Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing Environmental Education In Northern Mississippi And Its Impact On Student Outcomes, Vishnu S. Gadepalli

Honors Theses

This thesis examines environmental education in public high schools in northern Mississippi, investigating how educators describe its presence, delivery, and institutional support in communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harm. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with high school teachers across four northern Mississippi schools, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed through iterative thematic coding under Institutional Review Board approval. Five themes emerged: opportunistic curricular integration, time and standards as overriding structural constraints, passive institutional support, student receptivity tempered by limited awareness, and significant variation across school contexts with one magnet school as a clear outlier. The study concludes that environmental education in these …

From State To Nation: A Federal Framework For Breast Cancer Primary Prevention Informed By California's Paths To Prevention, Serena Padda

Master's Projects and Capstones

The United States’ federal government should adopt a primary prevention framework for breast cancer modeled after Breast Cancer Prevention Partners’ (BCPP) Paths to Prevention: the California Breast Cancer Primary Prevention Plan. The plan focuses on systemic actions to reduce breast cancer risk through a social and racial justice lens. Breast cancer is the leading diagnosed cancer among women in the United States, with incidence rates increasing annually by 1% since 2012. Disparities persist in communities disproportionately burdened by chemical and environmental exposures, contributing to unequal and preventable risk. Current federal policy focuses primarily on secondary prevention through screenings, which does …

Effective Strategies For Retaining Employees And Increasing Workplace Productivity In A Changing Healthcare Environment, Marie D. Exantus

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover and declining workplace productivity remain persistent challenges for healthcare organizations operating in a rapidly evolving industry environment. Healthcare leaders are concerned about employees’ intent to leave, as it is the strongest predictor of rising turnover, directly threatening both productivity and organizational stability. Grounded in equity theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry project was to explore effective strategies healthcare leaders use to retain employees and increase workplace productivity in a changing healthcare environment. The participants were seven healthcare leaders who had implemented effective strategies to retain employees and increase workplace productivity in a changing healthcare environment. Data …

Genomic Based Environmental Health Assessment: Vieques, Puerto Rico, Valeria Hernandez Talavera

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

From 1941 to 2003, the United States Navy and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) used Vieques, Puerto Rico, for military training, which led to long-term pollution from metals, organic chemicals, explosives, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). While earlier research found these contaminants in the environment and in living organisms, their combined effects on local ecosystems remain poorly understood.

This dissertation used a Genomic-Based Environmental Health Assessment (GEHA) framework to study the ecological risks from past military pollution in Vieques. The approach combined sediment toxicity tests, chemical analysis, gene expression studies, microbial community analysis, and community-based research. The four main …

Extreme Heat And Its Impact On Public Transit Ridership In Nyc, Craig Denton

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the connection between extreme heat events and public transit ridership patterns in New York City, with a particular emphasis on low-income communities. It investigates the intersection of socioeconomic factors and heat-related challenges, analyzing how extreme temperature periods influence overall transit use and why certain routes or neighborhoods experience greater declines in ridership during these events.

Utilizing existing literature, NYC-specific transit and climate datasets, and the broader context of transit equity, this research aims to inform strategies that strengthen climate resilience within urban transportation systems. The study’s findings are intended to support policy development and planning initiatives that …

Green Extractivism And The Discursive Legitimization Of Deep-Sea Mining In The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Kaitlyn Maritan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis critically examines deep-sea mining as an example of green extractivism, constructed through narratives of responsible mining practices. A content analysis assesses the discursive tactics of four actors in the emerging industry; how they collectively legitimize deep-sea mining and manage the contradictions of sustainability and extractivism.

Expression Levels Of Heat Shock Protein 72 And Their Correlation With Biomarkers Of Renal Function Among Hispanic Construction Workers Exposed To Ambient Heat In El Paso, Texas, Maria Fuentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Heat shock proteins (HSP) are intracellular molecular proteins that are upregulated in response to cellular stress, including heat exposure. Through their protective functions, HSP help maintain protein structure, prevent protein denaturation, and preserve cellular homeostasis during states of physiological stress. Because of their cytoprotective properties, HSP have emerged as potential biomarkers for detecting early signs of tissue injury and predicting clinical outcomes associated with heat related illnesses (HRI), including acute kidney injuries (AKI). AKI is a leading cause of hospitalizations due to heat stress exposure and heat stroke. In the absence of early detection and effective therapeutic interventions, AKI may …

The Effects Of An Educational Intervention To Enhance Knowledge And Awareness Of The Prevention Of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among College Students, Darcy Yates

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Purpose

The DNP student implemented a single group pretest-postest design underpinned by the Health Belief Model to address the PICOT question: Among a purposive sample of college students at a mid-west college (Population) to what degree does participation in an evidence-based intervention providing information about STIs (Intervention), compared with before that intervention (Comparison), result in to an increase in knowledge and awareness regarding STI infections and associated risks and treatment options (Outcomes) over a six-week period (Time)?

Methods

The pretest and postest scores of 15 students for the 27 items in the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Knowledge Questionnaire (STD-KQ) were evaluated. …

Reintegrating Contaminated Sites Into The Urban Fabric: Redevelopment In Pocatello, Idaho, Hadley Ocheltree

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Brownfield sites represent some of the most environmentally compromised landscapes in the United States and are frequently concentrated within economically disadvantaged communities, raising important environmental justice concerns. Redeveloping these sites requires integrated approaches that address contamination, urban form, ecological restoration, and long term community needs. This thesis examines the 143 acre former Union Pacific Railroad site in Pocatello, Idaho and proposes a comprehensive redevelopment framework that reconnects a historically significant industrial landscape to the surrounding city.

The project draws from an analysis of eight precedent brownfield redevelopment projects and applies key planning and landscape architecture principles, including New Urbanism, pedestrian …

The Role Of Public Spaces In Facilitating Social Interactions On Summer Weekends, Sierra R. Murray

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Public spaces such as parks, plazas, and pedestrian areas are important places where people meet, relax, and interact with others. While these spaces are intended to bring communities together, their design does not always support social interaction. This study explored how everyday design features influence how people use public spaces and engage with one another. Features such as seating, trees and plants, shade, water elements, and the way spaces are shaped were examined. The goal was to better understand how design choices affect social life in shared outdoor environments. 

The research involved observing how people naturally behaved in different public …

Transnational Indigenous Environmental Justice: A Distant Comparative Study Of Nepali And U.S. Environmental Policies And Counter-Archives In Technical Communication, Shankar Paudel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how institutional communication, state bureaucracy, and Indigenous sovereignty intersect within Rhetoric and Writing Studies (RWS) and Technical and Professional Communication (TPC). Current TPC research increasingly focuses on social justice; however, the field still lacks ethical frameworks to deal with the complicated dynamics of transnational Indigenous Environmental Justice Communication (IEJC). This study addresses this gap by examining how two distinct Indigenous communities - the Tharus of Chitwan, Nepal, and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Tigua Indians of El Paso, Texas - communicatively navigate, contest, and resist state environmental policies.

Grounded in decolonial Distant Comparativism, Mestiza Consciousness, Rhetoric of …

Machine Learning For Predictive Energy And Emissions Modeling Of Vehicles And Power Grids In The United States, S M Tanvir Faysal Alam Chowdhoury

Dissertations

The environmental benefits of electric vehicle (EV) adoption depend on more than replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric powertrains. EV adoption reshapes electricity demand, interacts with regional generation mixes, and influences travel behavior and congestion, creating a coupled transportation-energy system in which vehicle and power-plant emissions must be evaluated together. This dissertation develops machine-learning frameworks for predicting energy consumption and emissions from vehicles and power grids under rising EV adoption. The first component forecasts grid emissions from EV charging. Using simulation data from NREL's Cambium database, a Prophet-based time-series framework predicts carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane emission rates …

Exploring The Experiences Of Women In Mental Health Therapy After The Occurrence Of Perinatal Loss, Courtney Allison Nishnick

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Perinatal loss encompasses losses of pregnancies at any gestational age, as well as deaths occurring within one year post-birth. In the United States, around 40 thousand stillbirths and infant deaths occur every year (Ely & Driscoll, 2025; Gregory et al., 2025), with about 23 million miscarriages also occurring annually worldwide (Quenby et al., 2021). Perinatal loss experiences lead to distressing mental health symptoms not limited to anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, and grief (Crockett et al., 2019; Wamser & Ferro, 2025). While there is extensive research on perinatal loss as it pertains to medical context, there is minimal research relating to …

Environmental Exposure Risk Education To Enhance Chronic Kidney Disease Prevention And Screening For Nurse Practitioners, Kelsea J. Carrier

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects approximately 36 million adults in the United States, with nearly 90% of individuals unaware of their diagnosis until advanced stages. While diabetes and hypertension remain the primary causes, increasing evidence highlights environmental exposures as significant and underrecognized contributors to CKD onset and progression. Exposures such as heavy metals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), air and water pollution, microplastics, and heat exposure have been linked to impaired renal function. Despite this growing body of evidence, environmental health content remains limited in nursing education, resulting in gaps in environmental health literacy (EHL) among nurse practitioners (NPs) and …

Unbroken Sovereignty: Land, Water, Education, And Nakoda And Oc̣Eti Ṡaḳowiŋ Tribes Of The Fort Peck Indian Reservation, 1850–1935, Richard Joseph Maska

History ETDs

This dissertation explores the intersection of sovereignty and development among the Nakoda (Assiniboine) and Oc̣eti Ṡaḳowiŋ (Sioux) Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Methodologically, it draws on a critical reading of archival sources in conjunction with community input. It traces the emergence of reservation policy, government sponsored education, the imposition of allotment policy and private landownership, and the impact of state-sponsored irrigation and other development projects. I argue that the Tribes forged webs of affiliation and kinship to both assert their nationhood and navigate their involvement in such projects. These expressions …

Regenerative Writing: The Rhetorics Of Indigenous Futurisms As Pedagogical Praxis, Madeline R. Mendoza

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation explores how land-based writing and Indigenous Futurisms can reshape writing pedagogy in higher education, focusing on English courses at the University of New Mexico. At the center of this project is the Land Memoirs assignment, which I designed to encourage students to engage land as a living relative and active participant in the learning process. Through the frameworks of Indigenous Futurisms, Land as Pedagogy, Rhetorical Sovereignty, and Pueblo understandings of marking, I analyze the rhetorical choices across student multimodal narratives, reflections, and interviews to examine the assignment’s pedagogical impact. My findings reveal epistemic differences in how Indigenous …

A Socio-Ecological Study Of Coyote And Human Interactions In San Francisco Bay Open Space Preserves, Zhiyi Zhou

Master's Theses

Urban open space preserves support both intensive recreation and wildlife, but the information on carnivore activity and visitor perceptions is limited. This study combined camera-trap monitoring and on-site visitor surveys to evaluate activity patterns of medium- to large-bodied mammals and perceptions of coyotes at Windy Hill and Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserves (South San Francisco Bay Area). From October 2024 to July 2025, thirteen cameras recorded 213,681 photo events; detections were standardized as detections per 1,000 camera-hours. Ten mammal species and two avian species were detected, including four focal carnivores: coyote (Canis latrans), bobcat (Lynx rufus), mountain lion (Puma …

Rewriting The Plan: Environmental Justice, Community Resistance, And Governance Power In Hollister, California, Rolan Resendiz

Dissertations

This dissertation examines how community-led resistance in Hollister, California, challenged environmental injustice and infrastructure governance through grassroots civic action. Focusing on the Hollister Guardians, a coalition of primarily Latinx residents who organized in response to concerns about the city’s sewer system, this qualitative case study introduces the Critical Just Sustainability Policy Praxis (CJSPP) framework, developed by integrating Critical Policy Analysis and the Just Sustainability Paradigm with a praxis-oriented focus on community action. Using critical document analysis of city council meeting minutes, local media coverage, and community-authored texts mainly from 2023 to 2025, the study explores how policy discourse, institutional decision-making, …

The Lived Experiences Of The Flint Water Crisis And Its Psychological Effects, Joe W. Glenn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Flint, Michigan, water crisis of 2014, with lead contamination of drinking water, adversely affected predominantly Black, socioeconomically disadvantaged residents. However, no research has investigated residents’ experiences, especially their trust in local and state government leaders. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of the Flint water crisis and its psychological effects. Rawls’s theory of justice provided the framework for the study. Three research questions guided this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study. Information from eight Flint residents was collected through semi-structured interviews. Data analysis followed Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological steps. Five strong themes emerged: understanding individual perceptions, views …

Teaching Environmental Justice In Middle School: A Unit Plan For Middle School, Aiesha Osman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone project focuses on the different environmental justice challenges faced by different communities. Many middle school students learn about environmental concepts without specifically learning about different environmental benefits and risks. This capstone project involves developing a curriculum unit for middle school students which introduces environmental justice concepts and helps students recognize that environmental benefits and burdens are not evenly distributed. This project was influenced by environmental justice theory, culturally responsive teaching, socioscientific issues, place-based learning and Understanding by Design. This unit design uses a backward design approach where the outcomes are identified first, then followed by goals based on …

Social Complex Systems In Virtual Thirdspaces Of Global Education: Sites Of Structural Inequalities And Radical Pedagogical Possibilities, José Luis Jimenez-Figarotti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

While Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and Virtual Exchange (VE) are celebrated as democratizing tools fostering intercultural understanding, this techno-utopian narrative obscures a complex reality: the virtual classroom is a contested social field where global inequalities are reproduced and amplified. This dissertation interrogates this paradox, exploring how structural inequalities, digital divides, and epistemic hierarchies are negotiated within the Virtual Thirdspace of global education. Integrating Structural Inequalities (Galtung, 1969; Farmer, 2004; Tilly, 1998; and Young, 2008), Critical Environmental Justice (Pellow, 2018), Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989), World-Systems Analysis (Wallerstein, 1974), and Thirdspace theory (Soja, 1996), the study examines this terrain as both a …

Heritage As Performative Sovereignty: Situated Agency And Environmental (In)Equity In The Arkansas Delta, Faisal Mohammed

Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the materiality of heritage as a proactive and strategic resource for ensuring survival and reshaping justice in rural places. Set in Phillips County, in the Arkansas Delta, a region where environmental neglect and economic marginalization are visibly apparent in the landscape, this research interrogates how a community responds to environmental crises in a contested landscape using locally driven, art-based initiatives. By centering the Water Story Project in Phillips County, funded by One Nation One Project, a national art-based initiative, I explore a ‘thin institutional ecology’ where the scarcity of regulatory oversight and intermediary civic support has …

The Ecotoxicological Implications Of Switching From Fluorescent To Light Emitting Diode Lighting For Zooplankton Culturing And Whole Effluent Toxicity Testing, Orithea Z. Regn

Student Theses and Dissertations

In the global transition toward light emitting diode (LED) lighting, an understudied area is the impact on the culturing and testing of Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) testing organisms, more specifically, the zooplankton species. Without comparison to the current lighting used for culturing and testing, it is unknown if there will be an impact on performance, which could affect effluent, regulatory, and product safety decisions. This dissertation investigated if culturing and reference toxicity testing using sodium chloride for Ceriodaphnia dubia, Daphnia magna, and D. pulex under LED lighting was comparable to fluorescent. Comparisons were made between two laboratories and by season, …

Identifying Existing Barriers To Equitable Transportation In Birmingham, Alabama, Brandy Rose Mckinney

ETDs from 2020-2029

A transportation system is designed to connect people to essential community resources and support their mobility needs. However, transportation facilities and services in lower-income communities often fail to meet local demands, restricting access to jobs, healthcare, recreation, and other critical services. These gaps disproportionately impact lower-income and vulnerable populations, reducing mobility and overall quality of life. This study aims to (a) define transportation inequity and the measures used to assess it; (b) summarize existing inequities across the United States; (c) examine travel choices, needs, and barriers in lower-income communities in Birmingham, Alabama; and (d) propose strategies to address transportation inequity …

“He’S Got The Whole World In His Hands”: Seed Sovereignty And Agricultural Decision Making In Southeastern Kenya, Caroline Stahley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing corporate control of the global seed supply and restrictions to local exchange threaten the autonomy of smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities. This project contributes to agricultural sovereignty movements by examining the decisions farmers make to address climate uncertainty, market volatility, and development agendas. Specifically, how is seed saving practiced and understood in relation to sovereignty? It reimagines what global food systems might look like if investment were directed to producers rather than intermediaries, arguing that cultivators lack support, not knowledge or capacity. Across these domains, seeds act as a motif to describe the concerns, innovations, and visions of farmers.

Making Sense Of The Barrio: Place-Based Appraisal And Coping Among Latine Residents In Chicago, Juanita Vivas Bastidas

Dissertations

Residents of Chicago’s Latine barrios often describe their neighborhoods as places of familiarity and safety—sites defined by both personal independence and collective solidarity, where daily life is marked by a sense of belonging and mutual support. Yet, residents also contend daily with overlapping social and environmental stressors. While urban, medical, and environmental sociologists have each shown that place matters, their findings remain siloed and rarely integrated to illuminate the everyday realities of Latine neighborhoods. As a result, we lack a systematic analysis of how people living in Chicago’s Latine barrios make sense of and cope with multiple, simultaneous stressors. I …

Destination “Burning River”: Restoration And Placemaking In A Rust Belt City, Mia Compton-Engle

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire from industrial pollution. Media narratives reframed the river fire as a symbol of environmental degradation, discursively transforming the Cuyahoga River from a place of industrial sacrifice to a place deserving ecological stewardship. Consequently, the river fire catalyzed the modern American environmental movement and local urban river restoration, materially transforming the Cuyahoga River from a place of industrial waste to a place of natural beauty and socioeconomic opportunity. Thus, urban river restoration presents an opportunity for novel placemaking: a local microcosm of the global turn towards urban sustainability. However, there is …

The Role Of Urban Forests In Mitigating Flooding Effects: A Case Study In Savannah, Georgia, Gillian Bush

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

Flooding in coastal communities is shaped by the interaction between natural systems and urban development. Chatham County, a low-elevation region in the Savannah, Georgia metropolitan area along the eastern coast of the United States, is prone to coastal storms and frequently affected by flooding. It serves as a useful case study to better understand the factors behind flooding and the areas that are most at risk. This study uses GIS-based analysis to examine the overlap between flood risk, urban forest cover, and impervious surfaces. The results indicate elevated vulnerability along major transportation corridors and barrier islands, where high-risk flood zones …

Tracing The Flow Of Value In Ecotourism: A Case Study Of Lekki Conservation Center, Lagos, Nigeria, Queen Oluwatobi Olafadehan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the flow of value in ecotourism at Lekki Conservation Center (LCC) in Lagos, Nigeria, using a political ecology framework to analyze how economic benefits, participation opportunities, and environmental impacts are distributed among different community groups. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 16 community members, participant observation, and photographic documentation, the study investigates how surrounding communities perceive and experience ecotourism, how revenue is understood to be distributed, and in what ways communities are included in or excluded from conservation decision-making. The findings reveal that ecotourism at LCC generates benefits that are unevenly distributed, that community participation in governance remains …

Situating Stormwater Infrastructure Through Collaborative Design: Insights From A University-Community Partnership, Serena A. Echols

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater ponds help address flooding and partially mitigate nutrient pollution while sometimes serving as a central landscape element in community parks. In underserved urban communities, however, stormwater ponds are sometimes neglected and underutilized, leading to public health and environmental justice challenges. Our research in Tampa, Florida, seeks to develop pathways for residents and other stakeholders to collaboratively co-design infrastructure interventions and pondscape redevelopment for neglected stormwater ponds. Drawing on ethnographic and participatory methods as well as environmental assessment and modeling, we are working with residents of one pond community on cleanup and redevelopment strategies. Results reveal that balancing local and …