Appreciative Administration: How the Appreciative Education Theory-to-Practice Framework is Being Infused into Higher Education Administrative Practices

This qualitative grounded theory study updated the framework, including a definition, of Appreciative Administration. Bloom et al. (2013) first introduced the concept of Appreciative Education in a New Directions for Student Services article. Appreciative Education’s framework is harnessed by the power of the organizational development theory of Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987), the relationship-building theory-to-practice framework of Appreciative Advising (Bloom & Martin, 2002; Bloom et al., 2008), and an Appreciative Mindset. Bloom and McClellan (2016) coined the phrase Appreciative Administration to describe how higher education administrators could lead their organizations by harnessing the power of Appreciative Education. To date, there is no research on how higher education administrators are using Appreciative Education in their administrative practices. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to examine how higher education administrators infuse the Appreciative Education framework into their daily administrative practices. The study included 21 professionals, who met the following criteria: (1) had at least one full-time person reporting to them; (2) had participated in a formal Appreciative Education training. The experiences of the 21 study participants were captured through semi-structured 60-minute Zoom interviews. Subsequently, eight of the 21 participants participated in a focus group via Zoom to provide feedback on the study’s initial themes and sub-themes. Data was analyzed through three rounds of coding: (1) initial coding, (2) focused coding, and (3) theoretical coding. Three themes emerged from the analysis to develop the updated framework for Appreciative Administration showing how higher education administrators are infusing Appreciative Education into their daily administrative practices: establish trusting relationships, foster relationships to achieve personal and organizational goals, and “positive restlessness” (Kuh et al., 2005). After synthesis, I offer a new definition of Appreciative Administration. Appreciative Administration is, “fundamentally situated as a human experience and involves the intentional, consistent, and aspirational practice of establishing trusting relationships in which team members’ strengths and skills are identified and leveraged to co-create and achieve personal and organizational goals.” The findings of this grounded theory study may be helpful for higher education institutions and administrators looking for a framework to lead their institutions. This study may also inform administrators with information about how to provide professional development, recognize employees, create policy changes, make time to build trusting relationships, and develop pockets of greatness

Appreciative Administration: Putting the Appreciative Education Theory-to-Practice Framework into Action

How can higher education administrators use the power of Appreciative Education to foster environments where employees feel valued, empowered, and encouraged to contribute their ideas for enhancing their organization’s performance? This interactive, research-based webinar will explain how to use Appreciative Education to establish trusting relationships, create and achieve personal and organizational goals, and engage in a spirit of positive restlessness. Whether you oversee student staff, a few professionals, or an entire department, this webinar will provide the opportunity to learn specific skills and practical applications of the Appreciative Education framework including leading staff meetings, onboarding, supervising, and more

Master of Science

thesisToll-like receptors (TLRs), members of the innate immune system, recognize distinctive components of pathogens to initiate cellular signaling pathways. These pathways lead to the production of inflammatory proteins such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), a cytokine that activates immune cells to fight the infection. When infections disseminate into the bloodstream, TLR-signaling is activated systemically and the excessive release of cytokines, chemokines, and other inflammatory mediators produces a life-threatening condition known as septic shock. The majority of drugs recently developed to treat septic shock were beneficial in animal and in vitro models, but were ineffective in human clinical trials. One possible solution to resolve this disparity is to use the new animal model Danio rerio (zebrafish) whose unique characteristics allow for high-throughput, large-scale screening of chemicals and for exclusive study of the innate immune system. We undertook three different approaches to establish a functioning transgenic zebrafish model that facilitates visualization of TNFα expression as an indicator of TLR signaling and pathologic immune response. The first expression clone contains the human TNFα (hTNFα) enhancer and the enhanced green fluorescent (EGFP) reporter gene under control of the basal carp β-actin promoter. The second expression clone contains all elements of the first clone with the addition of a red fluorescent reporter gene, DsRed, under control of a lens-specific promoter, the Xenopus laevis γ-crystallin iv promoter (Cry), to facilitate preselection of putative transgenic founders. The third expression clone is a modified BAC clone containing the red fluorescent reporter gene tandem-dimer Tomato (tdTomato) fused to the zebrafish TNFα (zTNFα) gene in its genomic context. We successfully introduced the modified BAC clone into the germline of two male zebrafish. To date, one female offspring from an F0 founder has been identified as carrying the BAC transgene. In the future, the F2 embryos from this F1 female will be analyzed for expression of the fluorescent fusion protein under conditions which induce TNFα production. Additionally, future establishment of a homozygous transgenic generation will allow functional studies of TLR signaling during infections and assessment of chemical and genetic modifiers of TNFα induction

Collaborative Research Projects in Support of FNMOC Operational Mission

LONG-TERM GOAL: The long-term goal is to improve the prediction of tropical cyclone track and structure so that warnings to the Fleet units afloat and ashore are optimized.Award #: N0001499WR3000

Drivers of Marine Biodiversity Along a Latitudinal Gradient

A major goal of community ecology is to understand how communities are formed and which abiotic and biotic conditions constrain biodiversity and community assembly. To accurately predict and understand how communities are likely to change in response to changes in environmental conditions, it is important to understand the associations between species, the geographic patterns of species associations, how changes in associations and interactions affect community structure, and the demographic characteristics of populations throughout a species’ geographic range. To determine if the geographic distribution of species affects site diversity and potential interactions at each site, I executed an observational study of eight sites along the California coast where I categorized species as either narrow-range endemics or widespread species. I found that species were more likely to co-occur with one another south of Point Conception than north of Point Conception indicating potentially positive interactions in a more thermally stressful environment. I also found that narrow-range endemic species were the major drivers of the latitudinal patterns (Chapter 1). To determine if the effect of rockweeds on mobile invertebrate diversity and abundance differed across latitudes and at sites with differing levels of seaweed diversity, I used field observations and experimental removals of two rockweed species at three sites along the California coast. I found that rockweeds tended to increase mobile invertebrate species richness and abundance, especially at sites where functional redundancy was low (Chapter 2). Lastly, I followed populations of rockweeds at four different sites and characterized growth, survival, and reproduction of individuals over a 12-month period to determine how population demographic patterns differed between leading and trailing edge populations. Using these data, I constructed an integral projection model of each population of rockweeds. I found that populations living in the leading edge and central part of their species’ range had similar demographic characteristics, while trailing edge populations had lower population growth estimates and fecundity estimates compared to central populations (Chapter 3). My results identify and highlight some of the important drivers of biodiversity along California rocky shores, especially with respect to changes across spatial gradients and species’ ranges

Intraseasonal Forecasts of Tropical Cyclone Events: Transition to Operations

LONG-TERM GOALS: The long-term goal of this project is to understand the forecastability of tropical cyclone events, which are defined to be entire tracks from formation to ending, on timescales from 5-30 days and thereby develop a probabilistic forecast technique to support the U. S. Navy and other Department of Defense (DOD) activities against the threat of tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones are the primary weatherrelated threat to DOD tactical and strategic activities, and the U. S. Navy is particularly vulnerable. Developing a forecast capability on 5-30 day timescales will allow tropical cyclone event guidance to DOD activities not only to protect people and resources against the tropical cyclone threat, but also allow them to safely carry out strategic activities with confidence that there will be no significant tropical cyclones in a specific area for a stated time ranging up to 30 days.Award Number: N0001412WX2018

On the mechanics and thermodynamics of a low-level wave on the easterlies

May 1966.Includes bibliographical references.Sponsored by the Environmental Science Services Administration WBG-61

Tropical Cyclone and Hurricane Landfall Studies

LONG-TERM GOALS: The long-term goal is to improve understanding of the tropical cyclone structure and motion throughout its evolution from formation, mature stage, and extratropical transition and thereby contribute to improved predictions of the tropical cyclone threat to the Fleet afloat and ashore.Award Number: N0001403WR20147, N0001403WR2027

SPECIFYING INTENSITY FORECAST UNCERTAINTY

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