ETSU - Illuminated - Fall 2020 by East Tennessee State University

FROM THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES The East Tennessee State University School of Graduate Studies is proud to present Illuminated, a magazine that showcases the excellent work of our graduate students and their faculty advisors. There are over 2,400 students enrolled in graduate programs at ETSU. Illuminated presents some of our students’ research and creative works that make meaningful contributions to various disciplines, and contribute to our strong graduate programs. Illuminated features research and creative projects that are currently happening on campus, and provides updates on alumni of ETSU graduate programs.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR As the world is still dealing with COVID-19 and ever-changing circumstances, we are working remotely, and we find innovative ways to continue to serve ETSU and the larger community. We will only be able to get the online version of the magazine to you, but the print version will follow. Our thoughts are with you and our hearts are aching for: People who already lost a loved one; families/students who are housing and food insecure; graduate students whose thesis/ dissertation projects are on hold and/or need to be changed; those students who cannot finish clinicals as planned; to faculty and staff who are teaching and working from home; our custodial staff who prepare the university for a safer return; and all of you who are caring for children and the elderly... Our lives have been disrupted, and it will take time to come back from physical distancing as we support each other through these months. This might also be the time to think of new questions for future scholarship; to evaluate what we were doing, and share results. Sounds like the beginning of good research projects.

Sharon James McGee, PhD, Dean Scott Kirkby, PhD Associate Dean

We hope you and your families, loved ones, and friends are healthy, staying strong and supporting each other.

Karin Bartoszuk, PhD Associate Dean

EDITOR Dr. Karin Bartoszuk Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies

WRITER Hannah Warren MS Sport Science & Coach Education

East Tennessee State University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, masters, specialist, and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097, telephone 404-679-4500, or Website: www.sacscoc.org with any question regarding the accreditation of East Tennessee State University.

PHOTOGRAPHY Student/Faculty Submitted ETSU Photographic Services University Relations

DESIGN Emily Redd, MFA Thesis/Dissertation Coordinator, School of Graduate Studies

ETSU is an AA/EEO employer. ETSUGRAD-0018-20 100

CONTENTS 4

From the School of Graduate Studies

8 Where are they now? Featuring: Carter Florence, DrPH

2 When Helping Hurts: An Examination of Repeated Exposure Trauma in First Responders of East Tennessee Thalia Sullivan, Psychology, Clinical Psychology concentration, PhD

11 The Changing Face of Early Childhood Education in the Time of COVID-19 Maria Jose Dias, Early Childhood Education, PhD

Improving Vehicular Intrusion Detection Systems through Knot Flow Classification David Schmidt, Computer and Information Systems, Applied Computer Science concentration, MS

Where are they now? Featuring: Randa Dunlap, PhD

COVID-19 Coping Strategies Anthony Peluso, DrPH

3.5 Million ETSU Theses and Dissertations Downloaded

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Analyzing Pass/Fail Rates of Newborn Hearing Screenings for Infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) Jennifer Lowe, Audiology, AuD

Where are they now? Featuring: Cerrone Foster, PhD

28 COVID-19 Coping Strategies Andrea Poynter, Nursing, PhD

Sculptural Narratives of Traumatic Experiences Shanna Glawson, Studio Art, MFA

Impact of a Student-Led Gap Year Erin Garcia, Educational Leadership, EdD

Where are they now? Featuring: Beth Freeman, PhD

Understanding the Past so You Can Improve the Future Bianka Adamatti, History, MA

From Engineer to Educator: A Passion for Purpose Everett Roper, Educational Leadership, EdD

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GRADUATE STUDENTS & ADVISORS Are you excited about your research and would like to share your hypothesis or findings? YOU MIGHT BE A PERFECT FIT FOR ILLUMINATED. There is more than one way to get into the next issue of the magazine!

Share Screen For current graduate students and their advisors: Are you or one of your graduate students working on a culminating experience (e.g., thesis, dissertation, capstone)? Your research could receive additional exposure through Illuminated magazine and help educate the rest of the campus about your department and program. This is a unique opportunity to get your work recognized!

For current graduate students and their advisors: Did you or one of your students get into an excellent doctoral program or get an excellent position? We want to hear about it! Share your story in the “Where Are They Going?” section.

For former graduate students and their advisors: Do you know an outstanding student who graduated from ETSU more than a year ago? We want to hear from them! The “Where Are They Now?” section features former ETSU graduate students who are now professionals in positions across the country.

Click here for Nomination Form: https://www.etsu.edu/gradschool/documents/ illuminated_nomination_form.pdf

For more information on nominating students or getting featured in Illuminated, please contact: Dr. Karin Bartoszuk, bartoszu@etsu.edu

Writing Camp, 2020, research workspace; Sharon Bigger, Nursing, PhD

Writing Camp, 2020, research workspace; Charlie McCoin, Educational Leadership, EdD

WHEN HELPING HURTS: An Examination of Repeated Exposure Trauma in First Responders of East Tennessee

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halia came to ETSU from California State University, Sacramento in 2019. She had considered applying to other programs but was particularly drawn to Dr. Ginley’s research on substance use disorders, an aspect of psychology she first became interested in during high school. Shortly after Thalia arrived in East Tennessee, she read an

Thalia Sullivan

Psychology, PhD, Concentration in Clinical Psychology Dr. Meredith Ginley, Faculty Advisor

Written by Hannah Warren

article about a contact overdose in a first responder in Nashville. This article sparked her curiosity about the experiences first responders are facing during the opioid epidemic. Now, Dr. Ginley is serving as Thalia’s chair for her thesis, which examines how the opioid epidemic in Tennessee has elicited repeated exposure trauma in individuals who are called to

respond to the scene of an overdose. As the opioid epidemic has intensified in East Tennessee, first responders are encountering what they call “frequent flyers,” or individuals who exhibit repeated overdoses, often resulting in the same first responder attending to the same individual more than once. Because of this, first responders are having to administer Narcan®, an emergency nasal spray that can be used to help reverse a narcotic overdose, more frequently in conjunction with having to use multiple doses, provide CPR, and administer respirations with a bag-valve-mask. Despite best efforts, first responders are sometimes not able to reverse the overdose. Additionally, first

responders are facing an increased risk of needle stick injuries resulting in the transference of bloodborne pathogens and contact overdoses from Fentanyl® and Carfentanil®.

Thalia Sullivan at COSSAP

In order to understand what first responders are increasingly faced with as a result of the opioid epidemic, Thalia and Dr. Ginley created a semi-structured, qualitative interview consisting of six primary questions and several follow up questions that lasts approximately thirty minutes to one hour. The interview questions are designed to identify: What symptoms of repeated exposure trauma, related to the opioid epidemic in Tennessee, are reported in the first

responder population? What coping behaviors do first responders’ employ after repeated exposure to trauma from responding to opioid related incidents? What interventions are available to first responders to utilize, in Tennessee, following opioid related incidents? Lastly, do the first responders feel these interventions are sufficient to deal with the consequences of the opioid epidemic and if not, what other interventions would they like to see implemented?

“...first responders are encountering individuals who exhibit repeated overdoses...”

Once the interviews are scheduled, Thalia conducts and records the interviews. Research assistants then transcribe the interviews, a process that can take six to eight hours. Seven preliminary categories have been identified in the completed interviews, which include: 1. Habituation (i.e., diminishing of an emotional response due to having to respond to opioid-related incidents). 2. Reactive versus proactive action (i.e., first responders are providing immediate medical support to patients, but are unable to offer further services). 3. Adaptive vs. maladaptive coping strategies (i.e., first responders are frequently engaging in maladaptive coping strategies such as smoking, drinking alcohol on their days off, and humor, which may occur in an effort to not deal with their emotions). 4. Barriers to accessing resources (i.e., departments are lacking in mental health resources, and first responders are 9

Police officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty.

apprehensive in using what is in place due to the stigma that may follow). 5. Trauma symptoms (i.e., suicidality, anxiety, stress, nightmares, and burnout). 6. Lack of departmental support. 7. Brotherhood (i.e., despite the stress of these calls, the responders still feel like they have each other to lean on). To reduce possible bias in Thalia’s final analyses, a software called NVivo will be used to code all transcripts and produce the finalized categories. One of the challenges Thalia faced during this process was getting her foot in the door at stations and departments to find individuals who would be willing to be interviewed. Thalia speculates that the reason she is having this difficulty could be due to the stigma surrounding mental health in the first responder field, and that she is seen as an “outsider” due to being a researcher. However, the individuals she has been able to interview so far have been very willing to talk with her and share their experiences. Another challenge Thalia has faced is shifting her interviews from in-person to over-the-phone as a

Thalia Sullivan

Throughout this project, Thalia has enjoyed being able to see the possibilities of future clinical work. While it is difficult to see the symptoms of trauma in first responders, Thalia is excited to be working in this area of research to make a difference in this population. Thalia credits Dr. Ginley for helping her grow as a researcher and clinician during these projects. Dr. Ginley has provided mentorship and support throughout her interviews, and helped train her in conducting the CAPS-5 interview (i.e., the clinical standard for diagnosing PTSD),

69% of first responders are still reporting not having enough time to recover in between traumatic events result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Thalia and Dr. Ginley conducted 30 interviews. This past March, Thalia presented her work at the COAP (now COSSAP), a conference that focuses on helping the opioid users and the helpers on the front line of the opioid crisis. The two have already started running a follow-up study to this one, which is working on validating the PTSD Checklist for First Responders (PCL-FR). The PCL-FR, based on the PCL-5 (i.e., helps give an individual a preliminary diagnosis of PTSD), is being developed to better assess PTSD in first responders. Thalia’s hope is that first responder departments will be receptive to administering the PCL-FR during their yearly physicals and periodic check-ins to identify first responders that could be in need of extra services.

Dr. Meredith Ginley

which they have been using to validate the PCL-FR. Dr. Ginley has also helped her grow as a research mentor to the undergraduate research assistants. Thalia is early in her PhD program and is excited to begin her clinical rotations to gain more experience and begin to decide which aspect of her field she wants to pursue in the future.

Left, Firefighter Jason Nicholson, Right, Thalia Sullivan

Where Are They Now?

Why did you choose ETSU for your education?

How did your time at ETSU prepare you for this career?

When I began looking for a graduate program, I wanted an intimate, in-person setting that focused on providing students with opportunities to work with rural communities. ETSU provided a holistic public health education with the option to work with various populations and communities.

My time at ETSU provided me a whole host of experiences of different ways I could use my public health degree. My internships worked with rural communities and community-based organizations, while some of my electives afforded the opportunity for research abroad. This variety of opportunities helped me to understand what I wanted in a career. Additionally, the faculty and my classmates were very encouraging as sounding boards when thinking about ways to use my degree.

What is your current position and/or research? Currently, I am a Senior Director, Strategy and Impact with Meals on Wheels America.

What does this position/research entail? In this role, I support the development and implementation of national level initiatives focused on socialization and in-home safety for older adult, Meals on Wheels clients. Currently, we have multiple research and evaluation efforts underway. One facet of my research looks to better understand effective interventions for fostering human connections with homebound older adults with the aim of reducing social isolation and loneliness.

What advice would you offer current or future graduate students? Do your homework, both before and during graduate school. Finding the right fit is important. I’d recommend taking time to understand what you hope to get out of a graduate program and match the fit accordingly. Make sure you talk to students and faculty before making your decision. Once you’re in graduate school, take advantage of the networking and non-class related opportunities. They are just as important as what you do in the classroom. Lastly, stay in touch. Your faculty and peers can be great mentors long after your graduate work is complete.

Carter Florence DrPH, Doctor of Public Health Department of Community & Behavioral Health Graduate: MPH, 2013, DrPH, 2020

The Changing Face of Early Childhood Education in the Time of COVID-19

aria began her career in education as a fourth-generation teacher, teaching Englishas-a-foreign language, after receiving her bachelor’s degree in translation and interpretation (Portuguese-English) in her home country of Brazil. After teaching for fifteen years, she decided to further improve her English and earn a master’s degree in education. She saw that she could do both simultaneously by completing her master’s in an English-speaking country. At first, Maria was unsure of how to go about applying to a school in a foreign country. Fortunately, one of her friends, Maria Costa, serves as the Director of ETSU’s International Programs and was able to help Maria navigate the process of applying to study internationally, in the United States. Prior to talking with Maria Costa, she did not know much about ETSU, but felt drawn to the school once she heard about its size and friendly atmosphere. Maria’s application was accepted, and she completed her degree in secondary education with a concentration in English as a Second Language, and is now completing her PhD in Early

Maria José A. Dias

Early Childhood Education, PhD Dr. Julia Atiles, Faculty Advisor

Childhood Education with research interest in English Language Learners. With encouragement from Dr. Julia Atiles, Maria worked on a project to explore the impact COVID-19 has had on early childhood educators, the challenges they are facing, and what they are doing to overcome those challenges. As COVID-19 progressed and forced schools to transition into a distance-education format, educators were faced with new challenges regarding delivery methods of educational materials to the students. The impact of this switch has ranged from a minor inconvenience for some school districts, to a monumental challenge for rural and lowsocioeconomic areas, both at home and abroad where access to reliable internet and technology is limited. From this understanding, Maria and the group began thinking about their question in terms of access to resources between those in public versus private schools. The amount of resources an educator’s students had access to would shape and redefine the new role of the educator.

Written by Hannah Warren

For the project, Maria, Dr. Atiles, and three other professors (two from Costa Rica and the other from California) surveyed 26 early childhood educators across eight countries: Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Each educator was sent some guiding questions meant to be the focus of a conversation/interview over Zoom. Once the interviews were completed, their answers were categorized and compiled into Excel. Through the research, similar responses to the questions were observed among the responses of the individuals relating to teacher training (both pre and post the transition to distance learning), types of technology used, access to internet, food insecurity, and lessons teachers have learned during the pandemic. Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and the swift transition to convert schools to online or hybrid learning, many educators were informed of the platform they were to use for their classroom with little to no indepth training in the nuances of the system

“...some families did not have internet access or not even electronic devices, which limited the interaction with teachers to communications through pre-paid phones.”

or how to maximize the selected platform’s effectiveness. In addition, it was identified that lower SES families did not have internet access or not even electronic devices, which limited the interaction with teachers to communications through prepaid phones. The shift from in-person to online learning has also shifted education from being student-centered to being teacher13

centered. Educators are now on a screen providing instructions to students, which creates a very different interaction than would be taking place if the learning was in a physical classroom. Teaching from a screen, teachers also found themselves having other family members of the child in the background and giving their own opinions on subjects, which complicated some of the student-teacher interactions. Additionally, in some instances, educators reported having to find creative ways to work with parents, whose level of education is below that which the teacher is trying to teach, to teach them how to assist their children with skills they themselves have not acquired, such as reading. Other times, educators who often had assistance teaching children with special needs are striving to find solutions to distance learning while teaching the

Maria José A. Dias on Zoom with peer group

parents of those students how to guide and assist their child with the learning process. During this difficult time, educators have often had to adopt and merge the roles of teacher, social worker, and food provider in order to continue to provide as many services as possible to students that would be available during a normal school session. Beyond the guided questions asked of the participants, educators expressed their own stress and frustration. Many educators are parents themselves, and are in the same situation of having to help guide and teach their own children while simultaneously working more hours than they normally would in order to deliver the highest quality of education possible to their students in the new learning environment, demonstrating challenges to the work-life balance of the 14

“...many educators were informed of the platform they were to use for their classroom with little to no indepth training...” educators themselves. Despite challenges and negatives COVID-19 has brought to education, some educators in Maria’s interviews reported that they feel one of the benefits of distance-based education is that it has fostered more, and better parentteacher interactions through their new multi-faceted role in the student’s life. As the research continued, Maria and her colleagues began to realize that no matter

Maria José A. Dias

what country the educators were reporting from, most faced the same challenge in terms of finding new and innovative ways to continue to deliver education to students and maintain as much normalcy of school as possible. Where the differences really began to emerge were between educators in public schools and educators in private schools. For teachers working in private schools, they often had little problem with access to internet and technology in order to be able to deliver their content to their students. These students typically had wealthier families, and had less concern over not having inperson classes that acted as childcare while they were at work to earn money for food. Families from public schools had more concern over having to stay home with their children, and not being able to go

to work so they could afford food and the internet required for delivery of much of the child’s educational material. Though other researchers are also investigating other facets of early childhood education in the time of COVID-19, there is still much work to be done. Maria has submitted to three major journals for publication; two of which have already been published, and the extended abstract has been accepted by the

Dr. Julia Atiles

Journal of the European Early Childhood Research Association. Maria said if it were not for Dr. Atiles, she would have likely not tackled writing about this topic, but it has added more adrenaline to her life, and she is grateful for the opportunity. Maria hopes that educators will be able to read her findings and see that while times may be difficult, they are not alone; that they should not feel bad just because the ways they are teaching their students now are not exactly how they were before COVID-19 hit, or because their new teaching style is not the same as another educator’s. Every educator is trying to do their best with what they have. Ultimately, Maria would like to be a professor in higher education, potentially in her home country.

Artwork does not reflect current numbers

Improving Vehicular Intrusion Detection Systems through Knot Flow Classification

avid Schmidt began his journey in higher education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he studied molecular biology and planned to attend medical school. After graduation from UT, David was initially accepted into ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine. Several of David’s family members have careers in healthcare and after considering the current state of healthcare, he decided he wanted to pursue further education in computing instead. In David’s eyes, the worlds of medicine and computing are not as far apart as many people may believe. During his time at UT-Knoxville, David worked in one of the largest biotechnology labs in the United States, the Neil Stewart Genome Science and Technology Lab, in bioinformatics or “biology plus computers.” Bioinformatics uses statistical analysis to give scientists tools to better design and predict the results of their experiments before they perform them, allowing them to save both time and

David Schmidt

Computer and Information Sciences, MS Concentration in Applied Computer Science Dr. Brian Bennett, Faculty Advisor Written by Hannah Warren

money. As David explored careers, he found that his employment opportunities in this field would be limited without an advanced degree in biochemistry. This experience drew David to computer programming and algorithm creation, so he began looking at programs in Tennessee where he could study this aspect of computer science. David’s father holds a degree in computer science from ETSU, and he encouraged David that if he could handle organic chemistry, he could learn to program. With some convincing from Dr. Brian Bennett and Dr. Marty Barrett, David decided to come to ETSU to attend one of the highest accredited graduate programs for computer studies in the state. Aside from the prestige of the program, David was drawn to the atmosphere ETSU provides that larger schools are not able to give students. He had previously begun learning to program in his free time during his undergraduate program, just

to increase his knowledge of the subject. At first it was difficult, but with guidance from the professors at ETSU, David soon began to narrow down what he wanted to learn and how he wanted to apply that knowledge. David’s thesis project is only a sliver of a conglomerate of current research involving autonomous cars, such as Teslas and other vehicles that have the ability to drive themselves and make advanced decisions. This project initially came as a challenge from Dr. Mohammad Khan; to do something that had not been done yet. The idea was to integrate a mathematical tool called a “spline” as part of the intrusion detection system to create a more efficient system than the ones currently in use. Over the past several years, computers have become increasingly more integrated into vehicles. Now, in our cars, with the press of a button or vocalization of a keyword, we can speak to our loved ones,

David Schmidt

reply to text messages, stream music, and have our cars detect accidents before they happen. Many individuals are familiar with the alarm system of their car that goes off when an intruder is trying to physically enter the car, or when you accidentally press the panic button on your key fob while trying to carry the groceries in. However, as vehicles have been given more computing capabilities, computer scientists have had to create digital security systems for the cars, similar to anti-virus software that can be installed on personal computers. These digital security systems are called ad-hoc networks or vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANET). Intrusion detection systems or antivirus software for computers have become incredibly advanced considering the amount of time they have been in use. VANETs, on the other hand, are fairly new and present distinct challenges. The purpose of the VANET is to act as 17

a guard for the vehicle’s computer to prevent outside access to control of the car or the information contained within the car’s computer system by using an algorithm that sorts out potential threats and non-threats. Vehicles now contain advanced computer systems, travel at high speeds beside other cars with computer systems, and interact with the infrastructure on the road. Currently, computer scientists have applied the same one-to-one communication system used in PCs to VANETs in an entirely different environment, which results in a system that is efficient but not effective or effective but not efficient. David was challenged to create a system that was both efficient and effective. His contribution to this system focused solely on wireless communication that was taking place.

David Schmidt

Modern algorithms use straight lines derived from equations such as y = mx + b to separate the threats and non-threats. If a point falls above the line, it is considered a non-threat. If a point falls below the line, it is considered to be a threat, which contributes to the efficiency-effectiveness trade-off of modern VANET algorithms.

“... algorithms, such as [David’s], could have far-reaching implications in other fields, such as medicine.”

This type of line leads to misclassification of the threats and non-threats. A spline, much like it sounds, is nothing more than a squiggly line. In computer science, this function is used to create a piecewise polynomial (parametric) curve. Instead of a single, regular curve, a spline stitches together multiple smaller curves to create a larger, irregular curve. This function can be envisioned using a two-dimensional grid with an x and y axis. Along the x and y axes would be identifiers that rank potential threats such as number of connections to the car on the x-axis and message lag along the y-axis. This allows each incoming communication to be classified as a point on the grid. By using a spline instead of a straight line, the algorithm can include more points in the correct area above or below the curve according to their potential threat level.

David began creating this new algorithm with his basic knowledge of programming in a language called R. After several weeks of working with his algorithm, he was still not satisfied with its running speed or optimization level. While traveling to the Von Braun Science Center in Huntsville for IEEE SoutheastCon 2019, David, Dr. Bennett, and a few of his fellow students shared conversation, which ultimately led to discovering how to optimize his network by turning it into an orchestrated or concerted algorithm. David presented his preliminary work that evening, and the next day began developing the algorithm that would become his Knot Flow Classification project. He tested his new algorithm using the spline against modern algorithms for classification with great success. Since then, David’s project has been published in multiple journals

Dr. Brian Bennett

including Core, a subsidiary of Cornell University and Wiley Communication Letters. David noted that, though he does not come from a math-focused educational background, the math involved in creating his algorithm was one of his favorite aspects of his thesis. Though much of David’s process involved trial and error, he said that without the help of his two advisors, Dr. Bennett and Dr. Khan and two fellow graduate students, Tomas Hill and Austin Helton, he could not have finished his project. Throughout the process, he was able to realize through his project that algorithms, such as his, could have far-reaching implications in other fields, such as medicine. While many fields presently use similar algorithms, many could be improved upon the way he optimized his through knot flow classification to have advanced applications, and he hopes to see this in the future. David is currently teaching as an adjunct professor here at ETSU and as a data scientist with Commonwealth Computer Research Inc. He plans to continue to do so and to eventually pursue a PhD in data science, and continue working in research and sharing his passion with future students.

Where Are They Now?

Why did you choose ETSU for your education? During my senior year of high school, I toured multiple colleges and universities, but ETSU had always felt like “home.” While in high school, I took piano lessons from Dr. Jeri Paolini in the music department, so I had the opportunity to become familiar with the campus. Before graduating from Hampton High, I was offered an Academic Performance Scholarship, and I accepted. This allowed me to live close to my family and continue working as a lifeguard instructor for the City of Johnson City during all three of my degree programs. The flexibility of online options even enabled me to work as an ocean lifeguard in Myrtle Beach, SC, during graduate school. Other scholarships, graduate assistantships, and a doctoral fellowship made it possible for me to continue my education at ETSU. Close relationships formed with my professors and mentors in the Early Childhood department, the geographic location, and the work-related opportunities all influenced my decision to stay at ETSU for graduate school and my doctoral program.

What is your current position and/or research? Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina (Aiken).

What does your current position/research entail? Currently, I am teaching four literacy courses to teacher candidates enrolled in USC Aiken’s School of Education. My students are juniors and seniors studying to become licensed teachers in the field of early childhood; thus, in my courses, we study literacy instruction based on South Carolina’s Read to Succeed standards and competencies.

How did your time at ETSU prepare you for your career? All throughout my programs, but especially in the doctoral program, I was fortunate to have experienced many great opportunities to help prepare me for my career in teaching at the collegiate level, such as: Presenting at local, state, and national-level conferences, teaching undergraduate courses, setting up courses online for both synchronous and asynchronous learning, advising teacher candidates in ETSU’s Early Care and Education program, learning how to supervise teacher candidates in the field, and collaborating on research projects with professors and peers in my cohort.

What advice would you offer current or future graduate students? Try not to stress during this time; every semester seems to present new challenges or difficulties to overcome, but

Randa Dunlap PhD, Early Childhood Education Department of Early Childhood Education Undergraduate: BS, 2013 Graduate: MA, 2015; PhD, 2020 in my experience, everything always has a way of working out. Enjoy this time and the many opportunities you have while in your program! Looking back, I am truly humbled by and thankful for what a wonderful experience I had.

Anything else you would like to add? I would like to extend special thanks to my professors and mentors at ETSU; because of their support and encouragement, my experiences were positive and memorable. 19

COVID-19 Coping Strategies JUST DO IT Anthony Peluso Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), concentration in Community Health, 2020, Department of Community and Behavioral Health

Anthony Peluso

When did you become interested in your specific field of study and why?

Why did you choose ETSU for your education? In late 2014, I applied to the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at ETSU. While I applied mainly because ETSU’s MPH program was accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, I ultimately chose to attend ETSU because of the “personal touch” to all correspondence from the College of Public Health faculty and staff. I remember Dr. Debbi Slawson, Chair of the Department of Community and Behavioral Health, reaching out to me personally to offer 20

me the opportunity to become a Tuition Scholar in the department, and I certainly could not turn down this great honor and opportunity to get research experience while completing the MPH degree. After completing the MPH in 2017, I decided to pursue the DrPH degree not only because I wanted to further my education and expand my potential as a public health professional, but also because I knew that the faculty in the College of Public Health were top-notch and the curriculum would be challenging, but also unique. In this program I would receive once-in-alifetime opportunities to work on research projects that would build on my career trajectory.

I first learned about public health in a medical sociology course during my undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh (I want to say this was in late 2012 or early 2013). I remember having a “light bulb” moment when I realized that public health was the perfect balance between what we think of as the “hard” sciences (natural sciences) and the social sciences. At this time, I was also considering volunteering at the Hillman Cancer Center, which is part of the wellknown University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) healthcare system. Between my coursework in Sociology and my experiences volunteering and interacting with patients and staff at Hillman Cancer Center, I knew that public health was the field for me.

“If you are committed to the work or the research, find the headspace for positive, uplifting thoughts. You have made it this far... ”

Describe your project. My dissertation was a secondary analysis of survey data on abortion attitudes and perceptions collected from women of reproductive age (18-44 years) living in South Carolina and Alabama. My dissertation work consisted of three key studies. In the first study, I performed a thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses related to participants’ perceptions of abortion access and safety, respectively. In the second study, I built a logistic regression model to assess the relationship between pregnancy avoidance attitudes and abortion attitudes. In the third study, I built another logistic regression model to assess the relationship between contraceptive use and abortion attitudes. What is/are your hypotheses? The primary aims of the dissertation research were: • Research Aim #1 – To explore

knowledge and perceptions around abortion safety and access among reproductive-aged women living in Alabama and South Carolina using thematic analysis. • Research Aim #2 – To examine the potential association between pregnancy avoidance and abortion attitudes among reproductive-aged women living in Alabama and South Carolina. • Research Aim #3 – To examine the possible association between current use of contraception and abortion attitudes among reproductive-aged women living in Alabama and South Carolina. What is your methodology in simple, layman’s terms? I worked to analyze data collected from two representative, statewide surveys of women of reproductive age living in Alabama and South Carolina. I focused on specific subsets of questions in the survey, specifically questions on participant demographics (age, race/ ethnicity, education level, etc.), attitudes and perceptions related to abortion, attitudes toward pregnancy/childbearing, and contraceptive use. I used qualitative

methods (thematic analysis) to categorize open-ended survey responses to questions about abortion access and safety in Alabama and South Carolina. I also used quantitative methods (chi-square tests, logistic regression models) to evaluate the relationship between pregnancy avoidance and abortion attitudes, and between contraceptive use and abortion attitudes. The purpose of the dissertation work was two-fold: First, information is lacking on women’s attitudes toward and perceptions of abortion, as well as on related ideas such as pregnancy attitudes and contraceptive use. Exploring these constructs is important in that it can provide much needed context to women’s reproductive life planning. How has your project been impacted by the effects of COVID-19? Writing the bulk of a dissertation during a pandemic is not an easy feat. While I was not attempting to collect data as COVID-19 was impacting folks across the globe, I was trying to bring my thoughts together and put them on paper, so to speak, and I was attempting to work on perfecting my analysis strategies, organizing relevant data, analyzing the data and interpreting the results. It is 21

definitely difficult to focus on writing a dissertation and all that the process entails while also worrying about friends and family, and how they are being affected by COVID-19, meeting your basic needs and maintaining your mental health. My dissertation committee meetings and mentorship quickly moved to a virtual environment, and I had to clearly define a plan of action to complete my dissertation efficiently and effectively in this new “work-from-home” society. What strategies have you implemented to mitigate these effects? I am not sure that I had a clear strategy to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 (I won’t give myself too much credit), but I definitely made a habit of keeping a positive attitude to maintain my motivation. I tried to consistently remind myself (with the help of a great dissertation committee – Drs. Katie Baker, Nathan Hale, and Mike Smith – and a supportive DrPH Coordinator, Dr. Debbi Slawson) that my dissertation work was important, and that I just had to sit down and do the work. I am a strong believer that a person’s mindset and attitude is one of the most important factors that influences their productivity in research and in graduate school. In other words, you can create a plan of action or a specific strategy to accomplish your goals, but the work will not be done well and with conviction unless the person doing it is motivated and has a positive attitude. At times, it was SO challenging to stay positive, but I tried to provide myself daily reminders to “just sit down and do something,” even if I wrote one sentence or read one article related to my research. What role has your advisor played in helping you navigate the “new normal” of graduate school and research in the time of a pandemic? Dr. Slawson was one of my biggest supporters during this time. In addition to working on my dissertation, I was also teaching the Intro to Public Health course (COBH 1020) and assisting Dr. Slawson with efforts related to the DrPH curriculum when COVID-19 affected ETSU faculty, staff and students earlier this year. Dr. Slawson is always steadfast in her efforts to support students in the Department and in the College, and was 22

a great cheerleader for me during these uncertain times. She played an important role in helping me maintain a positive attitude during our weekly Zoom meetings and made sure to always provide uplifting words of affirmation and excellent advice. In addition to Dr. Slawson, I also had constant support from my dissertation chair and mentor, Dr. Katie Baker, and my dissertation committee members, Drs. Nathan Hale and Mike Smith. Dr. Baker made sure to schedule weekly Zoom meetings where we would discuss my dissertation progress and other research ideas. During this time, Dr. Baker and I were actually working on another research project, and we spent many of our virtual meetings talking through how we could effectively accomplish our research aims given the effects of COVID-19. I would not have completed my dissertation research without the support and advice from my dissertation committee and Dr. Slawson. What advice would you give to other graduate students experiencing similar situations? This may sound cliché and probably a little bit corny, but the folks at Nike were on to something when they crafted the “Just Do It” slogan. There were many instances where I could think nothing but negative thoughts and did not believe in my ability to conduct research during a pandemic. Thinking negative thoughts and experiencing negative feelings is not abnormal, especially when the world is essentially turned upside down. You are going to be concerned about your health and safety, and that of your loved ones. If you are committed to the work or the research, find the headspace for positive, uplifting thoughts. You have made it this far (I mean, you made it to graduate school!), and your experiences now will help you push through times of adversity in the future. Also, you are not alone in your endeavors. When I refer to the “just do it” slogan, that does not mean that you have to go at it solo. Ask your advisor, mentor, professor, or friend for advice or help if you need it. Ask a peer to proofread your work or motivate you when you are feeling helpless. There is a great chance that somebody you know is going through a similar situation or has in the past, and there is no shame in asking for help.

Beyond research and scholarly work— how has COVID 19 affected your life? As someone pursuing a public health degree, I did not necessarily experience the “shock” factor of COVID-19, and generally knew the effects the disease might have on the U.S. population. I would not say that my life was unaffected by COVID-19 (like many, I was temporarily separated from family and friends, had to adjust to the realities that came with the pandemic, such as sanitizing objects, using the pick-up option at the grocery store, having virtual hangouts with family and friends, etc.), but I really worked to focus on what I could accomplish during this time, rather than how my everyday life would be affected. In other words, COVID-19 has tragically affected so many lives (millions have been infected with the virus, many have died from its effects and countless businesses have been negatively impacted), and I would rather not highlight my minor personal struggles when I am extremely privileged to be a DrPH graduate and was very lucky to have the necessary resources and support to complete my dissertation research. It is easy to focus on how COVID-19 has affected you personally, but I think now, more than ever, is a great time to practice empathy and humility. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

OVER

3 . 5MILLION DOWNLOADS FROM ETSU Written by Emily Redd

3,623,186 full-text downloads http://dc.etsu.edu/

Your thesis or dissertation is being viewed worldwide. In January 2013, ETSU’s Sherrod Library and the School of Graduate Studies started using Digital Commons, hosted by Berkeley Press, as the repository for all approved electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). New ETDs were posted directly to the site as others were retroactively added over time. Since Digital Commons went online, full text versions of ETSU theses and dissertations continue to be downloaded. In August 2020, Digital Commons@ETSU just hit 4 million downloads and about 3.5 million of those downloads are from the Graduate Theses and Dissertations. Scholarly material and special collections in Digital Commons repositories are highly discoverable in Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines. Consequently, ETSU theses and dissertations are getting a lot of exposure and with exposure comes great responsibility. The importance of hard work, topic selection, quality of writing, and detailed and accurate formatting are paramount as the final product, your thesis or dissertation, is not going unnoticed and is a direct reflection of you, your committee, your discipline, and ETSU. For more information about these downloads like which countries download them the most, click here. New metrics are also available through the Plum symbol on the left-hand side. It shows metrics like how many times the theses/dissertations have been mentioned in blogs, news articles, social media.

Analyzing Pass/Fail Rates of Newborn Hearing Screenings for Infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

ennifer Lowe has always had a passion for helping others. She first came to ETSU in 1995 to study biology and education. For over seventeen years, she has been working as an educator at both the high school and community college levels. After years in teaching, she decided that she wanted to return to school as a student for audiology after shadowing a variety of healthcare professionals. She had developed a parent-physician

relationship with an audiologist several years prior when one of her children was referred. As a result of her shadowing observation, she realized that the field of audiology, while often overlooked, is a vitally important part of healthcare. In addition to being overlooked, there appeared to her to be a stigma that surrounded seeking treatment for issues related to hearing, and her passion for the field began to form. As a wife and a

Jennifer Lowe Audiology, AuD Dr. Marcy Hite, Faculty Advisor

Written by Hannah Warren

mother, Jennifer had a number of things to consider when selecting a program and school. She and her husband had narrowed their choices to three schools, one of which was ETSU. She attended an open house where she met some of the department faculty including Dr. Saravanan Elangovan and Dr. Jacek Smurzynski and toured the VA hospital, which would serve as one of the locations for clinical experience should she attend the program. Between

the dedication of the faculty to maintain a standard of excellence and the program’s connection with the VA, Jennifer knew this was the program she wanted to attend. As a former teacher, Jennifer understands the role a child’s ability to hear plays in their literacy development of speech and language skills. For her capstone project, Jennifer is working with Dr. Marcy Hite to add to an existing Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for the ETSU Workgroup on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). NAS occurs when newborn infants go through withdrawal shortly after birth as a result of in-utero exposure to drugs, such as opioids. As the opioid epidemic has intensified, increased rates of NAS have been observed. Although the immediate symptoms of NAS have been well described, there has been little research on potential negative, long-term consequences NAS may cause. Jennifer’s facet of the workgroup is examining the hearing aspect of this puzzle, specifically the pass-fail rate on the newborn hearing screening that takes place on all infants prior to being discharged from the hospital. The focus of her research project was to determine

whether NAS babies fail the screening more often than non-NAS babies. When preparing to begin her capstone, her literature review found only one paper that has previously attempted to address this topic. Typically, with well newborns, an otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test is used for the screening since the newborns are unable to produce a reliable behavioral response to sound. To perform OAE testing, a small, earphone-like probe is placed in the newborn’s ear. This probe is able to produce a sound that will be picked up by the inner portion of the ear called the cochlea. The sound will create an echo response, which can then be picked up by the probe, if the cochlea is functioning normally. For babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, an auditory brainstem response test can be used. In this test, Band-Aid®-like electrodes are placed on the temple and behind both ears to measure the electrical response from the vestibulocochlear nerve and brainstem nuclei responsible for transmitting sound information to the brain. Both of these newborn hearing screening methods depend on the infant state. To obtain

accurate results, the infant must be relatively still and quiet. Because NAS is associated with increased infant irritability, Jennifer suspected that this might lead to higher artifact rates and potentially higher fail rates in the NAS babies compared to well babies. Additionally, she wanted to look for a possible link between the NAS babies’ pass/fail rate on the hearing screening and their Finnigan score (another assessment tool used for NAS babies). Jennifer’s study was retrospective in design and examined data from the NAS Workgroup Database, collected from all delivery hospitals in the Ballad Health System across East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia between 2011 and 2016, by using an ANCOVA analysis. During that time, 18,000 babies were born. Over 700 of these births were chosen for inclusion in the study and divided into three categories: NAS, control, and opioidexposed, no NAS. Chart reviews of these births were completed by doctors and other healthcare providers on the opioid taskforce. She began her literature review by reading about NAS, the newborn hearing screening protocol, CDC data

“As the opioid epidemic has intensified, increased rates of NAS have been observed.”

and related statistics. Jennifer is still in the process of completing her research, but her findings thus far do not indicate that NAS babies have a higher fail rate on the newborn hearing screening. After controlling for variability between all three groups, it was also determined that artifact rates are not significantly different. When comparing Finnigan score data with the pass/fail rates, there was not a significant difference, but there was a trend - the fail rate does appear to increase with higher Finnigan scores, but not enough to be considered statistically significant. Both Jennifer and her advisor, Dr. Hite, are excited that her work is contributing to an under-researched aspect of the newborn

Jennifer Lowe

Dr. Marcy Hite

hearing screening process. Her research is one of the cases that her hypothesis not being confirmed is a good thing. The hearing screening practices that are in place for NAS babies seem to be working. Jennifer and Dr. Hite suspect one of the reasons no significant difference was observed between the NAS baby fail rate and the well-baby fail rate in this study may be due to the timing of the screening. According to Dr. Hite, many hospitals wait until the symptoms of NAS have subsided to conduct the screening, and follow up studies may need to look into this aspect further. An additional area for follow up studies would be longitudinal effects of hearing and auditory processing following a diagnosis of NAS in infancy. While hearing pass/fail rates may not be affected, at least according to this data, there could potentially be long term neuromaturational effects on the auditory system resulting in differences in auditory processing. Jennifer spoke about the clear passion for pediatric audiology that Dr. Hite radiates and her ability to teach through evoking questions in her students, which has helped her grow as a researcher and student. She said that when she would be fixed on one idea and approaching it with tunnel vision, Dr. Hite would help her to open up her thinking, and see the broader picture. Jennifer has applied to present her research at the American Academy of Audiology conference this April and will be presenting her research at the ETSU 3MT competition. During her doctoral degree and her capstone, Jennifer has enjoyed being able to unearth her inner scientist she first explored while earning her degree in biology while working with the database she used for data collection. After graduation, Jennifer would like to spend some time working in the community in clinical practice, specifically in rural communities, to deliver quality care and education on the importance of hearing conservation. After gaining experience in that aspect, she can see herself coming back to higher education as a teacher to teach future generations of audiologists.

Where Are They Now?

Why did you choose ETSU for your education? I am originally from New Jersey and participated in the Ronald McNair Postbaccalaureate Program at ETSU the summer before my senior year of college. This was my first research experience, and the relationship I built with my mentor, Dr. Scott Champney, ignited a passion for research by encouraging me to explore scientific questions and a level of independence in the laboratory. In addition, the McNair Staff and other ETSU faculty I met over the course of the summer program provided such a supportive environment that I thought, what better place to be for the next four to five years for my PhD training.

What is your current position and/or research? I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, here at ETSU.

What does this position/research entail? As an assistant professor, I run a research laboratory where I study the role of estrogen loss and aging in heart failure. I also serve as a research mentor for both undergraduate and graduate students, teach introductory biology, and use innovative teaching practices to increase student learning and success. Other

roles include serving on committees and organizations with a focus on improving teaching and learning, recruiting and retaining students in STEM fields, and preparation of students for postgraduate careers in science.

How did your time at ETSU prepare you for your career? The mentoring and family-like nature of ETSU faculty and staff created a safe space to explore ideas, think critically, make mistakes, and grow as a scientist. Specifically, the problem-solving teaching approach in my courses is something that I currently model for my students.

What advice would you offer current or future graduate students? Graduate school can be tough as you are navigating different aspects of your life as well as pursuing higher learning. Be patient where you are, and do not compare your path and trajectory to others. Despite any insecurities you may feel, continue to push forward and do not let them define or paralyze you.

Cerrone Foster PhD, Biomedical Sciences, concentration in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Department of Biomedical Sciences Graduate: PhD, 2007

Anything else you would like to add: You belong here! You are enough! ENJOY the journey!

Confined, mixed materials and found objects

Sculptural Narratives of Shanna Glawson Studio Art, MFA

Traumatic Experiences

Travis Graves, Faculty Advisor Written by Hannah Warren

hanna Glawson, a North Carolina native, began her pursuit of higher education in art at the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in sculpture. Her love of the mountains and culture of the area compelled her to stay in the region for her MFA. For Shanna, ETSU offered a geography similar to Asheville and a cross-disciplinary approach to studio practices that would allow her the opportunity to work with a variety of mediums, making it a top choice school for her. Art has always been an integral part of Shanna’s personality, and despite people on occasion trying to sway her onto other career paths, she has had no interest in moving away from a career as an artist. For her thesis experience, Shanna is creating a visual narrative of various types of trauma and the ways individuals cope with healing from those traumas. Her narrative will consist of multiple, individual pieces representative of separate traumas. One particular piece Shanna is currently working on is reflective of the metaphorical cage children can become trapped in when growing up in a disadvantaged socioeconomic situation. The visual representation will be a mobile home mobile; a mobile made of 3-dimensional trailers Shanna is crafting to hang over a crib. Her materials for the trailers include thin plywood and no trespassing signs that have been cut and repurposed as siding. She likes to incorporate found objects into her work, so they do not go to waste; found

pieces already have a history and she enjoys being able to play off that existing memory and imagery. Another piece in this work, which Shanna has already completed, is based on the Black Lives Matter movement. Shanna said that the creation of this piece was a way for her to personally process the movement, and by its display in the current Fletcher Exhibit at ETSU’s Reece Gallery, she will be able to

“We are living in a very divisive time right now where the arts can serve a big role in helping to bring people together, as opposed to pushing them apart.”

--Travis Graves

voice her thoughts in a way she previously has not been able to. Her piece Difficulty Breathing received the Sammie L. Nicely Appalachian Award in 2020. Touching on an even more difficult type of trauma, Shanna is also incorporating a piece that represents sexual trauma. For this piece, Shanna uses the imagery of a tent shrouded in zippers as a way to represent a shelter and the audible sound of a zipper to represent misophonia, a condition where an individual is triggered to a physical or emotional reaction in response to a certain sound. She plans to continue incorporating the shelter theme in the other pieces she will create for the exhibit as a way to explore domestic and personal traumas. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, Shanna was wanting to explore more community-based art, because she feels it is such a vital medium, especially in the contemporary world where artists are able to step outside of themselves as artists and really make an impact on their community by incorporating themes other humans can relate to; and allowing them to engage in art themselves. Aside from delaying her plans for her next community-based art project, the physical distancing guidelines currently in place have brought a cloud of uncertainty to plans for her thesis and accompanying exhibit, the culminating project for an MFA degree. It is still unclear, given the ever-changing climate of the pandemic, if she will have to have multiple gallery exhibits or a single gallery, which will greatly impact which pieces will be included in the exhibit. Traditionally, 29

MFA candidates utilize one side of the Slocumb gallery for their exhibit, but Shanna has the opportunity to use both sides, which increases the footprint, but also increases the expectation of producing enough work to fill the gallery. Shanna has previously worked in installation as an art medium. She and her advisor, Travis Graves, have discussed the potential of turning one of the galleries into an installation, where most of the space around the audience would be occupied by the art, immersing the viewer and their senses in a deeper way compared to an exhibit. The two feel this might be very fitting for her work, given the themes she has chosen to express. No matter what form her final thesis takes, Shanna hopes that those who visit will have a deeper understanding of the varying degrees of trauma that are present across humanity; that there are people walking around every day, carrying the weight of these traumas that are not always visibly evident. She also hopes that people who already relate to or recognize these traumas will be able to look at the pieces and find comfort in knowing that they are not alone, and are stronger for what they have gone through. While Shanna and Travis have different approaches to how they connect with art, Shanna has been able to absorb his opinions and learn from his contemporary style and

Confined, detail of mobile

Shanna Glawson

experience, and use them as a driving force to not just make pretty objects, but to make objects that evoke an emotion in the viewer that engages them in that feeling. Travis appreciated Shanna’s willingness to step out of her comfort zone as a graduate student and accept the challenge of expanding her knowledge base; exploring through research all her discipline has to offer not just to herself,

Travis Graves

but to her community as well. As Shanna finishes her pieces, she is entering some of the individual works for external shows, such as the Pride exhibit at Center for the Faith and Arts in Salisbury, NC. After graduation, she would like to pursue an art residency in order to allow herself the opportunity to keep diving into her art, and conduct more material studies and community-based art.

COVID-19 Coping Strategies WE ARE ALL HUMAN

Andrea Poynter

Andrea S. Poynter PhD in Nursing Nursing, December 2020 Dr. Florence Weierbach, Advisor Why did you choose ETSU for your education? I did a lot of work researching programs that offered a doctorate degree, specifically in nursing. It was difficult finding universities that offered a doctorate degree in nursing that were not super expensive and also had excellent standards. ETSU offered a reasonable cost with quality education, and it was in Tennessee. When did you become interested in your specific field of study and why? I have been a nurse for over 14 years, and I have always helped others. I wanted people’s lives to be different, to be better after encountering me, and nursing has helped me to do just that. Pursuing a doctorate degree in nursing provides me with the opportunity to research issues or topics that impact people that I want to care for, and to ensure that we are providing the best 32

care possible. I have received two faith-based grants focused around spirituality and healthy eating in the African American community, and that helped to develop my research focus. Describe your project. My dissertation focuses on exploring the lived experience of obese African American women and their perceptions of their weight, health behaviors and spirituality. My study is a qualitative, phenomenological study that allows the research participants to provide their unique perspectives of their lived experiences. What is/are your hypotheses? The question that I am wanting the women to answer is: What is the lived experience of obese African American women as it pertains to their spirituality, weight, and health behaviors? I don’t have a hypothesis for this study because my participants will guide the results/outcome of the study based off of their lived experiences. What is your methodology (inspirations/material for fine art), in simple, layman’s terms? My research question is broken down into an Interview Guide, consisting of approximately eight questions, that has been utilized to interview the 15 participants and to identify common themes, experiences, or recommendations for healthcare professionals. The data collected for this study has been obtained from the literature and also is ongoing through participant interviews research.

“...work hard and let someone know when you are struggling.”

available to me because this pandemic is not only stressful, but created unprecedented changes in such a short timeframe. I believe that she has demonstrated flexibility in a time where we must be flexible. This pandemic is impacting all of us. What advice would you give to other graduate students experiencing similar situations?

How has your project been impacted by the effects of COVID-19? In December 2019, I was given permission to begin interviewing participants for my research study. I started interviewing participants in late January 2020, but by March, all interviews were postponed. I conducted seven interviews with eight more pending interviews scheduled.

Be very transparent because we are all human; we are all dealing with something during this tumultuous time. The faculty members are available and want to see us do well, but we must be willing to do the work. Times are hard but enabling someone doesn’t produce a great product. Guiding us while we work through the hard times does. So work hard and let someone know when you are struggling.

What strategies have you implemented to mitigate these effects?

Beyond research and scholarly work—how has COVID 19 affected your life?

With the suggestion of my advisor, I submitted an amendment to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) to convert all of my remaining interviews to Zoom interviews versus in person, face-to-face interviews. The turnaround time was approximately one week, but my request was granted.

I consider myself blessed that none of my family members have had to deal with COVID 19. Outside of working on my dissertation and working as an assistant nursing professor, I work as needed as a critical care nurse. I hate watching how these patients suffer trying to breathe, and even worse, their families not being able to be with them while many suffer in silence. It’s a cruel disease, and even worse is when a patient dies, and their family finds out via a phone call. COVID-19 has impacted all of us, and I know we are all struggling now, but I pray that we will be better once this is over, or we’ve figured out how to get it under control.

What role has your advisor played in helping you navigate the “new normal” of graduate school and research in the time of a pandemic? I speak with my advisor on a weekly basis and also by text if needed because times are extremely different. She has made herself

Impact of a Student-Led

GAP YEAR

Erin Garcia

Educational Leadership, EdD Dr. Jill Channing, Faculty Advisor Written by Hannah Warren

rin Garcia completed her bachelor’s degree in 2008 in her home town of Asheville, at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. She started teaching with the mindset that if she enjoyed teaching high school, she would get her master’s. It only took a year before she knew going back to get her master’s was something she wanted to do. After earning her master’s, Erin took a job as an adjunct professor at Nossi College of Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, where she currently teaches Success Strategies in a self-directed, project-based learning component. Her students are working in three groups in each class (Graphic Design, Videography, and Photography) and are working with a business to design all materials in these three categories. They learn these skills, technology and many other components in this semester-long project. When Erin decided to pursue a doctoral degree in education, she began looking at online programs so she could continue in her current role at Nossi. She saw that ETSU’s Clemmer College of Education has an excellent reputation for its in-person and online course options. She was also drawn to the beauty of the campus she saw in the online photos, even though she planned to take her classes online.

For her doctoral dissertation, Erin is doing a qualitative examination of a self-designed gap year fellowship at a large, public, higher education institution in North Carolina through a phenomenalogical approach. A gap year can be completed after a student has been offered admission to an institution and will defer their admission for one year, or can be completed between years of attendance. Gap years range from two to six months in duration and can be spread across multiple countries. Currently in the United States, there are 12 institutional gap year programs. These programs have an in-house department on campus that sends students on a directed gap year. In addition, many universities are also allowing students to complete a gap year through third party, non-profit or forprofit entities, which can cost as much as $30,000 per year. At the institution Erin researched, the gap year is funded by an $8,100 stipend, provided by a generous private donor. It is the only gap year program of its kind in the United States. A gap year, at the particular institution Erin examined, differs from a studyabroad program where students take traditional classes. In this program, students are required to complete 40

hours per week of volunteer service, which makes the opportunity more like an internship. Students in the program Erin examined are responsible for planning every aspect of the experience themselves instead of letting administration or a thirdparty plan details for them, using their $8,100 of funding. In the summer before their gap year, students attend the Summer Institute where they research the countries, volunteer programs, and potential host families. Once students have their plan and have created a budget accounting for all of the funding, they present it to the administrators in charge of supervising the gap year for approval. This allows the student to align the activities of their gap year with their future academic interests independently, instead of having a thirdparty entity plan the year for them. As of last fall, one of the administrators of the program created an online-class students take during the gap year and a one-hour for credit course, taken by the gap year students when they return to campus. In these courses, students reflect on their experience and reacclimate to college classes. In conjunction with the two courses, the cohort participates in a weekend retreat where they are able to dive deeper into themes of reentry and the struggles they may face being back in the

culture of their home university. Erin knew she wanted to study this gap year program before she even met her current advisor, Dr. Jill Channing. She has always been passionate about self-directed learning and was curious to examine the magnitude of impact the unique program was making on its participants. She had already established a relationship with the director of the gap year program at the selected institution on a visit to discuss the potential of conducting research on their program. When Erin was originally designing her program, she decided to use a phenomenological approach, with a minimum of ten student participants who would complete an interview lasting 45 minutes to one hour. As she began recruiting participants, she ran into some issues and had to make modifications to her study design and resubmit to the Institutional Review Board (IRB), which allowed her to do snowball sampling, a process where she reached out to participants who had already been interviewed to see if they could help her recruit additional participants. Despite her efforts, she still did not have the minimum number she was looking for. After further modifications, she was able to reach out to administrators. After seven months of work, she finally had enough participants, was able to complete the interview process, and begin analyzing her data. In the end, including the perspectives of some of the administrators involved in the program added value to her study because she was able to see how the students and administrators felt about the self-design aspect. For Erin, one of the most meaningful skills she gained from this project was the ability to effectively structure interview questionnaires for the two different groups with different perspectives. After the interviews, Erin coded the transcripts for themes and categories a total of three times. Her central question focused on how a student’s ability to selfdesign their gap year contributes to adding meaning towards who they become as a person. Being able to self-design your own learning, as an individual, adds value to the journey of becoming a new version 36

Erin Garcia

Dr. Jill Channing

“Being able to self-design your own learning, as an individual, adds value to the journey towards becoming a new version of yourself,...” of yourself, and that is what differentiates a self-designed gap year from a more traditional version of a gap year. As Erin analyzed the data, the responses from the administrators supported those from the students who participated in the gap year. Students in her study seemed to prefer having to overcome obstacles on their own, such as being responsible for finding their host families and volunteer placement. Erin felt that demonstrated the ability of the self-design aspect to instill self-confidence and purpose in students for their majors and careers. Students also reported being able to trust their own decision-making process. Reflecting on her data collection process, Erin realized that she was able to complete all of the interviews prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, and that with the current outbreak, taking a gap year is becoming an even more frequent experience, even though it may look different. Students may not be traveling in the same capacity they traditionally would during that year, and they may be choosing to take the gap year because of the transition of university courses to a primarily online format; but they are still seeking other avenues to advance their future career and educational goals. Erin’s research adds to the existing body of work of self-authorship literature

on students becoming a new version of themselves, skills gained, the meaningmaking process, and especially the selfdesign aspect, which she was able to find very little work on during her literature review. Erin has received editing assistance along the way from another graduate student Dr. Channing put her in contact with. Erin is grateful for the patience Dr. Channing has exhibited throughout the journey, and for her knowledge of various resources available to students, even in the time of online learning. Dr. Channing has helped her learn a lot about herself as a teacher and the entire research process. Once Erin defends her dissertation, she would love to talk with the institution she used for her study about publishing her work or presenting it at a conference. Seeing the impact a self-designed gap year had on students who participated reinforced why she loves working with her current students on graduation projects and experiential learning. Ultimately, she hopes her work will be a voice for the importance of self-directed learning, and education adapting to the changing times. After graduation, Erin plans to apply for positions in the field of experiential learning, project-based learning, retention, or education as a consultant or as a fulltime position.

Where Are They Now?

Why did you choose ETSU for your education?

How did your time at ETSU prepare you for this career?

At the time, I was researching universities that supported students and had a track record of achievement. ETSU is a university that has a reputation for quality education and would help me achieve my long-term career goals. In addition, I was interested in working with Dr. Russell Brown in his lab. His lab was not only highly productive, but his work was to a standard that is respected by the field I wanted to work in. After my initial interview, it was clear that ETSU was a positive, supportive, productive, and encouraging place to continue my education.

My education at ETSU prepared me for the transition from classroom and lab to my career by providing me the skills necessary to succeed. For example, in my graduate program there was a strong emphasis on teaching. At the time, I was convinced I would spend most of my career in a lab, and teaching was not on my radar. However, what I did not realize was that the work I was doing in the lab was also preparing me for my career, which would include teaching and research.

What is your current position and/or research? I am Assistant Professor of Psychology at Nebraska Wesleyan University Lincoln. My lab engages undergraduate students in interdisciplinary psychopharmacology research.

What does this position/research entail? As Professor in Psychology, I not only teach many different courses, but I advise and mentor students. In addition, I mentor and oversee students conducting research in my lab.

What advice would you offer current or future graduate students? Allow time for adjustment. Graduate school is a life changing decision and involves many different things all at one time. During that first semester, you might feel overwhelmed with the changes and demands. I promise this will be a time in your life you will never forget. Here is where you will make lifetime friends and face challenges that will shape you for what is to come. I look back on my time as a graduate student, and I am grateful for the education and the life lessons I learned along the way.

Elizabeth Freeman PhD Psychology, concentration in Experimental Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience. Department of Psychology Graduate: PhD, 2011

understanding the past so you can improve the future Bianka Adamatti

Written by Hannah Warren

History, MA

Dr. Stephen Fritz, Faculty Advisor

ianka Adamatti is a lawyer from Brazil who specializes in Human Rights, discriminatory laws, the Holocaust, and modern genocides. Looking for a new perspective to add more historical knowledge to her practice, she attended a lecture at ETSU’s Reece Museum on the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, which was part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum traveling exhibit. It was here that she first met Dr. Stephen Fritz, a professor in ETSU’s Department of History, who specializes in nineteenth and twentieth century European History, with a focus on twentieth century Germany. At the time, she felt that she was missing something in her research, and that Dr. Fritz could be the mentor she needed to help her fill that gap. She introduced herself, and they began talking about all that ETSU’s Department of History had to offer. Bianka decided she wanted to be a part of the progress happening in the department. Once she was admitted, Bianka decided that this thesis would be a continuation and expansion of her first thesis on

“The kind of research Bianka is attempting is on the cutting edge of the field.” --Dr. Stephen Fritz Colonial Discourse in the Nuremberg Laws, making Dr. Fritz a perfect fit to be her mentor. In her first thesis, she detected colonial discourse in the Nuremberg Laws, showing similarities between the colonial domination deployed during modernity by Western Europe and the Nazi Regime. To achieve this, she used

the example of Namibia, but she did not have any historical documents to prove the connections between the two periods. In 2018, she had traveled to Namibia to search for the documents, knowing she wanted to expand the thesis she had already completed. Now she is using those documents to analyze the Nuremberg Laws from a colonial perspective, which will help mold her earlier work into a project on the evolution of colonial discourse in an attempt to show the origins of the Holocaust. Bianka is specifically examining those laws, which prohibited mixed marriages, or marriages between individuals of different races. Laws of this nature have previously been implemented in the United States, Nazi Germany, and South Africa, and are one of the most extreme signs of discrimination and a totalitarian state, making them ideal for her research. For her analysis, Bianka is creating a content analysis of three selected states of colonialism including Portugal (the earliest), followed by Namibia in the 19-20th centuries, and the Nazi regime

Bianka Adamatti, Auschwitz, Poland

Dr. Stephen Fritz

from 1933-1945. She could have selected other countries from Europe, since most countries have had some variation of laws enacted to discriminate against minority groups, but she chose to study Portugal because, besides the country being one of the first modern colonizers, Portugal implemented pioneering laws prohibiting marriages between Jews and Christians in its colonies like Brazil. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, Bianka received a grant from the Department of History to travel to Portugal to visit the archives in Lisbon as part of her research, but she has been unable to make this trip due to travel restrictions. This trip will be a critical part of her research. According to Dr. Fritz, “The kind of research Bianka is attempting is on the cutting edge of the field.” He noted that, over the past decade, many historians have been trying to connect the Holocaust with earlier periods of colonialism. Traditionally, amongst the Holocaust historians, the Holocaust was considered a unique manifestation of this particular evil, but in the past decade, historians have begun looking at colonization, primarily in Africa. What Bianka is doing is an extension of this type of research by trying to tease out ways the Holocaust might be connected to these earlier periods of colonialism in Africa. Ultimately, Bianka is attempting to demonstrate a long-term continuum, and relate the Holocaust to a larger historical context of colonialism. If she is able to do this, she would like to travel to Portugal to dive further back in history at prohibitions on intermarriage 40

laws and look for more potential connections. Bianka has presented early portions of her research at several conferences including last December, at the “XXXI Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología (ALAS),” in Lima, Peru. In addition to presentations, she has published articles and books in both law and human rights. She is even considering taking her present research a step further in a doctoral dissertation where she could add more countries and more historical points of view to the analysis. Her passion for knowledge about the Holocaust set her on this journey more than fifteen years ago, and with each historical leaf she uncovers, she gains new insight to her ultimate goal of preventing similar atrocities from being carried out in the future. For Bianka, Dr. Fritz has always been a sounding board, trusting in her abilities as a scholar and a researcher, but at the ready when she was in need of guidance. Conversely, Dr. Fritz was incredibly impressed by the confidence Bianka displayed when she approached him at the lecture. She had not been in the United States very long. She knew what research interest she was prepared to pursue and had decided she wanted him to help guide her on the journey. After completion of her MA, Bianka plans to apply for PhD programs in human rights where she hopes to plan a new methodology to help prevent future genocides from a historical point of view.

From Engineer to Educator: A Passion for Purpose Everett Roper

Educational Leadership, EdD Dr. Jill Channing, Faculty Advisor Written by Hannah Warren

verett Roper earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from The University of Alabama Huntsville in 1993. After working in the industry for five years, he decided to begin teaching, part-time, as an adjunct professor at a local community college and university. He fell instantly in love with this job, and three years later, he left his position as an engineer to become a full-time faculty member at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) teaching subjects from engineering and computer science to computer information systems. Then, after fourteen years in this career, Everett decided to go back to school to pursue a master’s degree in order to further his teaching abilities. While earning his masters, he continued to teach full-time at the HBCU and part-time at a local community college. During his time working at the two institutions, Everett began noticing disparities between them. He expected to see some of these incongruencies since the HBCU was a private school and the university was public. But he noticed additional problems the HBCU was facing in terms of function, and he wanted to understand why

Everett Roper

they were occurring. Digging deeper, he spoke with colleagues from other HBCUs, and it became clear that the problems faced by his institution were not isolated to a single HBCU. In his never-ending passion for learning, he decided to seize this opportunity as a chance to earn a second doctorate degree while researching these incongruencies. He stumbled upon ETSU and realized it was the school best suited for what he wanted to pursue; he contacted the department, applied, was accepted, and selected Dr. Jill Channing as his committee chair.

“Without quality standards for admission, are schools being effective in their mission?”

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are higher education institutions established in the United States before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and were primarily created to serve the African-American community. Throughout his career in higher education, Everett served on several nationwide committees including the United Negro College Fund, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Southern Education Foundation. When HBCUs were first created, there were few to no opportunities for African Americans to attend institutions of higher education. While attending meetings for these committees, Everett noticed consistent talk about funding, and whether increasing enrollment of African Americans or raising tuition was the best way for schools to increase revenue. Everett had suspicions that while these methods might solve the immediate problem, in the long run, they were not contributing to fulfillment of the purpose of the institution. This led him to ask himself questions about the mission and vision of HBCUs. Without quality standards for admission, are schools being effective in their mission? If schools raise tuition, potentially excluding well qualified students from being admitted, are the schools effectively accomplishing their mission? These questions formed the basis of Everett’s current dissertation research, which examines whether or not HBCUs are functioning today, in the 21st century, 43

the way they were intended to function at the time of their inception in the mid1800s. In his research, Everett has found that many HBCUs have not altered their mission since their founding, which may be the source of their struggles. Everett’s experience working directly in HBCUs and serving on committees placed him in direct contact with numerous individuals from other HBCUs, which helped facilitate the methodology for his research conducting interviews with those directly involved in administration with HBCUs. He chose to interview only administrative personnel because they are directly involved, every day, with the mission of their respective institutions. The response he received was overwhelmingly positive. So many individuals involved with HBCUs were eager to participate in his research, demonstrating their clear understanding of the relevance of his research to the institutions. In Everett’s initial proposal to ETSU’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), he planned to conduct face-to-face interviews with participants so he could not only have a verbal response from participants, but also be able to observe changes in participants’ demeanor in response to the questions and progress of the conversation. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, he was forced to change the format of his interviews to Zoom, which still allowed him the ability to see his interviewees, but limited the personal interaction that face-to-face communication affords. The interviews consisted of 18 questions and were expected to last 30 to 45 minutes. A couple of the main questions included in the interview protocol were: 1. How would you improve your institution’s mission statement? 2. Based on what you know about your institution’s mission, would you amend it to make a difference in the future? Altogether, eleven individuals participated in interviews, and only the shortest interview lasted within his originally expected time frame. His longest interview lasted an hour and forty-five minutes, with an average interview length of one hour. This is a testament to the level of discussion that the subject brought out. Everett has finished gathering his data and 44

Everett Roper

Dr. Jill Channing

“...larger schools have a commitment to diversity, beyond being exclusively an HBCU, but clear diversity related to gender and race...” has begun the analyzation process. Already he is seeing that many smaller HBCUs seem to be operating just to stay afloat. Funding is low, faculty are short-staffed, and recruitment and retention are low. However, some of the most prominent HBCUs, such as Morehouse, Clark Atlanta, Spellman, and Howard, are doing very well. Everett is finding that these larger schools have a commitment to diversity, beyond being exclusively an HBCU, but clear diversity related to gender and race. Diversity in these institutions extends beyond the student body to the faculty and administration. Across the board, they are willing to accept change; they are progressive, and willing to make changes to their curriculum to keep up with the times. When Everett began his research, he was expecting to see similar struggles among all HBCUs, but as he is finding, the struggles are not necessarily the same. Everett is encouraged by the passion and concern of the individuals who participated in his research, but there is still very little data on the subject,

outside of what he has collected. Everett commends Dr. Channing for giving him the freedom in his research to explore his subject area while still remaining accessible to him. Without ever condemning, she has offered, instead, recommendations and provided him with alternative perspectives to examine in his research. Everett appreciates the concern Dr. Channing has for his work and for HBCUs. From the first class Everett taught as a high school PE teacher to the work he did as a graduate assistant in his first masters, Everett’s passion for teaching continues in his current research. Beyond striving to be a good educator himself, he hopes that he will be able to share his work with the HBCU community, potentially through written publications and a possible administrative role in the future.

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ETSU - Illuminated - Fall 2020

Articles inside

Sculptural Narratives of Traumatic Experiences Shanna Glawson, Studio Art, MFA

Impact of a Student-Led Gap Year Erin Garcia, Educational Leadership, EdD

From Engineer to Educator: A Passion for Purpose Everett Roper, Educational Leadership, EdD