Defense of Scholarly Project, Corrie Goodier, Nursing: Family Nurse Practitioner
2026-07-07 10:30 - 12:30 (America/Denver)
Corrie Goodier will defend her scholarly project, “Development of a Standardized Evidence-Based Onboarding Process for Primary Care Providers in a Rural Health Setting.”

Research Advisor: Natalie Pool; Committee: C. Bottone-Post, D. Edmondson, D. Cox

Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Allison O. Elrick, Educational Studies
2026-06-25 14:00 - 16:00
Allison O. Elrick will defend her dissertation, “Constructing and Affirming LGBTQ+ Identities Through Music Affinity Spaces: A Case Study and Portraiture.”
Research Advisor: James Gambrell; H.J. Kang, M. Lahman, J. Chapin
MS Teams link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Douglas Alexander, Educational Studies
2026-06-24 13:00 - 15:00
Douglas Alexander will defend his dissertation, “Gifted LGBTQ+ Pride Goes Pop: Intersections of Pop Culture and Gifted LGBTQ+ Adolescent Identity Formation.”
Research Advisor: James Gambrell; Committee: S. Youngs, A. Davidson, A. Graefe
MS Teams link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Lynelle Sigona, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
2026-06-24 10:00 - 12:00
Lynelle Sigona will defend her dissertation, “Amah Mutsun Experiences in California Public Schools.”

Research Advisor: Michael Cohen; Committee: J. Cooney, M. Lahman, C. McConnell

Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Sheima A.M.A.S. Alameeri, Applied Statistics and Research Methods
2026-06-24 10:00 - 12:00 | McKee Hall, room 519
Sheima A.M.A.S. Alameeri will defend her dissertation, “Adaptive Neural Tangent Kernels for Exact and Sparse Gaussian Process Regression.”
Research Advisor: Han Yu; Committee: C.-L. Tsai, V. Guetler, Y. T. Sung

Defense of Dissertation, Pranali Sanjiv Haribhakti, Counseling Psychology
2026-06-24 08:00 - 10:00
Pranali Sanjiv Haribhakti will defend her dissertation, “Navigating Shared Identity: A Critical Phenomenological Exploration of South Asian Clients’ Counseling Experiences with South Asian Providers.”
Research Advisor: Kenneth Parnell; Committee: L. Tian, M. Tis, A. Zia
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Jessica Lewis, Counseling Psychology
2026-06-23 11:30 - 13:30, 2026-05-14 09:00 - 11:00
Jessica Lewis will defend her dissertation, “Exposure to Traumatic Events, Social Support, and Professional Quality of Life in Law Enforcement Officers.”
Research Advisor: Brian Johnson; Committee: A. Vaughan, K. Ward, N. Karlin
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Adrienna Renee Gonzalez, Nursing Education
2026-06-23 09:00 - 11:00
Adrienna Renee Gonzalez will defend her dissertation. “Use of Virtual Reality Technology in Undergraduate Nursing School Labor and Delivery Pre-Eclampsia and Eclampsia Simulation.”
Research Advisor: Darcy Copeland; Committee: M. Henry, D. Rojas, J. Lewis
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Summer Rae Yoast, Counselor Education and Supervision
2026-06-22 10:00 - 12:00 | McKee Hall, room 127
Summer Rae Yoast will defend her dissertation, “Outdoor Experiential Therapy and Autism: A Single-Case Study.”
Research Advisor: Heather Pendleton-Helm; Committee: J. Murdock-Bishop, B. Nicholson, G. Tucker

Defense of Dissertation, Julie Ann Vanessa Devore, Educational Studies
2026-06-18 14:00 - 16:00
Julie Ann Vanessa Devore will defend her dissertation, “Breaking Barriers: Portrait of a Woman University President.”
Research Advisor:, Heng-Yu Ku; Committee. R. Larkins, M. Lahman, C. Talbot
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Angela Dawn Cox, Nursing Education
2026-06-18 14:00 - 16:00
Angela Dawn Cox will defend her dissertation, “Nursing Instructor Perceptions of the Emotional Impact of High-Stakes Psychomotor Skills Assessments.”
Research Advisor: Natalie Pool; Committee: D. Copeland, M. Henry, M. T. Allen
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Conner Marie Williams, Music: Performance
2026-06-17 13:00 - 15:00
Conner Marie Williams will defend her dissertation, “An Approach to Teaching Voice to Students with Visual Impairments or Blindness at the Adult Level.”

Research Advisor: Charles Moore; Committee: M. Spivak-Perna, K. Weimer, P. Conroy

Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Jonathan Joseph Senderak, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
2026-06-16 10:00 - 12:00
Jonathan Joseph Senderak will defend his dissertation, “The Voices of Special Education Leaders Experiences with Burnout.”
Research Advisor: Amie Cieminski; Committee: J. Cooney, K. Gosselin, D. Hulac
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Kiersten Nicole Jonkman, Music Performance
2026-06-15 10:00 - 12:00
Kiersten Nicole Jonkman will defend her dissertation, “The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on the Pursuit of Music in Higher Education in the United States.”
Research Advisor: Deborah Kauffman; Committee: W. Broadnax, R. Becker, C. Wesley
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Alfredo De Jesus Balcacer Manzano, Music: Jazz Studies
2026-06-12 11:00 - 13:00 | Skinner Music Library: McMillen Conference Room
Alfredo De Jesus Balcacer Manzano will defend his dissertation, “Combining the Dominican Republic’s Guitar Music with North American Jazz: Documenting and Tracing the Dominican Guitar History, Its Principal Performers, and How These Patterns Can Coexist in the Jazz Idiom.”
Research Advisor: Stephen G. Kovalcheck; Committee: B. Casey, S. Garcia, D. Zaremba, R. Weis.

Defense of Dissertation, Felix Junior Appiah Kubi, Applied Statistics and Research Methods
2026-06-12 10:15 - 12:15 | McKee Hall, room 519
Felix Junior Appiah Kubi will defend his dissertation, “Adaptive Leverage Causal Inference: Multi-Stage Uncertainty-Aware Distillation for Integrating Gaussian Processes with Double Machine Learning.”
Research Advisor: Han Yu; Committee: K. Shafie Holighi, V. Guetler, A. Apawu

Defense of Dissertation, Kara Christine Phillips, Sport and Exercise Science, Exercise Physiology
2026-06-10 13:00 - 15:00 | Gunter Hall, room 2600
Kara Christine Phillips will defend her dissertation, “Effects of Cross-Sex Hormone Therapy on Skeletal Muscle in Resistance Trained Rats”

Research Advisor: David Hydock; Committee: L Stewart, J. Krause, C. Lunaris

Defense of Dissertation, Erin Anna van Gorkom, Counseling Psychology
2026-06-09 11:00 - 13:00
Erin Anna van Gorkom will defend her dissertation, “Social Motives in Sexual Assault Disclosure: A Survey Study.”

Research Advisor: Kenneth Parnell; Committee: B. Johnson, A. Weingartner, M. Moore

Microsoft Teams link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Breanna May Rangel, Counseling Psychology
2026-06-01 10:00 - 12:00
Breanna May Rangel will defend her dissertation, “The Effects of Criminal Thinking and Self-Compassion on Self-Stigma and College Self-Efficacy in College Students with Criminal Records.”
Research Advisor: Brian Johnson; Committee: S. Wright, A. Vaughan, K. Ward
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Taylor Keolahiipoi Kamealoha Tamanaha, Sport and Exercise Science, Exercise Physiology
2026-05-29 10:00 - 12:00 | Gunter Hall, room 2600
Taylor Keolahiipoi Kamealoha Tamanaha will defend his dissertation, “Effects of Two Weeks of Berberine and Sprint Interval Training on Wellbeing, Anaerobic Power, and Monocyte Number and Function.”

Research Advisor: Laura Stewart; Committee: D. Hydock, N. Pullen, J. Haughian

Oral Comprehensive Examination, Yixuan Hong, Music
2026-05-27 08:00 - 10:00
Yixuan Hong will take her oral comprehensive examination.
Research Advisor: James Hall; Committee: W. Broadnax, M. Oravitz, D. Kauffman, C. Wesley
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Wai Yin Li, Applied Statistics and Research Methods
2026-05-26 10:00 - 12:00
Wai Yin Li will defend her dissertation, Steady in the Standings: Stability of Feature Importance Rankings Across Class Imbalance Levels and Resampling Methods.”
Research Advisor: Chia-Lin Tsai; Committee: S. Hutchinson, H. Yu, L. Tian
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Sunday Osiebuni Aghamie, Applied Statistics and Research Methods
2026-05-19 12:00 - 14:00 | McKee Hall, room 519
Sunday Osiebuni Aghamie will defend his dissertation, “A DeepSurv-Inspired Inverse Probability Censoring Weighted Discrete-Time Mixture-of-Experts Survival Framework for Heterogeneous Right-Censored Data.”
Research Advisor: Khalil Shafie Holighi; Committee: H. Yu, W. Merchant, A. Apawu

Oral Comprehensive Examination, Carrie Frances Barr, Nursing Education
2026-05-14 09:00 - 11:00
Carrie Frances Barr will take her oral comprehensive examination.

Research Advisor: Natalie Pool; Committee: M. Henry, C. Parker, T. Buckner

Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Dissertation, Claire Leight, Counseling Psychology
2026-05-13 12:00 - 14:00
Claire Leight will defend her dissertation, “Sibling Bullying: Healing in Established Adulthood.”
Research Advisor: Stephen Wright; Committee: B. Johnson, E. Peterson, N. Pool
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Oral Comprehensive Examination, Anda Zhou, Counseling Psychology
2026-05-12 12:00 - 14:00
Anda Zhou will take their oral comprehensive examination.

Research Advisor: Lu Tian; Committee: K. Parnell, B. Nicholson, W. Woody

Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Oral Comprehensive Examination, Kaitlyn Noel Jones, Counselor Education and Supervision
2026-05-12 11:00 - 13:00
Kaitlyn Noel Jones will take her oral comprehensive examination.

Research Advisors: Heather Helm and Kristin Myers; Committee: M. Tis, K. Nelson

Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Defense of Scholarly Project, Kornel Juhasz, Music Performance
2026-05-11 11:00 - 13:00
Kornel Juhasz will defend his scholarly project, “How to Start a Clarinet Choir: A Guide for Educators and Enthusiasts.”
Research Advisor: James Hall; Committee: W. Broadnax, R. Krämer, K. Gilderhus
Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.

Oral Comprehensive Exam, Jessica Gambler Hunter, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
2026-05-11 10:00 - 12:00
Jessica Gambler Hunter will take her oral comprehensive examination.

Research Advisor: Michael Cohen; Committee: A. Cieminski, J. Kirshner, M. Lahman

Zoom link available upon request by emailing the Research Advisor in advance.
