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Prospective Students
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Faculty and Staff
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Current Students
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Alumni and Friends
Higher education leadership demographics contrast sharply with formulaic narratives of
college campuses filled with gender and racial diversity, especially in intercollegiate athletics.
Black women occupy only 2% of athletic director positions at predominantly White institutions
and are vastly underrepresented in other leadership roles (National Collegiate Athletic
Association, 2022). Often overlooked and underrepresented in current intercollegiate athletic
literature, this qualitative, narrative inquiry aimed to provide an opportunity to both examine the
experiences and magnify the voices of Black women within intercollegiate athletic leadership
and explore how they access leadership opportunities. Ten in-depth, semi-structured narrative
interviews were conducted with Black women representing all levels of administrative leadership
within Division I, II, and III collegiate programs. Findings revealed the work experiences of
these Black women in athletic leadership were impacted by their need to maintain their
uniqueness/individuality as Black women, the devaluing of Black womanhood in college athletic
workplaces, and their motivation for persistence/survival in the industry. Understanding the
experiences of Black women who were successful in navigating the leadership hierarchy is
useful for higher education leaders to examine and revise current hiring, training, and
professional development programs to create a more diverse and inclusive environment in
intercollegiate athletic leadership.
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is a nature-inspired engineering solution to stormwater management that has gained increasing attention over the last two decades. While the technical evidence supporting the efficacy and efficiency of GSI is crucial, it alone does not necessarily translate to a significant increase in GSI adoption. Even with the recent research focus gradually turning toward the social benefits of GSI implementation, the social factors that influence its implementation remain underexplored. Furthermore, successful GSI adoption and implementation requires a collaborative effort in governance transitioning, public engagement, and adequate consideration of demographic constraints. Therefore, it is essential to understand the social barriers that hinder the adoption of GSI. This dissertation draws interdisciplinary linkages between social barriers and the cognitive biases that may affect rational decision-making for GSI adoption.
Mecklenburg County, the most population-dense county in North Carolina, is an ideal case study location to represent future scenarios for other urbanized areas across the United States. The case study, including an online survey and interviews with local officials, reveals patterns that resonate with the literature's findings that negative public opinions hinder long-term support for GSI. This study created a simulation model to streamline decision-making processes based on individual behaviors to explore long-term local GSI adoption patterns. The simulation model developed in this study shows that cognitive biases, such as loss aversion and status quo, could impede broader GSI adoption. The insights of this work could help local stormwater management authorities identify shortcomings in current stakeholder engagement plans to increase financial support for GSI implementation in urbanized areas.
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Traditional methods of staff development do not meet the needs of current healthcare organizations. It is difficult to find training that is effective and flexible to meet staff needs with variable scheduling (Chen at al., 2022; Haggerty et al., 2012). Preceptor development was identified as a course that is important for the success of staff, but hard to attend the training with traditional methods. This study sought to gain insight to the experiences of nurses who attended a blended learning preceptor development course. The course trains preceptors to develop the confidence, identify tools, and know the resources needed to onboard new nurses so they are in turn confident and safe in their practice. The following research questions will guide this study: 1) What are the experiences of nurse preceptors who attended the blended learning preceptor development course?; 2) How do nurse preceptors perceive their level of preparedness in being able to successfully train and onboard new nursing staff after attendance in the blended learning preceptor development course?; 3): How do nurses who attended the blended learning course describe their ability to be able to precept a new hire?
The combination of singular optics and partially coherent fields has become increasingly important in the applications of optical communication and optical imaging. Within this, we focus on the phenomena of optical vortices. We use and study the properties of these partially coherent vortex beams such as the total angular momentum, as well as investigate the effects of partial coherence on vortex created phenomena, namely superoscillations. In this dissertation we use the optical vortices as observed through the cross-spectral density in a partially coherent field to create superoscillations and investigate the superoscillatory behavior as the field is randomized. It is shown that a decrease in spatial coherence can in some cases strengthen the superoscillatory behavior, and in others decrease it. We then look at superoscillations that appear in the phase of the correlation function in partially coherent Talbot carpets. Utilizing the Talbot effect, it is shown that superoscillations can be propagated significant distances, even under a decrease in spatial coherence. It is also shown that this decrease in spatial coherence can strengthen the superoscillatory behavior at the primary and secondary Talbot images. We also introduce a modification to the class of partially coherent vortex beams known as Twisted Vortex Gaussian-Schell Model Beams through the addition of polarization. These beams have angular momentum from three different sources: the underlying vortex order of the beam, the "twist" given to the ensemble of beams, and the polarization of the beam. The combination of these angular momentum properties allows for unprecedented control over the total angular momentum of the field and its transverse distribution.
The purpose of this exploratory descriptive case study was to understand the experiences of faculty learning community members practicing active learning strategies in virtual learning environments (VLEs) to discover how teaching in virtual spaces for an extended period of time impacted the use of active learning strategies in physical classrooms. Ten faculty interviewed in this study experienced an abrupt and forced transition from active learning classrooms (ALCs) to VLEs in March 2020 and continued teaching virtually until August 2021. Through interviews conducted at the case study institution, three overarching themes emerged about practicing active learning strategies in VLEs and subsequent changes when participants returned to physical classrooms: (1) Working the Room highlighted how participants adapted existing active learning models designed for physical spaces to fit the VLE and replicate physical elements from ALCs. (2) It’s Not in the Syllabus reframed Lewin’s (1947) change model and included a “pivot” that provided faculty the flexibility needed to address unpredictable challenges. Finally, the emergence of (3) Virtual In-Person Classrooms (VIPCs) that included tools that transferred from VLEs allowed participants to imagine new ways of practicing active learning strategies in physical classrooms and helped to overcome learning space barriers and ALC shortages.
Background: The most common cause of sentinel events is ineffective communication among the healthcare team. Nurses’ documentation of communication, including documenting the notification of critical laboratory results (CLR), is important to ensure that information is accessible. Growing evidence supports the potential of ongoing peer review with feedback as a quality improvement (QI) intervention for documentation.
Purpose: This project sought to implement and evaluate a peer audit and feedback intervention focused on CLR documentation.
Methods: The project occurred on two units of a tertiary medical center where compliance for documentation of CLR was below goal for several years. The intervention was timely peer audit and feedback of CLR events, with a post-project survey to gain nursing perspectives on the process. Data collected included overall compliance rate for CLR documentation, data from the peer audits, and post intervention survey responses.
Results: The improvement in CLR documentation compliance was not statistically significant; however, results were clinically significant as compliance improved on one unit from 6.10% to 9.6% (57.4% improvement). Survey results showed overall positive perceptions of peer audit and feedback as a QI tool, and the intervention was perceived as being non-punitive and helpful for improving practice.
Conclusion: Results support continued examination of the peer audit and feedback process, and its potential for QI in nursing documentation. Future projects should consider strategies to address limited time for nursing staff to engage in quality improvement projects.
In recent years, Wide Bandgap (WBG) semiconductor based power devices has matured rapidly and are playing a significant role in high switching frequency power electronic applications. WBG materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) possess a higher critical breakdown strength, an increased thermal conductivity, and a wider energy bandgap than silicon which make WBG semiconductors as a material of choice in low on-resistance, high blocking voltage, high switching frequency and high operating temperature power applications. In addition, using these devices result in the overall size reduction of the devices as higher doping levels can be achieved at similar voltage levels.
A gate driver acts as an interface between power devices and logic-level control signals and plays a significant role in the switching behaviour of WBG devices. To increase the overall efficiency and reduce the footprint of the system high switching frequency operation of the devices is desirable. However, power consumption in the gate driving circuit increases with frequency. A viable strategy to reduce the gate driving power consumption is to use resonant gate driving technique where part of the energy stored in the gate capacitance is recycled.
In this dissertation, a novel resonant gate driver (RGD) for WBG devices is proposed which drives the semiconductor device using quasi-square wave by utilizing higher order harmonics. Firstly, the operating principles of the proposed gate driver circuit is presented. Secondly, a detailed characteristic analysis and power loss analysis of the circuit are provided. Additionally, a comprehensive simulation study of the proposed circuit is introduced. Moreover, a prototype of the proposed RGD was built and tested. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed gate driving technique can significantly reduce power consumption in the gate driver circuit in comparison to conventional gate driving techniques.
Over 80% of all malaria deaths occur in children under 5 years of age. Malaria control
strategies have been progressively shifted to specific populations and/or areas to max-
imize effectiveness. Malaria is a significant public health problem in Ghana. Seasonal
Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) using a combination of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine
and amodiaquine has been implemented since 2015 in northern Ghana where malaria
transmission is intense and seasonal. In this study, we estimated the prevalence of
asymptomatic P. falciparum carriers in three ecological zones of Ghana, and com-
pared the sensitivity and specificity of different molecular methods in identifying
asymptomatic infections. Moreover, we examined the frequency of mutations in pfcrt,
pfmdr1, pfdhfr, and pfdhps that relate to the ongoing SMC. A total of 535 asymp-
tomatic schoolchildren were screened by microscopy and PCR (18s rRNA and TARE-
2) methods. Among all samples, 28.6% were detected as positive by 18S nested PCR,
whereas 19.6% were detected by microscopy. A high PCR-based asymptomatic preva-
lence was observed in the north (51%) compared to in the central (27.8%) and south
(16.9%). The prevalence of pfdhfr-N51I/C59R/S108N/pfdhps-A437G quadruple mu-
tant associated with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance was significantly higher in
the north where SMC was implemented. Compared to 18S rRNA, TARE-2 serves as
a more sensitive molecular marker for detecting submicroscopic asymptomatic infec-
tions in high and low transmission settings. These findings establish a baseline for
monitoring P. falciparum prevalence and resistance in response to SMC over time.
Ghana is also one of the three African countries where the world’s first malaria
vaccine, RTS, S, was launched recently. The vaccine contains part of the central
repeat region and the complete C-terminal of the circumsporozoite protein (CSP)
gene of the 3D7 strain. Polymorphism in the PfCSP protein has been reported from
several parts of the world. However, whether RTS, S-induced immunity is PfCSP
allele-dependent and if selection favors non-3D7 strains are unclear. This study aims
to examine the genetic polymorphism of the PfCSP genes in clinical P. falciparum
cases and provide a baseline of parasite diversity prior to vaccine implementation in
Ghana. A total of 212 clinical samples were collected from Seikwa located in the
Brong Afrong region where the vaccine is currently being deployed. Preliminary data
indicated a high rate of polyclonal infections, with some samples harboring up to 3
clones based on the allele frequency among mapped reads. Parasite clones detected
within the same host were not genetically similar to one another. Instead, they were
distributed in various subclades and closely related to clones identified from other
hosts. It is yet to be investigated if the high PfCSP haplotype diversity and low
resemblance to the 3D7 strain have an impact on the anti-CSP immune response and
thereby the efficacy of RTS,S.
