Leadership Studies Commons^™

Beyond Biracial: The Complexity Of Identity Construction For Women With One Black And One White Parent, Roxanne Kymaani

Dissertations

In the United States, the post-Civil Rights Movement era changed forever the social perceptions about race and the self-perceptions of people who are born with mixed racial origin. Choosing to identify as mixed race in America inevitably leads to a racial cross-examination linked to America’s continued struggle with its racial heritage and the enduring legacy of a dominant discourse.

This dissertation focuses on the lived experience of women with one Black and one White parent. While subject to labels such as Black and White, Black, mulatto, biracial, mixed, or other, the central question is what do these women wish to …

Spirituality And Religion In Women's Leadership For Sustainable Development In Crisis Conditions: The Case Of Burma, Phyusin Myo Kyaw Myint

Dissertations and Theses

This research focuses on women's leadership roles for sustainable development in crisis conditions with particular attention to the foundations of the leadership roles of women based in spirituality and religion. The research question for this study ask: How do religious and spiritual traditions contribute to the leadership roles of women that can be effective in building sustainable development in crisis conditions? The study uses a content analysis of a key body of women's writings from Burma. The findings from the data explain some of the ways in which spirituality and religion have played significant roles in promoting the leadership of …

Ua3/9/7 Commencement & 2013-14 Academic Year Wrap-Up, Wku President's Office - Ransdell

WKU Administration Documents

Email from WKU president Gary Ransdell to faculty & staff.

Leading Ladies: Women In Southern Politics, Jennifer Leaphart

Senior Theses

The following paper presents the issues contributing to the lack of female representation in southern states. Throughout the work, the South is defined as the former eleven states of the Confederacy. Using statistical data from reputable centers and government organizations, personal interviews, and incorporating previous national research on women and politics, findings show that women face unique factors when considering to run for office and even winning political office. The South’s social and political culture, state legislature structure, and lack of state recruitment organizations and PACs specifically for female candidates all compound together to strengthen the probability that women in …

Engaged Citizenship: A Longitudinal Study Of Student Engagement And Early Adulthood, Jennifer Rau

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Higher education has been called upon to validate its contribution to society. With its purpose of the public good, higher education must to show its ability to benefit individuals and society beyond graduation rates and employment statistics. Preparing students to be engaged citizens is critical in continuing to improve society and our communities. Recent initiatives, including the American Democracy Project of the AASC&U and Campus Compact (2010) have focused on encouraging and teaching undergraduates to be engaged citizens. It is important to assess student engagement, participation in educational activities and experiences during college, as it relates to an individual becoming …

Influence Of Entrepreneurship Education On Entrepreneurship Development In Post-Secondary Education, Kenneth Newbold

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Entrepreneurship education programs have expanded across post-secondary education in the past thirty years, leading to an increased need to further understand the impact entrepreneurship education has along the construct of entrepreneurship development. Three related studies comprise this research and were conducted to investigate the effect entrepreneurship education has on entrepreneurship development. Students, existing entrepreneurs, and alumni were surveyed in these three studies to compare differences between participants and non-participants in educational experiences. The present research builds upon the existing body of knowledge and seeks to provide research and psychometric contributions to the field by studying specific educational interventions and modifying …

Combating Occupational Apartheid Plaguing Internationally Trained Professionals: A Mixed Methods Description Of Activist Entrepreneurship In Cross-Sector Partnerships, Stephen Wayne Lambert

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Individuals that were born in a foreign country, have a bachelor’s degree or higher from a foreign post-secondary education institution, and are not working at their full level of expertise, are referred to more concisely as “internationally trained professionals” (ITPs). Social workers have called becoming informed about immigrants’ integration needs a new frontier of social service and professional development. All fields of human services will benefit from any data resulting from descriptive exploration of the ITP integration issue. The bounded system that serves for this case study is the current limited response to the ITP issue seen in Virginia, USA. …

Predictive Modeling Of Alumni Donors: An Engagement Model For Fundraising In Postsecondary Education, Nicholas Rau

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Postsecondary education institutions only have a limited amount of time and resources to direct at acquiring new donors for private funding and support. More research is needed to better understand why an individual chooses to give, and to utilize that understanding to create an improved, more informed practice of donor acquisition. By using the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), student engagement and alumni activity are explored as possible determinants in predicting donors. Further testing of this predictive model via utilizing a telefund calling center to solicit individuals allows for testing of differential scripts when speaking with alumni. This study …

Identifying Determinants Of Migration For Alumni Of The Nebraska Human Resources Institute, Jack Ehrke

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many Midwestern and Nebraska communities are experiencing a net out-migration of citizens, with a particular decline among college graduates. As older generations begin to retire in the next few decades, many management occupations will be transferred to a younger generation, making it vital to retain young leaders in Nebraska communities. The current study focuses on young adult leaders who would be perhaps prime candidates to fill this impending leadership void. One hundred nineteen alumni of the Nebraska Human Resources Institute (NHRI), a leadership mentoring program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who graduated college between 2007-2014 rated various migration, community, and …

Improv To Improve Interprofessional Communication, Team Building, Patient Safety, And Patient Satisfaction, Candace A. Campbell

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

The purpose of this process improvement project was to implement a test of change within a healthcare team utilizing applied improvisational exercises (AIEs), and to lay the groundwork for more effective inter- and intra-professional communication.

Literature review: AIEs have been shown to facilitate individual participant communication strengths through a process of un-learning certain common behavioral habits, and learning new habits that assist in creating and expanding closed-loop communication. Such un-learning and learning enriches the participant’s awareness of the environment and encourages participant adaptability through positive group interactions.

Method: An all-day AIE seminar/workshop was conducted with members of two healthcare teams …

Staff Perceptions Of Work-Environment Factors Affecting Morale In Southeastern Registrar's Offices, Rheanna Plemons

Dissertations

Studies on morale are prevalent in industry, healthcare, and public educational systems. However, morale studies are limited within higher education and focusing on the support staff at universities. This qualitative study used focus groups to identify themes among support staff in selected Registrar’s Offices in the Southeastern region of the United States. Institutions were chosen based on comparable enrollments and similar organizational structure. The researcher asked participants to discuss their perceptions on current morale levels in the office and how different work responsibilities affect morale. In addition, participants were asked to discuss motivators used by leaders and whether those motivators …

Building Homes, Building Hope: Learning Leadership Through Service, Melanie Tomlinson

Senior Honors Projects

Staff and volunteers of South County Habitat for Humanity (SCHH) work to build affordable homes for families that cannot purchase homes through traditional means. SCHH employs less than 10 individuals; construction and other work is done primarily by volunteers. Together, these volunteers dedicate well over 15,000 hours of their time each year to help build homes. This year, SCHH had approximately 5 houses in progress at one time, a large number for this particular area’s Habitat affiliate. SCHH volunteers and students from the URI Habitat for Humanity chapter must battle harsh weather conditions and limited building days to complete houses …

Student Government Leadership In The 21st Century : Its Importance And Why It Must Be Supported., Spencer Scruggs

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Schools: The Spiritual Development Of Leaders In Protestant Seminaries, Patricia A. Rhodes Phd

Dissertations

Scholars and practitioners increasingly consider the spiritual development of leaders to be essential, not only for individual well-being, but that of the culture at large. This is particularly important for clergy, a profession centered on spiritual leadership. While the institutions in which most Protestant ministers pursue training have historically privileged scholarship over spirituality, this has changed substantially since the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) added spiritual development of students to its accreditation standards in 1992. Since then, seminaries have sought to comply in various ways. This study explored two Protestant seminaries, addressing these questions: (a) what is the process seminaries …

Developing An Intentional Mentoring Model For Disciple Formation At The Mayfair Church Of Christ, Jason Bybee

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project to lead a team in the development of an intentional mentoring model for disciple formation at the Mayfair Church of Christ. This intervention involved the team members in a series of sessions during September and October 2013. Project sessions were designed to provide participants an intentional mentoring experience through exposure to four core practices: exploration of the biblical text, appreciative inquiry exercises, communal sharing, and prayer. Sessions were informed by (1) an understanding of discipleship as following behind Jesus and walking alongside our fellow sojourners, (2) the nature of …

My Creative Life: A Journey Of A Lifetime, Deborah A. Provenzano

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

ABSTRACT OF A PROJECT

My Creative Life: A Journey of a Lifetime

As I continue pursuing my studies in Creativity and Creative Thinking, I am developing, synthesizing, and practicing my creative talents; discovering all that I am and who I want to be; and further developing my creative leadership abilities. Now is the time for me to discuss what legacy I will leave or what contribution I will make in this world. This paper is a reflection of my personal philosophy on creativity, motivation, and engagement; and how I will make a difference in society as a Creative and Change …

Decision Making And Creativity: A Qualitative Study Of Macarthur Fellows, Leslie Hennessy Ph.D.

Dissertations

This research study explored how eight individuals recognized for their creativity activate, develop, express, and sustain their creativity through decision making. The individuals were MacArthur Fellowship award winners. This prestigious fellowship is given to individuals who the MacArthur Foundation considers to be high-achieving and highly innovative individuals. The Fellowship recipients in this study were affiliated with either nonprofit or for-profit organizations, and all were founders of their respective organizations.

The specific goals of the research were to: (a) understand the details of participant decision making strategies and processes; (b) investigate if participants demonstrate consistent or different decision making strategies across …

"Parent Trigger" Legislation In The United States: A Key To Parent Empowerment In The Local Context, Julie A. Zoellin Cramer Phd

Dissertations

Parent involvement in public education has changed over time in the United States. Recently it has taken on a more radical dimension aimed at shifting the role of parents. These efforts are identified by some as parent empowerment and arguably may be part of a larger policy movement to secure parent voice in equity-focused education reform. The policy innovation allows parents with students in persistently underperforming schools to force a change in school governance. Since the passage of the first parent trigger law in California in 2010, three parent petition campaigns have forced a turnaround in school governance. The purpose …

Study Abroad As A Multifaceted Approach To Supporting College Sophomores: Creating Optimal Environments To Promote Intercultural Maturity, Jessica Luchesi Phd

Dissertations

Leaders in higher education bear the responsibility of creating educational environments and programming that promote student development and help prepare graduates to work, live, and lead in today's interconnected and global society. Such institutional programming, which fosters intercultural maturity, defined as the cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal developmental capacities that enable students to act in ways that are aware and appropriate, should be available to all students. Scholarly work, however, demonstrates that sophomore students receive the least amount of institutional attention and thus have fewer programs directed at fostering their development. As a result, sophomores can find themselves negotiating developmental challenges …

Facilitating Comprehension And Motivation By Engaging Adolescents As Ipad Readers, Virginia M. Bauman Edd

Dissertations

Technologies continue to transform the many ways that we read, write, and communicate, redefining what it means to be literate in the 21st century. For example, the explosive growth in tablet computers over the last few years has seemingly everyone embracing the new digital literacies without any real knowledge of the skills, strategies, and dispositions required to comprehend digital text. Given the newness of this technology, it's hardly surprising that little empirical research has been conducted to examine the extent to which e-books can actually improve comprehension as well as the motivation to read among students. To help solve this …