Graduate Handles Major Life Milestones, Multiple Jobs While Earning Doctorate Online
July 9, 2026 | by Heidi Wells, Global Campus | min read
Hannah King met her faculty adviser, Claretha Hughes, when King traveled from Maine to Fayetteville to participate in spring commencement.
How did Hannah King come to be enrolled in an online doctoral program at the University of Arkansas when she had never visited the state of Arkansas?
Besides the fact that she wanted to increase her knowledge in the field of human resources. And she loves learning. And she’s willing to handle multiple responsibilities at one time.
“That’s honestly the million-dollar question,” said King, who grew up in Maine and lives there now. “It’s funny; when I started this program, I was actually living just outside of Boston. And, when I was telling people at work that I got accepted at the University of Arkansas, it was a big head scratcher. Some people actually for the longest time thought I was going to the University of Alaska, which was kind of hilarious.”
Continuing Education
King had a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree but knew she wanted to continue to learn after her MBA. At the University of Arkansas, she was awarded this spring a Doctor of Education in Human Resource Development, a degree program offered 100% online that she started in January 2021.
When she started the U of A program, she was working full time in HR while also coaching a collegiate softball team, coaching a travel softball team and training to run a marathon.
“My husband – he was my fiancé at the time – was, like, ‘this girl is nuts,’ but I was able to fit it in,” King said. “I am very, very lucky and fortunate that I have family and friends who were flexible enough that, when everybody wanted to get together to go out for dinner and I had to tell them, ‘I’m so sorry. Tonight’s actually homework night,’ everybody understood.”
Friends, family and co-workers all cheered her on, she said.
Hannah King and her husband, Joe, visited the football stadium while on campus.
Visiting Campus
King came to Arkansas for the first time when she attended commencement in May at the campus in Fayetteville.
The weekend was a special occasion in several ways. King is pregnant for the first time and spring commencement typically falls during Mother’s Day weekend, as it did this year. She joked that her dissertation was her first baby.
“It was a tad stressful coming through my first trimester and defending my dissertation,” she said, “but that’s the beauty of this program. It’s the flexibility to still live your life outside of school. It followed me through moves from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, all the way back to Maine, and planning a wedding and other big life milestones. I liked having that flexibility so that I could do all of these other things and also make progress toward my academic dreams.”
Practical Research
King was working as an HR operations manager for a company based in Boston when she started the program, also in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.
“The pandemic accelerated the use of technology within our organization,” she said.
Once she connected with Claretha Hughes, professor of human resource development, they talked about her dissertation topic and settled on research into the intersection of human resource development, technology and ethics. Her research also focused on how an organization’s code of ethics is communicated to leaders. She helped Hughes develop an HRD-technology-ethics and leadership scale, testing it to validate whether it was a reliable measure of ethical decision-making by leaders.
At the same time, her company was piloting new artificial intelligence-based systems, and she served on a committee monitoring and advancing that process. She oversaw HR data and the payroll and benefits teams.
“I was interested in HR development, but there was so much going on at the time with the pandemic, too,” King said. “There were so many fascinating things happening in the field that I wasn't quite certain what I wanted to do my dissertation on. But in my regular job outside of school, I deal with a lot of technology and HR-related things.
“It all kind of fell together perfectly.”
Hannah King is proud to be a Razorback.
Recommendation
King would recommend the HRD doctoral program to other people interested in the degree. It takes self-discipline and effective time management to be successful, she said, and what she learned is directly applicable to what she does in her job day-to-day.
“The faculty are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful,” she said. “Dr. Hughes is phenomenal.
“As long as you have the interest and drive to see it through to the end, I think you can do it at any age or level of your career,” said King, who started the program at 26 years old, fairly early in her HR career.
She bought her first Arkansas sweatshirt during commencement weekend.
“I am very proud to be a Razorback,” King said. “I'm glad I found my way to the University of Arkansas. “
Heidi Wells
Content Strategist
Heidi Wells is the content strategist for the Global Campus at the University of Arkansas and editor of The Online Learner. Her writing spans more than 30 years as a communicator at the U of A and a reporter and editor at Arkansas newspapers. Wells earned two degrees from the U of A: a master's in 2013 and a bachelor's in 1988.
Wells can be reached at heidiw@uark.edu or 479-575-7239.
Doctor of Education in Human Resource Development
The program prepares graduates to be scholar-practitioners, with a solid foundation in research and application of Human Resource Development concepts, ideas, and theories.
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