[{"id":9476,"date":"2026-07-03T23:42:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9476"},"modified":"2026-07-03T23:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:43:05","slug":"valencia-akanji-dissertation-proposal-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-900-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/valencia-akanji-dissertation-proposal-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-900-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Valencia Akanji Dissertation Proposal Defense, Saturday, July 11, 2026 @ 9:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Oluwagbemiga Ojumu<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: ALGORITHMIC INFLUENCE AND CONSUMER PROTECTION: HOW DIGITAL PLATFORMS SHAPE CONSUMER DECISIONS, POLITICAL BEHAVIOR, AND FIRM ADVANTAGE<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT:<\/strong> Algorithmic systems have become fundamental to digital platforms, shaping how consumers access information, evaluate alternatives, form preferences, and make decisions. Through data collection, tracking, personalization, recommendation systems, and behavioral prediction, algorithms influence what individuals see, believe, purchase, and support politically. While these technologies are often promoted as tools that enhance convenience and user experience, they also create opportunities for firms and platforms to influence consumer behavior in ways that may be difficult for consumers to recognize or resist. This dissertation examines algorithmic influence as a consumer protection issue, focusing on how digital platforms shape consumer decisions, political behavior, and firm advantage. The dissertation consists of three interconnected studies. The first study develops a theoretical framework explaining how algorithms influence consumer behavior through a recursive process involving data collection, personalization, repeated exposure, identity reinforcement, and behavioral feedback loops. Drawing on Reinforcing Spirals Theory and Social Identity Theory, the study argues that algorithmic influence is an ongoing process in which platforms continuously learn from user behavior and adjust future exposure to reinforce existing attitudes, identities, and behavioral tendencies. The second study investigates partisan loyalty and vote switching in the 2020\u20132024 U.S. presidential elections. Although it does not directly measure algorithmic exposure, it examines political behavior as an identity-based outcome and explores how partisan identity shapes voter loyalty and electoral decision-making across demographic groups. The findings contribute to understanding how identity-driven behaviors may be reinforced within increasingly personalized digital information environments. The third study examines how firms and digital platforms transform consumer data, attention, and behavior into strategic advantage. Drawing on platform economics and strategic management perspectives, it explores how organizations leverage targeting, personalization, and predictive analytics to generate competitive advantage and create economic value from consumer engagement. Collectively, the three studies demonstrate that algorithmic systems are not merely technological tools but influential structures that shape consumer behavior while generating substantial benefits for firms and platforms. The dissertation contributes to research on consumer behavior, political behavior, platform strategy, and consumer protection, while highlighting the need for stronger transparency requirements, regulatory oversight, and consumer safeguards in increasingly algorithm-driven digital environments.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Price Convergence, Market Integration, Spatial Economics, Regional Pricing Strategy, Geographic Arbitrage<\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/99418712996?pwd=66bbJFCip3caOzTdB6CqyYQmVpywLp.1<\/a><\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Northwest Center, Room 205<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9410,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9476","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9478,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9476\/revisions\/9478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9476"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9473,"date":"2026-07-03T23:32:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9473"},"modified":"2026-07-03T23:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:45:47","slug":"llms-text2sql-knowledge-distillation-information-extraction","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/llms-text2sql-knowledge-distillation-information-extraction\/","title":{"rendered":"LLMs, Text2SQL, Knowledge Distillation, Information Extraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Xishuang Dong<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS FOR INFORMATION EXTRACTION<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged with remarkable capabilities in understanding, generating, and contextualizing natural language. These capabilities have significantly advanced information extraction (IE), enabling the extraction of meaningful information from both unstructured and structured data. This dissertation investigates two important IE tasks, named entity recognition (NER) and text-to-SQL (Text2SQL), and further explores interpretable knowledge distillation techniques to enable efficient deployment of LLMs in resource-constrained environments.For NER, this dissertation focuses on extracting clinically relevant information from electronic health records (EHRs), including medications, diseases, and their relationships. Limited availability of annotated clinical data remains a major challenge for developing high-performing biomedical IE systems. To address this issue, this dissertation investigates the use of ChatGPT for synthetic data generation and augmentation. Multiple pre-trained BERT models, originally trained on large corpora such as Wikipedia and MIMIC, are subsequently fine-tuned on the augmented datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that LLM-generated synthetic data effectively improves biomedical NER performance and facilitates accurate extraction of key clinical entities from EHRs. For Text2SQL, which enables non-expert users to query relational databases using natural language, this dissertation proposes several LLM-based frameworks for improving SQL generation quality and reliability. The first introduces a SQL quality evaluation mechanism that iteratively refines generated queries using feedback on syntactic correctness and semantic accuracy. The second integrates non-parametric attention and confidence-guided prompt refinement without relying on external knowledge, achieving a 6.5% improvement in execution accuracy over a GPT-4o baseline. Furthermore, an Inference-Time Bayesian Refinement Framework (IBRF) reformulates Text2SQL generation as an iterative process of generation, probabilistic error diagnosis, and targeted repair. On the BIRD benchmark, IBRF achieves 66.02% execution accuracy and 64.90% valid efficiency score, improving performance by an average of 49.7% over base models. Finally, this dissertation develops interpretable, structure-aware knowledge distillation methods that transfer both label dependencies and reasoning processes from large teacher models to compact students. These approaches recover nearly 80% of teacher performance with 19\u00d7 fewer parameters and reduce computational costs by up to 42\u00d7 while preserving meaningful reasoning capabilities, demonstrating the potential of efficient and trustworthy LLMs for real-world information extraction applications.<\/p>\n

Keywords:<\/strong> LLMs, Text2SQL, Knowledge Distillation, Information Extraction<\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Conference, Room 315D<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9410,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9473","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9475,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9473\/revisions\/9475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9473"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9470,"date":"2026-07-03T23:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9470"},"modified":"2026-07-03T23:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:28:19","slug":"joann-emale-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-100-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/joann-emale-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-100-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"JoAnn Emale Dissertation Defense, Saturday, July 11, 2026 @ 10:0 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Erick Kitenge<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: BEYOND EXECUTION: MANAGERIAL ATTRIBUTES FOR SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>This study examines the relationship between what consumers value in experiential marketing events and the managerial competencies organizations seek when hiring for experiential marketing roles. As brands increasingly compete on emotional and sensory engagement, the experiential marketing manager has become central to execution, yet the role remains loosely defined, and the skills it demands are rarely tied to what audiences respond to. This research addresses that gap by asking which event attributes consumers prize most, which respondent characteristics shape those preferences, and what competencies employers actually ask for when they hire the managers who build these experiences. Survey data were collected from 521 consenting respondents drawn from a university campus community, and the importance of twelve experiential attributes was modeled using ordered and binary logit regressions grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior, with the Kano Model used to interpret how those attributes function for consumers. The findings show that demographics explain little about how consumers evaluate experiences. Age and gender were largely insignificant, while frequency of engagement and the lived quality of the experience were the consistent drivers, and the relational dimension of an experience, follow-up engagement and personalization, was what converted attendance into brand recommendation. Emotional connection, the outcome the field treats as its goal, ranked last as a stated feature yet was reported by a majority of attendees when asked directly, behaving as a latent quality that consumers do not consciously demand. A separate content analysis of 28 experiential marketing job postings, coded inductively against a competency framework built from the posting language itself, found that employers ask overwhelmingly for execution, coordination, strategy, and measurement, and least often for the emotional and relational competencies most tied to how an experience feels. Read side by side, the two datasets reveal a gap in emphasis between what consumers reward and what employers hire for. Identifying and defining that gap is the contribution of this study, which offers a theoretical framework and practical guidance for defining and staffing the experiential marketing role and leaves the causal testing of the gap to future research.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Experiential marketing, managerial competencies, consumer expectations, Kano Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, job postings<\/p>\n

Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/94370460503?pwd=eWtiMDlNTDRmbVBLZlNVa0JzOE4wUT09<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9410,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9470","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9472,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9470\/revisions\/9472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9470"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9466,"date":"2026-07-02T09:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9466"},"modified":"2026-07-02T09:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:09:23","slug":"christin-hill-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-400-pm-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/christin-hill-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-400-pm-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Christin Hill Dissertation Defense, Saturday, July 11, 2026 @ 4:00 pm Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Robert Zinko<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: DEEP CONDITIONED: UNPACKING HAIR BIAS IN PERCEIVED PROFESSIONALISM AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR HIRING OF BLACK WOMEN<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>This study examines the relationship between Black women\u2019s hairstyles, perceived professionalism, and hiring willingness. Using a two-study design, the research investigates whether hairstyle influences workplace evaluations and whether these perceptions change when additional applicant and evaluator characteristics are considered. Study 1 assessed perceptions of professionalism across four hairstyles: straight hair, an Afrocentric style, an afro, and locs. The results revealed a statistically significant difference between straight hair and the afro, with straight hair rated as more professional. These findings suggest that hairstyle can influence professional judgments, particularly when styles are more closely associated with Black cultural identity. Study 2 extended this analysis by examining whether applicant human capital, the industry of the position, and evaluator characteristics affected perceptions of professionalism and hiring willingness. Specifically, the study considered whether qualifications, job context, evaluator age, and exposure to Black culture reduced or explained differences in evaluation. The findings indicated that differences in professionalism ratings and hiring evaluations diminished after accounting for these factors. This suggests that hair bias may not operate in isolation, but instead interacts with broader assumptions about qualifications, workplace fit, industry expectations, and cultural familiarity.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Hair bias, employment, discrimination, hiring biases<\/p>\n

Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/98672180616?pwd=T7iaZD1Ov1NH3HkM2dTZmUXMzym729.1<\/a><\/p>\n

Meeting ID<\/strong>: 86 7218 0616<\/p>\n

Passcode<\/strong>: 001<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9410,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9466","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9467,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9466\/revisions\/9467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9466"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9463,"date":"2026-07-01T13:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9463"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:40:08","slug":"melanie-nash-dissertation-proposal-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-130-pm-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/melanie-nash-dissertation-proposal-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-130-pm-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Melanie Nash Dissertation Proposal Defense, Saturday, July 11, 2026 @ 1:30 pm Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Erick Kitenge<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: BILATERAL DETERMINANTS OF PRICE CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE ACROSS U.S. METROPOLITAN AREAS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT:<\/strong> This dissertation will examine the bilateral determinants of price convergence and divergence across U.S. metropolitan areas, with a particular focus on how location-pair characteristics shape the speed and persistence of price adjustments over time. While prior studies on market integration have primarily emphasized systemic shocks, such as recessions and monetary policy changes, or product-specific characteristics such as tradability and perishability, they have largely treated location-specific heterogeneity as a nuisance through the use of fixed effects. This dissertation departs from that approach by explicitly examining bilateral factors linking metropolitan areas, including geographic distance, shared state boundaries, income differentials, and interstate highway connectivity, as substantive determinants of price convergence. Using quarterly data from the Cost of Living Index (COLI) covering approximately 200\u2013270 U.S. metropolitan areas, the study will construct bilateral metro pairs and analyze absolute price gaps across major expenditure categories, including housing, groceries, transportation, healthcare, and miscellaneous goods and services. The analysis will employ dyadic panel econometric models with time fixed effects to estimate how bilateral characteristics influence both the degree and speed of convergence. Robustness checks, including alternative convergence specifications and Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimation, will further strengthen the empirical analysis. Beyond the conventional interpretation of convergence as evidence of efficient market integration, this dissertation will also examine persistent or widening price gaps as economically meaningful structural outcomes. Rather than viewing divergence solely as market failure, the study will investigate conditions under which persistent price differentials create opportunities for geographic arbitrage, regional pricing strategies, and market positioning. Expected findings suggest that same-state status and stronger transportation connectivity will accelerate convergence by reducing regulatory and logistical frictions, whereas larger income differentials may sustain persistent price gaps, particularly in housing markets. By reframing bilateral location characteristics as central objects of inquiry, this dissertation will contribute to the literature on domestic market integration while offering practical insights for policymakers and businesses seeking to understand regional pricing dynamics and strategic market opportunities.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Price Convergence, Market Integration, Spatial Economics,\u00a0 Regional Pricing Strategy, Geographic Arbitrage<\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/94370460503?pwd=eWtiMDlNTDRmbVBLZlNVa0JzOE4wUT09<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9410,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9463","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9465,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9463\/revisions\/9465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9463"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9460,"date":"2026-07-01T10:57:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9460"},"modified":"2026-07-01T10:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:57:32","slug":"jasmine-rice-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-110-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/jasmine-rice-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-110-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Jasmine Rice Dissertation Defense, Saturday, July 11, 2026 @ 11:0 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Reginald Bell<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: FROM INFLUENCE TO EXHAUSTION: HOW LEADERSHIP STYLES PREDICT BURNOUT IN HEALTHCARE LEADERS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Burnout among healthcare leaders has become an increase issue due to its potential influence on organizational performance, employee well-being, and quality of patient care. Although previous studies have extensively examined the relationship between leadership styles and employee burnout, limited research has investigated how leaders\u2019 own leadership styles connect to their self-reported burnout. Guided by the Full Range Leadership Theory and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model, this quantitative correlational study examined the relationships between transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, and e-leadership styles and burnout among healthcare leaders, as measured by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Primary data were collected through an online survey administered to healthcare leaders using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regression to evaluate the relationships between leadership styles and burnout while controlling for demographics characteristics. Moderation analyses were conducted to determine whether organizational culture influenced these relationships. The results indicated that transformational leadership was positively associated with professional burnout, whereas transactional leadership was negatively associated with professional burnout. Leadership styles were not significant predictors of reduced personal accomplishment, and organizational culture demonstrated limited moderating effects, with only a sense of community partially moderating the relationship between transformational leadership and emotional exhaustion. These findings contribute to the leadership literature by shifting the focus from follower burnout to leader burnout and provide practical implications for healthcare organizations seeking to develop leadership strategies that promote leader well-being and organizational effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Financial risk aversion, financial sustainability, organizational growth, Black-led nonprofit organizations, nonprofit leadership, Prospect Theory, Resource Dependence Theory, Leadership Identity Theory<\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Northwest Campus, Room 204<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9410,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9460","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9462,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9460\/revisions\/9462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9460"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9458,"date":"2026-07-01T10:49:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9458"},"modified":"2026-07-01T10:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:49:27","slug":"joulvous-drake-doctoral-project-defense-thursday-july-16-2026-1100-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/joulvous-drake-doctoral-project-defense-thursday-july-16-2026-1100-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Joulvous Drake Doctoral Project Defense, Thursday, July 16, 2026 @ 11:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Chloe Gaines<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: UTILIZATION OF AN ON-SITE PRIMARY CARE CLINIC – AN EVALUATION<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Employers are increasingly incorporating on-site primary care clinics into their workplace health strategies to improve access to timely care, reduce absenteeism, support chronic disease management, and lower healthcare-related costs. Yet, despite the demonstrated organizational and health benefits, many worksite clinics experience lower-than-expected utilization. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to identify behavioral and structural factors that influence employee utilization of a corporate on-site primary care clinic which was experiencing significantly below organizational utilization targets. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional design was used to evaluate factors or barriers contributing to employee\u2019s low utilization of the onsite primary care clinic. Approximately 1,000 eligible full-time employees at a large corporate campus in the northeastern United States were invited to complete the Worksite Clinic Utilization Questionnaire (WCUQ), a tool developed specifically for this project and structured around the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation Behavior (COM-B) model constructs. The WCUQ measured awareness, accessibility, confidentiality, convenience, and motivational influences on clinic use. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability testing, and non-parametric comparisons. Open-ended items captured additional behavioral insights. Findings: A total of 251 employee surveys were completed the survey. Results demonstrated generally favorable perceptions across all three COM-B domains. Capability findings indicated high levels of awareness of clinic services, understanding of clinic benefits, confidence in communicating with providers, and adequate health literacy. Opportunity findings reflected strong perceptions of accessibility, convenient clinic hours, supervisor support, and availability of time during the workday to access services. Motivation findings were generally positive; however, greater variability was observed in employees\u2019 preferences for the on-site clinic versus external healthcare providers. Overall, the findings suggest that knowledge and access barriers are relatively limited within the organization, while motivational factors and personal healthcare preferences may play a larger role in influencing clinic utilization. Conclusion: This evaluation contributed to the broader application of behavioral science in workplace health evaluations by using the COM-B model to identify multi-level determinants of clinic utilization. Understanding these determinants is crucial for designing targeted interventions that enhance access, promote preventive care, foster employee trust, and align organizational goals to improve workforce health outcomes.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: On-site clinic, utilization, COM-B model, workplace health, process evaluation, primary care<\/p>\n

Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Meeting<\/strong> https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/91024320118?pwd=1HA6KE47eMcL81OjZb73mnFH8QaKPE.1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Meeting ID<\/strong>: 910 2432 0118<\/p>\n

Passcode<\/strong>: 738872<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9413,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9458","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9459,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9458\/revisions\/9459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9458"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9429,"date":"2026-06-29T16:26:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9429"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:27:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:27:04","slug":"natasha-abney-doctoral-project-defense-tuesday-july-7-2026-1100-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/natasha-abney-doctoral-project-defense-tuesday-july-7-2026-1100-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Natasha Abney Doctoral Project Defense, Tuesday, July 7, 2026 @ 11:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Abida Solomon<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: IMPROVING PROTOCOL ADHERENCE THROUGH STAFF EDUCATION: A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE TO STANDARDIZE CHLORHEXIDINE GLUCONATE USE IN AN AMBULATORY OBSTETRIC CLINIC<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Introduction: Surgical site infections (SSIs) following cesarean delivery remain a significant challenge in obstetric care, contributing to increased maternal morbidity, prolonged hospital stays, and higher healthcare costs. However, chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) is recognized as an effective antiseptic agent for preoperative skin preparation; yet inconsistent nursing education and the lack of standardized protocols have contributed to suboptimal adherence and variable clinical outcomes. Purpose: This quality improvement project sought to implement and evaluate a structured preoperative skin care education protocol for obstetric (OB) nursing staff at a hospital-affiliated outpatient clinic in Texas. The overall aim was to determine whether implementing a structured education protocol could improve nursing knowledge and adherence to evidence-based SSI prevention practices compared with baseline practice. Method: The project was guided by the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework. A single-group pretest-posttest quality improvement design was conducted to evaluate the impact of an educational protocol on nursing staff adherence to preoperative skin care procedures. The intervention involved structured, in-person educational sessions that incorporated evidence-based best practices for preoperative skin cleansing and the consistent application of chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) antiseptic for patients scheduled for cesarean delivery. Educational content was delivered to all obstetric nursing staff (RNs and LVNs) in the clinic setting using standardized materials and included the implementation of a new Epic SmartPhrase to guide documentation. Outcomes were measured as improvements in nurse knowledge scores and adherence to preoperative CHG skin preparation protocols, as documented through electronic health record (EHR) audits. The primary outcome, change in knowledge, was assessed using the Surgical Site Infection Prevention Knowledge Assessment (SSI-PKA) survey, a validated instrument aligned with CDC and AORN guidelines. The secondary outcome, change in adherence, was evaluated through pre- and post-intervention EHR audits. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic variables, and adherence rates were analyzed using the Pearson chi-square test to compare pre- and post-intervention adherence rates. Changes in knowledge scores were assessed using paired t-tests. Results: Twenty-nine nursing staff completed the project and were included in the final analysis. Mean knowledge scores on the Surgical Site Infection Prevention Knowledge Assessment (SSI-PKA) increased from 6.1 (SD = 1.2) pre-intervention to 9.0 (SD = 0.8) post-intervention, representing a statistically significant improvement, t(28) = 12.45, p < .001. Retrospective baseline EHR audits demonstrated documentation adherence rates of 48.9% in August 2024 and 51.3% in January 2025. Following implementation of the educational intervention and Epic SmartPhrase documentation tool, adherence increased to 98.9%, with 287 of 290 audited charts demonstrating full compliance with required documentation elements. Conclusions: Findings suggest that a structured CHG educational intervention, combined with standardized EHR documentation tools, can significantly improve nursing knowledge and adherence to evidence-based SSI prevention practices. Integration of the Epic SmartPhrase supported workflow standardization and enhanced documentation consistency. Continued monitoring of SSI rates and long-term adherence is recommended to evaluate sustainability and the potential impact on patient outcomes.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Antiseptics, cesarean section, chlorhexidine, infections, maternal morbidity, obstetric care, post-intervention, pre-intervention, preoperative skin care, povidone-iodine, surgical site infections<\/p>\n

Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/92300477924?pwd=oRKjHJFPAAUqIf2RHG1kbsIVpkLv9H.1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9430,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9429","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9432,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9429\/revisions\/9432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9429"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9424,"date":"2026-06-29T16:20:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9424"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:20:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:20:49","slug":"latonya-d-holman-doctoral-project-defense-tuesday-july-7-2026-1000-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/latonya-d-holman-doctoral-project-defense-tuesday-july-7-2026-1000-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Latonya D. Holman Doctoral Project Defense, Tuesday, July 7, 2026 @ 10:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Abida Solomon<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: EVALUATION OF A BREAST CANCER SCREENING PROGRAM FOR FEMALE VETERANS WITHIN PATIENT CARE ALIGNMENT TEAMS AT VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL CENTER<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Breast cancer remains a significant health concern among women veterans and is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality. Early detection through routine screening mammography is associated with improved outcomes; however, adherence to recommended screening guidelines remains a challenge within some healthcare settings. This variability underscores the need for ongoing evaluation of breast cancer screening programs to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement in preventive care delivery. This quantitative descriptive program evaluation assessed breast cancer screening adherence and patient-reported screening experiences among women veterans receiving care within Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACTs) at a large, urban Veterans Affairs healthcare system. Guided by the Logic Model Framework, the evaluation examined whether the breast cancer screening program achieved the organizational benchmark of 75% screening adherence among eligible women veterans aged 40 to 74 years and assessed patient-reported experiences using the Breast Cancer Screening Experience Questionnaire. Data were obtained from Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) breast cancer screening reports, electronic health record (EHR) data, and questionnaire responses collected during the evaluation period. Monthly breast cancer screening adherence rates remained relatively stable throughout the evaluation period, ranging from 72.34% to 73.62%, and remained below the organizational benchmark of 75%. Patient experience was assessed using questionnaire responses from 132 women veterans. Findings indicated highly favorable perceptions of the breast cancer screening process, with mean scores ranging from 4.52 to 4.82 on a 5-point Likert scale. The highest ratings were observed for privacy, facility cleanliness and comfort, staff respect, and overall satisfaction. Comparatively lower ratings were observed for provider explanation of the importance of breast cancer screening, communication with the healthcare team, and provider responsiveness to questions, although these ratings remained favorable overall. The evaluation found that breast cancer screening adherence remained below the organizational benchmark throughout the evaluation period, indicating opportunities for continued improvement in screening participation. Conversely, patient-reported experience findings demonstrated successful achievement of the program objective related to positive screening experiences. Findings support the importance of access, patient engagement, communication, and care coordination in promoting participation in preventive screening services. These results provide evidence to inform quality improvement initiatives aimed at increasing breast cancer screening participation and enhancing patient-centered care among women veterans.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Breast cancer screening, Patient Aligned Care Teams, patient experience, program evaluation, screening adherence, Veterans Affairs, women veterans<\/p>\n

Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/95636880848?pwd=kHHBoGmvFyJJkOZeZdarCRwtDhu76j.1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9425,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9424","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9427,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9424\/revisions\/9427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9424"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9420,"date":"2026-06-29T16:08:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9420"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:08:52","slug":"renika-atkins-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-1230-pm-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/renika-atkins-dissertation-defense-saturday-july-11-2026-1230-pm-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Renika Atkins Dissertation Defense, Saturday, July 11, 2026 @ 12:30 pm Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Louis Ngamassi Tchouakeu<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL RISK AVERSION IN SHAPING FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL GROWTH AMONG BLACK LED NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Black-led nonprofit organizations play a vital role in addressing social and economic inequities, yet many operate within funding environments characterized by persistent financial constraints and limited access to unrestricted resources. Although prior research has explored nonprofit financial management and organizational performance, limited empirical evidence exists regarding how financial risk aversion influences financial sustainability and organizational growth within Black-led nonprofit organizations. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between financial risk aversion, financial sustainability, and organizational growth among Black-led nonprofit organizations. Guided by Prospect Theory, Resource Dependence Theory, and Leadership Identity Theory, the study sought to better understand how leadership approaches to financial decision-making influence organizational outcomes in resource-constrained environments. The study addressed the following research questions: (1) What is the relationship between financial risk aversion and financial sustainability among Black-led nonprofit organizations? and (2) What is the relationship between financial risk aversion and organizational growth among Black-led nonprofit organizations? Data were collected through an online survey administered to nonprofit leaders with financial decision-making authority. Following data screening procedures, the final analytic sample consisted of 87 Black-led nonprofit organizations. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the measurement model and test the hypothesized relationships among the study constructs. The measurement model demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity through assessments of internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Structural model results revealed statistically significant negative relationships between financial risk aversion and both financial sustainability and organizational growth. Organizations reporting higher levels of financial risk aversion also reported lower levels of financial sustainability and organizational growth. The findings suggest that excessive financial caution may limit an organization’s willingness to invest in infrastructure, revenue diversification, organizational capacity, and strategic opportunities that support long-term success. This study contributes to the nonprofit leadership and financial management literature by providing empirical evidence that leadership approaches to financial decision-making are associated with important organizational outcomes and offers practical insights for nonprofit leaders seeking to strengthen organizational resilience, sustainability, and growth.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Financial risk aversion, financial sustainability, organizational growth, Black-led nonprofit organizations, nonprofit leadership, Prospect Theory, Resource Dependence Theory, Leadership Identity Theory<\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Northwest Campus, Room 205<\/p>\n

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