White racial allyship is essential in realizing an institution that focuses on the welfare, success, and health of students of color and employees of color. The role of White racial allies has been discussed and studied in higher education literature. However, many studies that have critically reviewed the role of White allies have typically…

California community college (CCC) counselors assist a diverse student population with academic achievement, career exploration, and mental health/crisis interventions while tasked with administrative duties such as programming, coordinating, and advising. In addition, they have instructional duties such as teaching classes, writing syllabi, and…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to learn about the experiences of ten California elementary teachers engaged in emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study examines previous ERT events from around the world as well as emerging literature about the Covid-19 ERT event. Using iterative thematic…

This dissertation examines Burnout and Compassion Fatigue in Student Affairs Professionals actively working in various Student Affairs roles at small, residential colleges and universities within Southern California. The study investigates factors related to Burnout using the three constructs identified in Dr. Christina Maslach's Maslach Burnout…

Guided by the job demands--resources model and social-cognitive theory, we examined how educator perceived school connectedness and their attempts to connect with school members (i.e., administrators, staff, students, and families) concurrently and interactively influenced educators' compassion fatigue and online teaching self-efficacy during…

Guided by the social-cognitive theory and job demands-resources model, this study examined how educators perceived online teaching self-efficacy and social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies concurrently and interactively influenced educators' compassion fatigue during distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic among 321 educators in…

The purpose of this study was to assess the health impact of professional quality of life and self-care on student services professionals. Results of an online survey indicate that health-related quality of life was negatively associated with compassion fatigue (secondary traumatic stress and burnout) and positively associated with mindful…

As of 2015, approximately one in five special educators received licensure through an alternative pathway. Although evidence suggests that emotional exhaustion contributes to special educator attrition, few studies examine firsthand the emotional experiences of novice, alternatively certified special educators. Guided by Tuxford and Bradley's…

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the overlap in burnout and depression. Method: The sample comprised 1,386 schoolteachers (mean [M][subscript age] = 43; M[subscript years taught] = 15; 77% women) from 18 different U.S. states. We assessed burnout, using the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure, and depression, using the depression…

In 1973, the Institute of Environmental Stress of the University of California-Santa Barbara, under the direction of Steven M. Horvath, began a series of field and laboratory studies of marathon runners during competition. As one of Horvath's graduate students, many of these studies became part of my doctoral dissertation. The rationale for…

This study describes predictors of secondary traumatic stress and burnout in a national sample of helping professionals, with a specific focus on the unique responses of child welfare (CW) workers. Specific worker and exposure characteristics are examined as possible predictors of these forms of occupational distress in a sample of 669…

Although much is known about how students perform on standardized tests, little research exists concerning how students think and process while taking such tests. This mixed methods action research study was designed to investigate if a constructivist approach to test preparation could yield improved results for 37 English language arts freshmen…

Exploration of the presence of risk for compassion fatigue among residential childcare workers (RCW) at residential treatment facilities and the relationship between self-care practices and compassion fatigue were explored. Using the Professional Quality of Life Survey (ProQOL-R III) to assess compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion…

Documenting the effects of crisis intervention work on school psychologists was the primary purpose of this study. To examine these effects a sample of 400 randomly selected school psychologists were surveyed. Half of the surveys were returned. Among respondents who had previously participated in a crisis intervention, just over 90% reported one…