Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Maintenance Support Initiative, Quentin T. Turner

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

The Maintenance Support Initiative, my capstone project, was designed to address inefficiencies in maintaining sensitive medical equipment, where precision and reliability are crucial. Inspired by the potential to enhance quality and safety, I developed user-friendly checklists specifically tailored to our organization. By collaborating closely with stakeholders, I gathered diverse perspectives to ensure the checklists were practical and effective. Emotional intelligence and innovative thinking proved to be essential along the way. These skills helped me navigate challenges and foster a collaborative environment where everybody got to be involved in the project. The post-implementation surveys revealed the project's success, showing reduced maintenance …

Implementing And Marketing Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Practices And Resources: Creating The E‐Buzz!, Essraa Nawar, Kristin Laughtin-Dunker

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Leatherby Libraries Librarians are committed to supporting and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion for students, faculty, researchers, and staff. We demonstrate this commitment holistically through the provision of all resources and services in support of teaching, learning, and research. Our goal is to reduce obstacles to accessing diverse research resources, services, learning, and engagement through educational outreach in order to raise awareness of diversity related issues.

In 2020, Library administration selected a Diversity and Outreach librarian that was charged with creating a comprehensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Outreach plan. As a result, a number of practices and initiatives …

Employee Onboarding And Continual Training Program, Stephen M. Lee

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

The process of training and integrating new employees is a key element to the long term success of any organization. In the past Parker Toyota has had a laissez faire approach to training and new employee onboarding. It was the goal of this project to address those areas of need and establish a new training program to increase employee retention, effectiveness and efficiency.

Gauging Interest: Bas/Ips Student Collaboration Group, Tracy J. Meunier

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

An initiative to launch a student-led collaboration group within the BAS/IPS program aimed to provide valuable feedback to the program’s directors was recently put into place. To launch this new initiative in the intended Fall 2023 semester, the program's directors require vital information from prospective students. This paper is an overview of the approach taken to understand why or why not students would be interested in participating in a student-led group that would benefit the program they are enrolled in. A survey was sent intended to provide responses with valuable feedback to the decision-makers regarding the new student collaboration group. …

Updating Hp’S Sales Proposal Documents, Cody P. White

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

My capstone project focused on updating out-of-date proposal documents for my current employer, HP Inc. These proposal documents are delivered to each potential customer that is interested in signing up for our managed print services offering. These documents are a key selling tool for the program benefits but in their current format, they are lacking in up-to-date information and contain spelling and grammatical errors. The capstone focuses on the work completed by the stakeholders that are the most affected by the success of these documents.

Law School News: Remembering John Lewis 07-18-2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Mentoring Multi-College Bystander Efficacy Evaluation – An Approach To Growing The Next Generation Of Gender-Based Interpersonal Violence Intervention And Prevention (Vip) Researchers, Ann L. Coker, Danielle Davidov, Heather M. Bush, Emily R. Clear

Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Publications

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided funding (U01 CE002668) to evaluate bystander program efficacy to reduce gender-based violence on college campuses (Aim 1) and to create a mentoring network (Aim 2) for young campus-based researchers interested in violence intervention or prevention (VIP). While an evaluation of this mentoring program is ongoing, our purpose here was to document the strategies used to create, implement, and begin evaluation of this national multi-college mentoring network. As each public college was recruited into this evaluation named multi-college Bystander Efficacy Evaluation (mcBEE), each college was invited to nominate a researcher interested in receiving …

The Construction And Impact Of Power In Cross-Sector Partnerships: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study, Kimberly Allyn Walker

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In the United States, cross-sector partnerships, a form of collaboration, are becoming increasingly common in practice (Gray & Purdy, 2018). However, questions remain regarding the effectiveness of these partnerships and if the many challenges of using them can be overcome. In particular, the intersection of cross-sector partnerships and power, which can deeply impact these partnerships, needs more attention. This study used interpretive phenomenology to understand, from the participant perspective, (a) the experience and construction of power, (b) the impact of power on participants, and (c) how power dynamics in these initiatives compare to dynamics in organizations. Seventeen participants from four …

Integrating Team Science Into Interdisciplinary Graduate Education: An Exploration Of The Sesync Graduate Pursuit, Kenneth E. Wallen, Karen Filbee-Dexter, Jeremy B. Pittman, Stephen M. Posner, Steven M. Alexander, Chelsie L. Romulo, Drew E. Bennett, Elizabeth C. Clark, Stella J.M. Cousins, Bradford A. Dubik, Margaret Garcia, Heather A. Haig, Elizabeth A. Koebele, Jiangxiao Qiu, Ryan C. Richards, Celia C. Symons, Samuel C. Zipper

Peer-Reviewed Studies

Complex socio-environmental challenges require interdisciplinary, team-based research capacity. Graduate students are fundamental to building such capacity, yet formal opportunities for graduate students to develop these capacities and skills are uncommon. This paper presents an assessment of the Graduate Pursuit (GP) program, a formal interdisciplinary team science graduate research and training program administered by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). Quantitative and qualitative assessment of the program’s first cohort revealed that participants became significantly more comfortable with interdisciplinary research and team science approaches, increased their capacity to work across disciplines, and were enabled to produce tangible research outcomes. Qualitative analysis of …

The Effects Of Perceived Decision-Making Styles On Evaluations Of Openness And Competence That Elicit Collaboration, Ming-Hong Tsai, Nadhilla Velda Melia, Verlin B. Hinsz

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

When interacting with a task partner, individuals often rely upon characteristics they infer about their partner to determine their level of collaboration with the partner. To explore social perception processes related to collaboration, we examined perceptions of an actor’s decision-making style as predictors. Using different methods in various research settings, we found that compared with perceptions of an actor’s intuitive decision-making style or of a nonspecific decision-making style, perceptions of an actor’s rational decision-making style were more positively associated with inferences of the actor’s openness and competence, both of which were in turn associated with the perceiver’s collaborative intention with …

Ways Of Doing: Feminist Educational Development, Emily O. Gravett, Lindsay Bernhagen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In response to the recent special call in To Improve the Academy, we offer the following collaborative essay that describes how feminism is our characterizing perspective on educational development. The essay details various, interrelated facets of feminism that inform our work in the field: gender, intersectionality, power, privilege, standpoint theory, and collaboration. Not only do these facets characterize our own feminist approach to educational development—from consultations to organizational development to publications—but, we argue, they also align well with the values and approaches of the field as a whole.

Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber, Kelly Murdoch-Kitt

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The first game in the series is a strategy game called Lost & …

Exploring Collaborations Between Veterinarians & Rescues/Shelters, Jacquie Cobb

Shelter Management and Adoption Procedures Collection

A survey of private practice veterinarians in the Chicago area was conducted in an effort to pinpoint what constitutes a positive relationship between a veterinarian and a rescue group or shelter. The following research questions guided this project: From the perspective of veterinarians, what is the nature of collaboration between private veterinarians and animal rescues? What are the reasons for these relationships? What is the perceived value of these relationships according to veterinarians? The survey was sent to 50 private practice veterinarians in the Chicago area and received twelve responses, followed by two face-to-face interviews of survey participants. The data …

How Does “Collaboration” Occur At All? Remarks On Epistemological Issues Related To Understanding / Working With ‘The Other’, Don Faust, Judith Puncochar

Conference Presentations

Collaboration, if to occur successfully at all, needs to be based on careful representation and communication of each stakeholder’s knowledge. In this paper, we investigate, from a foundational logical and epistemological point of view, how such representation and communication can be accomplished. What we tentatively conclude, based on a careful delineation of the logical technicalities necessarily involved in such representation and communication, is that a complete representation is not possible. This inference, if correct, is of course rather discouraging with regard to what we can hope to achieve in the knowledge representations that we bring to our collaborations. We suggest …

Making The Invisible Challenges And Opportunities Visible, Maureen A. Scully, Lisa Deangelis, Katie Bates

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The 41 fellows in the 2015 Emerging Leaders Program worked with community partners to generate the theme, “Making the Invisible Challenges and Opportunities Visible: Collaborative leadership for economic and social well-being."

The projects provide fellows an opportunity to practice elements of collaborative leadership in peer-led teams working with multiple stakeholders. The projects focus on civic engagement, building a leadership base for Greater Boston that is ready to tackle the big challenges that ensure the broader economic and social well-being of the region. The project sponsor with whom each team works is a nonprofit or governmental organization with big goals. Each …

Forging Political Will From A Shared Vision: A Critical Social Justice Agenda Against Neoliberalism And Other Systems Of Domination, Renato M. Liboro

Psychology Faculty Research

Due to pervasive inequalities and inequities in society, many people have a difficult time envisaging a just society, let alone how to go about actualizing such an aspiration. A critical reflection on the concept of a just society and the role that community psychologists and other advocates can play in upholding a critical social justice agenda in their research and civic engagement, particularly against neoliberalism and other systems of domination, is discussed. As part of a proffered framework, four tasks are proposed to fulfil the role: (1) raising public critical consciousness, (2) convincing people of the possibility of change, (3) …

Improving Collaboration Through Action Learning: Guidance For Children's And Young Person's Services Committees In Ireland., Denise O'Leary

Other resources

This action learning handbook draws from the experiences of the Kerry Children’s and Young People’s Services Committee (CYPSC) Working Groups who engaged in an action learning intervention to improve collaboration, between October 2013 and June 2014. The intervention was designed by Dr Denise O’Leary and Dr Clare Rigg from the Institute of Technology Tralee. If you are a member of another county’s Children’s and Young People’s Services Committee Working Group, this handbook will provide you with the information and tools to implement a similar action learning intervention in order to:

• Improve collaboration within your county’s CYPSC structure
• Improve collaboration and …

University Archives & Community Organizations: Ensuring Access Through Collaboration, Jessica R. Holden, Andrew Elder, Joanne Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

In 2011, to further our community-engaged mission, UASC began to focus on working with, promoting, and assisting community archives in the greater Boston area through facilitating cross-organization collaboration and access to informational, educational, and practical resources relevant to archival procedures and best practices.

The guiding tenets behind this continuing commitment emerged, in part, from UASC’s multifaceted collaboration with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA), a local nonprofit organization established to develop and promote the growth, study, and exchange of ideas among people and organizations interested in Irish genealogical and historical research and education. Our collaboration with TIARA formally began in …

University Archives And Community Organizations: Ensuring Access Through Collaboration, Jessica R. Holden, Andrew Elder, Joanne Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

How can a university archives establish a successful ongoing relationship with a community organization? What are the benefits and challenges of such a collaboration? University of Massachusetts Boston’s Archives and Special Collections (UASC) explored these questions while working with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) to preserve and provide access to 79,000 mortuary records from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. Elements of the collaboration included shifting stewardship of the records from the Foresters to TIARA to UMass Boston, integrating TIARA’s efforts in processing and indexing the records into the Archives’ workflow, providing in-person and electronic access to the records, …

Lessons From Lived Experience: From Fresh Insights To Effective Action, Lisa Deangelis, Maureen A. Scully, Andrea Wight

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The 34 fellows in the 2014 Emerging Leaders Program worked with community partners to generate the theme, “Learning from Lived Experience: From fresh insights to effective action." Each year, the projects draw upon a theme or lesson from the prior year. Last year and this year, fellows saw how the lived experiences of both their stakeholders and themselves generated nuanced and appropriate approaches to problem-solving. The fellows worked with six community partners, giving their time and professional skills to understand how to frame complex social challenges, engage new partners and resources, and sharpen strategic plans. They conducted surveys, interviews, open …

Interdisciplinarity And Actionable Science: Exploring The Generative Potential In Difference, Bridie Mcgreavy, Linda Silka, Laura Lindenfeld

Publications

Community practice and actionable science share a commitment to solving complex problems to promote sustainability. Collective abilities to address these types of problems rely on interdisciplinary collaborations that also offer unique challenges. In this case study of a statewide interdisciplinary setting, we focus on key methodological differences related to problem identification, stakeholder involvement, competing research paradigms, and orientations towards communication. We argue the generative potential in interdisciplinarity is enhanced through sustained effort and attention to difference; acceptance of the ethical responsibility to reflect critically on power in shared decision making spaces; and strategic interventions to continually promote and improve learning.

Transnational Brazilian Project, C. Eduardo Siqueira

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Since 2012, the Transnational Brazilian Project has been successful in organizing a transnational network of faculty, students, and community leaders to promote collaborative research and service. UMass Boston students and faculty have conducted research in Brazil, volunteered at the Brazilian Immigrant Center (BIC), and several Brazilian students gained research experience at the Mauricio Gastón Institute. In addition, a number of public health faculty from Brazil have visited UMass Boston to discuss future research projects and collaborations.

Participatory Action And Drought As A Symbolic Context: The Case Of Aldama Chihuahua, Mexico, Sara Soledad Garcia

Teacher Education

This paper presents a field-based project and a theoretical framework for work with an Action Research paradigm. The complexities of process are illustrated and synthesized in two theoretical models. The design of the study required constant change in the focus of projects as a result of the action produced from genuine involvement. As a result a working template of the execution of the action research projects involving multiple educational institutions was generated by bi-national collaborations. Participants were ecological researchers and schoolteachers, actively engaged in schools and in the education of the community at-large on the effects of drought in their …

A Reflective Conversation: Community And Hei Perspectives On Community-Based Research., Niamh O'Reilly, Catherine Bates

Staff Articles and Research Papers

This paper is a reflective correspondence between a community partner and a community-based research coordinator in a higher education institute (HEI). We asked each other questions about our experience of collaborating on two community-based research (CBR) projects, in order to share our learning from our collaboration, and to relate this to the wider context in order to develop recommendations for others – community partners and HEI staff – who would like to initiate CBR projects in the future.

Engaging And Expanding Communities: Widening The Circle Of Stakeholders, Lisa Deangelis, Maureen A. Scully, Andrea Wight

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The 32 fellows in the 2013 Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) worked with community partners to investigate the theme, “Engaging and Expanding Communities".

They worked with six community partners, and identified ways to help them expand beyond their core stakeholders to a wider circle of stakeholders and broader potential impact. The fellows gave their time and professional skills to understand how to reach new business partners, new participants, new advisors, and new donors. They conducted surveys, interviews, and focus groups; explored social media options; examined best practices; and considered ways to tell powerful stories about the vitally important work of the …

Culturally Relevant Resources To Meet The Changing Priorities Of Tribal Communities, J. Cedric Woods, Institute For New England Native American Studies, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The mission of INENAS is to develop collaborative relationships, projects, and programs between Native American tribes of the New England region and all of the UMass campuses so that the tribes may participate in and benefit from university research, innovation, scholarship, and education. As the interests, needs, and demographics of Native New England shift, these changing priorities will be reflected in its programming, grant submissions, and outreach efforts.

An Exploration Of The Motivations Behind Committee Membership In Food Networks, Denise O'Leary, Mary Rose Stafford

Conference papers

Food Tourism has been recognised as a fast growing niche area where Ireland can gain competitive advantage. In recognition of the importance of collaboration among diverse stakeholders in the development of food tourism, networks have been identified as essential. This article presents findings from research conducted with three networks and reveals the motivations for committee membership. Data was gathered in 2012 through participant observation and interviews with steering committee members on three food networks using an action research approach.

A framework for examining motivations for collaboration is offered in this article which will contribute to effective network management. Motivations are …

Supporting Healthy Lives And Vibrant Places: Learning About And Living The Collaborative Leadership Model, Lisa Deangelis, Maureen A. Scully, Andrea Wight

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The 31 fellows in the 2012 UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) worked with community partners to investigate the theme, “Supporting Healthy Lives and Vibrant Places.” They worked in peer self-managed teams, in order to learn collaborative leadership skills first-hand, while engaging with stakeholders and issues where collaboration makes a difference. Their team projects addressed: best practices in corporate wellness initiatives, outreach to support health care access for homeless people, ways to grow awareness of the wide need for affordable housing, ideas for arts-based local economic development, broader funding sources to support innovative research on poverty, and ways to continue …

Finding The Heart Of Medical Family Therapy: A Content Analysis Of Medical Family Therapy Casebook Articles, Richard Bischoff, Paul R. Springer, Daniel S. Felix, Cody S. Hollist

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

In an effort to identify the essential ingredients of medical family therapy, a content analysis of 15 peer-reviewed case studies in medical family therapy was conducted. The case studies were published from 1996 to 2007 in Families, Systems, & Health. Through a qualitative content analysis, three main themes emerged that describe the essence of the practice of medical family therapy: (1) The patient’s multisystemic experience of disease, (2) treatment is about caring, not just caregiving, and (3) elevating the patient as collaborator in the care team.

State Agency Promising Practice: Maryland - Collaborating To Promote Self-Employment For People With Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, Jennifer Bose, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Self-employment has emerged as a viable option for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD). To meet increased self-employment demands, Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA), in collaboration with the Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services (DORS), adapted services offered through the Reach Independence through Self Employment (RISE) program. The RISE program, funded by DORS, provides technical assistance and financial support to people starting their own businesses. DDA’s role in this self-employment initiative has helped people with IDD start a wide variety of businesses and achieve meaningful employment.