m trying to find ways to help the leaders within IT better position themselves as a strategic partner and also as better leaders to run those organizations that they serve. That’s my topic focus. I’m looking to bring insights into what’s missing in that realm, the things IT leaders felt have been helpful and would be more helpful to them, in order to be more effective in the organizations they lead.”

With their DBA journey nearing an end, they’re excited about the future. The DBA helps both further their journeys in academia and advances their work with Purposed2Lead, as they expand their offerings in St. Louis with an eye toward a more nationwide (and potentially global) impact.

The three years the Rivers were in UMSL’s DBA program were impactful, personally and professionally.

“This program was more than anything that I would have ever expected it to be,” Tonya said. “The Tonya that I am today is not the Tonya that I was when I started the program. Yes, I experienced some life-altering things in that period, but I have to also give credence to the level of rigor and talent and experience from the faculty and from the DBA team; Francesca (Ferrari) and Matt (Becker) are phenomenal.”

The feeling is mutual.

“The executives in our DBA program refer to the way Tonya and Will display resilience as a model example of leadership,” Pellegrini said. “The best leaders are students of leadership, and Will and Tonya are always in learning mode. Their ability to find gratitude, and their recognition of the influence they have over how they respond to and rebound from setbacks, is ultimate leadership at its core.”