Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2009, Environmental Studies (Arts and Sciences)

Environmental justice is an emerging field that combines issues of racism, classism, and sexism with the distribution of environmental amenities and disamenities. Arising from the civil rights movement, the environmental justice movement seeks to redress inequitable distributions of environmental burdens and amenities. When communities with high percentages of minorities or low-income families bear a disproportionate share of environmental burdens an environmental injustice has occurred. Past research has focused primarily on the distribution of disamenities but recent research trends have begun to explore the distribution and access to amenities as well. This research examines how Swann Park, a neighborhood park in Baltimore, Maryland, transformed from an amenity to disamenity through arsenic contamination of the park's soil. The contamination source was a pesticide manufacturing plant formerly located adjacent to the park, Allied Chemical Company. The park was initially closed in 1976 during precautionary testing for kepone. After a small section of the park was remediated, the park was reopened after only a few short months. More than 30 years later it was discovered that arsenic levels in the park were more than one hundred times the level considered safe. Documents indicate that Allied Chemical was aware of the contamination as early as 1970 and chose not to share their data with state or local health officials. Through personal interviews, archival data collection, and document review, this research seeks to determine whether or not an environmental injustice occurred in 1976.

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

This dissertation offers a comprehensive assessment of future flood risk in Columbus, Ohio, by quantifying future land use changes and evaluating their combined impact with climate change. Additionally, it investigates the potential of green infrastructure as a strategy to mitigate these risks. Objective 1 examines the impact of static land cover assumptions on flood risk. By incorporating urbanization projections from EPA ICLUS to 2100, the greatest land use change varies significantly depending on the climate model and emission scenario. Each climate model (GISS-E2-R, HadGEM2-ES) and scenario (RCP 4.5, RCP 8.5) projects different land use changes, highlighting the sensitivity of future development and climate. GISS-E2-R presents a wet and warm scenario, while HadGEM2-ES simulates hot and dry conditions. Based on these projections, HadGEM2-ES RCP 8.5 had the most substantial average impact on Columbus communities, with a 19.7% change. GISS RCP 8.5 follows closely at 18.6%. Low-density exurban areas experience a 100% increase in GISS-E2-R. The HadGEM2-ES model projected decreases in high-density exurban and suburban areas and increases in low-density exurban and high-density urban areas. Both models predict decreases in exurban and suburban areas under high-emission scenarios, while high-density urban and commercial areas are projected to expand. Five communities experienced the greatest land use change: Hayden Run, Clintonville, State of Oho, Wolfe Park, and Livington Avenue Area. Objective 2 examines the contribution of climate and land use change on flood risk. In Columbus, Ohio, climate change alone is projected to increase streamflow by up to 22% by the late century based on the Oak Ridge Laboratory's CMIP6 streamflow data. However, when considering both climate and land use change, urbanization exacerbates this impact, increasing streamflow by an additional ~8% compared to climate-induced changes alone. Southern Columbus communities, including West Scioto (open full item for complete abstract)

MS, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

Parks play a vital role in promoting physical activity, well-being, and social health in communities. Nevertheless, access to parks is inequitable, with disparities disproportionally affecting marginalized neighborhoods. This master's thesis investigates the experiences and perceptions of park use and constraints among residents in Cleveland, Ohio, focusing on issues of park safety, park quality, and resident perceptions. Utilizing a convergent mixed-methods approach, survey data is analyzed alongside a GIS analysis of park distribution by race and observational assessments from park inventories. This research sheds light on the perceptions of residents overall showing frequent urban park use from participants and a desire for better quality parks. Additionally, findings reveal evidence of significant disparities in park access and use, particularly in black and brown census tracts representing an environmental injustice in park distribution in Cleveland, Ohio, highlighting the need to address these disparities and promote equitable access to greenspace. By providing a comprehensive understanding of park use, accessibility, and constraints in Cleveland, this study contributes to ongoing efforts to create healthier and more inclusive communities.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environmental Science

Context: This study contributes to understanding how social and environmental factors are associated with health status and learning outcomes. It developed from a larger community-based participatory research study based in Columbus, Ohio. United States census data serves as rationale for this study, as it shows that adverse health outcomes are magnified in the vulnerable Columbus neighborhoods on the Near East Side when compared to Columbus city proper, Franklin County, and/or the state of Ohio. Environmental exposures and neighborhood factors influence these health outcomes. These exposures and factors include air pollution and sociodemographic characteristics, such as race and ethnicity, age, and income. It has also been shown that exposures to environmental stressors from the built, natural, and social environments can impact early childhood development. A community engagement model referred to as E6, Enhancing Environmental Endeavors via e-Equity, Education, and Empowerment was developed. Using this model, a multidisciplinary stakeholder team was established, and community engagement meetings were held to assess the needs of local community residents and identify potential environmental hazards associated with adverse health outcomes in those census tracts. This stakeholder team included Columbus Early Learning Centers, an early childhood education and care provider in Columbus, Ohio. Our community engagement efforts spanned from November 2019 through March 2020, as the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) "shutdown" began. Since then, COVID-19 has disrupted life and learning for everyone, particularly children living in higher-risk communities. Current national standardized test data reveals that COVID-19 has contributed to greater learning loss than the typical summer learning loss in elementary aged children. This has been termed the "COVID-19 developmental slide". It is unknown how these trends persist in pre-kindergarten aged children as they do not take standar (open full item for complete abstract)

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The purpose of this thesis is to explore why schools ought to educate for sustainability in response to the climate emergency. Moreover, the author explores why the elementary school is an appropriate place to begin such education as well as how such education can be implemented in the field of music education, specifically elementary music education. The research questions for this thesis are as follows: (1) Why should schools educate for sustainability? (2) Why is elementary school an appropriate place to begin education for sustainability (EfS)? (3) Why is the general music classroom a worthy space for EfS? The author uses social and educational theory, philosophy, and findings from other research to answer these questions. This thesis reviews and synthesizes research, theory, and philosophy from various foundational disciplines. This thesis concludes that EfS ought to be included in the school and begin at the elementary level. Every subject and teacher ought to consider how their subject might help attune students to nature and its protection for the sake of our love for the world, our subjects, and teaching. This thesis specifically explores and argues for EfS in the general music classroom, but practitioners in every field ought to consider EfS in their subject's context.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, Geography (Arts and Sciences)

This research seeks to establish an understanding of Appalachian women and their experiences of environmental justice through an arts-based analysis of their poetry. I ask two research questions that inquire how Appalachian express their experiences of EJ through poetry, as well how Appalachian women associate and relate gender to environmental injustices through their poetry. To investigate this process, I perform a poetry-based analysis of ten different poems by Appalachian women. Ultimately, I find that Appalachian women engage themes of empathy, othering, and gender to portray their connections to, relationships with, and understandings of environmental justice. This research is important because it addresses intersectional themes of both geography and environmental justice, however in new ways. Ultimately, this research portrays Appalachian women's use of poetry as an expression of their experiences with environmental justice, and as such, provides a different method and outlook from which to view environmental justice issues.

BS, Kent State University, 2024, College of Public Health

Air pollution disproportionately affects minoritized populations, which has been studied extensively in environmental justice, public health, and environmental policy research. However, due to the complex nature of air pollution management, it is especially difficult to keep under control. While strides have been made since the environmental protection agency (EPA) was formed in 1970, current air pollution levels are still accelerating climate change and those who are producing the most emissions are experiencing the least of their effects. For this research, I examined what is currently hindering progress in air pollution management. I looked at where siloing, or the separation between fields, exists in current air pollution management, and how communication between air pollution experts, community members, and industries can be improved to reduce emissions. After analyzing historical newspaper articles from Northeast Ohio between the years 1870-2020 and conducting interviews with air pollution experts in the fields of environmental justice, environmental policy, and public health, I examined how siloing has evolved over time, and how it shaped the siloing that exists today. I found that siloing is a complex issue with extensive historical context, and that it is faced in nearly every aspect of air pollution regulation. With these findings, I propose strategies to more effectively manage air pollution.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Environmental Studies

Climate change, a global problem growing in severity and urgency, is one that touches all of us, regardless of where in the world we live, learn, and grow. In light of entities such as the IPCC and UNESCO emphasizing the need for climate education, schools all over the world are incorporating climate change education into their curriculums. However, climate change is an interdisciplinary issue, and the common approaches to climate education focus heavily on the natural and physical sciences. Although important, the scientific reality of climate change, i.e. the natural and physical science, is not the entire story. Art is a powerful tool that has been utilized throughout modern history to communicate issues of injustice and inequity, often doing so in a way that evokes emotional response - the kinds of responses that lead to behavior change and action. Art that tells the stories of climate change and other environmental issues is a relatively new development, but the art that has emerged shows us that it is emotionally powerful. The use of art as an environmental communication tool has the ability to motivate change. In order to explore this capability of art further, I made my own piece - to be an appalachian woman - and exhibited it on Ohio University's campus for five days. At this exhibition, onlookers were invited to leave behind sentiments about what the piece said to them. These comments revealed that to be an appalachian woman succeeded in telling a comprehensible story about Appalachian women and environmental justice, and further, succeeded in evoking emotional responses in the viewers.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, City and Regional Planning

This dissertation contributes to the existing body of knowledge on “community design” and “design justice” by examining the contemporary landscape of relevant organizations. In exploring community design, the dissertation focuses on Community Design Centers (CDCs), while for design justice, it investigates organizations within the loosely organized professional networks dedicated to it. Both CDCs and design justice organizations in the U.S. broadly share the goal of leveraging their planning and design expertise to better serve and empower underserved communities. Specifically, CDCs, first established by activist professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning, have provided various planning and design services, especially for low-income neighborhoods, since the 1960s. However, despite their long history and relevance in planning and design, CDCs have received limited attention from scholars. To gain deeper insights into the contributions of contemporary CDCs and design justice organizations to American communities, I conducted three research projects exploring various aspects of these entities. The first investigation examines whether the concept of “advocacy planning,” which motivated the establishment of the first CDCs in the 1960s, is still embedded in the organizational missions of contemporary CDCs. I identified seven roles the current CDCs aim to perform and their association with organizational characteristics by analyzing publicly available mission statements and conducting semi-structured interviews with organization leaders and key staff. The second research project investigates the range of community design practices, focusing on the types of services and areas of interest that CDCs provide and pursue. Through a content analysis of projects showcased on their websites, this paper uncovers a comprehensive list of service types and interest areas, along with their variations depending on university affiliation. The third project co (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environment and Natural Resources

Nearly 30 years have passed since Executive Order 12898 put environmental justice (EJ) issues on the policy agenda. Since this time environmental justice has technically remained a policy priority at all levels of government. However despite this apparent commitment to EJ, research has shown over the decades after the passage of the Executive Order, we still see persistent trends in inequality of air pollution exposure by race (Ard, 2015). This begs the question: are environmental justice policies actually working to create environmentally just outcomes? This research seeks to evaluate this question by examining the impact of state environmental justice policies on disproportionate exposure to air pollution, with the goal of understanding what types of state actions, if any, are associated with decreases in pollution inequality.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2023, Environmental Studies

This thesis seeks to understand Appalachian farmers' and non-profit professionals' perceptions of the state of the food system and their place within to identify ways to move forward with food justice work and highlight some of the initiatives already happening in the region. Through a series of in-depth interviews with five regional foodway experts and analyses of relevant organizations' mission statements, I provide insight into the work being done in Appalachia to navigate post-coal economies and pressures against the success of local food systems, the way this work shapes identities and perceptions of and relationships with land and food, and where folks see opportunities for additional work and progress. My findings emphasize a need for greater societal awareness of injustices within the food system and more opportunities for communities to mobilize and regain agency over their livelihoods and food sovereignty.

MS, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

The Colorado River supplies water for over 40 million people throughout the North American Southwest, a region that has experienced prolonged stress on water resources for more than two decades. Through the lens of critical physical geography, this research synthesizes a physical and social science approach to explicate the many human and physical distinctions that are fueling the overuse of this waterway. The Southwest region economically benefits from settler colonialism yet lacks inclusivity of access to natural resources, including water. An investigation into the intricate dynamics of land use, water policy, and climate change in the Colorado River Basin provides a holistic understanding of environmental and climate disparities gripping parts of the region. Mixed-methods consisting of a correlation and trend analysis, along with a policy analysis, were employed to identify these evolving issues. Hydroclimatological patterns over the 1956-2022 period reveal disconcerting trends, further aggravating water supply. Historical water policies from 1922-1968 demonstrate their misalignment with evolving river dynamics and contribute to inequities in resource allocation. By extracting historic to modern-day climate and adaptation data, the evidence of this study leads to the conclusion that previous and modern-day policy not only is unsuitable to withstand the future of climate-induced changes to the hydrologic health of the river, but the impact of water scarcity faced by Indigenous communities across the North American Southwest could persist. The study emphasizes the ongoing importance for policies to be more attuned to the shifting climate and landscape while ensuring equitable resource access for all.

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, Geography

In the face of past, present, and future environmental injustice in central Appalachia, mothers have been on the front lines of resistance to extractive industry. Scholars have acknowledged this pattern, yet no substantive research on why motherhood is invoked so often as a discursive tool has been completed. This thesis examines the factors which have led central Appalachian women activists to use motherhood in their activism and analyze the discourse's strengths and weaknesses.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Impacts of disasters on individuals are dependent on numerous factors: local to international political dynamics, socioeconomics, geography, educational background, and outside support among others. Currently, much of disaster research focuses on those of natural origin, acute and large-scale environmental events, emergency management, and the ability of individuals, communities, and societies to prepare for, and recover from, likely known disasters in their region. However, there is a lack of data about individual experiences through ‘invisible' anthropogenic disasters, especially those that fall under the umbrella of slow environmental violence (Davies, 2019; Rice, 2016). Through critical phenomenological autoethnography, I examine an individual experience of a preventable toxicological disaster to identify political, cultural, socioeconomic, and historical forces that precipitated the events beginning April 3rd, 2014. These same forces were examined to identify how they sustained a slow, nonchalant, response to this anthropogenic disaster in a residential neighborhood. Additionally, personal impacts of slow environmental violence including those involving health, relationships, property, biophilia, financial, and legal were examined, as well as the ongoing process of resilience and recovery.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2022, English

This dissertation considers five novels: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, The Overstory by Richard Powers, and Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh. It is interested in how vitalism, a term that emerges at the intersection of the work of Jane Bennett (vital materialism) and Amitav Ghosh (vitalist politics), might work to re-focus the form of the novel in a way that thoughtfully considers climate change. Vitalism is an answer to the mechanized, biopolitical, realist modes of contemporary human art and social organization. A vitalist politics reconceives of political systems and structures in a way that acknowledges the role that nonhuman agency plays in shaping human events. A vitalist politics would mean all political and economic decisions acknowledge that nonhuman entities and systems have agency. Vitalism reconceives of "nature" as not brute matter to be extracted, but a web of carefully linked systems. It differs from an animist politics in the sense that it shuns the idea of ascribing any sort of soul to an individual entity (whether human, animal, or plant) for considering all entities as linked in a collectivist, rhizomatic web. The focus of this dissertation project is on contemporary fictional texts out of which strong strains of vitalist politics and aesthetics emerge. In doing so, it considers what the shapes of novels might be in a future that is itself reorganized by climate change.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, History

In September of 1858, a mob of Staten Islanders burned down a quarantine station in order to protect their own health and safety. Though Richmond County citizens destroyed over thirty acres of New York State property in the two-day riot, legal authorities determined that a crime had not been committed. It was an act of "salutary violence." This seemingly paradoxical event shaped the course of health system development in the nation's premier city. Scholars have overlooked the riot's significance or characterized it as an outburst of xenophobic violence. This dissertation argues that the riot was not spontaneous or reactionary. It did not follow a major outbreak of epidemic disease, and it occurred when immigration was at an all-time low. It presents layered contexts to recast the riot as the climax of a longstanding movement that crystalized in the wake of administrative changes at the institution. The polarized political climate of antebellum New York deepened existing tensions, as the quarantine controversy split along party lines. Understanding how momentum for the quarantine relocation movement was gathered through state legislation, sustained through regional support, and ultimately cemented when Staten Islanders became unified by the threat of quarantine expansion, presents a better causal framework for the riot than shallow arguments of fear and xenophobia alone. In the event's aftermath, communities united to resist State conscription to host the "dangerous" institution and lobbied for their own protection. The riot and quarantine relocation movement raised questions about the nature of public health that we still grapple with today: What public does public health protect? This dissertation demonstrates that community level activism, violent protest, and even the will of the mob, shaped the trajectory of public health in the United States.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, English

This project investigates literary and vernacular storytelling about regional flooding to understand the relationship between local and global life in the imagining of a livable future. I examine one effect of climate change—extreme flooding—to explore how Appalachian storytellers address socioenvironmental life throughout time and space. Through their flood stories, people creatively reckon with historic environmental destruction, ongoing social marginalization, and increasing climate crisis. This project emphasizes how local disasters can simultaneously be informed by and inform larger global conversations on life and living in and beyond Capitalocene times. Focusing on a specific type of environmental disaster—flooding—within a specific marginalized place—Appalachia—throughout time is one way to better notice how creative activism, life, and livability already exist despite science skepticism, environmental destruction, and capitalist ruins. The connections among various flood stories throughout time and space allow us to link past, current, and future life in and beyond the Capitalocene by moving in and out of local storytelling to understand what it means to be human in an increasingly precarious world of economic uncertainty and political polarization, heightened social and biological disarray, and intense ecological disaster. By centering the environmental storytelling of those who historically experience the combined effects of oppression and destruction, this project amplifies the diverse and creative activism of people who provide models for livability through ecological crisis.

MFA, Kent State University, 2021, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

What little is left of the natural world is disappearing quickly. It is evident that human activity over the past few decades has majorly contributed to the growing effects of climate change. In order to maintain livable conditions here on earth, we need to completely redirect our priorities and structure our lives around sustainable values. This thesis will investigate the role visual communication can play in facilitating an environmentally conscious mindset in future generations by using sequential art to encourage empathy for nature. A children's book will be designed and illustrated in order to examine how emotion can be elicited in an audience through the use of intermodal design tools including semiotics, reflexivity, character perspective, artistic style, and self-expression. Inspiring earth-positive opinions in young people will be the focus of this project, since their values and routines are undecided and because they will be responsible for making significant decisions in the future. Reader feedback will be collected and analyzed to determine the success of the prototype. Additional research will investigate the following questions: How can personal experience be used to influence creative decisions that evoke emotional reactions in audiences? What visual stimuli attract viewers and allow them to connect or empathize with the characters in a story? Can this engagement impact a viewer enough to lead to self-reflection or behavioral change? What does this mean for the future?