Cox, William E.

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William E. Cox

1942—

Publisher, educator

Dr. William E. Cox is an educator, education administrator, and cocreator of Black Issues in Higher Education, a groundbreaking publication that filled a void in the publishing industry by catering to African-American and other minority professionals working in higher education. During its more than twenty years of publication, Black Issues grew from a newsletter to become one of the most widely distributed education trade publications in the United States. Cox and his business partner Frank L. Matthews changed the format of their publication in 2005, renaming it Diverse: Issues in Higher Education and offering a blend of print and online content that catered to a variety of minority groups within the education community.

William E. Cox was born in Pensacola, Florida, but spent most of his young life in Bay Minette, Alabama, an industrial town forty miles from the Florida state border with about 5,000 residents. Cox was the second of four children born to Jessie and Artensie Cox. His mother worked as a domestic servant; his father, who was employed by the sanitation department, was killed when Cox was ten years old, leaving his mother to care for the family on a scant salary.

Cox's family lived in a single bedroom with no indoor plumbing and few amenities; however the family was proud that they owned their own house when other families could not afford to. "We were very, very poor," Cox told Contemporary Black Biographies, "but it was a healthy household because we were very happy." In his neighborhood, friends and extended family helped each other to raise their children, and there was always outreach when a family was in need, he recalled. Cox's mother was deeply religious, and the church played a major role in his upbringing. Cox remembered that most of the elders in his community placed focus on education. "If you finished high school, that was considered success," he told CBB.

Cox started school in a two-room schoolhouse in Bay Minette and has credited his first grade teacher, Kisiah Autry, as a major influence on his life. He considered himself fortunate to have had teachers, both in elementary school and high school, who were genuinely concerned with educating as many African-American students as possible and encouraging their students to pursue lasting and satisfying careers. Cox was an accomplished student but did not seriously consider college until his senior year in high school. He applied to only one college, Alabama A&M, on the advice of his brother, an alumnus of the same institution. As he had little idea what line of work he would pursue as a professional, Cox majored in industrial arts, which his brother described as a relatively easy course of study.

Worked as an Educator

Cox graduated in May of 1964 and was married the following November to Lee Foster, a fellow student at Alabama A&M. His first job was as a draftsman for Alabama-Huntsville General Electric, where he helped to design components for the Apollo spacecraft. Cox became frustrated with his job after two years, when he realized there were few advancement opportunities for African Americans in the company. Though he was a college graduate, Cox's salary was similar to that of a white worker with only a high school education, and after he was asked to train a white man to serve as his supervisor, he decided to pursue other opportunities.

In 1966 Cox went to work for the U.S. Army as an instructor, teaching math, general aeronautics, and electronics to recruits and soldiers. Cox had only held this position for six months when his job was relocated to Madison, Wisconsin. Having found it satisfying to work as an educator, Cox applied for other jobs in the field and was given an opportunity to attend a training program in Florida, where he studied missile systems used by the military and then served as an instructor for soldiers who would be using these systems in Vietnam.

When his job with the Army came to an end, Cox decided not to return to the South. As he later told CBB, he was "fed up with the discrimination and racism in this country," and decided to apply for an overseas assignment. Cox accepted a job in Frankfurt, Germany, teaching at the U.S. Armed Forces Institute (USAFI).

Cox spent six years working for USAFI in Germany, which he described to CBB as a time of personal growth and development. Cox's first assignment was to teach recruits about the maintenance, repair, and guidance system of the HAWK missile. Cox also took advantage of a program provided by the Air Force that allowed employees to pursue higher education and attended an extension program from Ball State University, receiving a master's degree in psychological counseling in 1969. He received a second master's degree from Ball State in 1972, this time in public administration, while still working for USAFI.

When Cox decided to leave Europe there was only one job that interested him, an education administration position with the Pentagon. He received the job and moved to Fairfax County, Virginia, near Washington, DC. Cox worked in education at the Pentagon from 1974 to 1986, rising to become the second-ranking administrator in charge of education for the Air Force.

Cox continued to pursue higher education and attended George Washington University, where he obtained a doctoral degree in higher education administration in 1981. Through the course of his career, Cox sought opportunities for personal growth and new experiences. He traveled widely across the United States and Asia and continued to pursue additional educational goals, taking postgraduate courses at Harvard University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

At a Glance …

Born William Edgar Cox on April 25, 1942, in Pensacola, FL; son of Artensie and Jessie Cox, married Lee Foster in 1964; children: Will, Tara. Religion: Christian. Education: Alabama A&M University, BS, industrial arts, 1964; Ball State University, MA, counseling psychology, 1969, MA, public administration, 1972; George Washington University, PhD, higher education administration, 1981.

Career: General Electric Corporation, draftsman, 1964-66; U.S. Army, instructor of electronics, 1966-68; U.S. Armed Services Institute, training instructor, 1968-69, assistant education services officer, 1969-70, education services officer, 1970-74; The Pentagon, Department of the Air Force, education programs administrator, 1974-86; Cox, Matthews and Associates, founder and CEO, 1984—.

Memberships: American Counseling Association; Excelsior College, board of trustees; George Washington University, National Council for Education and Human Development; Harvard University, Lifelong Education Advisory Board; Military Educators and Counselors Association; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; National Association of Black Journalists.

Awards: Outstanding Education Services Program Award, U.S. Air Force, 1974; Distinguished Service Award, Military Educators and Counselors Association, 1986; Award for Exemplary Service, Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, 1988; Meritorious Service Award, Military Educators and Counselors Association, 1988; Exemplary Leadership Award, American Association for Higher Education Black Caucus, 1991; Presidential Award, Association for Multicultural Counseling & Development, 1993; Impact Award, University System of Georgia, 2007.

Addresses: Office—CMA Publishing, Inc. 10520 Warwick Ave., Ste. B-8, Fairfax, VA 22030.

Became a Publisher

Cox met Frank L. Matthews, then vice president of George Mason University and a friend of his wife from the Virginia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in the late 1970s. Cox and Matthews, both veterans of the higher education community, became friends and soon decided to pursue collaborative business ventures. Both men noticed a void in the education trade industry: there was no publication aimed at serving minorities in higher education. The industry's leading trade publication, Chronicle of Higher Education, was one of the primary sources for recruitment, but provided little content to help African-American and other minority professionals in the field.

In 1984 Cox and Matthews decided to fill this niche and began offering a short, eight-page newsletter that eventually became the trade magazine Black Issues in Higher Education. "If the Chronicle had been better," Cox explained to CBB, "we wouldn't have had room to slide under the door, and that's exactly what we did." Cox and Matthews did all the research and writing for the first few issues and then hired a clipping service to provide additional content. Using his considerable contacts within the industry, Cox found advertisers for the newsletter, most of which were universities interested in hiring minority employees.

At the start of their venture, neither Cox nor Matthews had any intention of making Black Issues their primary occupation, but as interest in the publication spread and advertising revenues grew, both men were forced to decide how much time and effort to invest in their venture. Distribution increased from ten to twenty-six issues annually over the first three years of publication, and soon Cox and Matthews found it necessary to hire a support staff.

Though Cox could have kept his job with the Air Force until retirement and been guaranteed a significant pension, he decided to leave his position to pursue Black Issues full time. "It was a gamble," Cox told CBB, "but it was one of the smartest moves I ever made." Soon after, Matthews did the same, and both men staked their futures on the success of the magazine.

Neither Cox nor Matthews had any prior experience in publishing, so they learned by doing. Cox told CBB that one of his and Matthews's initial goals was "to have Black Issues on the desk of every college and university president." Professionals and education administrators soon saw the value of the publication, and circulation grew rapidly. The company was incorporated in 1984, becoming Cox, Matthews, and Associates (CMA). As their publishing business grew, Cox and Matthews expanded with two additional magazines, Black Book Review and Community College Week, and developed a national staff of freelance contributors, allowing them to include content from across the nation.

Established Web Presence

As publications increasingly turned to the Internet and the electronic publishing market, Black Issues also underwent a transformation. Cox and Matthews decided to sell both Community College Week and Black Book Review to smaller niche companies that could dedicate the attention and time needed to make both publications flourish. They also changed the name of Black Issues, which had become the second-ranked education trade publication in the country, to Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. In addition, the company introduced its new Web presence, at www.diverseeducation.com, where much of the magazine's content became available online.

Through its expanded Internet content, CMA began offering Web-based channels aimed at other minority groups, including Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans, and planned to add channels for gay and lesbian, elderly, and disabled Americans in the education community. To enhance its role as an avenue for minority recruitment, in 2008 the company launched a series of online job fairs that brought together employers and potential employees who were able to conduct job placement interviews from the comfort of their homes and offices.

In February of 2008 CMA started a nonprofit venture, kept separate from the corporate structure of the magazine, to conduct research and surveys on a variety of issues affecting minorities in education. The nonprofit entity, called the Diversity in Higher Education Fund, was intended to serve publications like the New York Times by providing reliable research data for reports and examinations of the current state of diversity in education.

Encouraged Young Entrepreneurs

With a thriving business that fills an important and previously unexplored niche in education information, Cox established himself as a publisher with a vision toward the future. "I've been fortunate," he told CBB. "Each job builds on the last one. It's like finding a ladder." Cox's success lies not only in recognizing and responding to a marketplace need but also in that he followed exactly those pursuits that appealed to him at the time. "I encourage people to try to find something that you love doing and, once you find it, do the very best," he said to CBB.

Having built his own company and taken the leap from being an employee to a self-made businessman, Cox had a message to impart to the next generation about the importance of controlling one's own future. "One of the things about journalism and communications students is that they always think about being in front of the camera," Cox told CBB. "They don't think about the nontraditional sides of the business and seldom do they think about ownership. That's where the control is. Own the camera. Own the building…"

Selected writings

Books; as contributor

The Unfinished Agenda of Brown vs. The Board of Education, John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

The Unfinished Agenda of the Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March, John Wiley & Sons, 2005.

Sources

Periodicals

New York Times, March 16, 2000.

Online

"About Us," Cox, Matthews & Associates, http://www.cmapublishing.com (accessed April 10, 2008).

"Diverse Corporate Statement." Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 2007, http://diverseeducation.com/CorporateStatement.asp (accessed April 10, 2008).

"Diverse Media Room," Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 2007, http://www.diverseeducation.com/PressRoom.asp (accessed April 10, 2008).