Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Educational Studies

The internationalization efforts of the United States (U.S.) institutions have resulted in large-scale international branch campuses and overseas representative offices. In this case study, the university's global physical presence will be referred to from hereon as a Gateway Office. This qualitative study investigates a Shanghai Gateway Office (SGO) affiliated with a large U.S. university. The office has fostered a robust global community by cultivating relationships between the home institution and the network abroad. This study employs a conceptual framework comprised of three perspectives to investigate an economically, politically, and culturally significant bi-national organization known as the SGO in the higher education landscape. This study was guided by three sets of research questions in an exploration of how the SGO operates as a bi-national organization affiliated with a U.S. university: (a) how does it negotiate resources within and between the two nations? (b) how does it establish legitimacy within and between the two nations? (c) how does it navigate cultures within and between the two nations? Case study, based on constructivist paradigm, served as the primary methodology. Artifact analysis of office displays, document analysis of the annual report, audit reports, newsletters, and articles about SGO history and leadership; and eight semi-structured interviews with key participants who participated and engaged with the SGO over the past five years, comprise the methods of data collection and analysis. In conjunction with study of artifacts and documents, the data were processed using a narrative inquiry-led restorying approach. To this methodological blueprint, I have added a culturally significant insider perspective by utilizing Chinese concepts such as Guanxi and Mianzi. The case reports and extended discussions provided a rich and nuanced description of the SGO from the bi-national perspective and revealed that, (a) the SGO survives by re (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2020, Educational Leadership

While Latinx students struggle to endure negative stereotypes, microaggressions and other forms of discrimination, they are still one of the fastest growing populations in US higher education. Several studies conducted on the experiences of Latinx students at predominantly white institutions conclude that poor racial climates deter these students from establishing a sense of belonging. With that said, it is important to understand what support systems are available for Latinx students. This study examines the experiences of Latinx students and their relationship to a campus multicultural center. Furthermore, this study explores how Latinx students might make meaning within the multicultural center. Like their Black counterparts, it is important to acknowledge that Latinx students also face discrimination, racism, alienation, and marginalization on campus (Harper & Hurtado, 2007, p. 9) and thus also need to build community and support through counterspaces (Yosso, Smith, Ceja & Solorzano, 2009). To demonstrate the importance of community and counterspaces, this study drew upon homeplace which hooks (1990) describes as a “site of resistance” engaged in community, healing, and escape from racist domination. To draw on the experiences of Latinx students and understand their relationship to the multicultural center and determine if a sense of homeplace was established, the researcher conducted a miniethnographic case study and employed methods which consisted of participant interviews, observations, and document analysis. This approach provided an intersectional way to explore the relationship between Latinx students and the multicultural through the guise of their experiences on campus and the multicultural center. While studies on multicultural centers have focused on the experiences of Black students within Black Cultural Centers, this study offered a nuanced perspective from the lens of Latinx students at a predominantly white institution.

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2019, Honors

World War Ⅱ is one of the most researched topics in the field of history, with repercussions still impacting the international museum and art communities. Because the Nazis looted an estimated one-third of European art, works of art were scattered across Europe and North America, appearing in both public museum collections and private collections. Internationally, restitution efforts were revived in the 1990s, arising from the field of Holocaust-Era Art Restitution. This is known as Transitional Justice, addressing previous generations' wrongs through legislative or non-legislative efforts. Since the early 1990s, museums have come to be at the center of legal battles, conferences, and national declarations as they confront the issue of looted art in their collections, specifically Holocaust-era. This study will explain the United States' legal, historical context for Holocaust-era art restitution and the difficulties with the current restitution efforts through litigation as well as analyze alternatives to this paradigm through three case studies of recent restitution efforts in the US. The goal of this study is to assist museum professionals by explaining the complications of litigation as a solution and evaluating two alternatives for those who are concerned about public trust, transitional justice, and the practice of high ethical standards regarding the restitution of works looted in connection with the events of World War Ⅱ.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : Mathematical Sciences

The nested case-control study design is frequently used to evaluate exposures and health outcomes within the confines of a cohort study. Cases are cohort members that experience the outcome of interest. Controls are selected using incidence density sampling. For each case, the risk set includes cohort members who are “at risk” (i.e., under observation, alive and outcome-free) at the case's failure time. Age is usually used as the time scale to precisely control for age-related effects. Randomly sampling controls without replacement from the risk set for each case results in a nested case-control sample. Covariate histories are required only for cases and sampled controls, but must be evaluated at the risk set failure time. The resulting data can be analyzed using conditional logistic regression which is equivalent to Cox proportional hazards regression when all eligible controls are selected, or asymptotically equivalent when a subset of eligible controls is selected. A nested case-control study designed to evaluate lung cancer in an occupational cohort was criticized for several reasons including the control selection method (i.e., 5:1 matching on attained age) and the inclusion of cases and controls with zero exposure because of latency assumptions (i.e., “lagged-out”). The critics proposed an alternative control selection method (additionally matching on age at death or censor within three years of the case's age at death) which reduced the exposure effect estimate. Furthermore, their “empirical evaluation” suggested that the nested case-control study was biased, in part due to associations among age at hire and age at risk end in the cohort. Two simulation studies were performed to evaluate these claims. To evaluate the proposed control selection method, occupational cohorts with time-dependent exposures were constructed. Mortality was associated with age and cumulative exposure (unlagged and lagged by 10 years). Controls were selected using incidence density (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, English

If rhetoric, as Aristotle suggests, is a defensive art—an art based on opposition—can we imagine a rhetoric that is also about coming together, about building solidarity? Drawing from an ethnographic case study of the Vietnamese American Coalition (VAC), I explore a rhetoric that both reflects and achieves solidarity—a solidarity that is based on mutuality, respects difference, and builds alliances. A grassroots college student organization formed in 1993, VAC's mission has been to foster political awareness and community activism among Vietnamese Americans, university students, and, generally, the local community. VAC students' meetings, newsletters, and interview accounts reveal multivalent sources for coming together, ranging from involvement in an immediate interaction to a solidarity that revolves, more broadly, around public texts. By analyzing these students' speech and writing, I call readers' attention to several dimensions of a solidarity rhetoric: (1) invitations into a community, (2) identifications that forge new alliances, (3) memorial connections that write individuals and groups into larger sociohistorical contexts, and (4) public texts that perform and revise our relationships. The solidarity that emerges as central to VAC students' rhetoric is critical not only to their community, but is moreover fundamental to the ways that we, as social beings, make our worlds cohere. In this sense, students' rhetorics are instructive to the ways in which speakers and writers connect through rhetorical means.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2011, Educational Leadership

This multiple case study examined corporate involvement in Japanese public elementary schools through 3 corporate programs. In 2005 the Basic Law of Food Education, Shokuiku Kihon Ho was enacted. This law promotes food education as a national movement and encourages food makers to become actively involved with the public sector to provide food education programs. Major food makers approached public elementary schools as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Purposeful sampling was selected, and programs from 3 companies were identified as cases. This researcher conducted email interviews with 35 elementary school teachers and 3 company spokespersons to examine their motivations, implementations, advantages and disadvantages of the programs, benefits to the company, and changes in teachers' perceptions of the companies, if any. The findings first include sources, including governmental, from which teachers initially learned about the programs. Second, the primary reason for program use was food education. Third, the 3 corporate programs studied appeared to be very successful in obtaining publicity in the schools. Two out of 3 companies had their products present in the classroom and also gave their products as gifts. Fourth, teachers were satisfied with corporate programs because they gained professional knowledge, rich materials, and experience-based activities for children. Fifth, the major disadvantage was scheduling. Few teachers recognized that corporate programs effectively influenced the knowledge of teachers and children. Sixth, teachers' perceptions of the companies were positively changed after experiencing the programs. Teachers were impressed with professional knowledge and they tolerated corporate promotions. This study included implications: School policies and professional development are needed to address commercial activity and insure that the children's knowledge would be balanced.

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2012, Industrial, Interior Visual Communication Design

The goal of this study is to explore the meaning of Social Design through design research, investigate appropriate methods for fieldwork study within this context, and seek ways in which design can bring about sustainable community development. In the process of conducting the research, some key elements leading to sustainability were identified that helped to create a “Design Model for Sustainable Community Development.” Through in-depth research of three Social Design case studies and interviews conducted with design experts, key methods were identified, providing insights for designers who might consider working in this emerging sector, while adding to the discourse of Social Design. This thesis also makes a distinction between “Design for Social Good” and Design for “Social Impact.” It affirms a paradigm shift in design practice towards a more human-centered approach, from designing for people to designing with people. Participatory Design, Exploratory Research and Ethnography are suggested as important methods that provide ways to work in Social Design that can foster ideas to bring about change that can impact societies. There is a new realm of opportunity for designers to work in this emerging social sector. By using their unique skill sets, they can begin to raise the value of design, so often misunderstood by people outside the sector and can be the “change leaders” people want and need today.

Bachelor of Science, Wittenberg University, 2024, Education

In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, which forced teachers and students to learn within a virtual format, the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont (GSMIT) searched for a way to educate teachers on how to execute nature-based STEM lessons under such unconventional circumstances. GSMIT responded with the creation of the School Yard Network (SYN), a virtual network of teachers who model best practices within the outdoor, experiential learning realm. This research will outline how the current organizer of the SYN continues to shape its structures to match the ever-changing needs of teachers within the network. Specifically, this research highlights the ways in which a highly effective professional development program utilizes inquiry-based learning, community building, and teacher-centered practices to advance experiential and outdoor learning for future educators.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Biostatistics

In large observational epidemiological studies with survival outcome and low event rates, the stratified case-cohort design is commonly used to reduce the cost associated with covariate measurement. The goal of many of these studies is to determine whether a cause-and-effect relationship exists between some treatment and an outcome rather an associative relationship. Therefore, a method for estimating the causal effect under the stratified case-cohort design is needed. In this dissertation, we propose to estimate the causal effect of treatment on survival outcome using restricted mean survival time (RMST) difference as the causal effect measure under the stratified case-cohort design and using propensity score stratification or matching to adjust for confounding bias that is present in observational studies. First, we propose a propensity score stratified RMST estimation strategy under the stratified case-cohort design. We established the asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator. Based on the simulation study, the proposed method performs well and is simple to implement in practice. We also applied the proposed method to the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study to estimate the marginal causal effect of high sensitivity C-reactive protein level on coronary heart disease survival. As an alternative to propensity score stratification, we proposed a propensity score matched RMST estimation strategy under the stratified case-cohort design. The asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator was established and due to the matching design, the correlation that exists within the matched set was accounted for. Simulation studies also demonstrated that the proposed method has adequate performance and outperforms the competing methods. The proposed method was also used to estimate the marginal causal effect of high sensitivity C-reactive protein level on coronary heart disease survival in the ARIC study.

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Geography

Corporate mobility management (CMM) is an essential tool to mitigate the negative impact that transportation can have on climate and the environment. This paper introduces CMM, along with its definition, process, and measures. Based on the analysis of three case studies, the implementation of the measures in practice is shown. In particular, effects of laws and regulations and their effect on CMM are identified and discussed. A comprehensive literature review shows that these CMM measures can be effectively used as a tool to influence and individual's mobility behavior and reduce traffic, especially traffic with combustion engines. In addition to push- and pull- measures, infrastructure measures such as bus lanes are also being implemented. The case study analysis indicates possible limitations to CMM measures in practice. The analysis of the laws and regulations shows that some laws can affect the implementation and effectiveness of CMM measures positively, while some might hinder the implementation of measures. Future research will focus on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on CMM.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs are an educational initiative that aim to support faculty in implementing writing into their classrooms and engaging students in their learning through writing. WAC courses are typically those outside standard English and Literature courses at postsecondary institutions. This project investigates perspectives at a Midwestern University to explore practices and definitions of WAC, writing, advocacy, and feedback. Specifically, the research focuses on two questions: 1. What are the current understandings and practices of WAC, writing, advocacy, and feedback at Midwestern University? 2. How do WAC programs benefit from collaboration with Writing Centers and community connections from a sustainability standpoint? Using humanistic approaches, this study focuses on the shared experiences of a History WAC faculty member, History WAC student, and the Writing Center Coordinator at Midwestern University. Data was collected through a series of interviews with each participant and coded according to a Grounded Theory approach. The findings from each participant's interviews are represented as an individual chapter sharing their stories as perspectives important to ongoing conversations regarding how WAC is understood, writing is defined and experienced, and advocacy is identified, as well as practices of WAC instructor written feedback on student writing. The project draws connections between WAC, writing, feedback practices, and advocacy discourse as important concepts to WAC sustainability and concludes with potential implications for WAC programs, WAC scholars, and writing instructors. Focusing on inclusionary practices, this study pulls from the experiences at Midwestern University to provide frameworks of race for WAC and self-reflective inclusive sentence-level training for faculty, students, and writing consultants. Furthermore, the study indicates that feedback practices in the WAC classroom should consider students' (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

This study is focused on understanding what factors impact the transition of the KGB to a successor organization in a former Soviet Republic. The case chosen for this research was the case of the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU), which inherited the role of the second largest contingent of the KGB upon the collapse of the USSR. This case provides context-driven insights into the understanding of the institutional evolution of a security service in the post-Soviet context. This study addresses the question of how the SBU evolved in terms of its formal and informal mission objectives (what tasks the SBU is being asked to carry out), personnel practices, and organizational structure. Furthermore, this study investigates the factors shaping the reforms that took place, regarding the SBU and why some reforms failed to progress towards their intended outcome. The methods used to identify the answers to these questions were a content analysis of media reports, archival documents, and semi-structured elite interviews with individuals holding knowledge and experience pertaining to the security apparatus of Ukraine. The triangulation of these data identify and explain how the SBU evolved into the organization it is today. They demonstrate the impact of the KGB legacy, informal practices and corruption, foreign and domestic pressures, leadership transitions, and political crises on the SBU's mission, personnel practices, and organizational structure. These findings generate knowledge on the factors that influence and determine the course of the SBU's evolution and provide insights that improve the understanding of the post-Soviet security apparatus.

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Geography (Arts and Sciences)

In this study it was investigated if ecoregion type and hurricane-induced vegetation damage are related to recovery period in landfall areas by observing similar and different intensity hurricanes making landfall in different and similar ecoregions. Understanding of the interaction between hurricane intensity and its effects on vegetation could potentially benefit hurricane management plans and policies by observing the trend in damage and recovery period. To analyze the relation between ecoregion and hurricane, this research analyzed two comparative case studies utilizing remote sensing-based satellite images and geographic information system (GIS) tools. Results from the considered cases indicate that there is not a one-to-one relation between ecoregion type and the damage-recovery pattern of hurricanes. It cannot be generalized that hurricanes would affect vegetation similarly in similar ecoregions or differently in different ecoregions. Rather, it was found that pre-existing conditions associated with local weather and climate events and storm-scale meteorological parameters were playing a more dominant role in the characteristics of the damage footprint on vegetation in the studied cases.

Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2020, Civil Engineering

Debris flows are a potentially catastrophic geological hazard worldwide destroying lives, properties, and infrastructure. It is characterized as one of the most destructive among different types of landslide phenomena. They are gravity-driven mass flows involving multiple interacting phases in contact with the environment and with each other during its propagation. The wide range of material sizes ranging from clay to huge boulders with varying compositions poses significant modeling challenges. Lack of monitoring stations, event data, and effective physical models renders it necessary to employ numerical simulations to study the process of the debris flows and predict possibilities for potential hazards. The present study explores a recently developed multi-phase model, implemented in a novel computation tool r.avaflow for simulation of complex multi-phase flows. The present study aims to understand the difference in flow characteristics of different types of mass flows, which vary in material type and composition. First, a numerical simulation of debris flow, mudflows, earth flow, and complex flows, on an idealized slope is conducted to analyze the differences in their flow behavior in the form of run-out distance, velocity, the height of flow, peak discharge, final deposition, kinetic energy, and flow pressure, etc. The results demonstrate the high destructive potential of different types of flows and can be utilized for the delineation of hazard-prone areas. Subsequently, two case studies of well-documented debris flow events in active debris flow sites are also carried out. The first case study focuses on a debris flow event of August 2009 in Tyrol, Austria, and the second case study investigates a debris flow incident of the Chalk Cliff region in Colorado, USA. These studies allow extensive utilization of the important features of numerical simulations in actual landscapes. The case studies are validated using available event data and show reasonably good (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2019, English

Very few scholars have examined how women adapt to a leadership role in a primarily male-dominated workplace. Those who do study women's communication in the workplace often do so in comparison to male counterparts. This project, however, aims to examine solely the style of communication, specifically in email communication, among women in leadership positions. Because language style and perceptions of effectiveness imply rhetorical concerns, it is important to understand not only how women leaders are perceived by others but also how these women perceive themselves as workplace communicators. To discover how women in leadership write and what affects their writing, this research applies the methodology of Royster & Kirsch's Feminist Rhetorical Practice, employing a mixed approach between a case study and autoethnography. The research includes four female participants' email communication and interview results from two of the four participants. The results show that the women's realization of influence from male-dominated workplace is through dialogue. That said, the way women in leadership write depends very much on the end goal of the email, the audience, and the relationship between the sender and the recipient. Future research will be necessary to include more participants in the interview process because the dialogue with the women provides more contextual background and thought process to the textual analysis.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, English

This dissertation examines literacy volunteer preparation historically and comparatively for two contemporary case study organizations: one that coordinated a university service learning/study abroad program and one that ran a family literacy program. The author reviews major contributions literacy studies has made to literacy theory and practice and identifies gaps in literacy studies' influence and relevance towards literacy organizations. This study argues that volunteer preparation can be a site for literacy researchers and organizations to put their insights and expertises into practice by training volunteers using historical contexts as the basis for volunteers' critical reflective practice. The study also highlights historical and pedagogical differences between preparing expert versus non-expert volunteers. In the two case study organizations, the Working With Project for Haiti (WWPH) trained non-expert college students to utilize a critical process of engagement to work collaboratively in Haiti. The author refers to this pedagogical goal as “competence” for non-expert student volunteers' engagement in Haitian communities. Early Reading's Family Literacy Program trained expert volunteers with backgrounds in teaching and child development to deliver their family literacy training in a Southern U.S. city and state that had multiple other literacy initiatives. This pedagogical goal the author calls training expert volunteers for “consistency.” Based on the study's findings from case study data collection and historical research, the author proposes that greater collaboration between literacy research and practitioners could occur through volunteer preparation that: attends to histories of literacy campaigns, recognizes the differences between expert and non-expert volunteers, understands that literacy organization goals serve different purposes (which researchers and practitioners should specify), and identifies the major processes in which the organization e (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

This project is situated in scholarship surrounding the rescue, recovery, and (re)inscription of historical women rhetors, particularly those within religious spaces. It places a lens on the rhetorical practices of two religious women: Jessie Penn-Lewis and Margaret E. Barber. I argue that it is important to investigate these women, for doing so reveals not only an area that has not received extensive critical attention, but also informs how scholars look at pedagogy, particularly in religious spaces. The project and methods are grounded in feminist research practices. This project is historical in nature and will thus draw upon feminist historical and archival research methods as my primary methods of investigation. Further, this project is framed as two case studies, which examine closely through textual analysis surviving work produced by these women to begin to extend our knowledge of pedagogical and rhetorical practices in religious spaces. The heuristic used to investigate these texts and women bring forward key themes for study and application such as: how space is used, whether rhetorical or physical; what kind of tools can be used or appropriated for teaching practices; how texts and women circulate and under what conditions and intentions. Finally, I argue for their inclusion within the rhetorical canon as well as rewriting histories of women's rhetoric; for their work is not only worthy of recognition from the past but more importantly for future scholarship that acknowledges the ways in which institutions of power are still over girls and women. This dissertation points further to the need to research literate practices of “ordinary” people and the barriers of public and private still existing today.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Around the world, municipalities are facing new challenges, not the least of which is climate change. This is especially true for rural communities that, for a variety of reasons, will be disproportionately affected by the climatic changes and accompanying policies or programs. This dissertation, written in manuscript-style, integrates climate change and social-ecological scholarship to address the unique character of rural communities, to communicate the complexity of rural identity through the term "rural character"; and to empower rural communities to incorporate adaptation strategies into their daily municipal operations and planning. Specifically, this dissertation seeks to answer the following questions: What is community character and what does it offer for climate change planning? What is the relationship between rural character and climate change? How can rural communities adapt to create a resilient rural character? Through this research, I argue that there is a common dialogue across multiple disciplines that shows opportunities for interdisciplinary adaptation scholarship that could inform local planning efforts. I identify a common framework of people-place-process across multiple disciplines and identify opportunities for cross-disciplinary communication. To understand the complexity of the rural identity, my single mixed-methods case-study in Northwest Connecticut develops a place-based definition as well as a transferable model of rural character that can be used to understand other rural locales. The model of elements, dimensions, and tensions presents the quantitative and qualitative nature of rurality that, in its composition, represents the components of meaning to local residents. The study also indicates the importance of a regional rural identity. Bringing the scholarship to bear in the last manuscript, I use the theoretical underpinning of socio-ecological systems and place-based definition of rural character to create a guidebook (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1980, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1980, Graduate School