March
Maxine Olson
Program: Biomedical Engineering
Dissertation Director: Karen Kruger
Date/Time: March 2, 2026, 11:00a.m.
Defense Location: Olin Hall EN204 or Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Development and Validation of Kinetics and Musculoskeletal Modeling for the Milwaukee Foot Model"
Karol Lejmbach
Program: Computer Science
Dissertation Director: Debbie Perouli
Date/Time: March 2, 2026, 10:00a.m.
Defense Location: CU 414 or Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Designing, Integrating, and Evaluating Blockchain Assignments in the Undergraduate Computer Science Program"
Madeline Glawe
Program: Counseling Psychology
Dissertation Director: Alexandra Kriofske-Mainella
Date/Time: March 3, 2026, 10:45a.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "A Grounded Theory Study of Parent Social Support for Peer-Victimized Children"
Claire Radtke
Program: Biological Sciences
Dissertation Director: Dr. Anita Manogaran
Date/Time: March 5, 2026, 9:00a.m.
Defense Location: TW121
Dissertation Title: "Investigating Intracellular Transthyretin Aggregation and its Cellular Regulation"
Reema Banerjee
Program: Educational Policy and Leadership
Dissertation Director: Dr. Eric Dimmitt
Date/Time: March 5, 2026, 2:00p.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Applied Data Science Insights into Grade Eight Math, Physics and AP® Physics Exam-Taking Influencing ACT STEM Outcomes."
Jayme Aguero
Program: College of Nursing
Dissertation Director: Kristin Haglund
Date/Time: March 16, 2026, 9:00a.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Understanding Adult Patients’ Experiences of Trauma-Informed Care in Outpatient Healthcare"
Alex Hietpas
Program: Counseling Psychology
Dissertation Director: Lynne Knobloch-Fedders
Date/Time: March 16, 2026, 11:00a.m.
Defense Location: Schroeder Complex, Room 151C
Dissertation Title: "Understanding Behavioral Differences Among Couples with Depression, Couples with GAD, and Couples with Co-occurring Depression and GAD"
Brandon Koble
Program: PhD Religious Studies
Dissertation Director: Marcus Plested
Date/Time: March 18, 2026, 1:00p.m.
Defense Location: AMU 313
Dissertation Title: "The Defender of Swabian Christology: The Christological Development of Jakob Andreae in the Pursuit of Concord"
Tristan Benjamin
Program: Clinical Psychology
Dissertation Director: Jacklynn Fitzgerald
Date/Time: March 20, 2026, 10:00a.m.
Defense Location: CM-307LA
Dissertation Title: "The Role of Avoidance in the Relationship Between the Impact of Childhood Trauma and Physiological Responsivity to Fear and Reward"
Elizabeth Flasch
Program: Nursing
Dissertation Director: Aimee Woda
Date/Time: March 24, 2026, 8:00a.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Testing a New Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument for Pediatric Nursing"
Shannan Cantu Santoli
Program: Nursing PhD
Dissertation Director: Dr. Lisa Hanson
Date/Time: March 24, 2026, 1:00p.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "A Retrospective Study of the Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Postpartum Blood Loss"
Brian Burns
Program: History
Dissertation Director: A. Kristen Foster
Date/Time: March 24, 2026, 1:30p.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Contests of Masculinity"
Jessi Reidy
Program: Behavior Analysis
Dissertation Director: Tiffany Kodak
Date/Time: March 25, 2026, 8:30a.m.
Defense Location: Virtual Defense Link
Dissertation Title: "Teaching Professional Skills to Future Behavior Analysts Using Behavior Skills Training and Self-Assessment"
John Bodenschatz
Program: Computational mathematical and statistical sciences
Dissertation Director: Daniel B Rowe
Date/Time: March 25, 2026, 10:00a.m.
Defense Location: Cudahy 414 or Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Improved Simulation, Bayesian Estimation, Phase Activation, and Non-Cartesian Reconstruction in FMRI"
Shari Fehrenbach
Program: Nursing PhD
Dissertation Director: Aimee Woda PhD, RN
Date/Time: March 25, 2026, 10:00a.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Using Chatgpt AI to Analyze Clinical Judgment in Immersive Virtual Reality Simulation From Prelicensure Nursing Students"
Hadiya Adams
Program: Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology
Dissertation Director: Alan W. Burkard
Date/Time: March 26, 2026, 8:30a.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Integrating Aspects of Multicultural Counseling With Children: A Consensual Qualitative Research Study"
Lora A. Strigens
Program: Educational Policy and Leadership
Dissertation Director: Jody Jessup-Anger
Date/Time: March 26, 2026, 12:30p.m.
Defense Location: Schroeder Complex 112 or Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Capital Projects as Catalysts for Strategic Change and Transformation in Higher Education"
Kaylen Vine
Program: Clinical Psychology
Dissertation Director: Lucas Torres
Date/Time: March 26, 2026, 2:30p.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Black Americans' Culturally Grounded Decisions on Mental Health Treatment Initiation After Injury: A Mixed-Method Study"
Holly Nerone
Program: Educational Policy and Leadership
Dissertation Director: Eric Dimmitt, PhD
Date/Time: March 27, 2026, 8:00a.m.
Defense Location: Straz Hall 5512 or Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Stories of Stress: Experiences of Students in a Second-Degree, Graduate-Level, Prelicensure Nursing Program"
Samuel Turpin
Program: Religious Studies
Dissertation Director: Michael Cover
Date/Time: March 27, 2026, 10:00a.m.
Defense Location: AMU 313
Dissertation Title: "Humanity's Salvific Dilemmas: Disentangling the Plight in Romans"
Melanie Simone Lorenz
Program: History
Dissertation Director: Alison Efford
Date/Time: March 27, 2026, 12:00p.m.
Defense Location: Sensenbrenner Hall 302
Dissertation Title: "Carrying The Midwife’s Bag Across the Atlantic: Immigrant Midwives and the Fate of Midwifery in the United States, 1850s – 1920s"
Thomas Shomer
Program: Computational mathematical and statistical sciences
Dissertation Director: Marta Magiera
Date/Time: March 27, 2026, 2:30p.m.
Defense Location: CU 401 or Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Fourth- and Eighth-Grade Students’ Achievement in Statistics: An Exploratory Study of TIMSS 2019 Data from the United States"
Alexander Gebhard
Program: Computer Science
Dissertation Director: Debbie Perouli
Date/Time: March 30, 2026, 10:00a.m.
Defense Location: CU 414
Dissertation Title: "From Legacy to Resilience: Securing Industrial Protocols in a Connected Era"
Elizabeth Schick
Program: Religious Studies
Dissertation Director: Michael Cover
Date/Time: March 30, 2026, 10:00a.m.
Defense Location: AMU 313
Dissertation Title: "Hearing the Voice of the Bridegroom": A Johannine Nuptial Christology for the 21st Century
Laurel Marek
Program: Nursing
Dissertation Director: Marilyn Frenn
Date/Time: March 30, 2026, 1:30p.m.
Defense Location: Microsoft Teams Link
Dissertation Title: "Developing caregiver relationships for people with dementia: A grounded theory study"
