Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1979, Labor and Human Resources

Master of Business Administration, The Ohio State University, 1968, Graduate School

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Communication and Information

Music venues are meaningful cultural spaces where people come together to experience culture (Williams, 2011). The most communally interconnected (Bennett & Rogers, 2016) of these venues are independent music venues (IMVs), which notably operate without corporate control or sponsorship (Whiting, 2021). While these spaces are important hubs for fan and musician stories as well as community connections (Straw, 1991), disruptions over the past several years, like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (Mims, 2022), threaten their continued existence. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine extra-organizational storytelling from an emic, insider perspective to trace how IMVs in the Midwestern U.S. promote and perceive of their stories, and place that communication within a larger context of societal norms and expectations. This dissertation used two lenses to guide an exploration of IMV promotional narrative: extra-organizational storytelling and master narrative. Extra-organizational storytelling is a hybrid conceptual framework which draws from organizational, advertising, public relations, and semiotics literature to situate and investigate how IMVs conceptualized and constructed their promotional communication. Master narrative provided a macro-level theoretical framework to understand how IMV promotional personnel co-create and tap into shared society-wide narratives which influence their work. I conducted and analyzed 28 in-depth informant interviews (Lindlof & Taylor, 2019) with promotional personnel from 26 different IMVs from across the Midwest. I found that organizational structures provided powerful context which shaped how participants communicated about and perceived of their venue's story. Storytelling and promotion were complex concepts participants connected to differently, with unique tensions associated with independence and extra-organizational storytelling. When considering their IMV stories, participants alternately highlighted characters, setti (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Communication

The portrayal of gay characters on television has expanded, yet often oversimplifies their experiences. Gay individuals face unique challenges accessing sexual health information due to cultural barriers, exacerbating health disparities. This study investigates how narratives featuring gay protagonists discussing sexual health with a medical provider influence gay viewers' intentions. Drawing on social cognitive theory and the entertainment overcoming resistance model, it explores narrative impacts on sexual health promotion among gay audiences. Findings suggest exposure to such narratives did not significantly affect intentions to discuss sexual health with a medical provider, but increased self-efficacy emerged as a predictor. This underscores the importance of considering factors like self-efficacy in interventions. The study provides insights for designing tailored interventions and advancing sexual health outcomes among gay men.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

This dissertation explores the role of democracy promotion in US foreign intervention with a particular focus on the weaponization of media and civil society by two important US democracy promotion institutions, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (USAID). Focusing on these two institutions and building on scholarship that takes a critical Gramscian Marxist perspective on US democracy promotion, this study brings media imperialism and deep political scholarship into the conversation. Delimiting the study to focus on US activities, I trace historical patterns of intellectual warfare and exceptional states of violence and lawlessness pursued by the US government in case studies of foreign intervention in which democracy promotion has played an important part since 1983. I survey the evolution of elite US Cold War conceptions of managed democracy as well as transformations of covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) media and civil society operations into institutionalized, pseudo-overt US democracy promotion that became a foundational pretext and method for US interventionism post-Cold War. Case studies include the Contra War in 1980s Nicaragua, Operation Cyclone in 1980s Afghanistan, the 2000 overthrow of Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, the 2002 military coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the 2004 coup against Haitian president Bertrand Aristide, and the 2014 Euromaidan Coup against Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. I dedicate the penultimate chapter to US-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011, demonstrating how USAID provided instrumental monetary, media, and civil society support to primarily sectarian, theocratic, Salafi rebels against the Ba'athist government. Throughout the dissertation, I argue that the NED and USAID represent important engines of intellectual warfare in US foreign intervention, mobilizing communications and organizational resources to reinf (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Leadership and Change

This study contributes to a body of scholarship that demonstrates the benefits and need of employee-driven and defined wellness at work processes. This participatory action research study brought together a team of employees within a remote-work, start-up organization to define and design a process for implementing wellness at work for their organization. Through a participatory process that allowed outcomes to emerge from the group, employees identified opportunities to foster embodied wellness in their organization in three core areas: organizational, personal, and cross-boundary initiatives. Through a reflective collaboration, employees generated ideas and developed a plan to address employee-identified priorities that will foster wellness in their organization. What emerged from the process is a model for participatory health meaning-making called the Landscaping Wellness model that future practitioners and scholars may utilize to facilitate storytelling, idea generation, and planning processes for worker-defined wellness, thus honoring the nuanced and complex nature of wellness itself. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

DNP, Otterbein University, 2023, Nursing

Diabetes is a chronic disease requiring patient responsibility to ensure good control and reduced morbidity and mortality. Incarcerated diabetic adults suffer from poor control and complications associated with their disease partly due to their limited health literacy. Arming diabetics with knowledge related to diabetes improves disease control and healthcare outcomes. The proposed final scholarly project involves the implementation of a diabetic education initiative to assess the effects of diabetic-specific education on self-care activities. The proposed quality improvement project will be framed with the Plan-Do-Study-Act and Nola Pender's Health Promotion Model. The proposed final scholarly project involves obtaining a baseline assessment, implementing an educational intervention, and determining if the intervention improves glycated hemoglobin and diabetic self-management as measured by the Diabetic Self-Management Questionnaire (DSMQ). A convenience sample of diabetic incarcerated adults will be offered the opportunity to participate in an educational initiative that includes four one-hour and one individual counseling sessions. The proposed project will use multiple tools to collect data, including the DSMQ, a demographic survey, and a post-test questionnaire. Data from the pre-intervention and post-intervention DSMQ and self-reported glycated hemoglobin will be collected anonymously and aggregated. A paired t-test will determine if the educational initiative positively affects the data. Positive outcomes on this DNP project could lead to implementing a diabetic education curriculum within the correctional setting. Future research could explore alternative, cost-effective methods to implement diabetic education in the correctional setting.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Business Administration

Pricing is one of the most important tools in a marketing manager's toolbox (Kotler and Armstrong 2010), and at least 80% of consumer choices are influenced by price (Forbes 2017, June 14). Unsurprisingly, extant research studied the effectiveness of many pricing strategies, establishing the effectiveness of strategies like just-below prices (Manning & Sprott, 2009; Thomas & Morwitz, 2005), range pricing (Biswas and Burton 1993; Fan, Li, and Jiang 2018; Haws and Bearden 2006) and price promotions (Foubert and Gijsbrechts 2007; Gupta 1988; Kahn and Louie 1990; Van Heerde, Gupta, and Wittink 2003), and examining how such strategies influence consumer's attitude toward prices and brand, price perceptions, and purchase intention. Building on this extant literature, I examine the nuances of these effects, moderators, and the unique consequences that have not been previously studied. Together, three chapters in this essay contribute to our understanding of how different pricing strategies influence consumer psychology of price perceptions and choices. The first chapter examines the effectiveness of just-below pricing in a context where consumers consider a within-brand upgrade decision, where the company's goal is to encourage upgrades. The first chapter demonstrates that when a base product is priced at or just-above a threshold (e.g., $20.00), consumers are more likely to upgrade and spend more money than when a base product is priced just-below a threshold (e.g., $19.99) because they perceive the upgrade option as less expensive, and they place less weight on price. Further this effect is mitigated under sequential choice and when an upgrade price crosses an upper threshold. The second chapter examines the effectiveness of the increasingly popular strategy of range pricing, where retailers present prices as a range (e.g., $19.99 – $29.99) rather than a specific price point (e.g., $19.99 or $29.99). The second chapter demonstrates that consumers have optimistic pric (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Business Administration, Cleveland State University, 2022, Monte Ahuja College of Business

With the fast-growing number of users, social media has become an essential part of our daily lives to provide news, status updates, as well as information on technology and science, amongst friends and relatives. Messages posted on social networks are often disseminated to large groups of audiences and aim to influence viewers' behaviors. Some of the most common topics include exercising, eating healthily, voting, and protesting. However, not all messages are spread at the same rate and, therefore, do not receive the same amount of attention. As such, message framing strategies play a critical role in differentiating effective messages and their counterparts. This project investigates the effects of two message framing strategies on social media. Specifically, we focus on gain- and loss-framing and visual framing, two frequently used message framing strategies. Widely investigated in previous studies, gain- and loss-framing has shown persuasion effects on readers. Visual framing has demonstrated influence in the cognitive processing of message contents. However, effects on persuasion and viewers' sharing behaviors when gain- and loss-framing interacts with visual framing have not been thoroughly studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether these framing methods influence readers' decisions on sharing messages with others and engaging in behavioral changes as recommended by the messages. Experimental methods are used to evaluate effects on social media users of gain- and loss-framing combined with visual framing. Participants are asked to read series of vignettes regarding health promotions and to answer the corresponding questions. Results show that visual framing interacts with gain- and loss-framing in different directions. Gain-framing health promotions are more likely to be shared and adopted. Visuals reduce gain-framing promotion effects but increase the sharing and persuasion effects of loss-framing promotions. Further, the congru (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 1961, Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Graduate psychology students face numerous stressors that can hinder their performance both academically and clinically as they move through their education and into the professional world (Pakenham & Stafford-Brown, 2012; Shen-Miller, 2011). Engagement with regular self-care not only can enhance a sense of well-being, but also plays a crucial role in shielding an individual from some of the most harmful effects of stress (Wise et al., 2012). Graduate level psychology programs are inherently positioned to teach graduate trainees about the importance of self-care practices and to help them develop self-care habits that they can take into future careers. It appears though, that these programs are often falling short in promoting self-care education and practices for their students, and students take notice of this (Bamonti et al., 2014; Munsey, 2006; Zahniser et al., 2017). The present qualitative dissertation study used an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) based method. Graduate psychology students were interviewed and were administered the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) with the goal of learning about: (a) how they experience their graduate school's promotion of self-care, and (b) how this may or may not interact with their comfort level in engaging with self-care activities, as well as their perceived stress levels (Cohen & Williamson, 2022).

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

This study explores obstacles to career advancement faced by black female staff in Higher education. Through interviews and surveys, key factors impacting this population are identified and a solution is proposed in the form of an action plan. Interviews exposed the issue of isolation, lack of support, and a need for early training for both employees and supervisors. The proposed action plan adopts an Africentric model of community building to provide a structure to address the three identified themes. This study contributes to an area of research with limited attention. University diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts routinely focus on diversifying faculty and student populations, while excluding staff. This mixed method research study addresses how the creation, implementation, and maintenance of a self-governing support structure is beneficial to the culture of the campus and expands the DEI recruitment and retention efforts ordinarily reserved for faculty and students.

Master of Science (M.S.), Xavier University, 2021, Psychology

In a study conducted by Shore et al. (2018), two management methods that aimed to promote diversity and inclusion were described: the management prevention orientation and the management promotion orientation. The management prevention orientation focuses on complying with employment law and avoiding litigation, whereas the management promotion orientation focuses on embracing and maintaining diversity and inclusion by adhering to six themes of workplace inclusion (feeling safe, involvement in the workgroup, feeling respected and valued, influence on decision making, authenticity, recognizing, honoring, and advancing of diversity). Using hypothetical vignettes, this study examined how inclusive and sincere minorities perceived the management prevention orientation to be compared to the management promotion orientation. It was hypothesized that minorities would find the management promotion orientation more inclusive and more sincere compared to the management prevention orientation. Using a sample of 79 minorities recruited via MTurk, the study's hypotheses were supported. These findings confirm that the six themes of workplace inclusion described by Shore et al. seem to be a reflection of an inclusive climate, and that sincerity matters when it comes to favorable perceptions of a management style. A noteworthy result was that most participants who met this study's requirements for being considered minorities did not self-identify as minorities, implying that although people may be considered a minority by others, they may not necessarily self-identify as a minority. Future research should explore more ways to determine who should be considered a minority, as well as further examine if the term “minority” may be outdated.

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

This dissertation studies the importance of networks and other institutional factors on workers' labor market outcomes. I particularly focus on manager-employee networks formed within the workplace, for two main reasons: these networks play a critical role in determining the productivity of individual employees, and also affect the equitability of a given working environment, which in turn influences workers' outcomes. Because social networks are more likely to form among those who share similar backgrounds (such as gender or ethnicity), vertical co-worker connections may worsen existing intra-institutional gaps between majority and minority groups, as there is a higher chance of such bonds emerging among the majority. Hence understanding the characteristics and mechanisms of manager-employee connections may yield significant implications for policymakers in empowering a diverse workforce and redressing disparities. Despite having consequential ramifications for an employee's career outcomes, little attention has been paid to manager-employee networks in the workplace, mainly due to the limited data at hand. This, in turn, limits causal evidence in the existing literature. In the first two chapters below, using web scraping techniques, I construct unique datasets that allow me to identify co-worker connections in specific professions to provide causal evidence of the effects of manager-employee connections. In Chapter 1, I inquire whether the gender of academic leaders, i.e., college deans and department chairs, affects outcomes of faculty members in terms of (i) wages and (ii) share of female faculty in an academic unit. Exploiting data allowing for a year-by-year identification of any changes in individual departments/colleges such as chair/dean transitions, I adopt an event study design which compares female and male faculty who are exposed to a gender-constant head transition (e.g., male-to-male department chair transition) and those who are exposed to a trans (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Bioethics

Since the turn of the century, disaster and humanitarian research, as well as the ethics of its conduct, is an increasingly important endeavor. The interdisciplinary knowledge acquired from disaster research concretely contributes to a plethora of societal benefits, such as development of emergency response and preparedness policies, improvement of both physical structures and social infrastructures, and effective distribution of valuable humanitarian aid. Human subject research in the health and human sciences is especially valuable as it highlights the detrimental effects of disasters on individuals and communities who are often made vulnerable or whose existing vulnerabilities or inequities are further exacerbated. It is a unique and intrinsic feature of disasters that, while they can be environmental (i.e., a natural disaster or chemical spill) or humanitarian (i.e., a war conflict or a water crisis), they are ultimately rooted in a human-made cause. With this conceptual framework, disaster research involving human subjects bears an ethical duty to ensure the data contribute beneficially to not only future populations but to surviving individuals, communities, and their social spheres, as well. If the benefits of this research are clear, and the risks of participation can be properly mitigated, then an ethical concern arises when certain populations or individuals are excluded from disaster research, as is the case with children. For despite the increasing amount of disaster research including children, an obvious dearth of studies examining the effects of disasters on children in long-term follow up is evident, particularly concerning what interventions are effective at mitigating negative mental health and well-being consequences. This gap in knowledge does not align with the well-founded fact that disasters, a majority of which are humanitarian crises, uniquely affect children due to their developing capacities and the traumatic nature of these envi (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, Management

This dissertation examines a multiplicity of factors that influence at the microeconomic level the level of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The main objective of the dissertation is to empirically explore and validate the effect of a select set of individual-level perceptual factors on FDI decisions. Given the paucity of research on the topic in comparison to macroeconomic studies of investment inflows between regions and countries, we conduct the study as a mixed-method study. The study consists of three interconnected empirical studies. The first seeks to identify the presence of factors that shape an individual's decisions on FDI inflows. The two following ones seek to validate the effects of these factors on the individual decision maker's propensity to invest in a specific country. The first study belongs to a qualitative strand and answers the following research question: What are the investor's critical perceptual factors and experiences that influence their FDI decisions? The study participants consisted of 30 foreign investors, the government's Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), and the Nigerian investors in the diaspora. The paper finds that on the supply side, several key FDI perception factors influence decision-making. On the demand side, there are four attractors and four repellents that influence potential investors' decisions. In the quantitative strand of the study, we offer the following questions: (1) To what extent do investment decision perception impact foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows? And (2) To what extent do the investors from Europe and North America and investors from Asia and Africa (the West and the East) influence what factors matter in foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions? The samples consist of 269 individuals from the private sector, both in Nigeria and in the diaspora that participated in the survey. I use structural equation modeling to find that Return on Investment (ROI), Security/Personal Safety, and (open full item for complete abstract)

DNP, Otterbein University, 0, Nursing

In 2015, the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion allowed over 700,000 Ohioans to gain access to healthcare insurance, but having health insurance did not improve access to healthcare providers. In rural populations in Ohio, there are several counties in which less than five healthcare providers are available for the entire county with little or no specialists available for patients. People in rural areas of Ohio may have significant travel time and distance to see a provider which decreases preventative health visits. Telehealth is the next big wave of technology and advancement for healthcare, but most rural populations in Ohio have no definition of telehealth and no experience with telehealth. This article addresses the need for a telehealth survey to determine readiness and provides qualitative results from a telehealth survey in rural Ohio. By identifying readiness to telehealth, real solutions to benefit the rural populations in Ohio can begin. This article concludes with recommendations for successful implementation of telehealth in a rural population in Ohio. This article identifies three themes from the telehealth survey a knowledge gap related to telehealth, infrastructure, and a desire for closer access to healthcare. Telehealth could be another dead-end road to healthcare if people are not educated on the advantages and implementation or if the local infrastructure is not sustainable for a telehealth program. Telehealth could be a successful road to access if people are given the knowledge to engage in their healthcare decisions.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Political Science

Since the end of the Cold War, international organizations (IOs) have engaged in unprecedented levels of democracy promotion and are widely viewed as positive forces for democracy. However, this increased emphasis on democracy has more recently been accompanied by rampant illiberalism and a sharp rise in cases of democratic backsliding in new democracies. What explains democratic backsliding in an age of unparalleled international support for democracy? Democratic backsliding occurs when elected officials weaken or erode democratic institutions and results in an illiberal or diminished form of democracy, rather than autocracy. This dissertation argues that IOs commonly associated with democracy promotion can support transitions to democracy but unintentionally make democratic backsliding more likely in new democracies. Specifically, I identify three interrelated mechanisms linking IOs to democratic backsliding. These organizations neglect to support democratic institutions other than executives and elections; they increase relative executive power; and they limit states' domestic policy options via requirements for membership. Limited policy options stunt the development of representative institutions and make it more difficult for leaders to govern. Unable to appeal to voters based on records of effective governance or policy alternatives, executives manipulate weak institutions to maintain power, thus increasing the likelihood of backsliding. Empirically, this dissertation makes several contributions. First, I create and validate a latent variable-based cross-national indicator, the Democratic Institutional Strength (DIS) index. The DIS index draws on a theoretically based conceptualization of democratic backsliding, an increasingly important concept for which there had been no previous metric. Second, I combine original and existing panel data to test my theory and find that membership in IOs associated with democracy promotion makes subsequent democratic back (open full item for complete abstract)

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Urban Educational Leadership

This dissertation is a qualitative portraiture study that explores othermothering with Black women faculty who are employed at predominantly white institutions. This study also examines the central tensions and impact of othermothering on obtaining promotion and tenure. The researcher used the portraiture method, which embraces traditional qualitative data sources, such as interviews, observations and researcher's field notes to co-construct portrait narratives. The analytic framework and process were guided by Black Feminist Thought and a dimension of The Listening Guide, allowing the study to add to the limited research base concerning Black women faculty and othermothering at predominantly white institutions. The findings of this study reveal the following themes of othermothering: othermothering as support, the cost of othermothering, othermothering as survival and othermothering as legacy building. This study sheds light on the multiple dimensions of othermothering in the lives of Black female professors. Additionally, it illuminates the ways in which this essential work is under-recognized and under-acknowledged in the service requirement of the reappointment, promotion, and tenure process for Black women faculty.

Doctor of Business Administration, Cleveland State University, 2018, Monte Ahuja College of Business

The marketplace has seen several developments in technologies that facilitate firms' ability to customize prices to target consumers. However, despite improvements in targeting efficiency, many firms still struggle with effective customization of prices. While many firms embrace customized price promotion as a strategy to offer exclusive prices to select customers, the related consequences for firms and consumers remain relatively unexplored. Research suggests that consumers generally prefer more exclusive to more inclusive deals. However, little is known about how individual differences and promotional design factors influence consumer response to customized price promotion deals. In addition, research now suggests that consumers place more emphasis on immediate versus delayed gratification. Furthermore, although the literature is rich with research on impulsivity, consumer researchers are yet to examine the impact of functional impulsivity despite delineation in the psychology domain differentiating it from dysfunctional impulsivity. This dissertation examines the customized price promotion strategies of firms and the related consequences for firms and consumers. Specifically, the dissertation is framed on two issues: (1) the hitherto, unexplored factors that can potentially impact consumer response to customized price promotion, and (2) the impact of exclusivity on affect-based consequences. Overall, this research has several implications for consumer research, marketing theory, and strategy. It draws attention to the impact of the customization of pricing strategies, and the likely shifts in consumer values and decision-making processes. Also, it examines the role of previously unexplored concepts such as functional impulsivity and the exclusivity effect on deal evaluation. In addition, it provides empirical evidence in support of theories that can provide actionable insights to help firms with effective price customization.