The purpose of this study is to examine the social and economic impact of two-year and community colleges on minorities particularly African Americans who are earning a certificate, transfer credits to a four-year institution, or an Associate of Arts or Science Degree. The proposed research is a qualitative case study investigating the social and…

Although Indigenous communities and outside institutions have increasingly recognized the need to document and revitalize endangered languages (Hale et al. 1992; Krauss 1992; McCarty et al. 2006; Watahomigie 1998), revitalized languages themselves remain underdocumented and understudied. Purist discourses delegitimize revitalized languages as less…

The purpose of this study was to add to the knowledge on the value of professional communities of practice as a performance improvement intervention. Value was defined as the awareness of the benefits and outcomes, provided as improvement in a tangible or intangible way, that positively impact organizations and/or individuals and their personal…

In the recent years, crowdfunding (a phenomenon where individuals collectively contribute money to back different goals and projects through the internet) has been gaining a lot of attention especially for its socio-economic impact. This dissertation explores this phenomenon in three distinct but related essays. The first essay explores the nature…

This research explored how leaders from a mid-range university, industry, and government described collaborative efforts to enhance regional economic development. This study found that a mid-range university can effectively collaborate with industry and government to advance regional economic development. The collaboration of…