Digital Commons Network^™

Brilliance In The Margins: An Exploration Of The Lived Experience Of Black Women Faculty In Stem, Mykella C. Mitchell

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This qualitative research study explores the lives of Black women STEM faculty at Ivy and Ivy+ institutions. The existing literature reveals a distinct gap in research as it pertains to this demographic, due to the limited number of Black women who hold faculty positions and the limited research that centers their voices. This study intentionally centered the voices of Black women scholars using portraiture, which helped to avoid the creation of deficit‑based stories. Furthermore, this research was guided by the conceptual frameworks of whiteness as smartness and meritocracy. Portraits were created from the lives of six tenured and tenure‑track Black …

Arts Enriched Head Start Preschool And School Readiness: Are Benefits Accentuated For Children Facing Greater Economic Hardship?, Isabella Capera

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Children growing up in impoverished and low-income households face opportunity gaps that limit their school readiness (Blair & Raver, 2015). Head Start preschool, which serves families facing economic hardship, has been demonstrated to reduce these gaps and enhance school readiness. Further, multiple studies have suggested that arts enriched Head Start may offer particular benefits (e.g., Brown et al., 2010, 2018; Lobo & Winsler, 2008). Yet research to date is limited and has not examined whether the benefits of arts enriched preschool may be uniquely helpful for children facing the greatest economic risk. The present study examines growth in school readiness …

Dual Language Learner Status In Relation To Cortisol For Children In Head Start Preschool, Keala Bratsch

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Early childhood education (ECE) has well documented school readiness benefits, especially for children facing economic hardship. Yet preschool context poses challenges that are associated with elevated stress levels and potential long-term tax on physiological systems that respond to stress. The present study examined dual language learner (DLL) status in relation to levels of the stress hormone cortisol among low-income children attending Head Start Preschool programs. Participants included 207 children ages 3- 5 years who attended preschool in 2021-22 (60.9% attending a dual-language learning school, 39.1% attending an English-instruction-only preschool; all participants meeting the criteria for low-income), and their parents or …

Looking Beyond Minimalist Pedagogies: Rhetorical Listening As A Framework For Ethical Collaboration And Student Empowerment In The Writing Center, Abby M. Samella

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Since its establishment, the Writing Center has strived to solidify its institutional presence as a space of student-centered pedagogy, minimalist directive approaches, and collaborative learning. However, students frequently perceive Writing Centers as the polar opposite of collaboration, frequently seeking out this support for a transactional, ‘remedial’ fix to their writing product. As Writing Centers grapple with this tension that threatens their process-driven pedagogies, scholars recognize a gap in Literature regarding collaborative approaches that empower the student through the implementation of rhetorical listening. Using the foundational framework of Rhetorical Listening as a strategy to reassert the collaborative identity of the Center …

Impact Of Childhood Trauma On Perceptions Of Health: Examining The Role Of Religiosity As A Protective Factor Among Black And African American Adults, Patrice Penrose

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Purpose: Childhood trauma has detrimental immediate and lifelong impacts on health. Black and African Americans experience higher rates of potentially traumatic events (PTEs) than the general population. Religiosity, a common coping mechanism for many who experience trauma, could serve to moderate the impacts. This study examines whether the importance of religion buffers against the impact of childhood exposure to PTEs on adult perceptions of health and assesses whether social support and/or coping mediate the relationship between religiosity and perceived health.

Method: This study analyzed data from 2,537 Black and African American participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to …

Beyond Compliance: Creating A Disability Self-Advocacy Summit For Higher Education Using Critical Disability Pedagogy, Katie Manwiller

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been in place for over 35 years, yet the systems it created to ensure equity are riddled with inherent barriers and often fail to provide equal access because of the ableism baked into American society. Institutions of higher education exemplify this failure as they largely treat disability as a compliance-issue, not as a marginalized identity that deserved dedicated inclusion efforts. Most institutions provide disability inclusion solely through the ADA-mandated accommodation process for students and employees, which falls far short of creating fully accessibility cultures. Crucially, these case-by-case processes isolate disabled people and do …

Connecting Classroom Physics To Real-World Research: A Citizen Science Approach In Ap Physics 1, Heather M. Landgarten

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Advanced Placement (AP) Physics 1 emphasizes evidence-based reasoning, quantitative modeling, and scientific inquiry. However, secondary science instruction often remains focused on procedural problem solving and standardized assessment rather than authentic scientific practice. This study examined the integration of citizen science projects into an AP Physics 1 curriculum to provide students with authentic research experiences while reinforcing physics concepts during the post-AP examination instructional period.

Using a classroom-based mixed-methods pre–post design, students participated in citizen science activities through publicly available research platforms, including Zooniverse. Students collected and classified authentic scientific data, analyzed real-world datasets, developed research questions, compared observations with theoretical …

The Role Of Technology In Education: Friend Or Fiend?, Michaela A. Morgan

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

In this paper we will be examining the role of educational technology in the United States through a critical lens with the purpose of arguing that the growing dependence on EdTech, standardized testing, and data-driven instruction has contributed to the privatization, dehumanization, and inequity of public education. Drawing from critical pedagogy, sociocultural theory, and educational research both recent and decades prior. In my paper I explore how technology in schools often functions less as a liberatory tool and more as a mechanism of surveillance, commodification, and control. We consider the historical roots of educational inequality, including eugenics, meritocracy, and colonial …

Democratizing Our Public Schools Through Student-Led Curriculum, Abigail Claycomb

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to position a traditional public school as an adultist and authoritarian institution and correct its orientation to that of education with a democratic role. I am attempting to democratize public education for teachers and students by creating an emergent, integrated youth participatory action research academic program during the school day that reorients school to have a democratic role. First, I orient myself in this work by introducing some of my teaching experiences in the public and private domains. These experiences have led me to question the structure of school and how students are dehumanized …

Teaching For Meaning: Life, Death, Self And Purpose, Stephen Diromualdo

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Teaching for Meaning is fundamentally a paper about the need for a philosophical shift in current educational goals. The current institution of public education relies on “job training skills” and ideas of “global competitiveness” as its most important outcomes. This thesis argues that not only are these goals insufficient but actually detrimental to human development. The thesis seeks a method to shift to a more humanistic approach of education through the inclusion of several potential methods. Those methods include the implementation of democratic schooling, youth participatory action research and death studies.  In order to establish those methods the thesis the …

Assessing Forest Health And Small Mammals After A Limited Suppression Wildfire In Colville National Forest, Samantha J. Kennel

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

In the face of a wildfire crisis, there is a growing need to expand the pace and scale of forest treatments, including the strategic use of wildfire as a management tool. However, ecological outcomes remain uncertain in forests shaped by more than a century of fire suppression. The 2022 Thor Fire, a managed wildfire in the Colville National Forest, Washington, provides an opportunity to evaluate forest health in a relatively understudied system. Using a control–impact design, I established 100 monitoring plots in burned and adjacent unburned forests to assess how wildfire and fire severity influence forest structure, fuels, and tree …

Evaluating The Impact Of Telemedicine-Based Medication Education On Glycemic Control In Adult Male Veterans With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Megan N. Calter

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Veterans experience disproportionately high rates of type 2 diabetes mellitus (20.5% vs 11.6% nationally), driven by military-related factors such as PTSD, deployment-related obesity, and service-connected disabilities. At a large urban primary care clinic, 28% (40/141) of veterans with type 2 diabetes mellitus had persistently elevated HbA1c levels of ≥8%, indicating a high risk for diabetes-related complications. This quality improvement project aimed to reduce the proportion of veterans with HbA1c of ≥8% by implementing tailored telemedicine-based medication education, leveraging underutilized virtual care infrastructure to address access barriers and improve diabetes self-management. Participants received two 30-minute telemedicine medication and disease management education …

The Role Of Growth Mindset As A Mitigating Factor On Teacher Burnout In The Secondary Math Classroom, Grant Butler

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This mixed methods sequential explanatory study examined how secondary mathematics teachers’ mindsets relate to burnout tendencies, and how schools can support staff mindset to prevent burnout. Using a two-phase design, Phase 1 gathered survey data from 94 secondary math teachers, measuring mindset and burnout with descriptive statistics, correlations, chi-square tests, and regression analysis to quantify associations between mindset orientation and burnout risk. Phase 2 employed semi-structured interviews with a subsample of teachers and open and axial coding to explain and contextualize the quantitative patterns. Quantitative analyses revealed that teachers with more fixed mindset tendencies reported significantly higher burnout scores across …

Beyond The Game: Career Readiness Development At The Nirsa Championship Series, Samantha A. Wary

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Understanding the students' perceptions of the career readiness skills they develop and how they develop is critical in higher education. This allows campus recreation professionals to better understand and create opportunities for student development related to career readiness. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed to investigate students’ perceptions of the career readiness development of student officials who have participated in the NIRSA Championship Series flag football tournaments. Informal and Incidental Learning Theory and Experiential Learning Theory guided the study. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) career readiness competencies were used as a standardized tool to define career readiness. …

Updating Order Set Review Policy To Improve Adherence To Evidence-Based Practice In A Multi-Hospital System, Corynne Lurie

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Ensuring that clinical order sets reflect current evidence-based practice is essential to delivering safe, high-quality, and consistent patient care across health systems. In multi-hospital organizations, maintaining alignment across facilities presents additional challenges, including variability in workflow, stakeholder involvement, and policy adherence. This quality improvement project evaluated the existing order set review process within a three-hospital health system to determine whether current policies effectively support system-wide needs and promote best practices. Guided by Lewin’s Change Theory, a qualitative descriptive design was used to assess current workflows and gather feedback from stakeholders involved in order set development and review. Survey data, with …

Retrospective Analysis Of Calcium Administration In Patients Undergoing Massive Transfusion Protocol (Mtp), Chrissy Unton

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Unintentional injuries have remained the third leading cause of death in the United States since 2015, with the exception of 2020. Of those deaths resulting from traumatic injury, 40% result from hemorrhage and uncontrolled blood loss. Current treatment efforts focus on early, balanced transfusion of blood products and aim to correct metabolic derangements/coagulopathies, while minimizing crystalloid administration. As such, the role hypocalcemia plays in the injury process and the importance of calcium administration in resuscitation efforts has gained traction over recent years. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to assess calcium supplementation in relation to current facility protocol for …

Seeing Through Their Lenses: Perspectives Of Kindergarten Teachers On Implementing Purposeful Play For Children’S Academic And Developmental Learning, Subarna Basu

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of using purposeful play for children’s academic and developmental learning, and the benefits and challenges they perceive in implementing purposeful play. The study utilized a qualitative, visual arts-based, participatory action research (PAR) design, in the form of Photovoice methodology. This qualitative study focused on the kindergarten teachers’ lived experiences and voices on the importance of implementing purposeful play and employed Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and Constructivist theories. Utilizing this methodology, six kindergarten teacher participants collected photographs based on photo prompts, provided narratives to their photographs, and reflected and …

Assessing The Mentorship Role In Neonatal Outcomes, Patricia Juhline Brunner

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The complex environment of neonatal intensive care requires a skilled, engaged nursing workforce to maintain high‑quality outcomes. Structured mentorship is an evidence‑based strategy shown to enhance professional engagement and support improved clinical outcomes. This Doctor of Nursing Practice quality improvement project aimed to evaluate the impact of a structured clinical mentorship program on evidence‑based practice beliefs, nurse engagement, and selected neonatal outcomes in a Level III academic intensive care nursery.

Guided by the Donabedian model, the project evaluated structure through mentorship design and preparation, process through mentor–mentee interactions and workflow integration, and outcomes through nursing and patient metrics. Lewin’s change …

Examining The Stories Of Early-Career Student Affairs Professionals And Free Speech Issues On College Campuses, Kimberly C. Farrer

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This qualitative research study explored the stories of early-career student affairs professionals on their experiences responding to free speech issues on college campuses. Additionally, this studied explored how they were prepared for those responses. This study was important because early-career student affairs professionals are managing free speech issues on college campuses but lack the training and preparation to do this (Duran Leftin & Duran, 2021; Harris & Ray, 2014). This study utilized both authentic leadership theory (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner et al., 2005; Luthans & Avolio, 2003; May et al., 2003; Northouse, 2025) and Kohlberg’s (1976) theory of moral …

Real-Time Isolated Asl Recognition: Evaluating Spatial-Temporal Networks And Multimodal Llms, Raga Mouni Batchu

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This thesis investigates the deployment of high-accuracy Isolated ASL Recognition (ISLR) in resource-constrained edge environments. We train a lightweight Spatio-Temporal Attention Network (SSTAN,∼2.7 M parameters,∼10 MB) on the WLASL-100 benchmark, achieving 75.25% Top-1 and 88.24% Top-5 accuracy with 139 ms CPU-only inference. A systematic comparison against frontier multimodal LLMs (Gemini 3 Flash, Gemini 3.1 Pro, Qwen 3 VL) shows SSTAN outperforms the best LLM baseline by∼1.85×in accuracy while being 22–230×faster and up to 40×cheaper annually. The LLMs’ core limitation is a lack of fine-grained temporal perception; they impose English-language semantic priors rather than learning the articulatory distinctions that define ASL …

Global Inventory Of Fluoropolymer Production Plants And Their Associated Pfas Environmental Contamination, Anna J. Miller, Kevin Kleemann, Juliane Glüge, Rainer Lohmann, Ian T. Cousins, Dorte Herzke, Mark F. Miller, Amanda Rensmo, Xenia Trier, Zhanyun Wang, Martin Scheringer

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Fluoropolymers are widely used across sectors, but their production is associated with emissions of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which are mobile, persistent, and toxic. In this work, we compiled a global inventory of fluoropolymer production plants (FPPs) and assembled PFAS concentration measurements for various media in their vicinity. We identified 52 currently operating FPPs across 11 countries and 41 cities. For 12 FPPs, in 12 different cities, there are peer-reviewed site-specific PFAS measurements specifically attributed to the FPP. At these 12 sites, at least 236 individual PFASs have been detected across multiple environmental media, including surface water, groundwater, air, …

Molecular Detection Of Campylobacter Spp. In Filth Flies Associated With Broiler Breeder Facilities In Oklahoma And Arkansas, Allen Szalanski

Entomology and Plant Pathology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Adult filth flies (Diptera: Muscidae) (non-biting flies that develop in decaying organic matter) are abundant in poultry facilities and may contribute to the dissemination of pathogenic Campylobacter spp. among flocks. We sampled adult house flies, Musca domestica L., and black dump flies, Hydrotaea aenescens (Wiedemann), at five broiler-breeder farms in Oklahoma and Arkansas to determine the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. vectored by filth flies and the effects of farm, fly species, and location (inside vs outside houses) on the rates of Campylobacter spp. occurrence. A total of 1,076 house flies and 1,008 black dump flies were collected inside and outside …

Polysemicolon; Novice Programmers And Java Keywords, Briana C. Bettin

Michigan Tech Publications

Most industrial programming languages leverage the English language for reserved keywords – words which a program compiler recognizes as specific execution commands. The divide between expert and novice programmers showcases an intriguing middle-ground by which the polysemy of many keywords becomes revealed. This essay explores a sampling of the multitude of keyword interpretations that a novice programmer may derive from the Java language’s syntactic style and keywords specifically, and how the polysemy of both “English” and “code” meanings to these terms affects the novice-expert programmer transition.The transition from novice to expert, and the mapping of the career of metaphor to …

Leveraging Open-Source Llms For Infrastructure Drift Detection And Correction, Kemoy S. Campbell

Theses

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) enables organizations to provision and manage infrastructure at scale using version-controlled, declarative specifications. Despite these advantages, infrastructure drift where deployed resources diverge from their intended configuration remains a persistent operational challenge and is often addressed manually and reactively. Recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) have accelerated their adoption within software engineering and DevOps workflows; however, the sensitive nature of IaC artifacts, particularly Terraform state files, has limited organizational willingness to rely on public LLM services for drift detection and remediation. This thesis investigates the feasibility of using open-source, self-hosted LLMs to assist with IaC drift …

Enhancing Json Schema Inference Via Semantic And Structural Modeling Of Heterogeneous Data, Justin R. Namba

Theses

Schema discovery is finding the structure of data. It helps users understand the meaning of data and write queries to manipulate it. This is typically easy for relational databases, but complex for non-relational (NoSQL) databases with documents. For relational databases, the schema is predefined because the data they contain is structured, but for NoSQL databases, data is usually unstructured or semi-structured. Here, we focus on a type of semi-structured data called JSON, which is a collection of documents that consists of nested key-value pairs. A JSON key and value are similar to a column name and its associated data instance …

Which Forms Of Work Flexibility Retain Working Mothers: A Moderated Mediation Model Of Flexibility Need, Flexibility Use, And Top Management Support, Jeanine K. Andreassi, Angela R. Grotto, Leanna Lawter, Tuvana Rua, Cynthia A. Thompson

WCBT Faculty Publications

This study investigates the relative impact of utilizing various forms of work flexibility on mothers’ retention in full-time jobs. Drawing from a model of work reentry for new mothers and Human Ecology Theory (HET), we theorize that mothers’ flexibility needs influence retention through flexibility use and that top management support strengthens this process. Using a cross-sectional Qualtrics online survey, we recruited a diverse sample of 213 women across the United States who stayed with or left their full-time jobs after childbirth or adoption. Using relative weights and path analysis, we compared six forms of flexibility. Schedule, career, and leave flexibility …

Design Thinking For Corporate Social Responsibility Program Proposal Creation, Michelle "Mindy" D. Danovaro

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study used action research to explore how the use of design thinking engaged employees in the creation of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program proposal in a small- to medium-enterprises (SME) in the Sacramento region of California. The purpose of the study was to assess whether employee participation in a design thinking exercise could improve employee perception of engagement, inclusion, and reciprocity during the CSR program proposal creation. The study was grounded in social exchange theory, stakeholder theory, and design thinking methodologies. The iterative research process followed action research cycles (i.e., plan, act, observe, and reflect) integrated with …

Metabolic Mind: A Critical Literature Review On The Influence Of Mindset On Metabolic Health, Jordan Daniel M.A., M.S.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Evidence has demonstrated that psychological processes can influence metabolic functions, which are essential to overall health, as impaired energy metabolism can compromise physiological systems (Bobba-Alves N et al., 2022). Metabolic health is defined as a state of well-being characterized by optimal levels of blood glucose, lipids, cholesterol, blood pressure, and adiposity and is the absence of metabolic dysfunction, which encompasses but is not limited to cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. A powerful psychological construct that has demonstrated its influence on health is a mindset. Defined as core beliefs or assumptions about oneself and the world, …

From Local Innovation To Statewide Policy: A Quantitative Study Of I How Long Island Educators Are Preparing For New York State’S Portrait Of A Graduate Framework, Ishanee Brown-Murphy

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

The New York State Portrait of a Graduate (PoG) framework emphasizes the development of transferable competencies intended to prepare students for college, career, and life readiness. Although the framework has been adopted statewide, limited empirical research exists regarding secondary educators’ perceptions of preparedness to implement PoG competencies within curriculum, instruction, assessment, and schoolwide practices. Understanding educator readiness is essential to supporting effective and equitable implementation across schools The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how secondary educators on Long Island perceive their readiness to implement the New York State Portrait of a Graduate framework. Specifically, the study explored …

Spotify's Bundle Battle: Uncovering The Flaws Of The Music Modernization Act And The Struggle For Fair Royalties In The Streaming Era, Jessica Jilla

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note argues that Section 115 of the Music Modernization Act (MMA) is fundamentally flawed and fails to protect songwriters and publishers from systemic inefficiencies and exploitation. It contends that the current framework is too rigid to address emerging digital business models, necessitating a hybrid restructuring of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) and the statutory licensing system to ensure equitable compensation.