When Claudia White left her homeland of Jamaica she went from a tumultuous country transitioning away from socialism to an American culture that was not always accepting. Living in Los Angeles’ inner city, White did not fit in with the American Culture. She ultimately found her home in Irvine at UCI’s School of Social Sciences.

“Irvine was a perfect environment for me to live in,” she says. “And UCI was the perfect school. It was a competitive environment that drove you to achieve. It was an environment at the same time that was very caring.”

White draws on that combination of compassion and competitiveness in her work now as Owner & President of White Sand Consultants. “We have a team of experts that allows us to cut across the board to look at different skill sets,” she says of the company she continues to build. “If it’s out of our expertise, we have partners—we don’t cross over and try to be a Jack of all trades—we just focus on people.”

White’s credentials are impressive. In addition to her BA in psychology, White earned a masters degree in clinical psychology, another masters degree in leadership and human behavior, and a Ph.D. in Industrial / Organization Psychology. Her client list is just as impressive with Fortune 500 companies such as Time Warner and Levi Strauss on the docket.

However, it was her work with the Jamaican Tourist Board that brought White full circle and gave her a chance to give back to her homeland. Unfortunately, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 White, like many others, was faced with a changing world. “All of the work in the Caribbean froze,” she says. “I had to get past that and I had to make a decision.”

In making that decision, White drew upon her psychology background to provide a service she thinks is missing throughout much of the business sector. “There’s a natural fit between psychology and business,” she says. “MBAs teach you how to save money and make money for a company, but on the other hand, you need to know how to grow and lead people. From our perspective, we can measure if you have a high turnover rate and can track it back to bad management. We can actually track over time a decrease in turnover or an increase in on-time performance.”

It is clear that White sees her role as a business consultant as much more than improving a company’s bottom line. “We try to work with people in a work setting while recognizing that our work extends into our personal life,” she says. “We try to make our training applicable to the person and show them how to use these same skill sets and be a better worker but also a better person.”

It should be no surprise that White has retained her connection to her Alma Mater. She keeps in touch with her favorite professor—Dr. Bob Newcomb and his wife Betty—and is still friends with her first roommate. The School of Social Sciences gave White the building blocks for a successful career, but also the foundation for a successful life. “I encourage people to go to UCI; it is a great school,” she says.

But White encourages more than just attendance. “I think that if you’ve created a relationship with something or someone and you value it, then you respect that relationship and you nurture it,” she concludes.

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