Ed.D., Antioch University, 2023, Education

This is a critical-phenomenological qualitative research study in which young people who participated in Social Justice Youth Arts (SJYA) programs during their teenage years engaged in a series of semi-structured arts-based interviews focused on recollecting their lived experiences in those programs and the years since. These interviews investigate the ways in which the principles of Healing-Centered Engagement (Ginwright, 2018) were present within these young people's experiences of those programs, as well as the extent to which those experiences may have encouraged or cultivated a lived praxis of the principles of the contemporary abolitionist movement (Kaba, 2021; Kaepernick, 2021). This study describes how these young people's engagement with SJYA programming encouraged their process of identity formation as artists and activists, and how the durability and evolution of those self-identifications manifested in their broader social and behavioral context over time. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

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

Millions of individuals in the United States experience problematic substance use that progresses to Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Many people who eventually achieve remission of their SUD symptoms seek vocational and personal fulfillment through pursuing a career in behavioral health counseling with a specific focus in counseling for addictions. The demanding nature of the behavioral health profession can present numerous unique challenges and risks to a person who is in recovery from SUD, and educational institutions that train professionals for this field play a vital role in preparing their students for the realities of their future work. In this study, the author conducted qualitative critical participatory action research using a descriptive case study design to explore the specific strategies that educators at a community college in the Midwestern United States utilized to support and empower their counseling students who are in recovery from SUD. The author used critical theory and critical feminist theory to develop the investigative framework and explore the power structures of the organization. In this study, seven students and two educators participated in semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, the author coded the qualitative data to identify themes that guided the development of a corresponding action plan. While participants identified that some supportive strategies were utilized by the college, students and educators identified ongoing student challenges around self-driven perfectionist ideals, external and internal stigma against SUD, and polarized opinions on self-disclosure of SUD recovery status. Additional related subthemes were also identified and explored in this study. In the final chapter of this work, the author included an action plan for the site of study that was developed to address the specific challenges identified by the study participants. Built around the existing research o (open full item for complete abstract)

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

Significant scientific medical research supports the value of exercise for physical health benefits. Exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of heart conditions, diabetes, and fractures in addition to many physical ailments in the adult population. Despite an increasingly growing body of work around the mental health benefits that exercise offers, research has not specifically addressed the value of physical exercise as a resilience practice in the adult population. The purpose of this study is to uncover and illuminate the psychological value and benefits of consistent long-term exercise through the study of long-distance runners who purport to participate in the activity for psychological as well as physical benefits as an integrated practice. The benefits of consistent long-term exercise, through distance running specifically, will be explored from a phenomenological psychological perspective to research, uncover, and analyze the psychological health benefits of long-term exercise for the adult population. Resilience will be explored specifically, through examination of the elements, meaning, and commitment in runners who specifically maintain a long-term running practice. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, https://aura.antioch.edu and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, Arts Policy and Administration

This thesis seeks to challenge the prevalence of interpersonal racism in the workplace and the existence of substantial racist workplace policy in organizations that both harmfully affect non-white employees in organizations and makes developing anti-racist policy in the workplace difficult. This thesis utilizes poetic inquiry as a methodological practice to explore the relationship between racism, work culture, and work policy in nonprofit and arts organizations. The poems crafted in this inquiry are responses to literature exploring the impacts and historical contexts of white supremacy and racial discrimination in relation to the operational strategies of public and nonprofit arts organizations. This literature establishes a foundation for future inquiries about work culture, workplace policy, race, social hierarchy, cultural analysis, and art. The metaphor of “home” literature is used to describe this literature. Home literature is the group of theoretical frameworks and writings that a researcher grounds their expertise in and is formulated based on one's core research interests. The literature reviewed covers the topics of defining professionalism, understanding theory concerning race and power, and specifying critiques on racism in the workplace. The authors covered in this review of literature are Judyth Sachs, Gloria Ladson-Billings, William F. Tate, Kimberly Crenshaw, Cheryl Harris, David Theo Goldberg, Stefano Harney, Fred Moten, Achille Mbembe, Roderick A. Ferguson, Victor Ray, Ericka Brown, Lu-in Wang, Zachary Brewster, Courtney L. McCluney, Adia Harvey Wingfield, and Renee Skeete Alston. In the methodology portion of the text, the rationale for the use of poetic inquiry is explained. The is a separation made between poetic inquiry and poetry as research, two concepts this research embodies. It is also explained what separates arts-based research from other forms of qualitative methodological practices. The form of poetic inquiry used in this resear (open full item for complete abstract)

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

The ongoing shale energy revolution has transformed global energy markets and positioned the United States as a leader in oil and natural gas production and exports for the first time in generations. However, little scholarly attention has been directed toward the downstream impacts of these developments on the people and places which experience energy export activity or host related infrastructure, particularly those in rail export corridors. This research presents a first-of-its kind, cross-regional comparative analysis of community risks, risk perceptions, energy and environmental attitudes, and related discourses in oil train export corridor communities. The mixed-methods design uses household-level survey data (N=571), interview data (N=58), and news media content analysis data (N=149), to address three key knowledge gaps regarding impacts of and attitudes toward crude oil by rail in examining: 1) the influences and distributions of support, opposition, and increased concern to oil by rail; 2) views toward hydrocarbon exports as well as broader energy preferences; and 3) dominant news media and stakeholder discourses and discursive channels concerning oil train activity. Results and related recommendations include the identification of community risk perceptions, vulnerabilities, and broader energy and export attitudes as well as predictors of their variation; discussion of implications for related community energy siting and planning, news media reporting, and communications; and the contribution of novel baseline data vis-a-vis predictors of risk perception and opposition concerning oil train activity and infrastructure to the risk perception and energy impacts fields.

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Arts and Sciences: Anthropology

Since the inception of the discipline, anthropologists have been interested in expertise. We have long recognized our informants as vital sources of knowledge that only they, as experts in their culture, can convey. Over time, this attunement to expertise has become a distinct field of study, one that seeks to answer questions about how the designation of “expert” is acquired through socialization, evaluation, validation, and authentication within institutions and other authorizing bodies (Carr 2010). Anthropological studies of expertise have predominately focused on either “skilled knowing,” or expertise marked by a possession of specialized, institutionally-sanctioned knowledge (e.g., scientists, lawyers, doctors), or “skilled doing,” expertise predicated on mastery of corporeal skills (e.g., designers, craftsmen, agriculturists), setting up an implicit, if unintended dichotomy of expertise between knowing or doing, mind or body (Boyer 2008). My study investigates a form of expertise that sits between skilled knowing and doing. I examine the learning practices of design researchers, professionals who possess a blended expertise that draws from the fields of design and social science. As an emergent discipline, there are few pathways to design research within the academy so aspiring design research professionals, often previously-trained designers, learn to do research on the job through what I call “corporate apprenticeships.” By studying the blended professional vision of design researchers, individuals whose training and work practices include both design (skilled doing) and research (traditionally regarded as skilled knowing), this thesis extends the literature of expertise by drawing attention to the uninvestigated space between the two dominant themes and provides evidence of the complexity of expertise beyond the current dichotomy. To understand how design research as a discipline is teaching its members, I used an ethnographic approach that all (open full item for complete abstract)

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

This qualitative research study utilized narrative inquiry and action research methods to systematically investigate specific ways an ethic of love manifests in my teaching practices and art curriculum; to nurture a heightened degree of student engagement and inspire creative exploration. Based on the principles of agape, love is put into action through an interplay of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust. In broader contexts, transformative learning and holistic education models, born of critical pedagogy, set the theoretical framework for an approach that strengthens the case for love as a vital component of critical education.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2017, Curriculum and Instruction: Secondary Education

This case study explores the different approaches to teaching inside a differentiated instruction classroom. The research will be conducted at a college preparatory high school with an emphasis on using various approaches to differentiated instruction to enhance students' comprehension of Advanced Algebra II. Data collection will include students' journal reflections, direct-observations, participant-observations, lesson plans, physical artifacts, various students' assessments, and survey-interviews. The study followed a mixed method design and consisted of two parts qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses. Both data will be analyzed using excel sheets and ATLAS.ti software. In addition to studying the effects of differentiated instruction on the teacher, the focus of this study will be on mathematics differentiated instruction classroom and how the researcher will relate students' experience in class to the quantitative outcome of the data.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, Educational Leadership

This research project explores two very different constructs, self-efficacy and organizational dissent. Self-efficacy is the belief that one has in one's ability to control or influence the events that occur in one's life (Bandura, 1997). Dissent is communication of disagreement with the majority opinion or a specific individual who has more power than the individual communicating dissent (Stitzlein, 2014). Specifically, this project sought to answer three research questions: (1) what is the correlation between an individual's level of self-efficacy and an individual's experiences in offering an opinion that is contrary (i.e. dissent) to a person in authority or the majority sentiment? Assuming that there is a correlation between self-efficacy and organizational dissent; (2) does the correlation between self-efficacy and organizational dissent differ based upon which role (president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, etc.) a participant holds in their student organization?; and (3) does experience with dissenting in one space correspond with one's expression of dissent in a variety of different contexts? Two previously vetted and validated instruments were used to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and organizational dissent. The Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), developed by Schwarzer and Jerusalem in 1995 was used to measure generalized self-efficacy. The Organizational Dissent Scale (ODS), developed by Kassing in 1998 was used to measure the expression of organizational dissent. Kassing identified that people may express dissent in three different ways: (1) articulated, to someone in the organization who holds more authority; (2) antagonistic, to someone in the organization who holds the same amount of authority; and (3) displaced, to someone outside of the organization. Through the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods, it was determined that there is a negative correlation between self-efficacy and organizational (open full item for complete abstract)

MDes, University of Cincinnati, 2007, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Design

The goal of this project is to follow user-based qualitative research to design a dishwashing appliance that is superior in functionality and more desirable to use. The Introduction contains the background, problem statement, hypothesis, goals, objectives, parameters and pre-research opportunities. The Design Strategies chapter investigates the components of inclusive design and emotional design as well as how the stakeholders, users and companies, benefit when inclusion is considered in the design process. The Dishwashing Research chapter will document findings from the preliminary literature- and internet-based research phases, which includes analyses of the history, function, paradigm, technologies, and ergonomics related to dishwashing. The User Research chapter will include conclusions from six in-home interviews with individuals and families of various types, one focus group of retirement-aged women, and internet-based opinions websites. The Design chapter describes the concept generation, development and optimization phases of the design process all of which were informed directly by the previous three chapters. This section is composed of sketches, images of mockups and CAID-based visualizations of final concepts supplemented with explanations of the concepts.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Art Education

The purpose of this dissertation study is to conduct an art-based, community action research study as a means (1) to support the recovery process of domestic violence survivors; (2) to produce social capital among members of the community to initiate civic discussions on the consequences of domestic violence; and (3) to investigate its implications for cultural policy as the outcomes of this study highlight the unique role of the arts in making a difference in people's lives and communities. The art works produced by the workshop participants of this study (i.e., domestic violence survivors) were exhibited in a professional gallery as a form of visual narrative that speaks for their wounded past and difficult journeys. The collected data strongly indicates that art can be an exceptionally powerful tool for communication and healing, when words and discussions fall short. Overall, this research investigates the instrumental functions of the arts as a means to produce social capital for personal well-being, social support, and social justice. The study was framed within action research methodology and the triangulation model in data sources, research methods, and theoretical lenses, while both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed. The collected data were analyzed at three different levels: (1) Personal level (i.e., the art workshop participants: n=16), (2) Organizational level (i.e., the staff of the transitional housing facility and the gallery: n=6), and (3) Community level (i.e., the general audience who came to the exhibit: n=74).

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, Arts Policy and Administration

The purpose of this thesis is to explore three threads of intertwining interest: knitting, artmaking, and qualitative inquiry. I explore the history of knitting as women's work, a creative outlet, and community activity and from this historical basis I investigate the contemporary role of knitting in women's culture. My contemporary analysis serves as the groundwork for creating a community knitted artwork. I approach this artmaking through mixed arts and feminist based qualitative methodology of A/r/tography and the corresponding methods of Autoethnography and Knitalong. To evaluate this work, I encouraged knitters to read, reflect, and revise the research findings and artmaking processes. I identify areas of resonance, transparency, communicability, and coherence throughout, highlighting ways in which this research can apply to other projects. My goal is to perpetuate knitting, engage in and encourage communal artmaking, and provide a forum for discussion about the role of knitting in the participants lives.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, ED Policy and Leadership

Peace studies has produced an abundance of research and created numerous programs and courses. Despite these successes, the field is far from establishing itself as a valued part of the academic community. This project rests on the assertion that peace studies struggles for scholarly legitimacy and visibility within U.S. higher education. Based on this premise, it seeks to investigate the different kinds of beliefs about peace studies that have been produced, maintained, and reproduced. The aim is to understand the contemporary condition of peace studies and explore the possibilities and limitations of theorizing, researching, and teaching about peace in the U.S. academy.A Foucauldian-informed poststructural analysis examines qualitative survey and interview data collected from 55 prominent U.S. scholars in the fields of international relations, peace studies, and peace science. First, a descriptive analysis of peace studies scholars' perceptions identifies three precepts of the field along with a strategy, to “make the world a better, more humane, place.” Second, a comparative analysis of peace studies from scholars working within international relations and peace science shows that peace studies faces the predicament of being nearly invisible within international relations and on the other side of an epistemological and methodological divide from peace science. Finally, a discourse analysis describes the discursive structures and rules of knowledge production that govern the way that scholars think, speak, and put into practice items associated with peace studies. The study concludes that peace studies suffers from a problem of coherence that strikes at its core objects of knowledge, subject positions, and knowledge production. Furthermore, the field desires to transform, transgress, and transcend the traditional policies of the U.S. academy. Thus, it battles historical and contemporary perceptions of (1) what qualifies as legitimate “scholarship” in terms of tra (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2010, Psychology

Though women who have already had children make up over 60% of all women seeking abortions, common public discourse perpetuates the myth that women seeking abortions do not understand what it means to be a mother, do not know what it means to be pregnant, or are making irresponsible parenting decisions. The stories of mothers who are raising children and decide to terminate a subsequent pregnancy contain enormous potential to disrupt these discourses about motherhood and abortion. Here, tenets of feminist constructivist psychology and methods of creative ethnography including photo elicitation are combined to explore the complex personal, social, and political dimensions of mothers' decisions to abort unwanted pregnancies. Five women were interviewed and performative narratives were constructed and reflexively and collaboratively analyzed to illustrate each woman's process of building her personal construct of motherhood and how, or if, her construct of motherhood played a role in her decision to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The stories indicate that women's personal constructs of motherhood contain elements of individuality, commonality, and transition. In addition, each woman's construct of good motherhood was central to her process of deciding what to do with an unwanted pregnancy: In short, each woman found that being a good mother meant, at least one time in her life, not continuing a pregnancy. Concluding thoughts demonstrate how narratives that complicate or disrupt social discourse can be directed toward the purposes of reproductive rights activism, explore the utility of photo elicitation as a narrative research method, and suggest future directions for research on the intersection of women's personal constructs and the dictates of dominant social discourse.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2010, Chemistry and Biochemistry

For students learning science, a potential source of difficulty arises from the fact that many words used in formal science instruction are used informally in everyday communication. Chemical is one such word with multiple uses and meanings. The word chemical has different meanings when used in everyday language than in scientific language. Although children do not take a formal chemistry class in elementary school, they are expected to learn about chemical principles (chemical properties, physical properties, chemical change, and physical change) in fourth or fifth grade. Because of the everyday use of the word chemical, children are likely to have constructed some meanings about the word chemical prior to formal instruction. This prior knowledge is an important and necessary piece in the learning process. The learning theories of children's science and meaningful learning framed this qualitative investigation of fourth grade children's conceptual knowledge of chemicals. During semi-structured interviews, children's ideas about chemicals were elicited as they categorized everyday objects and substances that were related to chemicals. The children described prototypical chemicals such as cleaning substances, acids, gasoline, lead, and mercury. The properties of chemicals described by the children suggest that the children think about chemicals within an anthropocentric framework. Children related the purposes and attributes of chemicals to human interaction with the chemicals. The implications for teaching chemical principles to children are discussed. While this written dissertation presents the story of the qualitative investigation into children's ideas of chemicals, two other projects were completed for my doctoral degree. Manuscripts describing these two analytical chemistry cognate projects are included as appendices: Appendix H - An undergraduate chromatography laboratory experiment; and Appendix I - Meaningful leaning in a first-year analytical laboratory co (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2008, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Many students have described organic chemistry as a "killer course"; its purpose to prevent only but the most worthy students from continuing to professional school. To decrease high attrition rates and update course content, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Miami University developed and implemented an innovative, spiral curriculum for use in the year-long organic chemistry course for pre-professional students. This dissertation sought to better understand the difficulties students encountered in this spiral, organic chemistry curriculum and explored the strategies students developed to address such problems. A qualitative, case-study approach using interviews and reflective essays documented the experiences of 18 students as they progressed through the updated curriculum. The results of this inquiry revealed that many students made the decision not to utilize meaningful learning techniques and instead used rote memorization techniques as a proxy for learning. The factors that influenced these decisions were complex, but included such concerns as time-management problems, the perceived lack of relevance of organic chemistry, and decreased motivation. Furthermore, this inquiry discovered a dramatic gap between the level of cognitive development most students brought to the organic chemistry classroom and the level the subject required them to utilize.

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2010, College of Education and Human Services

This dissertation, addresses intervention and phenomenological and participatory research methodology, through a lens of Gestalt Therapy Theory. The intervention, a wilderness-centered rites of passage, included experiential components of: (1) emersion in nature, (2) nature-based activities and challenges, (3) alone time in wilderness, (4) exposure to nature-based archetypes, elementals, and folklore, and (5) participation in community that supports connection through in ritual, ceremony, dialogue, and reflection. The participants included three early adolescent males and one adult male, a parent-participant. Data collection methods included participant observation, journal entries, photo documentation, photo elicited interviews, processing groups, and field notes. A multiple case narrative format, each focusing on a program activity component, was utilized to present data and findings representing the transformative process of the participants.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2012, Management

This dissertation reports on a multi-dimensional longitudinal investigation of the factors that influence Enterprise Architecture (EA) diffusion and assimilation within the U.S. federal government. The study uses publicly available datasets of 123 U.S. federal departments and agencies, as well as interview data among CIOs and EA managers within select Federal Government agencies to conduct three multi-method research studies: 1) a qualitative study to investigate organizational and institutional factors that enhance or impede EA assimilation at program level; 2) a quantitative study to examine the antecedents of EA assimilation at adopter unit level and 3) a longitudinal quantitative study to examine: 1) the antecedents of EA assimilation within adopter populations as marked by prominence within each of the EA assimilation phases 2) the influence of sudden changes in environmental (institutional) context on the EA assimilation process; and 3) the determinants for each EA assimilation stage. I use time-lagged partial least square, ordinary least square and multinominal logistic regression to analyze these effects. The study shows that an innovative leadership style is the key to advancing EA program assimilation within adopter units. Framing and labeling of an EA program as an administrative driven innovation or reform as opposed to a business essential strategic tool greatly influences its value perception, adoption and assimilation. Institutional coercive pressure is not a long term sustainable strategy in driving EA assimilation, though it has a “jolt” like short term effect in accelerating assimilation. EA assimilation has distinct micro and macro level antecedents. Factors also have "differently-directioned effects," that is factors that promote EA progress at certain assimilation phases and stages inhibit progress at other phases and stages. Changes in the temporal environmental context have “factor elasticity” effect on the explanatory power of the antecedents (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2012, Management

During the past twenty years legislative and regulatory actions have driven significant changes in the structure and processes of corporate boards. During this same period scholars have provided confounding empirical evidence regarding the efficacy of these reforms on firm performance. The simple reality is we have little understanding regarding the behavioral processes and dynamics associated with board decision making, despite the fact that a potent reminder from the Enron disaster is “good governance comes down to directors making good decisions” (Useem, 2003: 249). Using a multi-methods research approach, this dissertation is built around three separate but interrelated studies. These studies are designed to open the “black box” of the boardroom by investigating the strategic decision making processes of publicly traded U.S. corporate boards with the intent of gaining insights into how strategic decisions are made and their associated behavioral processes and board dynamics. The first study – a qualitative study of eight firms - draws upon decision making theory in order to assess the characteristics that motivate boards to deploy procedural rationality in their strategic decision-making deliberations. I propose that boards that align around a unified corporate purpose, have balanced power relationships, and effective board leadership are more likely to employ rational decision-making processes in lieu of political behaviors. The second study is a quantitative study based on a survey of 151 directors representing 119 U.S. publicly traded companies. This study, drawing on Forbes and Milliken's (1999) procedurally rational model for strategic decision making, provides support for the creation of two factors - a climate of respect within the boardroom as well as collaboration between the executive team and board members - as antecedents in creating procedurally rational decision-making processes. The third study further examines the relationship of trust in the (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2011, Leadership and Change

This study was conducted given as an inquiry about influencing attitudes toward people with developmental disabilities. Because resistance to homes for people with developmental disabilities situated in typical neighborhoods is still a problem, I seek a way to better assimilate people with "different abilities" into communities. For an historical foundation, I researched literature on the marginalization of this ethnographic group-people with developmental disabilities-and defined quality of life. In establishing groundwork for choice of methodology, I elaborate on arts used for social change. Arts based research methods were used to conduct the research. I created an exhibit using objects and photographs and words in a public space, intended to provoke thought and emotions. In order to evaluate the effectiveness, I used criteria outlined in Arts Based Research by Tom Barone and Elliot Eisner (2012), who indicate that the art piece should contain the following elements: incisiveness, concision, coherence, generativity, social significance, and evocation and illumination (p. 148). Findings affirmed that the arts-influenced installation successfully provoked and influenced attitudes toward people with developmental disabilities, as evidenced in written and oral responses. Implications for future research in this area of study using qualitative methods include: various arts based venues for research with other marginalized populations, participatory action research using the arts and many other provocative arts performances. Keywords: arts based research, qualitative research, disability, marginalization, resistance, and quality of life. This electronic version of the dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.