PHD, Kent State University, 2025, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in national economies across the globe, particularly in developing countries. Despite the acknowledged potential of SMEs, their contribution to GDP in the Central Asian region remains relatively low. There is a vast amount of literature that provides a comprehensive analysis of SMEs across the world. Nevertheless, research concerning SMEs in post-Soviet countries, especially within the context of Central Asia, remains scarce. The main objective of my dissertation is to bridge this gap by examining the current state of SMEs in the region. Utilizing a comparative case study approach, this research analyzes operational dynamics, institutional frameworks, and regional and sectoral variations of SMEs in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Focusing on the manufacturing sector, the study explores how regulatory frameworks, financial access, logistical challenges, labor scarcity, and import dependence influence the experience of SME development and sustainability. The results of my study reveal a category of problems that can be overlooked by surveys and reports conducted by international organizations. Theoretically grounded in Institutional Theory and Contextual Dependence, this work expands existing literature by emphasizing the post-transition period. This dissertation contributes to the fields of International Political Economy, post-Soviet transition studies, and entrepreneurship in developing economies. It concludes with policy recommendations aimed at enhancing SME competitiveness and resilience of Central Asia's economy.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2025, Comparative Studies

This thesis explores the limitations of contemporary public administration and proposes an alternative vision of democratic governance rooted in participatory design. Building from Camila Stivers's critique of technical rationality and the erasure of care-based governance, the study contends that the dominant paradigm—shaped by New Public Management—continues to prioritize economic efficiency, quantification, and private-sector logic over democratic engagement, equity, and community well-being. In the face of mounting crises—declining civic capacity, institutional distrust, political polarization, and anti-progressive populism—this thesis asks: What alternative futures for public administration might be imagined and enacted? To address this question, the study adopts a hybrid methodological framework that integrates critical social theory, case study analysis, and speculative design. Drawing on the fecund criticism of Cornel West and the critical imagination of Herbert Marcuse, the research constructs two fictional yet empirically grounded narrative case studies: one representing business-as-usual urban governance and another envisioning a democratic alternative shaped by co-design and participatory institutions. The first narrative centers on “New Arcadia,” a prototypical Midwestern city undergoing redevelopment of its Legacy District. Guided by a fiscally pragmatic city manager, Tom Greeley, this account illustrates the prevailing logic of growth machine politics, where public-private partnerships advance economic revitalization while sidelining community voices. Through the experience of Javier Vega, a local cafe owner and longtime resident, the narrative reveals the human costs of displacement and cultural loss often obscured by performance metrics and development rhetoric. The second, speculative narrative imagines a transformation in governance following the rise of a grassroots movement, “One Arcadia,” and the appointment of a new city manager, Ellie (open full item for complete abstract)

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2025, Education

The persistent health disparities faced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the United States are deeply rooted in systemic racism embedded within medical education and clinical practice. Historical acceptance of racial supremacy in the United States has shaped both the foundations and continued practices of medical education, leading to entrenched biases that affect healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. This dissertation critically examines the intersection of race, education, and health by analyzing how historical and contemporary understandings of race and ethnicity shape medical curricula, healthcare practices, and patient care. Through the integration of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), and ScT, this study deconstructs racialized knowledge systems in medicine and examines their impact on health equity. CRT provides a lens to analyze how systemic racism is embedded within medical education and practice, illuminating the ways racial bias is institutionalized and perpetuated in healthcare structures. SCT contributes by exploring how individuals internalize societal norms and beliefs, which influence the attitudes and behaviors of both medical practitioners and patients. Finally, ScT emphasizes the role of social networks and relationships, highlighting how disparities in access to healthcare resources and support systems affect health outcomes in marginalized communities. Together, these theories offer a comprehensive framework for understanding the layered and interconnected influences of race, education, and healthcare, guiding the study's aim to challenge and dismantle biased practices within medical training and clinical care. Chapters I and II introduce the research problem and establish a comprehensive foundation, outlining key theoretical frameworks—CRT, SCT, and ScT—while exploring the historical roots of racialized practices in medicine, including the legacy of unethical experimentation and the Flexner Report (open full item for complete abstract)

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

Positive school environments have been shown to raise academic achievement. Youngstown East High School has had six principals in six years, and there has been a strong sense of disconnect from the community in their support (both academically and athletically) of the continuous changes that have been made in the Youngstown City School District. East High School has a 99.8% economically disadvantaged population with 13.6% being English Language Learners and 27.1% students with disabilities. Using Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS) to address discipline to affect the management of absenteeism and academic interventions, what measures can be taken to raise the staff and student morale of the high school environment? How can Golden Bears Alumni contribute to the culture and climate as they relate the past to the present? Since the Youngstown City School District is focused on PBIS and must use the Academic Improvement Plan to completely move out of the watchful eyes of the State of Ohio, one must ask how, exactly, can culture and climate improve the academic and athletic performances of their students? How can the district build school pride within the school as well as the surrounding community? How can remaining alumni be used as resources to connect to outliers who could possibly invest in East High School? This study explores these questions by examining data on the effects of climate and culture within the school and community and its impact of school pride on academic achievement and athletic performance, with a specific focus on improving the school pride at Youngstown East High.

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2024, Levin College of Public Affairs and Education

Over time, Public Administration (PA) practitioners' problem-solving approaches have evolved alongside society. Recently, governments have been embracing a Collaborative Governance (CG) approach, attracted to its potential to address wicked problems. However, PA scholars have challenged the depth of this evolution, questioning whether the underlying paradigm has shifted beyond positivism in ways that enable CG to be fully realized. Transdisciplinarity (TD), an emergent paradigm that transcends silos, is more suitable for CG. To understand the extent to which PA has evolved toward TD, this empirical research used the institutionalization of CG as a proxy for paradigm shift. This qualitative, comparative case study examined three municipal governments and the institutionalization of CG in the context of allocating once-in-a-generation federal funds. Findings indicated that all three cities were in the process of institutionalizing CG but none had reached full institutionalization. The research also suggested that cities are embracing an adaptive pragmatic TD paradigm.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Public Policy and Management

In 2023, 13.5 percent of U.S. households experienced food insecurity. There are notable disparities in who faces food insecurity across socio-demographic groups and region. The recognition of intersecting barriers that exacerbate food insecurity in rural areas has prompted significant federal investments to bolster local food systems and the creation of new initiatives to strengthen rural infrastructure, connect communities with federal resources, and support rural health and well-being. The concept of community food security (CFS) recognizes a broader set of political, social, environmental, and economic factors than traditional conceptualizations of food security and may be a promising framework for informing rural health policy. A core element of the CFS framework is community self-reliance. At present, community self-reliance is considered synonymous with physical food infrastructure; however, extant scholarship demonstrates that the presence of physical food infrastructure is not sufficient, and social factors, including social relationships and networks, are promising mechanisms for supporting food security in rural areas. This dissertation employs a pragmatic research paradigm and the principles of community-engaged research to interrogate CFS in rural communities. I achieve this via three empirical studies, each with a distinct unit of analysis: individual (Chapter 2), group (Chapter 3), and organizational (Chapter 4). Leveraging in-depth, semi-structured interviews, Chapter 2 explores how residents of a rural, high food insecurity region characterize their experiences with food insecurity, resulting in a set of themes that both converge with, and diverge from, the constructs underpinning current food security measurement. For Chapter 3, I conducted focus groups to explore how residents in southeast Ohio conceptualize CFS and how the social and physical components of the local food system, including group-identified community assets, work in concert to (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Public Policy and Management

Abstract Despite federal legislation prohibiting gender discrimination and recent police reforms advocating for women's full integration into law enforcement, policing in the United States persists as one of the most exclusionary occupations for women, especially at the state level (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2023; Yu & Viswanath, 2022). From the 1968 Kerner Report (Headley & Wright, 2019) to the Biden-Harris Administration (The Executive Office of the White House, 2022), policymakers and advocates have advanced the need for diverse and inclusive law enforcement organizations to create an effective, professional police institution. Outlined in President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the underlying logic explicitly calls for law enforcement to diversify across its ranks, including by gender, to promote democratic policing practices and to attenuate long-standing tensions between law enforcement and communities of color (President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015). Yet to date, law enforcement, particularly at the state-level persists as one of the most male-dominated occupations (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2023; Yu & Viswanath, 2022). A large body of research in policing, criminology, public administration, and occupational sociology document the challenges policewomen confront as they build their careers (Brown et al., 2019; Davis & Hassan, 2024; Lonsway et al., 2013; Marsh, 2019; Martin, 1980; Rabe-Hemp, 2017; Sanders et al., 2022; Shjarback & Todak, 2019; Silvestri, 2017; Todak & Brown, 2019; Yu, 2015, 2018). However, most studies focus on local or federal law enforcement organizations, with few in-depth studies investigating state-level organizations (Yu & Viswanath, 2022). Furthermore, the extant literature has not fully explained why law enforcement resists gender inclusion. The principal aim of this mixed-method dissertation project is to advance the existing literature by employing socio-ecological theoretical approaches that (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 0, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

As members of Generation Z continue entering the workforce, organizational leaders who develop a deeper understanding of the unique traits and work-life expectations among these group members can provide more effective leadership for their organizations. This qualitative descriptive study focused on enhancing understanding of how members of Generation Z describe their workplace motivations and their perceptions of psychological safety and how these perceptions influence the culture of a non-profit organization. The research process used a series of interviews with Generation Z employees in a nonprofit organization as the primary data collection method. By deploying a phenomenological research method, the data and analysis helped to offer insights necessary to develop a narrative describing the lived experiences, mindset, and feelings of a Generation Z population in workplace settings. Building on previous research, the study found several themes that answered the research questions. The findings centered around patterns found among Generation Z employees emphasizing the importance of purpose, flexibility, and growth among these workers. Additionally, the findings revealed the importance of how Generation Z employees perceive interpersonal relationships among colleagues and organizational leaders and the influence on perceptions of psychological safety. The findings from the study help to illustrate important, practical context and action items for organizational leaders as they continue to navigate changes in the workforce with increases in the number of Generation Z members. The conclusions from this study can better equip organizational leaders with a strengthened ability to develop a renewed strategy that will enable them to effectively lead Generation Z employees and their organizations.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environment and Natural Resources

Departing from literature on social-ecological fitness and social-ecological network analysis, this dissertation explores the degree to which social-ecological theory reflects underlying social processes of issue engagement and partnership evaluation and identifies pathways for future research to engage practitioners with social-ecological network data. In total, the research presented in this dissertation shows that social-ecological network analysis and theory can both be strengthened by participant engagement and qualitative analyses and can be translated into actionable information that practitioners can use to inform their management decisions. This research – which includes three consecutive empirical studies (chapters 2 through 4) – presents one of the first comprehensive accounts of confirming social-ecological network theory with participant populations. Each of the three chapters seeks to determine how practitioners navigate social-ecological interdependence by assessing whether practitioners' strategies align with social-ecological motifs that are commonly used in empirical network analyses (i.e., small-scale network structures that impart theoretically important processes). Further, all three empirical chapters analyze separate components of a dataset pertaining to climate change adaptation governance in Columbus, Ohio, which is a system comprised of over one hundred unique stakeholder organizations, 19 climate adaptation-related issues, and their interconnections. In the first chapter, I explore how community-engaged network tools can help to overcome fragmentation in environmental governance systems. I helped to develop a network tool that offers personalized partnership recommendations to practitioners that would close “collaborative gaps,” which are instances where two actors who manage the same issue(s) fail to collaborate with one another. Results from focus group conversations with practitioners suggest that engaged network tools can be 1) hampere (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

Despite the recognized importance of citizen participation in creative placemaking, the participation process in arts districts has not been thoroughly scrutinized. Previous indicators heavily focus on economic contributions, failing to capture the social values inherent in creative placemaking. The lack of an effective assessment tool can exacerbate issues such as gentrification, which displaces low-income residents and erodes the unique sense of place. This study aims to address this gap by identifying barriers to citizen participation and measuring the social value of creative placemaking, contributing to the development of more equitable and inclusive arts districts. In the twenty-first century, rapid digitalization and globalization have empowered citizens to quickly access information and engage actively with government administration. This shift has also introduced the theory of New Governance, which decentralizes federal authority and promotes a horizontal network between the government and citizens. Citizen participation has become an increasingly critical component of successful governance in various sectors, including the arts. Creative placemaking is a human-centered planning approach that leverages local arts and cultural assets for regional revitalization. Arts districts, as the primary mechanism of creative placemaking, highlight the importance of cross-sector partnerships for successful implementation. For residents, producing and distributing local arts and cultural assets is essential for preserving the unique regional characteristics of an arts district. This dissertation is a comparative case study evaluating the level of citizen participation and identifying barriers to participation in the decision-making processes of the Short North Arts District and the Franklinton Arts District in Columbus, Ohio. Using the theoretical frameworks of New Governance and the Ladder of Citizen Participation, the study examines participation levels in the (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Organization Development & Change (D.O.D.C.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Organization Development

This research explored the sustainability of collaborative networks and specifically the role of transparency. This deductive thematic analysis study focused on a midsized rustbelt city's citywide governing strategic change collaborative network that began sometime in 2010 and spawned sixteen individual collaborative networks by the end of 2012. Each of these seventeen collaborative networks were co-led by leaders, called champions, around their passion for the change they were tasked to create. The citywide governing strategic change network was formed to bring together citizen and government leaders to collaboratively decide what could be done to make this midsized rustbelt city better for the citizens and surrounding regional communities. Initially, the effort was governed by the founding key city executive and four citizen leaders and grew to over two thousand members and thirty-nine champion leaders. A disruption in commitment was caused by the change in executive sponsorship when the foundational key city executive's term ended. The successive key city executive was not supportive. This provides a secondary look at how a change in executive sponsorship affects commitment. There were also two outside paid members, a facilitator and me as a coordinator. Literature on collaborative networks, collaborative governance, and transparency has increased recently. Leading to Parung & Bititci's (2008) theoretical framework developed to measure the sustainability of a collaborative network. This framework includes a construct for the health of a collaborative network which has five characteristics, trust, commitment, coordination, communication quality, and joint problem solving. According to research by Schnackenberg et al., (2021), transparency is relatively new and has a variety of constructs not necessarily related other than the fact that trust is a common characteristic. Schnackenberg et al. (2021) also included quality information in their transparency (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

This dissertation project used an interpretivist qualitative research design to study how the right-to-read claim made by seven teenagers attending Detroit public schools in 2016 reflects, addresses, or describes contemporary discussions about educational access. Using situational analysis (SA) as a theory/method, the entirety of the claim comprises the situation of the social phenomenon being studied, not the people. This research combines critical race theory (CRT) with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems and uses situation analysis to map historical discourses to conduct a study that examines the history of a present situation of inquiry as presented by this question: How does the 2016 right-to-read claim made by high school students in Detroit, Michigan reflect, address, or describe contemporary discussions about educational access? The study collected data to allow me to construct a prosopography that articulates an answer to the question that claims access to literacy is a public school policy right. Because situational analysis (SA) is designed to open research data to aspects of a circumstance that may have been overlooked, marginalized, or silenced, I was not certain the research results would answer this exact question. Additionally, critical theory and SA were used to conduct this qualitative research, examining historical data that addresses the right-to-read claim as a Foucaultian programmatic social problem. As such, it seeks to understand the complexities of recurring and historically situated education practices that limit actualizing U.S. education policies that embrace access to basic literacy skills as a human right. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Public Policy and Management

The prevalence of deeply interconnected social and political systems, coalitions of competing stakeholders, conflicting demands from political principals, and differing evaluative criteria make policy decisionmaking and effective implementation more challenging than ever. Often, public managers find themselves determining the applicable principles, practices, and structures to utilize based on their current environment, acting as a facilitator for competing interests. For public managers, collaborative governance processes offer a promising approach for generating, negotiating, and implementing public policies. However, the collaborative governance literature is complex, contradictory, and provides piecemeal insights for public managers and other policy professionals. In this dissertation, I combine theories of collaborative governance and economic goods to make coherent recommendations for public managers using collaborative governance processes. In Chapter 1, I lay the groundwork for this synthesis and describe the connections between the remaining chapters. In Chapters 2 and 3, I study collaborative systems for workforce development. Chapter 2 is a case study that explores the emergence of a network of these systems: Ohio's manufacturing industry sector partnerships (ISPs). The Ohio Manufacturers' Association (OMA) played a major part in this network's development, and I argue it acted as a collaborative platform to provide the expertise and resources the partnerships needed. I use interviews with OMA, ISPs, and other key stakeholders to build a history of the network, confirming that OMA was crucial to the network's development. In Chapter 3, I explore ISPs in greater detail. I argue that sector-specific, regionally bound pools of workforce training program graduates are common pool resources (CPRs). ISPs, which implement these programs, are governing institutions for CPRs. Using content analysis on interviews with ISP leaders, I find that ISPs exhibit severa (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Public Policy and Management

How government delivers public services can have broad societal effects, beyond the impact on programmatic outcomes. Such societal effects are particularly likely in the delivery of public education, as educational concerns drive residential and school choices, and public schools are the second largest public employer in the United States. My dissertation explores how innovations in the way we administer public education may affect societal inequities by race, gender, academic ability, and socioeconomic status. The first essay examines how the emergence of online “virtual” public schooling, which families within a state can access regardless of where they live, has affected school-based segregation by race and poverty. The second essay examines the impact of the sudden closure of a large virtual charter school on district segregation by race and academic ability. Finally, the third essay estimates the impact of introducing teacher collective bargaining—which empowers teachers in the management of public schools—on the diversity of staff and employment and pay of women. Overall, this dissertation explores how education administration affects with whom students interact in school and who has access to quality public sector jobs—all of which, in turn, have well documented long-term impacts on children.

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

Museums are important sources of extra-academic education for the American public, but they are not held to the same rigorous standards as academia, nor indeed are there any unified standards for the evaluation of museums. Within the museum evaluation framework, the relatively novel field of remedial evaluation -- examining an exhibit with an eye toward improving it rather than merely evaluating its success for repeat displays -- is not readily applied. This thesis argues for the broader implementation of remedial evaluation, examining the guidelines produced by museums for their own use, as well as the contributions to the field by consultants and educators, to create a unified set of criteria that will aid museums in remedial evaluation. The broader goal is to foster a common language that museum professionals can use to hold themselves and their peers to a higher standard of excellence in exhibit design. The resultant rubric is then applied to three Ohio Museums of varying size and scope: the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Motts Military Museum, and Miami Valley Military Museum. These museums run the gamut from a small, volunteer-run organization to a large, publicly funded institution to demonstrate the applicability of the rubric to many institutions.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Public Policy and Management

Organizations acquire and internalize knowledge that can make them more effective and efficient in realizing their goals. This dissertation examines how such learning unfolds in the public sector. It consists of three essays that review and consider the future directions of research on organizational learning, examine the factors that lead local governments to learn from one another, and estimate the impacts of various forms of organizational learning on the performance of local governments. Along the way, this dissertation makes theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to the booming literature on organizational learning. The first essay is a literature review that examines organizational learning across private and public organizations. While organizational learning has received substantial practical and academic attention, and research on organizational learning has made substantial progress, considerable work remains to be done. Specifically, while organizational learning in the private and public sectors shares commonalities, there is no clear articulation of how theories developed in one sector might apply in another. After reviewing classic studies, this essay synthesizes and analyzes (1) the definition of organizational learning; (2) the units of analysis for studying organizational learning; (3) the antecedents of organizational learning; (4) the methodologies for measuring organizational learning; and (5) the impact of organizational learning on performance. Following each section, there is a discussion of what future research should seek to do to better understand organizational learning in the public sector. The second essay investigates how city governments engage and learn from one another. My coauthor and I adopt the concept of “policy tourism” (where public, private, and nonprofit leaders from one city visit another to exchange new ideas and practices) to indicate intercity learning and construct a learning network among U.S. citie (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

A system-wide training program in a large, urban public library system is sought relating to library administration's expectations of branch manager roles in the field while developing library leaders. This study employed a qualitative phenomenological methodology to investigate branch manager perspectives on the needs of front-facing managers and their prospects as leaders within the library system. Emergent themes of the study included communication issues between site managers and system-wide administration, subject matter areas for the proposed program, and the viability of engaging branch managers through sustained leadership development. The study proposes a relevant action research plan to develop, implement and maintain a leadership development and management training program.

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Franklin University, 2024, Business Administration

This qualitative study provides a comprehensive exploration of the far-reaching implications of the Supreme Court's Janus v. AFSCME decision on both unionized public sector employees in leadership positions and labor relations managers. The Janus decision, which prohibited public sector unions from collecting mandatory fees from non-consenting employees, has altered the landscape of labor relations. The research investigates the experiences of unionized public sector employees in leadership roles and labor relations managers before and after the Janus decision. Moyang (2023) authored that Self Determination Theory (SDT) has three psychological needs. They are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The study's incorporation of SDT adds a psychological element to the understanding of union involvement. Additionally, the study explores organizational relationships and the influence of interactions and networks on collaboration and support. Miller (2023) authored that qualitative research is utilized to identify patterns or themes within datasets utilizing thematic analysis. Thematic analysis was employed to identify key themes and patterns within the collected data, ensuring a nuanced understanding of the diverse viewpoints of union employees in leadership positions and labor relations managers. By incorporating the perspectives of both these groups, the research contributes valuable insights to the existing literature on the consequences of the Janus decision. This analysis provides an academic viewpoint on the connection between work relations and unions. By clearly defining the paths of labor relations managers and union leaders, the research establishes theoretical frameworks for navigating today's labor relations.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Administration

Guided by cultural competency and inclusive leadership frameworks, the study aimed to explore the lack of effective Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) work in social services. A case study was conducted at one developmental disabilities' organization, specifically. The study appropriately utilized participatory action research through a critical lens due to its emphasis on equity and justice. Ten interviews were conducted with participants to gain information regarding the organizational culture in an effort to address the lack of EDI. Led by the research question, the interviews revealed an overall lack of awareness, absence of leadership commitment, lack of value, and environmental concerns that create barriers in developing and sustaining effective EDI work. An action plan was devised to address these concerns.

Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.), Franklin University, 2023, Health Programs

Houston, Texas, a sprawling metropolis known for its diverse population, is home to a vibrant and thriving healthcare industry. Within this sector, African American women have emerged as influential leaders, catalyzing change and innovation. Nevertheless, Black women leaders in healthcare continue to encounter obstacles such as gender bias and racial discrimination. Overcoming these challenges requires resilience, mentorship, and a commitment to dismantling systemic barriers. African American women in healthcare leadership roles in Houston, Texas, are instrumental in shaping the healthcare landscape and advancing health equity. This work sheds light on the experiences, achievements, and challenges faced by Black women in healthcare leadership roles.