Doctor of Organization Development & Change (D.O.D.C.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Organization Development

Community colleges in America are facing significant challenges that necessitate transformational change. Collaboration is essential to address these challenges within an environment characterized by external stakeholder interdependence, internal stakeholder interdependence through shared governance, and unique power and authority structures. Although there is extensive literature on collaboration in higher education, research specific to community colleges has predominantly focused on inter-organizational collaboration. This study aimed to fill the gap in the literature by addressing the following research question: what factors impact internal collaboration in community colleges? Focusing specifically on the perspectives of senior administrators, the findings of this qualitative study, analyzed through Reflexive Thematic Analysis, yielded a Model of Internal Collaboration in Community Colleges, which advances both the theory and practice of internal collaboration.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Higher Education Administration

The purpose of this study was to provide a phenomenological description of peer interaction and to explore the sense of community experienced by online learners in an accelerated online course delivered asynchronously. Though research indicates the importance of peer interaction and community in online learning, and online learners indicate their desire to feel a sense of community in online courses, there is a gap in literature that qualitatively details the essence of peer interaction and online learners' perception of community. To address this gap, I interviewed six post-traditional online learners regarding their experiences interacting with peers and the way those experiences contributed to their sense of community in an accelerated online course. Five main themes emerged based on participants' experiences and perceptions: (1) Routine, (2) Technology, (3) Course Design, (4) Perceptions of Interaction, (5) Sense of Community. The findings represented throughout this research align with the two research questions that guided this study: (1) How do students describe their experiences interacting with peers in an accelerated online course? (2) How do students describe their experiences of interacting with peers as contributing to their sense of community in an accelerated online course? This research contributes to a deeper understanding of factors that shape peer interaction and the sense of community felt in an accelerated online learning context. The findings evidence implications for online pedagogy, learning management systems, and for the implementation of the Community of Inquiry framework. Future research that focuses on the experiences and perceptions of online learners who share similar or different demographic characteristics through various methods would enhance understanding of peer interaction and community in online learning contexts. The need for such research is evident as diverse student populations' exposure to learning through distance, onl (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Theatre

This MA Thesis examines how community-engaged performance within jails creates space for incarcerated individuals to develop or re-develop performances of positive identity, or affirming expressions of self, that otherwise are not supported by the typical conditions of incarceration. Acknowledging the possibility that incarcerated individuals might be returning to or reinterpreting past performances of positive identities that were stifled, or might be performing positive identities for the first time in their lives, I use the term "re/develop" to describe how they might approach formations of affirming expressions of self. How these re/developed performances are supported, what forms they take, and what the social impact of these performances is are the central questions of this research. In addition to critical engagement with existing literature by other researchers and practitioners of community-engaged performance practice and performance in correctional facilities, I primarily explore my research questions through the lens of practice-as-research, drawing from field notes, facilitation plans, artifacts, surveys, interviews, and video recordings compiled during my summer 2019 community-engaged performance project with incarcerated women at the Bartholomew County Jail in Columbus, Indiana. Based on this research, I argue that the practices and social environment of community-engaged jail performance create conditions for incarcerated individuals to engage with their complexities as human beings through re/developed performances of personal identity, social community identity, and civic identity.

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning

This thesis examines models of community development in order to determine the areas in which they are most effective at impacting communities. Community development researchers and practitioners often ignore the wide range of possible approaches to community development by choosing to focus on a particular model. This thesis broadens the perspective of community development literature by focusing on the wide range of possible approaches and the specific aspects of community development in which each is most successful. To accomplish this task, five models are selected, organized based on levels of community participation, and examined in regard to their ability to impact communities based on a systematic evaluation framework. The result is a typology of ommunity development models that highlights the differences between different models of community development and identifies the aspects of community development to which each is uniquely well suited.

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Education : Educational Foundations

This qualitative study of five first generation community college students and four faculty who participated in high school to college bridge program(s) was undertaken in order to determine the attributes and personal and community support systems accessed by successful students. The students in the study all had significant academic and social barriers to their success. This study was grounded in resilience theory that is based upon 25 years of study, primarily on children, that suggests the nature of the human is to self-right, and with adequate support, the majority will be able to overcome adversity and achieve educational success. Interviews of students and faculty provided data that described the perceptions of attributes and support systems that promote resilience and achievement. Data was abstracted and coded for common themes for attributes, personal support systems and community support systems that foster resilience and achievement. There was significant agreement among the students and faculty in most categories, with individual stories illustrating how these successful students plan, overcome obstacles, and utilize resources to achieve success. Findings indicated that social competence, autonomy, goal setting, high expectations, teacher belief, identifying someone who cares and utilization of multiple individual and community support systems were key characteristics identified by these successful students and faculty who interact with “at-promise” students. The results of this study indicated that the personal attributes and support systems accessed by this young adult population are congruent with those accessed by successful children. Since this study is focused on achievement and resilience of a population that is typically identified as “at-risk”, it was determined to identify these students as “at-promise” promoting the positive concept that resilience is ordinary and achievable for the majority. Implications arising from this study include the nee (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2010, Natural Resources

The use of multimetric biological indices (e.g., IBI, ICI, MIwB) to assess aquatic communities is well established in Ohio. These indices provide a definitive numeric assessment of the stream biotic communities to judge against established biocriteria in state water quality standards. However, these assessment tools cannot be applied to the smallest headwater streams of watersheds. The Ohio EPA recognizes three different types of primary headwater habitat streams (PHWH) that have watershed area <2.56 km2 and deep pools < 40 cm. The Class III PHWH has the greatest diversity of taxa adapted to perennial cool-cold groundwater flow duration. The goal of this study was to develop indices of biotic integrity to be used as biomonitoring assessment tools for the Class III primary headwater habitat (PHWH) streams. Both macroinvertebrate assemblage and salamander community data were investigated to evaluate whether a known Class III PHWH stream was meeting performance standards as documented at least impacted PHWH watershed reference sites. Data were collected at both reference locations and range of impaired condition locations in two ecoregion areas of the state. An RDA analysis was done between invertebrate taxa and metrics (passive) and environmental variables. A distance matrix sorted metrics into hierarchical clusters. Final metrics were selected from clusters for ICI. A PHWH Invertebrate Commmunity Index was developed that scored consistently and documented range of quality conditions among sample sites. All PHWH Class IIII reference sites scored > 70% to 100%. Range of impaired condition sites scored from < 10% to under 60%. Reference sites contained 3-5 salamander species at 7 of 10 sites. A Salamander Community Quality Index was developed that responded to environmental disturbances, and a wide range of quality was expressed between reference sites and the range of condition sites. Positive common associations of salamander species diversity were wide riparian (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Art Education

Informed by community-based arts education, arts-based community development, and critical pedagogy, this research explores and articulates an evolving model of possibility for community pedagogy. Important and relevant for arts educators, arts administrators and other cultural workers, a community pedagogy utilizing the arts for social change offers entrances to reclamation of self, space and place leading to individual and/or communal agency and progressive social justice efforts. Ethnographic methods such as participant/observation, portraiture of community-based arts workers, arts-based research methods, and narrative writing, were equally utilized to yield highly self-reflexive education data constructions resulting in significant implications for art education. The research journey culminated in a participatory visual art exhibition/installation entitled, A Search for Community Pedagogy: Collage Reclamations of Space and Self. Artistic works created by the artist-educator-researcher-administrator including paintings, panels (visual journals) and mixed-media self-portraits developed visual metaphors which created understandings into relationships to pedagogical building blocks, assertion of voice, location as an activist, notions of community and even issues such as life and death. As the research progressed the artwork and narrative reflections served as signposts exposing new directions, clarifying emergent thinking and becoming part of data analysis. Mirroring its exploration, community pedagogy is gradually presented in the research journey in the form of a collage. As an initial foundational layer, a base of a sincere and well functioning egalitarian community must exist, no matter what the teaching/learning setting. Next the educator/learner-cultural worker must commit to ideas of facilitative leadership and to empowering students/colleagues/communities. Additional layers include fostering an educative experience that demands decision-making, encourages f (open full item for complete abstract)

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

Food insecurity is a significant problem and poses a risk for various health issues. The burden of food insecurity is even higher in minoritized populations. Nutrition education and food literacy programs have the potential to address these concerns by increasing the capacity to select and consume healthy foods, even in the presence of perceived challenges. Furthermore, community gardens can improve access to fresh foods in neighborhoods with limited food options and provide a hands-on learning environment for nutrition and food education programs. Community gardens enhance public spaces and provide access to fresh produce in different neighborhoods, offering numerous physical and mental health benefits. Community-engaged research (CEnR), which involves both community members and researchers in the research process, can play a crucial role in overcoming social and ecological barriers to health programs. It also helps in enhancing the cultural relevance and overall success of such programs. In this dissertation, I use a three-paper model to examine existing literature on community-engaged research in community garden programs and to identify the barriers and facilitators of this approach in community health programs, particularly within community gardening programs. In this dissertation, the first paper delves into the existing literature on community-engaged research in community garden programs, while the second and third identify the barriers and facilitators of this approach in community health programs, particularly within the context of community gardening programs. Each paper establishes a theoretical foundation for the implementation of CEnR in the field of nutrition, food literacy, and food security, aiming to bridge the gap between community and practice. This research underscores the potential applicability of community-engaged research to programs targeting nutrition and food security, emphasizing its role in enhancing their impact. While Chapter 3 de (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2024, English

While some resources exist to support adult English language learning in Dayton, Ohio, many immigrants and asylum seekers are prevented from accessing language classes due to barriers of scheduling, transportation, and childcare. This prevents the city of Dayton from incorporating the skills and strengths of its members not fully integrated into the community. In this study, the researcher takes a holistic and assets-based approach to adult English Language Learning (ELL). A tutoring, classroom hybrid English program was implemented to support the large Hispanic/Latinx population at Immaculate Conception Church, in partnership with Brunner Literacy Center. To mitigate barriers of scheduling, transportation, and childcare, the program was scheduled immediately after the well-attended Spanish worship service each Sunday morning, while a children's program took place simultaneously. Attendance increased over the course of the program from about 20 to 30 learners weekly. Volunteers reported feeling supported and satisfied with their volunteer experiences. Learners reported positive relationships with their tutors and an increase in confidence in their ability to speak English.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Leadership and Change

This study is aimed at understanding how youth leadership development programs can be more inclusive and promote a broader range of leadership values, qualities, and behaviors by focusing on young people who have been disaffected by leadership development programs. The study design was intended to provide a creative space for youth to engage in meaningful conversations about their evolving concepts and expectations of leadership. Using critical youth participatory action research to engage a group of youth, cohort members co-created a new youth leadership development program while addressing their identified challenges and needs. Findings from this study highlight the importance of adults in youth programs and provide insights toward an ecosystem approach to youth leadership development. Practitioners, funders, and community leaders can create more inclusive and meaningful youth development opportunities and programs by understanding the youth program's ecosystem. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Community gardening efforts often carry a social purpose, such as building climate resilience, alleviating hunger, or promoting food justice. Meanwhile, the identities and motivations of community gardeners reflect both personal stories and broader social narratives. The involvement of universities in community gardening projects introduces an additional dimension of power and privilege that is underexplored in scholarly literature. This research uses critical autoethnography to explore the relationship of community gardening and social identity. Guided by Chang (2008) and Anderson and Glass-Coffin (2013), a systematic, reflexive process of meaning-making was used to compose three autoethnographic accounts. Each autoethnography draws on the author's lived experience in the community food system in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire between 2010 and 2019 to illustrate aspects of community gardening and social identity in this context. Unique access to data and insights about community food systems is provided by the author's dual and multiple positionality in this context (e.g., as an educator/student, provider/recipient of food assistance, mother/environmentalist). The resulting accounts weave thickly descriptive vignettes with relevant scholarly literature that contextualize and problematize the author's lived experience. A key theme across the narratives is that “people live layered lives . . . making it possible to feel oppression in one area and privilege in others” (Bochner, 2002, p. 6). Intended impacts of this research are expanding critical autoethnographic methods in food studies and environmental studies, offering cultural critique on the impacts of university engagement in community food systems, and embracing qualities of vulnerability, engagement, and open-endedness in critical social research (Anderson & Glass-Coffin, 2013).

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2023, Political Science

This thesis addresses the decline in social capital outlined in Robert D. Putnam's scholarship, through the contemporary context of the Covid-19 pandemic. This thesis indicates that, broadly, the pandemic weakened United States citizens' sense of community towards one another. This is displayed through the many recorded acts of citizens acting out of self-interest and openly disregarding community safety. Chapter Three of this thesis outlines the ways in which elected officials and public health officials faced threats to their safety in response to their Covid-19 guidelines, discusses the scapegoating and hatred towards Asian Americans that has increased during the pandemic, and examines the impacts of libertarian individualism on citizens' responses to Covid-19. Chapter Four details case examples of organizations (CAP Tulsa, Roca, Inc., LatinoLEAD, My Brother's Keeper Alliance, the UNC American Indian Center, and Project CARE) working together to strengthen social capital to generate a sense of social responsibility in the current moment. Chapter Five offers a first-hand look at community-based events in rural southeastern Ohio through the use of autoethnography.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

This dissertation in practice examines the absence of an advocacy framework for Black placemakers in southwest Springfield neighborhoods seeking to transform vacant spaces into vibrant pocket parks, green spaces, and community gardens. This critical community-based participatory research addresses inadequate public policies, resources, and technical assistance to create and sustain neighborhood sites for endurance, belonging, and resistance. Thematic findings indicated that systemic issues, street-level organizing, and sustainability are primary barriers and opportunities. An action intervention and change process was developed to establish the Springfield Park and Green Space Ecosystem (SPGE). The action plan focuses on a community coalition of power building, a community benefits agreement, zoning revisions, and public-private partnerships with results-based accountability.

Bachelor of Music, Capital University, 2022, Music

Theatre is an art form with the capacity to enact real change in our communities. Because of the wide array of topics theatre explores, it can help us to hold up a mirror to real life, critique and comment on proceedings within it, hold space for human emotion and therefore catharsis, and get viewers invested in a good story. This begs a responsibility for theatrical professionals to tie in aspects of community outreach to create a more enriching show, and harness the true power of this art form. In this project, I will be producing and directing Indecent, as well as creating opportunities for community outreach through talkbacks, service projects, and campus engagement opportunities. I will be creating a directorial concept, choosing actors, designing a rehearsal plan, finding costumes, set design elements, lighting, sound, and anything else needed to produce the show, all while organizing the opportunities for community engagement, complementary to the show's themes of LGBTQ+ rights and the history of Yiddish theatre. I have received permission also to conduct interviews and surveys of audience members directly after the show as well as check-ins to measure how the themes resonated with them, and later, how they have noticed them appear in their lives since, or any changes they have made. In the final paper in the execution semester, I will then explore these effects through the findings of this production and outreach components to demonstrate that theatre has the ability, and therefore responsibility to benefit others.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Art Education

Grounded in the context of a peace education program for teens, this narrative-based research study offers a story of initiating and sustaining relationships amid personal challenge during youth-driven community art engagement. Dialogue, storytelling, and collaborative artmaking as peacelearning were part of the participatory practice within this humanizing research. A theoretical framework drawn from the dialogism of Freire (1970/2002) shapes this study as well as an ethical stance of care and wholeness that contributes to the health and well-being of communities. Connection and belonging, co-learning and transformation were intertwined goals, an approach that this research study suggests challenged teens' personal vulnerability, critical self-reflection, deep listening, and multiple roles and ways of knowing. The research study portrays how the process of sharing stories and art that acknowledged participants' roots, struggles, and hopes as peacebuilders became foundations for growth. Findings from this study revealed that through the arts we can cultivate critical self-reflection, communication about the issues and challenges in our lives, interconnectedness and collective action. Additionally, this study illustrated that youth-driven approaches to community-engaged pedagogy and research exist on a continuum of youth leadership and adult collaboration. Also, sustainable youth-led initiatives and research depend on strong organizational support and adequate resources, mentorship, and community connections. Finally, a relational and asset-based approach to peacelearning through the arts can contribute to connected knowing, with potential for coalition building that supports positive change for individuals and communities.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2019, English

Planning, developing, and assessing sustainable mobile strategies is a challenge that many non-profit organizations face as they build mobile sites, native applications, and mobile experiences with community members. Through interviews with community organization leaders (n=3), community members (n=11), and a survey of a non-profit organization's members (n=266) in the southern Ohio region, this project, Designing Mobile User Experiences for Community Engagement, extends mobile literacy scholarship within the field regarding community-based work and, more recently, mobile communication literacies. Seeking to fill a gap in writing studies research concerning mobile communication strategy in non-profit organizations, this study's research questions include: (1) How do community organizations use mobile technologies and mobile communication practices for community engagement?; (2) What does the mobile technology and strategy development process look like in community organizations? (3) How do community members and leaders define the affordances of mobile technologies?; (4) What purpose do mobile technologies serve in community engagement?; (5) What are the challenges and benefits of using mobile technologies for community engagement purposes? Findings show participants encountered major breakdowns in motivation in using the application regarding three key areas: pertinence, personalization, and duplication of content, rather than issues that would be typically defined as breakdowns in ease of use. Ultimately, this dissertation offers a methodological framework based in activity theory and space as practiced place for studying mobile communication and mobile user experience that highlights identifying motivations and breakdowns that exist across communication ecologies and offers key strategies and practices for building, using, and developing mobile communications for community engagement.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2018, English

This thesis reviews scholarship to create a synthesized framework for understanding community-based writing centers. It begins by establishing differences between writing centers at colleges and in the community. The framework is developed by exploring concepts of community, intersectionality, and writing. The thesis concludes by defining a community-based writing center by this framework, reiterating the current exigence for the proliferation of community-based writing centers, and also positing future directions research may go.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2018, Theatre

Reality Theatre provides a rich example of a professional theatre company which operated in a Midwestern city and directly engaged with both the local gay and lesbian community and performed primarily gay and lesbian plays, challenging the trend of what Judith Halberstam terms metronormativity in queer studies. Reality's Tribes represents a series of community-based performances which were explicitly created by, for, and about Columbus, Ohio's local gay and lesbian community. Tribes was a performance created collectively by the members of Reality Theatre and included sketch comedy, vignettes, monologues, and songs written in direct response to happenings in the local gay and lesbian community as well as the larger political arena. The series of performances which were adapted and restaged eight times over the course of fourteen years was directly rooted in the gay and lesbian community of Columbus, Ohio. This thesis examines Tribes through the lenses of Jan Cohen-Cruz's conception of community-based theatre and the theatre as a space of gay and lesbian community building. Reality Theatre carved out a space in Columbus' theatrical landscape which presumed the gay and lesbian viewpoint to be the norm and reimagined mainstream pop culture forms to fit it. The company used camp, queer humor, and the privileging of gay and lesbian perspectives as community-building strategies. Informed by the queer and feminist performance criticism of Jill Dolan, Tim Miller and David Roman, I advocate for a critical allyship for community-based gay and lesbian theatre in order to combat the heteronormative and metronormative forces which erase the history of gay and lesbian theatre and the communities with whom they engage.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2017, Higher Education

A number of states have replaced or are in the process of replacing traditional enrollment-based higher-education funding models with those based on performance. In 2015, Ohio legislators approved legislation, allocating more than half of state support for public institutions to a funding formula based on course completion, credit-hour milestones, and degree/certificate completion or transfer (Fain, 2015; Snyder, 2015). This quantitative study examined the perceptions of 1,055 administrators from 22 public community colleges in Ohio of the new performance-funding formula and whether institutional characteristics affected their perceptions. The study was framed by Pfeffer and Salancik's (1978, 2003) theory of resource dependence. Unlike studies that suggest knowledge of performance-funding rarely makes it below the level of senior administrators, this study's findings suggest performance-funding plays a role in widespread institutional behavior change. Results include several implications for higher education practice, including increased institutional awareness of performance, changes in student and instructional services, and clear and timely communication of the new performance-funding program at all levels, among others.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, Educational Leadership

City Township made a township-level decision to utilize arts events and programming to create community formation within its public. A non-profit entity entitled the Arts Planning Council was established to harness the aesthetic experience within the arts and to address the deep state cuts to the township budget. My aim was to understand the formation of a community based arts education program, how it contributes to the meaning and creation of community, how human connection is created through existential aesthetic experience, and how it can lend a feeling of communitas (V. Turner, 1969) among township members. Through the interpretive discourse and the methodology of hermeneutical phenomenology, I analyzed how the Arts Planning Council made meaning of the aesthetic experiences that occurred in their arts events and programming that result in community creation. For two years, I functioned as a participatory observer and conducted formal and informal interviews with Arts Planning Council board members, township trustees, and township administrators. I applied horizontalization (Moustakas, 1994) to cluster significant statements from their accounts into consistent themes of understanding. Using the emerging themes of the arts as joy, the arts as expression, the arts as connection, and the arts as a public good as generative guides for writing, I divided the study into sections that elaborate on the phenomenon of the aesthetic experiences within the arts events and programming and how those experiences lead to community creation. I concluded that the members of the Arts Planning Council and township trustees understand the receptive joy, expression, and connection derived from the liminal experience of the arts creation and participation. The resulting feeling of spontaneous communitas lends a desire to continue communitas into a normative state. Ultimately, desire engenders a joint aim to deliver the arts as an irreducible, social good. This idea interrupts (open full item for complete abstract)