Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

The dissertation is a deep study of an iconic 20th century female, African American leader whose acclaim developed not only from her remarkable first generation post-Reconstruction Era beginnings, but also from her mid-century visibility among Negroes and some Whites as a principal spokesperson for her people. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune arose from the Nadir- the darkest period for Negroes after the Civil War and three subsequent US Constitutional Amendments. She led thousands of Negro women, despite social adversity, to organize around their own aspirations for improved social and material lives among America's diverse citizens., i.e. “the melting pot.” The subject of no fewer than thirty-two dissertation studies, numerable biographies, innumerable awards, and namesake educational institutions, Bethune ascended to public leadership roles. Her renown of the first five decades of the 20th century is reconstructed to be less enigmatic for people of African descent, and more visible for other mainstream Americans. Remarkably, she employed a uniquely crafted philosophy of interactional destiny for the world's “races” anchored in her brand of Christian evangelism. Bethune's uniquely early feminist worldview and strategies for inter-racial cooperation, different than the worldviews of some of her contemporaries, achieved much social capital and opened doors of opportunity for herself and countless others through a brief federal government position, and organized women's work before 1955. Since much of her meta-narrative was riddled with hagiography and myth, this study has fettered out some myths and eradicated some of the hagiography. The study combines primary sources, secondary sources, photo-ethnography, and hermeneutics to illuminate another pathway for future leadership students and organization developers to appropriate aspects of Bethune's 20th century leadership performance as their own. Unintended to merely applaud Dr. Bethune's leadership performance, this stud (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philomena Esssed Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laura Morgan Roberts Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kevin McGruder Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; Black History; Black Studies; Organizational Behavior; Social Structure; Spirituality; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2009, Higher Education (Education)

African American female college presidents represent a unique population within the leadership of higher education; however, their leadership, management styles and their contributions to higher education are understudied. A study of this population is particularly important for several reasons. First, it provides a framework for understanding the leadership potential and management style of African Americans in higher education. Second, it contributes to the limited knowledge base of African American women leaders in higher education from the early 19th and 20th centuries. Third, this research provides insight into an understudied aspect of Mary McLeod Bethune's life: her presidency of Bethune Cookman University.This study is a historical analysis of Mary McLeod Bethune's leadership as a college president. It tests Jones' (1991) finding that African American female presidents exhibit the characteristics of transformational leadership. Jones' findings related to African American women presidents in early twentieth century society. The study explored Bethune's leadership in three major areas of her presidency: academic/curriculum, financial, and personnel management. The researcher sought to determine whether Bethune's leadership style reflected transformational or transactional leadership as defined by James MacGregor Burns, Bernard Bass, and Bruce Avolio. Avolio and Yammarino's four “I's,” and three factors of transactional leadership were used as the primary analytical framework for the interpretations of transformational or transactional leadership.

Committee: Robert B. Young (Committee Chair); Peter Mather (Committee Member); Dafina Stewart (Committee Member); Tom Duncan (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education