Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Environment and Natural Resources

Understanding the spatial distribution of socioeconomic well-being in the United States, and the disadvantage of rural areas relative to urban areas, is a core disciplinary concern of rural sociology. However, substantial demographic and economic changes in the U.S. over the past several decades have redistributed both people and economic influence towards urban areas. Both rural sociology's poverty and place framework and official rural-urban classification systems need to adapt their analyses to account for rural-urban relationships in their current context. The poverty and place framework has traditionally focused on rural socioeconomic well-being in its rural context. It emphasizes the need to understand the historical path a place has taken that has led to its current system of power relations manifested in its government, economic, and social institutions. The economically dominant influence of large cities over rural areas has been under-theorized. In this dissertation, I integrate the poverty and place framework with theories from economic geography and regional economics to account for the economically dominant influence of large cities. This provides for a more holistic approach to studying spatial patterns of socioeconomic inequality across the rural-urban continuum. I apply this approach to analyze and critique existing rural-urban classifications as well as develop a novel classification system with more nuanced categories to study places on the rural-urban boundary. First, I analyze the USDA ERS Rural Urban Continuum Codes (RUCCs), the most commonly used official classification system that moves beyond a rural-urban binary. The nine RUCC categories encompass a range of county types, from those part of the largest metro areas, to those without significant urban settlements. After controlling for other structural characteristics, I find that increased metropolitan size is associated with higher socioeconomic well-being, and much of the overall metro (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Environment and Natural Resources

Emerging adults in rural, boom-bust economies face unique challenges, especially in employment and education. Drawing on emerging adult and social disruption hypothesis literatures, this study examined four primary research questions. First, how do emerging adults in rural boom-bust towns in southwest Wyoming understand and experience boom-bust cycles in their communities? Second, from where in rural, boom-bust places do emerging adults receive support regarding post-secondary education, employment, and decisions to remain in the area? This study also considered if these resources from the community were satisfactory. Third, what are the potential differences—if any—in the community supports known, used, and desired for emerging adults in community college verses for those in the workforce? Lastly, what decisions are rural emerging adults in boom-bust towns making about staying in/leaving the area? Interviews were conducted with thirty-eight emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 25 in southwest Wyoming. Findings from this study supported the social disruption hypothesis. Participants felt boom-bust cycles resulted in instability, were harmful to the area, and affected the resources to which they had access. They reported limited engagement in their communities which declined further as they transitioned from high school to the community college and workforce. However, they also suggested community engagement to be important for newcomers to the area. Individual and household income were important factors in mitigating effects of the boom-bust cycles. Participants also reported a heavy reliance on their social networks for finding employment. Participants in both groups indicated dissatisfaction with the resources to which they had access for higher education and employment. Also, the majority of participants wished to leave the area citing instability, lack of education and employment opportunities, and a general lack of opportunities, especially for education (open full item for complete abstract)

DNP, Otterbein University, 2016, Nursing

Rural residents at all income levels are significantly less likely than urban residents to participate in cancer screenings. Furthermore, rural women face common significant barriers to mammography, including: knowledge deficit, lack of primary care provider, no health insurance, fear, decreased access, transportation issues and financial constraints. The purpose of this project is to investigate factors influencing participation in screening mammography among rural women in Adams and Highland counties. Both of these Southern Ohio counties have lower than average rates of screening mammography. For this project, a non-experimental, cross-sectional design was utilized. Data was collected using a survey, based on the revised Champions Health Belief Model Scale. One hundred women voluntarily signed consent and participated in the survey, ninety of the women met the inclusion criteria. Quantitative data analysis was performed, as well as qualitative inquiry on the open-ended questions. A two proportions test found with statistical significance that women who have a primary care provider are more likely to participate in screening mammography than women without a primary care provider. It was also found that the majority of rural women surveyed, unless there is a positive family history of breast cancer, do not view themselves as susceptible to breast cancer. The qualitative data provided valuable insight regarding the attitude of rural women towards participation in screening mammography. “Time constraints” was the most common reason given for not having a mammogram in the past 12 months. A “reminder card” is what the participants believed made it easy for them to get a mammogram regularly. Consistent with the literature, the findings reiterate the importance of the role of the primary care provider in health promotion among rural women.

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

“God lies in the detail” stated Mies van der Rohe… …“The detail is in the adoration of Nature” stated Louis I. Kahn… …for decades, even centuries, architects have been theorizing, designing and constructing details, in search for the perfect answer – the perfect story – to their particular design. This thesis is an exploration on exactly that – the architectural detail, and how it can inform and enhance the overall design. Instead of analyzing the details contained within a particular architectural movement and how they have changed design, this thesis looks at the details created by the common man – the builder of rural vernacular architecture. These structures contain basic joinery, materiality and detailing, passed down through history and heritage, as common building knowledge. How can these rural vernacular details educate an architect on a current design? This thesis explores the threat to historic cultural landscapes and the various preservation techniques, analyzes various theories on detailing, looks at numerous architect and program precedents, studies the history, style, and construction of the dilapidated buildings on site, and finally creates an adaptive-reuse solution. Furthermore, it is a critical analysis of the term “detail”. How does the old structure inform the new design? The building additions are treated with a continuity-to-contrast approach as you move deeper within the site. The project site is located in Oconee County, South Carolina, and contains an interesting history. This 300+ acre farm was once owned by Silas Butts, who among many things used his grist mill to produce moonshine - the profits of which supported an orphanage and schoolhouse.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, History

This thesis argues that electrification in Ohio, which spread from cities to the countryside, required a strong impetus from the Federal Government to reach its ultimate fulfillment. The author attempts to address a lacuna in the scholarship of electrification by providing an original work on the history of electrification in Ohio. This thesis makes use of a “case study” approach to examine the topic in a three-stage analytical framework: urban electrification in Cleveland to address the changes in public perception regarding power and the resulting municipal reform; the transition of Toledo's interurban railways from primarily traction companies to electrical power companies to illustrate the expansion of electrical access beyond the municipality making the issue a state concern; and restriction of Ohio's utility holding companies and the electrification of Miami and Shelby Counties by the Rural Electrification Administration to examine how firm federal policies succeeded where state and local intervention could not. The case is made here using a synthesis of existing literature on electrification and archival research. The present work concludes that the earliest attempts to expand electrification were made by private enterprise, but private efforts were most successful in cities where higher population densities guaranteed higher profits. Government actions on the part of municipal and state institutions tried to further electrification beyond the areas serviced by private utilities, but they lacked the resources and authority of the federal government.

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2024, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

Although women account for most educators in the United States, they are still the minority in educational leadership roles. In rural districts, particularly high schools, the number of women in leadership is even lower than in suburban and urban districts. Thus, this study explores the barriers women face in obtaining their roles as high school principals in rural districts and discusses the challenges women face while serving in these roles. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used in this qualitative phenomenological study to explore the lived experiences of 11 current principals working in rural high schools in Ohio. The current investigation focused on researching how participants perceived the barriers they faced and the role their gender played in both the creation of barriers and their options for overcoming these challenges. The gathered data indicate that despite gains women have made in educational leadership, gender-based barriers and challenges are still in existence for women pursuing a leadership position and for women currently serving in leadership roles, particularly in rural high schools. The results of this study suggest that while subtractive leadership deters women from entering the field and pressures those currently working as principals to leave, there is hope as more women enter the profession and actively encourage and support other women considering educational leadership as the next step in their careers.

MA, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Historically, rural America has been branded as a dangerous and unaccepting locale for minority populations, including queer people and people of color. This framing is borne from decades of knowledge production about queer lives that adheres to metro-centric and urban-rural hierarchies presenting metropolitan areas as “gay-friendly” and rural spaces as the opposite, but some research suggests otherwise. Much of the literature on social connectedness and community connectedness among and between lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people seeks to understand how social and community connectedness impact LGBT people's mental health and well-being, but the measurements of social and community connectedness often lack inclusion of the role of geographic location. It is the goal of this research to identify how and if rurality moderates the relationships between LGBT people's feelings of connectedness to the LGBT community across variables such as involvement in LGBT groups, outness, race, and gender identity. Multivariate analysis revealed that being a rural resident had no significant impact on social connectedness, nor did it moderate how involvement in LGBT groups, outness, race, or gender identity impacts individual experiences of connectedness to the LGBT community. This is consistent with a small number of LGBT studies that show that LGBT people in rural space are not necessarily experiencing less social connection to the overall LGBT community and sets a foundation for more research that explores how metronormativity might be obscuring important information that can only be found in rural queer space.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Environment and Natural Resources

Many rural communities experience health disparities due to macro-level trends shaping social drivers of poor health. However, not all rural areas share similar sociodemographic characteristics or healthcare environments, and outcomes may vary substantially between populations within rural places. One group that may experience disproportionately poor health in rural communities is adults with disabilities. Although understanding the associations between place and health for this population is important for achieving health equity, there is limited empirical research on this topic in sociology and public health. To address this gap, I develop an integrated conceptual model to guide research at the intersection of disability, place, and health. I then use the 2019 Ohio Medicaid Assessment Survey (n=31,558) which represents all non-institutionalized Ohioans to analyze how three health outcomes vary by residence for those with no disability (n=20,282), non-developmental disabilities (n=9,893), and developmental disabilities (1,383). In Chapter Three, I draw together strands from the robust literatures of social determinants of health, rural health, the sociology of disability, and disability health to create a conceptual model linking place, disability, and health. I utilize this framework to guide the empirical analyses completed in Chapters Five through Seven. Using my conceptual model, I analyze how residence is associated with two physical health outcomes, self-rated health and the number of chronic conditions, for adults with and without disabilities in Chapter Five. I posit rural Appalachian residence is associated with poorer ii physical health outcomes, particularly for adults with disabilities. I find these hypotheses to be partially supported such that rural Appalachian residence is associated with poorer physical health for the general population. However, rural Appalachian residence is only associated with poorer self-rated health for adults with non-de (open full item for complete abstract)

Specialist in Education (Ed.S.), University of Dayton, 2023, School Psychology

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) can have a devastating impact on victims and their families. Families living in rural communities experience unique barriers to receiving care for complex medical needs. While little research exists surrounding TBI specifically, medical staff, school staff, and caregivers for children with complex medical conditions report a range of barriers and facilitators to coordinating care for their child. The current study explored the experiences of rural caregivers for children with TBI, gaining the insights of caregivers, school staff, and medical professionals who cared for a child with a TBI who transitioned to public school after the injury. Themes included the need to navigate complex situations, support from small communities, isolation and loneliness, differences in experience based on severity of injury, and feelings of hope. Barriers to quality care coordination included navigating complex situations, access to transportation, and lack of communication or education from agencies. Facilitators included support from small communities and interagency communication. Based on information from the interviews, more comprehensive coordination between agencies is recommended, including care coordination that was not limited to that covered by insurance. Implications for practitioners include being cognizant of the difficulties caregivers face, providing flexibility due to transportation barriers, creating more comprehensive care for students with mild TBI, and providing more education.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Leadership

Women represent the majority of teachers in U. S. public schools; yet, only 26.7% of superintendents leading districts are women (Tienken, 2021, p.19). Although women have made gains in leading schools in larger districts, the same trend is not evident in smaller, rural school systems, which describe the majority of school districts in the United States (AASA: The School Superintendents Association, 2017). Scholars commonly attribute this disparity to gender bias prevalent in rural cultures (Agostine-Wilson, 2017; Quinlan, 2013; Keller, 2014). To help address gender inequalities in educational leadership, schools, districts, and educational leaders must develop an awareness of specific structural and sociocultural challenges to the superintendency faced by women in rural contexts and take proactive steps to understand and mitigate those challenges. This study focused on the narratives and lived experiences of 12 women superintendents in rural school districts. The purpose of this research was to explore, through the critical lens of intersectional feminist theory, the potential challenges to the public school district superintendency that women face in the rural Midwest. Critical narrative inquiry helped explore the challenges that women face when aspiring to the superintendency in the rural Midwest. Using intersectional feminist theory as outlined by Crenshaw (1989) and Hankivsky (2014) assisted with analyzing the stories of rural women superintendents' discussing obstacles that they encountered when reaching for positions of power in rural communities. This study also explored the effects that COVID-19 had on these women's experiences as rural superintendents, an important aspect of their experience since the pandemic has disproportionally affected women in the United States (AAUW, 2020; Donovan and Labonte, 2020; Hilferty et al., 2021; Karageorge, 2020). By exploring and exposing challenges to the superintendency of rural Midwestern school districts faced by (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2021, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis examines educational radio programming broadcast to rural/agricultural communities. The focus is on how public universities, like Iowa State University and Ohio State University, utilized the radio to share their expertise with listeners. The thesis explores how radio messages both reflected and challenged common cultural and social themes during World War II and the postwar era. This study examines both educational broadcasting and American social and cultural history during the middle of the 20th century. A key theme in American history at that time was returning to traditional male and female roles in the home. This meant that after the war, women were expected to leave their wartime jobs and return to domestic life, reserving paid employment primarily for men. Families were expected to spend their money on purchases that made domestic life easier, which could include new homes and appliances. The university radio programs from this time reflect this mentality. The experts (MDs and PhDs from numerous university departments) spent a large amount of their airtime advocating this idea to their listeners. Both the domestic and socioeconomic expectations of the period are reflected in the messages the (predominantly) male broadcasters sent to their listeners. The thesis illustrates how radio was used as a method of communication for social, cultural, and gender norms and how experts showed their biases when they encouraged their listeners to conform to the postwar domestic ideal. It also examines how the listeners of these programs received the information that they heard over the airways. While there were many people who reflected their time period and the era's social and cultural expectations, not everyone did so. This thesis examines how universities used their faculty's expertise to help change their communities and how those communities viewed the information and the source. This study analyzes how an important source of communication, the ra (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, Curriculum and Instruction (Education)

This study explored how injection wells, as a local-level controversial issue, emerged within a rural Ohio school community. Instrumental case study and narrative inquiry methodologies informed the study, with an emphasis on rurality. The findings, presented in a creative nonfiction story genre amplifying the voice of rural Ohioans, illustrate the impacts of mineral-extraction industries and undesirable land uses on a rural school community characterized by hardship as well as fortitude, commitment, and interdependency.

Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.), Franklin University, 2020, Health Programs

The healthcare industry is continuously faced with increasingly difficult challenges. This is especially true in rural healthcare environments where additional challenges make leading healthcare organizations even more complex. Part of this challenge in effective healthcare leadership is maintaining a motivated and engaged front line workforce within the organization. There are a multitude of benefits to having more highly motivated frontline employees, many of which are discussed in this dissertation. Employee motivation can be strongly impacted, either positively or negatively, by the leadership qualities possessed by the leaders overseeing frontline employees. A gap in academic research was identified in the field of leadership behaviors related to their impacts on employee motivation in rural outpatient healthcare delivery. Therefore, this qualitative study was developed, conducted, and the data were analyzed to attempt to close that gap in research. This qualitative research study analyzed the leadership behaviors and techniques that are currently employed within the population, as well as analyzed the most effective motivational strategies for employees working in rural outpatient healthcare environments. The study concluded that leadership qualities that are personal in nature and focused on leader-follower relationships are more effective in motivating and driving employees than other factors. This study also provides guidance for future potential research within this environment to gain an even better understanding of how to overcome motivational challenges faced by leaders in rural healthcare settings.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Arts and Sciences: History

Farming Scenery: Growing Support for Agricultural Land Preservation, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1930-1990 analyzes the evolving support for farm preservation initiatives in the face of metropolitan expansion. Conflicts between country and city, farmer and non-farmer, abound at the rural-urban fringe. However, groups in opposition can form alliances to address certain issues. In Bucks County, agricultural land preservation was one of these instances. This case study reveals the ways in which the interests of diverse groups of farmers, estate owners, and suburban residents aligned in favor of efforts to maintain the viability of local family farms in the late twentieth century. In the early twentieth century, the county's family farms faced challenging economic times and were increasingly sold to wealthy non-farmers for country estates. Concurrently, the automobile-enabled middle-class of nearby cities looked to Bucks County as a place for recreation and suburban living. Campaigns to preserve family farms through collective action, agricultural soils through conservation practices, and pastoral scenery through local planning and zoning failed to achieve widespread support in the 1930s. However, advocates for these same goals, working with activists wishing to place limits on suburban growth, found common ground in the late twentieth century, when local residents and officials embraced the ethos of agricultural land preservation. By presenting the story of suburban growth and planning through the lens of agricultural history, this dissertation expands the scope of urban historiography, as well as that of agricultural history, by purposefully including farmers' perspectives in the story of suburbanization and concurrent efforts to preserve open spaces and farmland. It uncovers the shifting conflicts and alliances among rural and suburban constituencies as they debated and implemented land use planning and development regulations at the metropolitan fringe. It reveal (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education, Miami University, 2020, Educational Leadership

Since the beginning of American education in the U.S., women often have been left out of educational prosperity. First, by excluding females from learning and working, and later by disregarding their capacity for educational leadership. The superintendency of American Schools is perplexing because women dominate the field of teaching whereas men hold the majority of superintendent roles. Although we are in the modern world of the twenty-first century, where women have gained the legal right to equality, gender discrimination exists. A great body of literature exists regarding female superintendents; however, there is a significant gap concerning female rural superintendents. Six female superintendents from rural school districts were invited to participate in this research study. Their stories paint unique portraits of their professional, gendered experiences as rural female superintendents. The purpose of this research study was to explore women's experiences in the rural superintendency, add female voice to history, and illuminate the prevalence of the feminine social injustice, often silenced by society's perception of the American superintendent. Each female rural superintendent's story was unique and intertwined with intersections of gender, leadership, and rurality. Through this narrative inquiry five common themes emerged: 1) The District Must be the Right Fit; 2) Other Women (Female Saboteurs); 3) The Good Old Boys' Club; 4) Loneliness; and 5) An Ethical Fighting Spirit of Determination, Grit, and Resilience. This research found that there are several challenges due to one's gender and those are amplified in the rural setting where a superintendent must wear several hats, manage a lack of resources, and survive the unique value system and culture established by each rural community. This study revealed that gender discrimination endures in the twenty-first century for female rural superintendents by both men and women, stemming from hist (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Environment and Natural Resources

The demand of renewable energy has spurred the development of massive wind farms across rural America. It is important to understand how a transition away from fossil fuels impact the rural areas where turbines are located. In order to grasp these impacts, it is important to take a variety of approaches to understand the multiple spheres of life that are impacted. This dissertation consists of four distinct chapters that take a different approach to examining the impacts of wind energy development. The concepts and theories I use come from the many studies on energy development from rural sociologists, geographers, and political ecologists, embracing a scientific approach that utilizes multiple perspectives and methodological techniques. These methods include the use of newly available secondary data regarding the location of wind turbines and agricultural characteristics for spatial analyses, to a content analysis of social media posts of anti-wind Facebook Community Groups based on real geographies, and the more traditional approach of a mail survey. The following chapters represent separate manuscripts that highlight new and exciting approaches to wind energy development. Together, they present novel approaches in social science research that have been presented and discussed at previous academic conferences and have spurred collaborative projects with other scholars and students.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, Economics

Recent decades have been associated with rapid technological innovation in the United States. Consumer use of this innovation, however, is not uniformly distributed. Previous work has estimated an especially large gap in access to broadband service between rural and urban areas. Using survey data, I find that this digital divide can be explained in large part through the differing demographic characteristics between rural and urban households. Controlling for income level, generation, and household composition, I document a 13 percentage point digital divide that varies considerably with the generation of the household. This 13 percentage point digital divide is much smaller than the FCC's reported 45 percentage point divide in 2015. However, this smaller divide is still pertinent to policy.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Geography

In recent years, the US national media and the general American public have developed a heightened interest in the social, economic, and demographic challenges rural America faces today. These challenges, however, have arisen from economic and social changes that have been transpiring for decades. This dissertation consists of three distinct yet interconnected studies, with each study serving as a lens through which to analyze rural prosperity. The first study concerns itself with challenging the notion that "prosperity" must always equate to population growth, economic growth, or both. This limited conceptualization often excludes rural communities which might otherwise be considered prosperous even though they are not growing. I use principal component analysis to explore regional variation in what constitutes prosperity and to create a prosperity and distress index. I find that despite variation among regions, the primary component in all cases is low prosperity, which means that in all regions and for the country as a whole, counties with low prosperity have the strongest characteristics in common. The index overlaps with growth-oriented definitions of prosperity to an extent in that it ranks rural counties among the least prosperous and urban counties among the most prosperous; however, it does so based on a broad range of indicators beyond simple economic and population growth, providing more nuanced rankings. The index also reveals considerable geographic diversity. In the second study, I employ regression analysis to examine how gender (im)balance in higher educational attainment connects to local economic conditions, in addition to using multiple hypothesis testing to determine how this (im)balance varies in urban, small urban, and rural counties across age cohorts and spatial statistical analysis to reveal how it is distributed spatially. The results of this analysis indicate that counties with college-educated populations that are predominantly fema (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2019, Foundations of Education: Educational Psychology

Rural secondary schools are vibrant educational institutions. Their significance and context is discounted in academic literature. The categories of distance and people per square mile used by federal agencies, researchers, and policy makers do not adequately contextualize rural. This theoretical dissertation proposes that rural is more than distance and people per square mile. Specifically, it asks if the idea of a double helix of place and social capital is a justified theoretical framework for exploring and understanding the nature of rural secondary schools. This dissertation proposes an extension of the existing literature on place theory with the addition of social capital. Place and social capital collide, meld, mold, and march all that is rural secondary school into being. If rural schooling is to be respectfully studied, then the place of that schooling and the social capital relationships of those involved in that schooling much be addressed and acknowledged. The Double Helix Framework of Place and Social Capital offers the explanatory power needed to describe, explain, predict, and improve the nature of rural secondary schools.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Educational Studies

Rural students represent nearly one-quarter of the students educated by our nation's public education system, yet they are often underrepresented in educational policy research. Rural students are also underrepresented in the existing literature on postsecondary decision-making. This study aims to address these gaps in the literature by assessing how well Ohio's College Credit Plus (CCP) policy addresses the barriers to and supports for college enrollment of high school students in high-poverty rural areas. Findings from this research demonstrate the ways in which CCP's goals of increasing equity and efficiency compete with one another, the importance of considering context for policy implementation, and how the policy's unintended consequences create barriers for students in this study. Additionally, findings from this study provide insight to how these students' families, schools, and communities serve as supports for and barriers to their decision to attend college and for their execution of that decision. Findings from the research are used to recommend changes to Ohio's College Credit Plus policy that would better address rural students' supports and barriers to college enrollment and to encourage areas of future research to examine questions that remain unanswered.