STORY BY JANINE LATUS,

as AG 83, MS '88

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DORY COLBERT

FACULTY MEMBER KITTY DICKERSON IS AN INTERNATIONAL

LEADER IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY WHO BRINGS BUSINESS

EXPERIENCE, WORLD TRAVEL, SCHOLARSHIP AND HIGH

EXPECTATIONS INTO HER MIZZOU CLASSES.

IT lSA SIMPLETSHlRT-WHlTE, NO

pocket, available for $3.50 at a dis­

count store near you. You wear it for

a while and then maybe throw it in the

ragbag and usc it to wash the car.

Before you do, take a moment to con­

sider what it took to get it in your hands

at all. Someone designcd it with comput­

ers and electronic product-development

systems. Dozens of others knitted fabric,

and then someonc selected the right one,

perhaps using e-eommerce. The same

process had to happen for the thread.

Then someone found a factory - almost

certainly in another couno'y - and hired

employecs, which required an under­

standing of local customs and business

practices. They located a backup factory,

too, just in case there was a war or politi­

cal uprising or just plain poor manage­

ment at the first. Then the specifications

werc sent, probably elcctronically, and

someone was hircd on site to read them.

Someone else set up a schedule and the

tracking systcms necessary to make sure

the schedule was followed. Another per­

son had to be fluent in complex and ever­

L:hanging lluotas and labor laws, and

someonc had to have a plan in case the

whole setup nceded to change directions

if a ficklc retailer changed his mind and

wanted blue or red or purple instead of

white. After that came packaging, ship­

ping, customs and paperwOl'k. Heaven

forbid the shirt was decorated with, say,

a niL:c little trim of seashells, because that

would trigger an inspection by the

SUMMEll 2003

fisheries and wildlife people.

It's like juggling scissors to make it all

happen, yet that's what Kitty Dickerson

teaches her students to do.

Dickerson is professor and chair of

MUs Department of Textile and Apparel

Management. She's also the expert on the

global textile trade. Her book 'Textiles

and AjJjJarel in the global Economy is

the ultimate reference in the textile divi­

sion of the World Trade Organization in

Geneva, Switzerland, and at the Office of

the US. Trade Representative in

Washington, D.C. In China, whel'e tex­

tiles are the No.1 export industry, the

government is having Dickel'son's book

translated into Chinese.

COUNiRY GIRL TURNED GLOBAL ExPERT

DICKERSON GREW UP IN RURAL FLOYD

County, Va., deep in the Blue Ridge

Mountains. No one in her family had ever

gone to college, but from elementary

school, teachers began encouraging her.

Like many teen-age girls, she doodled and

dl'ew in the margins of her notebooks,

dreaming of becoming a glamorous fash­

ion dcsigner. Instead, she became an

expel't on the pl'ocess that transforms the

fashion designer's vision into reality.

Today she travels the world, giving

presentations in Australia, Taiwan,

Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea,

Scotland and Turkey. She traveled to

Indonesia with an international industry

group and met government leaders.

Anecdotes from her trips pepper her

.\IIZZUI

lectures. She describes factories, living

conditions and economies. She talks about

dirt roads and open sewcrs, but also about

gleaming Indonesian factories and back­

stair family operations here in the United

States. Her students are going to be work­

ing in or with other countries, and they

need to unclerstand and respcct the spec­

trum of cultlll'es they'll be dealing with.

"One of the things I stress is how

there are many right ways to do thil1gs,"

she says. "I think Amcricans get so fixed

on our way bcing the right way because

it's the way we do it herc."

For that reaSOl1, she encourages her

students to livc in other countries if they

can, but at the very least to try lifc in

eli ffo'ent regions of the country.

"You start to expcrience cultural dif­

ferenccs even if you just live in different

states," she says. "Students need that, so

they don't think the way they grew up is

the only way to do something. "

Dickerson was lured to Columbia in

1981 to transform a department that pri­

marily had a retail emphaSiS into one that

prepares students for manufacturing,

management and research, says Bea

Smith, forlller dean of the College of

Human Environmental Sciences.

"It was important to position the stu­

dents for job ladders and a great breadth

of choices, and that's occurrcd," says

Smith, now speCial adviser to chancellor

and provost. "Kitty feels a calling to

advance students, no, to propel them up

these ladders. She gives them a wonderful

25

head start. I did back flips trying to get

her to come here."

Today the program is the thinllargest

in the nation and one of only 13 in the

country certified by the American

Apparel and Footwear Association. It still

prepares students for entry-level retail

jobs and beyond, but it also teaches the

details of designing, manufacturing and

managing the global import/export trade.

Dickerson's credentials and kudos are

endless. She was named Educator of the

Year by the International Textile and

Apparel Association in 1996, and as one of

the Top 10 Leaders by 7Cxtile World mag­

azine in 1991. She has published more

than 75 articles and is among her field's

most cited authors. Her research has even

been printed in the Congressional

Record. In 2002 she received the MU

Alumni Association's highest honor, the

Distinguished Faculty Award, only one of

which is given each year.

STUDENTS FIRST

SHE'S THAT RENOWNED, YET SHE PUTS ON

no airs. She stoops slightly toward her

students and looks them in the eye, listen­

ing, and then encouraging. Students are

her first profeSSional priority, and they

know it. "\\le educators have a powerful

role in encouraging students," she says.

"For me, education changed a life."

Doctoral student Lynn Boorady came

to MU because Dicl<el"son wrote a text­

book Boorady used when she was a gud­

uate student at Cornell University.

"I was looking at schools and I

thought, if that's where Dickerson is,

that's where I want to go," says Boorady,

chair of the fashion department at

Stephens College. "Her wealth of knowl­

edge is astonishing. She talks about all

these one-on-one experiences, like when

they were in Geneva working on a partic­

ldar trade issue, and it's really exciting."

Dickersoll is a tough professor, the

kind who insists on professional behavjor.

She makes students turn off pagers and

cell phones in class, learn to shake hands

26

properly, stand tall and dress appropriately.

Students remember her long after college,

when they're in impressive jobs that they

wouldn't have unless people such as Kitty

Dickerson had pushed them, encouraged

them and given them confidence.

"Kitty Dickerson believed in me more

than I did," says Susan Barone, BS HE

'85. "I told her I wanted to move to New

York, that that was where I saw myself

building a career, and she said, 'Do it. You

can do anything you set your mind to do. '

I hear that in my head all of the time."

Barone and her sister now run three

successful Web sites that cater to plus-size

women: http://www.alwaysforme.com.

http://www.uniquelyme.com and

http://www.plussizeliving.com.

"\Vhat Kitty does," Barone says, "is

prepare you for the real world."

Dickerson does that in part by shep­

herding her students out into that world.

For years she has takcn 20 to 30 students

to the Bobbin Show, the big..2;est apparel

trade show in the country, where they do

business during the day and then attend

social fLmctions at night.

She recruits corporate sponsors to help

pay the students' way. In 1990 she called

the Kenwood Corp., the seventh-largest

apparel company in the country, to ask

for a donation. She got the funding and an

invitation for coffee with a few execu­

tives. When she got there, the few execu­

tives had turned into eight or nine,

including the chairman, CEO, CFO, pres­

ident and executive vice president. She

found herself giving a formal presenta­

tion on both her forthcoming book on the

global industry and MU's textile and

apparel management program.

"I ilidn't know it, but I was audition­

ing for a spot on the hoard," she says. And

that's what she got. Dickerson was the

first woman to serve on the company's

board of directors. At the time she was

one of fewer than 1,000 women nation­

wide serving on boards of Fortune 500

companies. She now serves on the Audit

Committee and chairs the Corporate

IllZZOIJ

Governance Committee. As chail' of the

latter, she is the "lead directOl'," leading

sessions when the board meets without

management and working closely with

the company's president on setting the

boal"d's agenda. In both roles, she is par­

tially responSible for the company's books

and ethics. "In these days of corporate

scandals, I'm living dangerously to he on

both committees, " she says. "I wouJdn't

do it if I didn't have tremendous faith in

the people leading the company. "

Kellwood, she is quick to note, had a

corporate governance committee long

before the current row1d of corporate

scandals and well before the New York

Stock Exchange issued a recommendation

that companies do so.

Hal Upbin, president, CEO and chair­

man of Kellwood, says Dickerson does an

outstanding job running the crucial com­

mittee. "She's conscientious and obviously

smart," he says. "But it's how she pulls

that all together in her role and her rela­

tionship with other board members that

makes it work."

Upbin is one of the many industry

leaders Dickerson has brought to campus

either as an executive-in-residence or as a

member of the department's advisory

board. Others include top executives from

Wal-Mart, Jockey and nearly every other

large clothing manufacturer or retailer.

CRAFTED WITH PRIDE

IRONICALLY, FOR SOMEONE KNOWN FOR

her work in globalization, Dickerson got

much of her eady fame when she was on

the other side of that debate. In 1981 she

published research that showed that

Amel"ican consumers wanted to buy prod­

ucts made in this country. Clothing at the

time was labeled with its country of ori­

gin unless it was made in the United

States. "So I started sayjng to the indus­

try people, 'This seems kind of obvious,

but if there's this kind of sentiment

toward domestic products, you might

want to develop some kind of campaign

that makes it clear which products are

SUMMER 2003

made here,' " Dickerson says.

What followed was the huge "Crafted

with Pride in the USA" campaign, a mar­

keting effort impressive enough that it

took Dickel'son to Capital Hill and so

cxcited Sam \Valton, AB '40, founder of

Wa]-Mart, that he used her research in

his market plans, invited her to executive

meetings and wrote glowing letters sup­

porting both Dickerson and her depart­

ment. Among other things, he wrote, "I

admire your style and the way you get

things done."

Times have changed, though, and the

industry has changed with them. \\lal­

Mart's push to buy Amel'ican has toned

down, ancl now nearly all clothing manu­

facturing is done overseas, where labor is

less expensive. Industrywide, 42 percent

of apparel andS? percent of shoes are

made in Asia alone. The work is a boon to

less-developed countries, which can start

the Simplest form of manufacturing with

little more than a few sewing machines.

"It's almost always the first industry a

country moves into as it moves from being

all al?;rarian society," Dickerson says.

Nearly every country produces and

exports textiles and apparel, and they're

all trying to market them to affluent

countries, primarily the United States,

Canada and countries in Western Europe.

There i.s massive global overproduction,

which has led to political tensions and

isolationist policies.

"Wars have been fought, ships sunk

ami broad trade wars initiated over tex­

tiles. More people are employed in this

industry than in any other manufacturing

sector in the world," Dickerson says. "No

industry is more global. At the same time,

lIO other industry in the world is as good

at protecting itself as the textile and

apparel industry."

For a while the United States even had

its own minister of textiles, based at the

\Vorld Trade Organization in Geneva. As

Dickerson points out, not even agricul­

ture, the other major contentious sector

of f!;lobal trade, has its own minister.

SUMM1'I{ 2003

Dickerson's global perspective won

her a founding seat in 1996 on the

UniverSity's Council on International

Initiatives. Out of that grew the Global

Scholars program, which sends two

groups of faculty each Slmuner to a less­

developed country for a two-week full­

immersion experience. Groups have gone

to Korea, South Africa, Thailand,

Bulgaria and Brazil, among other places.

"The whole idea behind it was that we

would give faculty members broader

international experiences so they could

bring those back to the classroom, "

Dickerson says.

Dickerson chaired the group for two

years and in 2000 received the Provost's

Award for Leadership in International

Education fOl' her work.

In spi te of all of this, Dickerson is

hlllnble. She insists that her life isn't

glamorous, that she is lucky, that she has

had great opportunities. Her greatest

achievements, she says, are her two chil­

dren, Derek. a musician, and Donya, an

editor for a New York publisher. They're

launched now, just like the hundreds of

students who have moved through

Dickerson's program, standing taUer,

reaching further, because Dickerson

cared. '

(l~lOTO In" Rf)fll-lll_1

In Kilty Dickerson's classroom at MU, above, or

on a field trip to Kellwood Corp. in St. Louis,

below, Dickerson personifies the professional behavior that she teaches students.