[{"id":9521,"date":"2026-07-10T16:19:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9521"},"modified":"2026-07-10T16:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:20:07","slug":"stephanie-williams-doctoral-project-defense-wednesday-july-15-2026-1000-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/stephanie-williams-doctoral-project-defense-wednesday-july-15-2026-1000-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephanie Williams Doctoral Project Defense, Wednesday, July 15, 2026 @ 10:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

TITLE<\/strong>: THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING ON CLINICAL STAFF’S KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION OF THE MEDICATION RECONCILIATION PROCESS: A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Medication-related harm affects approximately 1 in 30 patients in healthcare settings. Accurate medication reconciliation (MedRec) is essential for identifying medication discrepancies, preventing medication errors, and reducing adverse drug events. Clinical staff play a critical role in ensuring the accuracy of medication lists in primary care settings. This evidence-based quality improvement project evaluated the effect of a structured medication reconciliation training intervention on clinical staff knowledge, perceptions, and medication reconciliation practices in a primary care clinic. A single-group, quantitative, quasi-experimental quality improvement project was conducted in a primary care clinic in Southeast Texas. A convenience sample of 32 clinical staff members completed pre- and post-intervention knowledge and perception assessments. Medication discrepancy rates were evaluated through pre- and post-intervention chart audits of 98 patient records per group. The educational training was guided by the MATCH toolkit. Knowledge scores remained unchanged following the intervention (p=1.000), likely due to high baseline levels. Three perception measures demonstrated statistically significant improvement, including a perceived increase in workload associated with MedRec (p < .001), confidence in identifying medication discrepancies (p = .035), and perceived leadership support for medication reconciliation (p = .020). Chart audits demonstrated a significant improvement in medication list accuracy (?\u00b2 = 9.08, p = .003) and a significant reduction in the total number of medication discrepancies (U = 5814.50, p = .007). The educational intervention was associated with improved medication reconciliation practices, increased medication list accuracy, and reduced medication discrepancies. Findings support integrating structured MedRec training into clinical practice to enhance patient safety, improve quality outcomes, and promote compliance with healthcare performance measures.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Adverse drug event, clinical staff, medication discrepancy, medication error, medication reconciliation, medication review.<\/p>\n

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

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

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/98496651095?pwd=ZbqkViZnbds0CFbfpwwmGN6qOM91JL.1<\/a><\/p>\n

Meeting ID<\/strong>: 984 9665 1095<\/p>\n

Passcode<\/strong>: 123533<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9504,"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-9521","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\/9521","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\/9521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9523,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9521\/revisions\/9523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9521"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9511,"date":"2026-07-08T22:30:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T03:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9511"},"modified":"2026-07-08T22:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T03:42:25","slug":"nouf-nur-nabilah-masters-thesis-defense-monday-july-20-2026-100-pm-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/nouf-nur-nabilah-masters-thesis-defense-monday-july-20-2026-100-pm-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Nouf Nur Nabilah Master\u2019s Thesis Defense, Monday, July 27, 2026 @ 1:00 pm Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Annamalai Annamalai
\n
\nTITLE<\/strong>: DEEP LEARNING-BASED SIDE-CHANNEL EVALUATION ACROSS CLASSICAL AND POST-QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHIC IMPLEMENTATIONS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>A cryptographic algorithm that is mathematically secure can still be broken since its hardware implementation leaks secret information through power consumption or electromagnetic emission. These vulnerabilities are applicable to widely deployed classical encryption schemes as well as emerging post-quantum schemes which are standardized to provide quantum resistance. This thesis evaluates how deep learning changes such side-channel attacks across both through a unified study of four attacks, spanning a classical block cipher and two protected post-quantum schemes, and tests learned methods against the conditions that separate a laboratory result from a practical attack. Profiled deep-learning attacks recover keys efficiently under favorable laboratory conditions. However, their behavior is far less well understood when traces are misaligned, when the attacked key differs from the one used in training, and when the leakage is faint and measured on real hardware. The thesis asks whether learned attacks remain effective under these conditions, and where they reach their limits. The four attacks were evaluated on physical devices, targeting AES-128 on a microcontroller and the post-quantum schemes ML-KEM and HQC on field-programmable gate arrays. Each attack was measured by guessing entropy and the number of traces needed to recover a key. On the classical cipher, an ensemble of convolutional networks stabilized recovery against a timing countermeasure. Selecting the most informative trace samples then produced a far smaller model that recovered keys it had never seen, which establishes that the exploited leakage is a property of the device rather than of any single key. On the post-quantum targets, the limiting factor was not the sophistication of the model but the distance between training and deployment. The smallest network often outperformed an attention-based transformer many times its size, and the gap between simulated and real measurements bounded every learned attack. On a protected implementation whose leak defeated standard attacks, knowledge distillation nonetheless recovered the targeted secret byte. Across the four studies, what limited a practical attack was not the complexity of the model but the distance between training and deployment conditions. Deep learning helped most when a method was aimed at a specific obstacle, and the least when complexity was added for its own sake.<\/p>\n

Keywords: <\/strong>Post-quantum cryptography, power and side-channel analysis, advanced encryption standard, deep learning, electromagnetic analysis, Hamming quasi-cyclic, knowledge distillation, module-lattice-based key-encapsulation mechanism<\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Electrical Engineering Conference Room 315D<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9512,"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-9511","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\/9511","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":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9515,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9511\/revisions\/9515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9511"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9494,"date":"2026-07-07T11:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9494"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:47:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:47:04","slug":"fall-2026-graduate-student-orientation","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/fall-2026-graduate-student-orientation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall 2026 New Graduate Student Orientation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prairie View A&M University Graduate School will host the Fall 2026 New Student Orientation on August 20, 2026, at 6:00 PM CST via Zoom. Students will learn about academic expectations, campus resources, university policies, scholarship and funding opportunities, student organizations, and collaboration with faculty and advisors.<\/p>\n

Zoom Meeting:<\/div>\n
https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/96396530360?pwd=lXphYRawSNUlFRoZ864yKbwnIAOf28.1<\/u><\/a><\/div>\n

Meeting ID: 963 9653 0360
Passcode: 969672<\/p>\n

For questions, contact : gradadmissions@pvamu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

or call: 936-261-3518<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9495,"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-9494","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\/9494","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":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9499,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9494\/revisions\/9499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9494"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9490,"date":"2026-07-07T01:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9490"},"modified":"2026-07-07T01:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:52:18","slug":"terrance-bolton-dissertation-proposal-defense-tuesday-july-14-2026-200-pm-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/terrance-bolton-dissertation-proposal-defense-tuesday-july-14-2026-200-pm-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrance Bolton Dissertation Proposal Defense, Tuesday, July 14, 2026 @ 2:00 pm Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Fred Bonner<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: GRAVITY DEFIED: BLACK MALES ESTABLISHING A SENSE OF AGENCY AND BELONGING IN THE EBONY TOWERS OF THE STATE OF TEXAS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The persistent underrepresentation of Black males in higher education, including within Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), remains a critical concern for scholars and policymakers. (Strayhorn, 2017; Harper, 2012). Despite HBCUs\u2019 legacy as spaces of Black academic achievement, Black males continue to experience declining enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. National Center for Education Statistics (2022) data indicate that Black men comprise less than 6% of college enrollments, reflecting broader systemic inequities that shape their educational trajectories. These patterns highlight the need to examine not only structural barriers but also the lived experiences that influence Black males\u2019 sense of agency and belonging within academic spaces, conceptualized here as the \u201cEbony Tower.\u201d This qualitative phenomenological study explores how Black males at four HBCUs (two public and two private) Texas Southern University (public), Prairie View A&M University (public), Huston-Tillotson (private), and Wiley College (private) construct and experience agency and belonging. Grounded in critical race theory (Crenshaw, 1996), Strayhorn\u2019s (2018) sense of belonging framework, Black male identity development theory, (Cross, W.E. Jr., 1971) and theory of student departure (Tinto, 1993), the study centers participants\u2019 narratives to examine how institutional contexts, relationships, and cultural dynamics support or hinder persistence within the Ebony Tower Arena. The study contributes to scholarship by illuminating how Black males navigate, resist, and thrive within environments shaped by both historical legacy and contemporary inequities. Findings offer practical implications for developing culturally responsive retention strategies, affirming Black male agency, and fostering inclusive institutional climates. Ultimately, this research reframes Black males not as at risk, but as resilient scholars whose presence and contributions are essential to the future of higher education.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Black males, agency, sense of belonging, ebony tower, higher education, HBCUs, critical race theory (CRT), persistence, theory of student departure, Black male identity development theory<\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Delco Building, Room 228<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9491,"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-9490","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\/9490","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\/9490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9493,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9490\/revisions\/9493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9490"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9486,"date":"2026-07-07T01:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9486"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:30:14","slug":"teneeshia-renae-johnson-dissertation-defense-friday-july-17-2026-1200-pm-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/teneeshia-renae-johnson-dissertation-defense-friday-july-17-2026-1200-pm-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Teneeshia Renae Johnson Dissertation Defense, Tuesday, July 14, 2026 @ 12:00 pm Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Temilola Salami<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: A GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS OF MENTAL HEALTH ACCESS AMONG TRAUMA-EXPOSED DISCIPLINARY ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM YOUTH<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>The purpose of this study was to examine the spatial distribution of trauma symptoms and emotional dysregulation among youth involved in disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP). Additionally, the study explored whether these outcomes were associated with socioeconomic deprivation and neighborhood level access to mental health. The study utilized data from a prior thesis study involving DAEP-involved youth between the ages of 11 and 17. Three hypotheses guided this work: (H1) Posttraumatic stress symptoms among DAEP-involved youth will show statistically significant spatial clusters (\u201chotspots\u201d) across zip codes, such that geographic hotspots of elevated PTSS severity will be identified; (H2) Spatial mapping will demonstrate that areas of elevated trauma symptoms align with structural inequities in mental health access; and (H3) Longer estimated public transit travel from the nearest bus stop to the closest publicly accessible mental health facility will predict higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Findings highlighted where risk is most concentrated, identify structural barriers to care, and inform trauma-informed planning and policy strategies aimed at disrupting pathways that sustain the school-to-prison pipeline.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Disciplinary alternative education program, exclusionary discipline, mental health access, mental health equity, neighborhood adversity, posttraumatic stress symptoms, school to prison pipeline, trauma symptoms.<\/p>\n

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

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

https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/95431532001?pwd=ljaQavTdepHZwThpdSrh4my1J1iirt.1<\/a><\/p>\n

Meeting ID<\/strong>: 954 3153 2001<\/p>\n

Passcode<\/strong>: 787401<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9487,"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-9486","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\/9486","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":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9500,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9486\/revisions\/9500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9486"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9483,"date":"2026-07-07T00:38:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T05:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9483"},"modified":"2026-07-07T00:38:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T05:38:21","slug":"reginald-chatman-dissertation-proposal-defense-saturday-july-18-2026-1100-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/reginald-chatman-dissertation-proposal-defense-saturday-july-18-2026-1100-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Reginald Chatman Dissertation Proposal Defense, Saturday, July 18, 2026 @ 11:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Mohammed Hussein<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: UNDERSTANDING SUCCESSFUL EXITS AMONG BLACK TECH FOUNDERS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF STRATEGIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND EXPERIENTIAL FACTORS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT:<\/strong> The central problem this study addresses is how to characterize what it takes for Black tech founders to exit. Thus, the purpose is to examine the factors that maximize the probability of success. By and large, the literature comprehensively documents the challenges that Black founders encounter due to racism, lack of venture funding, and insufficient support systems. The gap that makes this study necessary concerns understanding the factors associated with Black tech founders’ agency that led to successful exits. Succinctly stated, the primary research question is: In what ways do Black technology founders describe the strategic, psychological, and experiential factors that shaped their venture exit? The findings are expected to identify factors that can guide entrepreneurs in building successful companies positioned for an exit in the tech venture space. This qualitative study will be conducted through interviews with Black tech founders who have exited or are on track to exit. Data will be collected via interview questions designed to capture strategic decision-making, psychological characteristics, and the experiences of the founders. The findings are expected to yield a founder-grounded framework describing how constrained agency, psychological strengths, and experiential resources converge to produce successful exit outcomes for Black tech entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

Keywords<\/strong>: Black tech founders, venture exits, founder-level agency, constrained agency<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Zoom Link<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/docs.zoom.us\/agenda\/doc\/069eb86f-d3e0-4fc1-85ff-d03378a0a042<\/a><\/p>\n

Meeting ID: 989 4944 4925<\/p>\n

Passcode: 556177<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9484,"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-9483","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\/9483","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\/9483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9485,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9483\/revisions\/9485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9483"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9479,"date":"2026-07-06T17:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9479"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:30:39","slug":"graduate-school-professional-development-with-dr-brumfield","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/graduate-school-professional-development-with-dr-brumfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate School Professional Development with Dr. Brumfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Zoom Meeting
\nhttps:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/99195963635?pwd=73MkWfTX8guvt3OJZwnBVI7YXtOjp5.1<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/launch\/edl?muid=56cba8a3-5fc3-4096-9cff-c79649249322<\/a><\/div>\n
Meeting ID: 991 9596 3635
\nPasscode: 532474<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9481,"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-9479","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\/9479","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\/9479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9482,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9479\/revisions\/9482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9479"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9479"}],"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":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":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

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