MFA, Kent State University, 2020, College of the Arts / School of Art

Suffering is a universal experience which exists in varying degrees. An injured soul seeks protection from what has harmed it, and can seek safety in withdrawal, isolation, depression or mania. My thesis work is a vessel for coping and healing, and the thinking that lies behind it. I use biomorphic forms that cluster, cover and consume the wearer as the physical manifestation of emotional shelter. These adornments, referencing magic, tarot, and fantasy, are imbued with a protective and healing aura. This sense of protection, in whatever form it takes, acts as armor fortifying the wearer and allowing them to confront their trauma.

Committee: Andrew Kuebeck (Advisor); Janice Lessman-Moss (Committee Member); Shawn Powell (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Metallurgy; Metaphysics

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2016, Leadership and Change

Leadership scholar-practitioners must create a more sustainable, diverse, and equitable future, fostering emergence and development of resilient, competent leaders, including those who may have been previously overlooked. Leadership studies, particularly those situated in early trait and behavior paradigms, have long privileged extraverted leaders as ideal. The scholarly conversation is limited on introverted leaders; moreover, most of that literature depicts introversion as either a pathological construct associated with shyness and social anxiety, or includes introversion only by omission, as a state of deficit-of-extraversion. This study instead began with positive inquiry, framing introversion as a positive individual difference, and explored the lived experiences of introverted leaders. This research coalesced perspectives from positive psychology, positive identity at work, and positive organizational scholarship to inquire into introversion as a positive leadership construct. In this constructivist grounded theory study, leaders who identified as introverts and who reported introversion typology on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) were asked to reflect on their experiences of introversion, leadership identity development, and professional and personal pursuits. From the amassed data emerged three theoretical propositions. First, enacting leadership has significant costs for an introverted leader's energy and identity. Second, an introverted leader must adopt a conscious learning orientation to leadership development, including experimentation with possible leader identities. Third, effective introverted leadership is dependent on understanding the powerful intersectionality of introversion, relationship, and identity. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLink ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Chair); Laura Morgan Roberts PhD (Committee Member); Harriet Schwartz PhD (Committee Member); Sandie Turner PhD (Other) Subjects: Higher Education Administration; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Personality; Personality Psychology; Social Research