Digital Commons Network^™

Bleeding Out From The Redlining: An Autoethnographic Study Of Racial Equity Policy Enactment In A Large, Urban School District., Anderson Aven Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This autoethnographic study investigates the enactment and impact of racial equity policies within Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), a large urban school district in Louisville, Kentucky. The research is motivated by the ongoing challenges of achieving true educational equity for Black and Brown students, a struggle rooted in historical injustices such as redlining. Despite over seven years of policy implementation aimed at promoting racial equity, academic and behavioral disparities between Black and Brown students and their White counterparts have shown little improvement. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, this study employs autoethnography to intertwine personal narrative with scholarly analysis, exploring the lived …

Evaluating Quadrupedal Locomotion In Bats: A Geometric Morphometric Comparison Of Vertebral Adaptations Across Mammals, Jessica Upham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flight is the primary locomotion of bats, while quadrupedal locomotion is not often observed and is widely variable among bats. Frugivorous bats in Pteropodidae are more efficient climbers than frugivorous bats in Phyllostomidae and insectivorous bats in Vespertilionidae, while phyllostomids and vespertilionids are better at walking on horizontal surfaces. The aim of this study is to investigate whether bats with differing modes of nonflight locomotion also exhibit disparity in thoracolumbar vertebral morphology. Using geometric morphometrics, we compared the thoracolumbar vertebral shapes of these bat families with other terrestrial and arboreal mammals. The results revealed distinct vertebral shapes among bat families …

Cattle Regenerative Grazing Effects On Bat Activity In Southern Appalachia, Seth Morelock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Livestock farming accounts for about 70% of agricultural activity, with continuous grazing as the dominant conventional practice. However, this method often degrades biodiversity and ecosystem health through overgrazing. Regenerative grazing practices offer a potential ecologically sustainable approach to cattle management. Insectivorous bats are known to use agroecosystems for foraging and roosting habitats, offering an opportunity to assess their response to regenerative grazing. Using passive acoustic monitors, we evaluated the response of bats to cattle within regenerative grazed farms in East Tennessee, USA. Overall bat activity declined when cattle entered and exited paddocks, except for the tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus …

Reentry For Formerly Incarcerated Individuals: A Focus On Workforce Reentry And Recidivism In Appalachia, Margaret E. Francisco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Formerly incarcerated individuals face challenges to successful reentry, a critical component of reducing recidivism and improving public health outcomes. These challenges are particularly acute in rural Appalachia, where structural disadvantages such as limited economic opportunities, healthcare access, and public transportation intersect with stigma and systemic barriers related to prior incarceration. This dissertation addresses these gaps through a mixed-methods examination of reentry and recidivism, grounded in public health frameworks and focused on the unique context of rural Appalachia.

This work includes three studies. First, a PRISMA-guided systematic review synthesized qualitative research on barriers and facilitators to employment following incarceration. Findings highlighted …

In A Safe-Space Of Her Own: Alice's Journey Through A Traumatized Wonderland To Find Attunement And Recovery, Cheston A. Axton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass’s 160-year existence, Lewis Carroll’s seven-year-old protagonist has experienced many changes and alterations. With an ever-growing pop culture interest, Alice’s original narrative has undergone numerous adaptations, with each new variation diving deeper into the impact of trauma on Wonderland.

This thesis continues this existing discourse by examining Wonderland’s capacity to facilitate recovery in the aftermath of severe trauma. Through this research, the traumatic experiences of Alice, from Christina Henry’s The Chronicles of Alice: Alice and American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns, are examined concerning their effect(s) on her construction of Wonderland, as …

Assessing And Developing Higher Education Faculty Digital Competency For Workplace Preparation In A Digital Society, Yolanda T. Martinez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A shared global theme across higher education institutions is the need for training and development regarding digital competencies for higher education, yet there are little to no digital competency frameworks for faculty at higher educational institutions, like there are for K12. What can leaders in higher educational institutions do to prepare adult learners for a digital society and workplace that continues to expand globally in every field? Should every school adopt XYZ College’s approach, where leadership collaborated and developed an emerging technologies academy (ETA) to provide support and training on emerging technologies provided and supported by the college to self-enrolled …

Electronic Health Record Downtime, Grace R. Baldauf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electronic health record (EHR) downtime presents significant challenges to patient safety and care quality in acute care settings, particularly regarding timely medication administration. This project addressed the problem of late or absent medication doses during planned or unplanned EHR downtime. The investigator aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured downtime plan in improving nurses’ ability to administer medications on time during periods of EHR unavailability. The investigator used a quantitative design to implement a downtime plan evaluation paradigm. Data were collected using retrospective chart reviews of medication administration records pre-implementation and postimplementation of the downtime plan. The sample included …

Institutional Betrayal And Military Vaccine Mandates: An Inquiry Into Loss Of Health Autonomy Concerning Unlimited Liability Contractual Employment In The Covid-19 Era, Aaron G. Dehaven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The balance between government control and personal liberty is a growing concern in the modern world. Nowhere is this more evident than in discussions surrounding government policy in public health and individual health autonomy. The Covid-19 pandemic forced many institutions to change their standard operating procedures by adapting to rapidly changing health guidance instituted to protect public health. These changes highlighted the role of health autonomy and individuals’ rights to refuse medical treatments. The Department of Defense changed many aspects of how it operated during the pandemic, including the mandate of the Covid-19 vaccine for all service members. For various …

Perceived Leadership Behaviors And Workplace Motivation: The Predictive Role Of Generational Cohorts In The U.S. Construction Industry, Leslie D. Klinegardner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which perceived leadership behaviors predicted workplace motivation among construction workers across generational cohorts in the Greater Houston, Texas area. Grounded in self-determination theory, the research explored how transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidant leadership behaviors predicted the satisfaction and frustration of psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The analysis also considered whether leadership behaviors and generational cohort served as significant predictors of workplace motivation outcomes. The study followed a quantitative, predictive, cross-sectional design using survey methodology. Data were collected using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and the Basic Psychological Need …

Emergent Bilingual Educators’ Viewpoint Of Biliteracy Spaces: Building Capacity For Language Preservation And Development, Maria A. Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the perspectives of emergent bilingual (EB) educators regarding the value of learning two languages simultaneously for EBs at the elementary level in Texas. The problem examined was that EBs were losing their primary language while acquiring English. More EBs were entering bilingual programs with no language dominance or mixed language dominance, and researchers had explored this issue from various perspectives, including teacher language ideologies and assessment practices based on monolingual standards. This inductive qualitative case study aimed to identify what educators perceived as the benefits of bilingual education in primary classrooms where students learned two languages simultaneously. …

Leadership Emergence Among Black Urban Women Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Exploration, Dawn H. Benton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study proposed to identify leadership strategies that assisted intimate partner violence-impacted Black women in urban areas to become leaders in their homes and communities as perceived by mental health professionals. Nine mental health professionals and counselors from an Ohio urban area completed a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview to provide data about Black women in intimate partner violence-impacted relationships living in a metropolitan area in Ohio. Deprived of valuable leadership resources and gifts that the women can offer their families and communities, investigators omitted the women's plights in their studies. Four research questions framed this qualitative case study design …

The Role Of Adolescent Depression Heterogeneity And Resilience Resources In Adulthood Cardiometabolic Health And Depressive Symptoms, Samantha R. Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Depression in adolescence is a major public health problem and is a risk factor for early-onset cardiometabolic disease. Although adolescent depression is a risk factor for poor cardiometabolic health, depression is heterogeneous and associations may differ by sex. Additionally, if risk factors such as depression can predict adulthood cardiometabolic health, resilience factors (e.g., social, school, neighborhood) that are protective for depression may also be protective for physical health, but this is an ongoing area of research. The goals of the current dissertation were to gain a better understanding of what depressive symptom presentations in adolescents are most concerning for adulthood …

A Ritual Of Institutions: The State Industrial School In Golden, Colorado And The Shaping Of American Youth, Cyndal Groskopf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the Colorado State Industrial School as a ritualistic institution that influenced boys aged 7 to 19 through Americanization practices between 1881 and 1930. By employing primary documentation, drone imagery, and LiDAR technology, the study examines how cultural and physical activities, along with personal statements, described and maintained the ritualized nature among these incarcerated youth. The findings reveal how institutional routines and activities reinforced narratives of American identity, particularly in relation to themes of personal identity, conformity, and agency. These rituals played a crucial role in institutionalizing cultural ideals and shaping the identities of marginalized youth. The research …

Movement As Metamorphosis: An Examination Of Transformative Learning In Dance, Whitney Egstad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the arts-based methodology of Educational Criticism and Connoisseurship (Uhrmacher, Moroye, & Flinders, 2017) to examine the curriculum and pedagogy of a Colorado-based dance studio, this qualitative dissertation explores how transformative learning (TL) unfolds within the context of adult dance education. Grounded in Mezirow’s (1991) theory of transformative learning, the study investigates how dance becomes a medium for personal transformation, identity reconstruction, and emotional healing. Data collection included six hours of interviews with instructors and students and twelve hours of class observations, focusing on how adult learners experience curriculum not just as technical instruction, but as an embodied, relational journey …

An Auto-Criticism Exploration Of An International Transracial Adoption, Jessica M. Morganfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation explores the lived experience of international transracial adoption through the combined methodologies of auto-criticism and journaling. Using a first-person, insider-led approach, this study addresses four central research questions: (1) What experiences emerge when an adult adoptee reflects on their childhood as an international transracial adoptee? (2) How do identity development, cultural socialization, and experiences of racial and adoptive microaggressions intersect and influence an individual? (3) How does auto-criticism uniquely describe the international transracial adoptee experience? and (4) How might journaling serve as a research tool for data collection and analysis?

Daily journaling over a 30-day period functioned …

Optimizing Option Market Clearing, Juan Andrés Malaver Alvarado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modern options markets clear each strike in isolation, leaving cross-strike arbitrage unexploited. This thesis applies a payoff-dominant clearing mechanism to realized trades—roughly 2 000 Cboe VIX option executions from June–November 2016—after classifying each trade’s side and bundling by expiration. Three optimization formulations are tested: a fractional linear program (LP), a mixed-integer LP, and a pure integer program. On a 10-core laptop every bundle solves in < 0.5 s. The LP captures the greatest surplus, yet the integer models recover nearly as much while filling whole contracts and holding only modest margin. Results reveal persistent, albeit small, inefficiencies in executed trades and demonstrate that an integral cross-strike auction could operate in real time. The accompanying C/Gurobi code is modular and readily extendable to early-exercise options. Trade-level evidence thus supports redesigning exchange clearing to consider the complete option book.

Culture And Environment: The Calling Lakes Ecomuseum As A Community Sustainability Initiative, Kace N. Anders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Located in Saskatchewan, Canada, the Calling Lakes Ecomuseum, CLEM, is a community-based organization focused on water management and sustainability. Ecomuseums are holistic organizations that occupy landscapes, are responsive to community needs, conserve in situ heritage, and incorporate sustainability along with community development. The ecomuseum movement came from a need for holistic heritage management that disengaged with conventional museology and created space for communities to engage with their heritage in ways that promote community identity. This thesis analyzes the Calling Lakes Ecomuseum and how it utilizes the ecomuseum concept alongside environmental sustainability. Both semi-structured interviews and place-based field observations were used …

Foldit Education Mode, Brett Schulz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Foldit education mode is a puzzle campaign within the protein folding video game Foldit. Education mode, initially designed as a classroom supplement for undergraduate biochemistry courses, has been expanded to provide a more comprehensive learning tool to players without a background in biochemistry. The edited and added levels teach players about protein biochemistry through playing puzzles designed to convey information and gameplay mechanics. The new Foldit education mode campaign features 49 levels grouped into 11 categories. The campaign has 6 new levels designed specifically for education mode and 4 levels adapted from the traditional Foldit campaign for use within education …

The Embodiment And Experiences Of Gender Euphoria Among Transgender And Nonbinary Communities: A Mixed Methods Inquiry, Brendon T. Holloway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gender euphoria is a critical aspect of embodiment for transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people that has long been overshadowed in academic research by deficit narratives and gender dysphoria. While gender dysphoria is the distress an individual may experience related to their gender, gender euphoria encapsulates the positive emotions a TNB person may experience because of positive gendered experiences. Despite community documentations of gender euphoria since the 1970s, academic research on gender euphoria has only recently begun to emerge. This three-paper dissertation advances this body of scholarship by exploring how gender euphoria is conceptualized, experienced, and embodied in TNB communities. Utilizing …

Excellence Gaps: A State-Based Review Of Policies, Jonathan M. Jennings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how state education policies address excellence gaps among student subgroups in gifted education. Using a multiple case study design, it examines the policy mechanisms, identification practices, and funding models employed across states to promote equity in advanced academic access. Grounded in critical policy analysis, the study highlights systemic disparities perpetuated by inconsistent definitions, underfunding, and limited accountability structures. Findings reveal that while some states adopt promising interventions - such as universal screening and dual enrollment support - many fall short in ensuring sustainable, inclusive practices. This research calls for reform grounded in transparency, comparability, and justice for …

The Narratological Maus, Isla Lader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Complete Maus, a memoir graphic novel surrounding the events of character Art Spiegelman as he collects, records, and illustrates his father’s life pre-the Holocaust in Europe, his time in Auschwitz, and then life in the United States has been one of the focal Holocaust survivor testimonies and has redefined the genre it exists in as both a graphic novel, but also as a form of testimony. Like many popularized works dealing with the Holocaust, though, cultural preconceptions of Jewish people, genocide, and audiences’ desire to find morals within the work have made it so often audiences come to …

Sustaining Queerness: A Phenomenological Study Of Colorado Educators, Devani Lemmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to engage queer Colorado educators to explore how to sustain their identities as queer educators in a politically fractured state. By focusing on Colorado, I could assess the extent to which the legal protections afforded there adequately support educators in sustaining themselves. Additionally, the findings from Colorado had the potential to further illuminate factors influencing teacher sustainability and retention on a much larger scale. The questions for this research project were: 1) How are queer educators sustaining themselves and each other in an increasingly volatile political climate? 2) What, if any, factors impact queer …

E Ho’Omau Mākau, We Will Continue: The Living Sovereign Entities Of Contemporary Hawaiian Songs, Kēhaulani Lagunero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between contemporary Hawaiian mele (songs) and Hawaiian ea (sovereignty), focusing on how mele acts as sovereign living entities representing cultural resilience, identity, and resistance to settler-colonial influences. Through semi-structured interviews with Kānaka Maoli, participant observation at cultural events, and close analysis of mele, I identify that these songs are not only expressions of cultural memory, but also living embodiments of ea—sovereignty because they are alive, and they are alive because they are ea. Drawing from the frameworks of cultural survival, survivance, symbolic power, and defiant indigeneity, I explore how mele actively engage …

Carbon Monoxide Releasing Polymeric Micelles, Riya Joshi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbon monoxide (CO), traditionally known as a toxic gas, has emerged as a potential therapeutic agent due to its cytoprotective, anti-inflammatory, and vasodilatory properties. This study explores the development of CO-releasing polymeric micelles as a controlled delivery system for biomedical applications. Using ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), we synthesized diblock copolymers incorporating CO-releasing moiety diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP) with hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) to enhance solubility and stability of the overall CO releasing system. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and electron microscopy (EM) confirmed the formation of well-defined micelles, while fluorescence assays demonstrated efficient CO release with the use of Iridium photocatalyst under 470 …

Phenomenological Inquiry: High School English Language Arts And Reading Professional Development Design And Delivery, Michelle Jestice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative, phenomenological inquiry aimed to understand the overall essence of public high school English language arts and reading professional development design and delivery from an inclusive, sociocultural, responsive theoretical lens. The lens extended previous scholarship, combining six educational concepts and theories to develop an ideological framework for high school English language arts and reading professional development design and delivery. They include Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, Knowles’ (1978) andragogy, Shulman’s (2013) content-pedagogy-curricular contextualization, Hammond’s (2015) culturally responsive teaching, Bennett’s (1986) intercultural competencies, Smale-Jacobse and others’ (2019) and Tomlinson and others’ (2003) concepts of differentiation: referred to as SACReD. A central …

How Executive Leaders Build Trust: Navigating Organizational Disruption During The Covid-19 Mega-Crisis, Marji Karish

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic, declared a global health crisis by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, created a “mega-crisis” characterized by intersecting physiological, economic, political, social, and cultural disruptions. This study examines how senior organizational executives narrate their response to the crisis, focusing on their engagement with organizational stakeholders. Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, I conducted in-depth interviews with 12 organizational leaders to construct the Theory of Social Crisis Leadership Communication (SCLC).

Findings highlight the centrality of trust as an interdependent relationship in which executive leaders and organizational stakeholders rely on each other to navigate crises successfully. …

Paving The Way: Cultural Relevance In College And Career Readiness Programs, Jacqueline Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students of color face persistent educational and systemic barriers that impact their success in college and career readiness (CCR) programs. Standardized approaches to CCR often fail to address the cultural identities, lived experiences, and needs of diverse learners (Castro, 2013; Malin et al., 2017; Welton & Martinez, 2014). Guided by the theoretical framework of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, with the extension of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, this instrumental case study investigates how one CCR initiative—the Legacy Scholars Program (LSP), implemented by a Western Urban School District—integrates culturally responsive practices to better serve students of color. Through interviews, observations, and artifact analysis, this …

The Role Of Imagination In Archaeology: Linking Contemplation And Method At The Amache National Historic Site, Sami Zepponi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Archaeology is both a science and an interpretative process, blending material discovery with imagination to reconstruct past experiences. This research, conducted through the 2024 University of Denver Amache Field School, explores the archaeological imagination and the creative and cognitive engagement that shapes historical interpretation. Using Amache, a WWII Japanese American incarceration site, as a case study, this thesis examines how material culture, landscape modifications, and reflection inform archaeological understanding. This study explores how imagination connects tangible findings to cultural narratives by integrating community-based archaeology, place and landscape theory, and contemplative inquiry. Findings highlight imagination as essential to archaeology, enabling deeper …

Stewards Of Place, Stewards Of Democracy: The Role Of Regional Public Universities In Rural Political Well-Being, Katie Kleinhesselink

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative embedded single-case study explored how a rural-serving regional public university (RPU) contributed to the political well-being of its politically polarized service region ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Guided by the stewardship of political place theoretical framework, which integrates rural consciousness, the Community Capitals Framework, and the stewardship of place framework for RPUs’ public engagement, the study utilized policy discourse analysis to examine regional residents' and internal constituents' perceptions regarding WPU’s role in promoting regional political well-being. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, direct observations of campus civic engagement events, and institutional document reviews.

The study demonstrates that regional …

Chingonas In Charge: A Phenomenological Study Of Latina Educational Leaders In Colorado, Paulina Yvette Lerma-Banuelos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite comprising 76% of the U.S. teaching workforce (2017−2018), Latina women held only 8.5% of principal roles and 2.7% of superintendent positions. In places such as Colorado, where Latinos make up 15.1% of the population, this inequity highlights the pressing necessity for better representation. The present study used a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore the fundamental essence and attributes of leadership among Latina K−12 administrators in Colorado, with a focus on the concept of “chingona” and its transformative significance in their professional journeys. The name “chingona” was historically rejected by young Latina women because of connotations to being aggressive or …