We proudly congratulate the College of Arts and Sciences' newest doctoral graduates. Your outstanding dedication, diligent work and immense creativity bring distinction to all of Drexel University. 

A schedule of dissertation defenses is available for review at Drexel University Graduate College 2019-2020 Doctoral Defenses. In addition, the Drexel Libraries provides an archive of all doctoral dissertations.

Biological Sciences

Dr. Marcus J. Gerald
“TNFR2 Activation Improves Functional Recovery Following SCI and Induces Neurite Outgrowth in-vitro”
Committee Chair: Daniel Marenda
Committee Members: Ryan Petrie, Karen Moxon, Felice Elefant, John Bethea
Advisors: John Bethea, Daniel Marenda

Dr. Molly E. Mitchell
“Distribution and Regulation of Fragile X Granules in the Spinal Cord”
Committee Chair: Daniel Marenda
Committee Members: Denise Garcia, Veronica Tom, Ramesh Raghupathi, Michael Akins

Dr. Kayla Lee Murphy
“Investigating Pathophysiology and Developing Therapies for EAE, a Mouse Model of MS: The Role of Sex Differences and TNFR2”
Committee Chair: Daniel Marenda
Committee Members: John Bethea, Michael Akins, Felice Elefant, Megan Detloff

Dr. Edward A. Waddell
“Extramacrochaetae promotes branch and bouton number via the sequestration of Daughterless in the cytoplasm of neurons”
Advisor: Daniel Marenda
Committee Chair: Felice Elegant
Committee Members: Jennifer Stanford, Daniel Marenda, Michael Akins, Faith Lieblf

Chemistry

Dr. Pedro Edson Martins Amaral
“Red Phosphorus Allotropes for Thin Films and Quantum Dots applications"
Advisor: Hai-Feng Ji
Committee Chair: Joe Foley

Dr. Donald C. Hall, Jr.
“Rational Design and Experimental Characterization of Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Bacterial Stringent Response Activating Enzyme RelA”
Advisor: Hai-Feng Ji

Dr. Janna Domenico
“Theoretical Considerations and Computational Strategies for Molecular Electronic Device Design”
Advisor: Karl Sohlberg
Committee Chair: Reinhard Schweitzer-Stenner
Committee Members: Lynn Penn, Ezra Wood, Kevin Owens, Eric Borguet, Andrew Rappe

Dr. Cathy A. Muste
“Cell-Free Identification of S. cerevisiae Strains by Analysis of Extracellular Matrices using Liquid Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry”
Committee Chair: Joe Foley
Committee Members: Daniel Kind, Ezra Wood, Reinhard Schweitzer-Stenner, Matthew Farber

Dr. Mohammad Nozari
“Investigation of Ruthenium Complexes of Novel Heterocyclic Ligands for application in Photovoltaic Cells”
Advisor: Hai-feng Ji
Committee Chair: Lynn Penn
Committee Members: Michael Zdilla, David King, Lee Hoffman, Aaron Fafarman

Dr. Michelle L. Piotrowski
“Investigation of Changes in Initial Position of Ion Formation and the Exploration of Sample Preparation Parameters in Synthetic Polymer Analysis Using Maldi Tofms”
Committee Chair: Joe Foley
Committee Members: Anthony Addison, Ezra Wood, Cathy Bentzley, Frank Ji

Dr. Zhen Qiao
“Fabrication of highly stretchable, moldable and injectable hydrogel and its applications in strain sensing, drug delivery and wound healing”
Advisor: Hai-feng Ji
Committee Chair: Joe Foley
Committee Members: Jeremiah Scepaniak, Yinghui Zhong, Shu Yang, Lee Hoffman

Clinical Psychology

Dr. Keisha April
“Let's "Talk” About the Police: The Role of Race and Intergenerational Transmission of Police Legitimacy Attitudes in the Legal Socialization of Youth”
Committee Chair: Naomi Goldstein
Committee Members: David DeMatteo, Kirk Heilbrun, Rhonda McKitten, Abigail Gray

Dr. Brittney Evans
“A Pilot Study Examining Initial Acceptability and Feasibility of a Remote Coaching Intervention to Improve Parenting Skills in Parents of Children with Overweight and Obesity”
Committee Chair: Evan Forman

Dr. Mary Godfrey
“Retrospective and Prospective Memory Abilities of Youth with Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Controls”
Committee Chair: Nancy Lee

Dr. Alexa Hays
“The Veteran Problem Inventory: Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity”
Committee Chair: Arthur Nezu
Committee Members: Christine Maguth Nezu, Pamela Geller, Elaine Boland, Bryan Batien

Dr. Helen Burton Murray
“A Pilot Development Trial of Cognitive-Behavorial Interventions for Gastroparesis”
Committee Chair: Adrienne Juarascio
Committee Members: Stephanie Manasse, Fengqing Zhang, Braden Kuo, Robert Edwards

Dr. Ann-Marie A. Raphail
“Improving Visual Attention with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Individuals with Right Parietal Lesions due to Stroke”
Committee Chair: Maria Schultheis
Committee Members: John Medaglia, Fengqing Zhang, Roy Hamilton, Branch Coslett

Dr. Minakshi Ratkalkar
“Effects of Trauma and Child Welfare History on Potential Sentencing Jurors' Decisions for Youth Prosecuted in Criminal Court”
Committee Chair: Naomi Goldstein
Committee Members: David DeMatteo, Kirk Heilbrun, Karen Lindell, Lauren Fine

Dr. Jocelyn Remmert
“A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study of a Patient-Initiated Approach to Increasing Weight Communication in Primary Care”
Committee Chair: Meghan Butryn
Committee Members: Pamela Geller, Leon McCrea, Rebecca Pearl, Adam Tsia

Dr. Rebecca Schiedel
“The Role of Psychosocial Maturity and Race in Juvenile Transfer Decisions: An Examination Through Statistical Models”
Committee Chair: Kirk Heilbrun
Committee Members: Naomi Goldstein, Adam Benfoarado, David DeMateeo, Zoe Zhang

Dr. Alice Thornewille
“Psychologist Perceptions of the Role of Psychologists in National Security Interrogations: An Examination of Policy Decision-Making”
Committee Chair: David DeMatteo

Communication, Culture & Media

Dr. Nicholas Cash Grodsky
“Night-Mares on Screens: Sleep Paralysis, Communication, Mediation”
Committee Chair: Brent Luvaas
Committee Members: Ernest Hakanen, Dominic Pettman, Rachel Reynolds, Asta Zelenkauskaite

Environmental Science

Dr. Ashley L. Adams
“Paleoenvironment of the Morrison Formation in the Bighorn Basin of Montana, USA”
Advisor: Ted Daeschler
Committee Chair: Amanda Lough
Committee Members: Loyc Vanderkluysen, Dennis Terry, Peter Dodson 

Dr. Wenlei Bi
“Physiological Ecology of Soft-released Giant Pandas”
Advisor: James R. Spotila
Committee Chair: Michael O'Connor
Committee Members: James R.Spotila, Michael O'Connor, Susan Kilham, Jon Gelhaus, Jacob Owens - Los Angeles Zoo and David Kersey - Western University of Health Sciences 

Dr. David H. Keller
“Predictors of fish occurrence and scale dependence in wadeable streams”
Advisors: Richard Horwitz and Susan Kilham
Committee Chair: Michael O’Connor
Committee Members: Michael O'Connor, Richard Horwitz, Susan Kilham, Marina Potapova, and Loni Tabb

Mathematics

Dr. Joshua Casey Carmichael
“Long Wave Approximations of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou Lattice under Planar Motion”
Committee Chair: J. Douglas Wright
Committee Members: Shari Moskow, Yixin Guo, Ronald Perline, David Goldberg

Dr. Joseph L. Erickson
“The Zero Attractor of Perturbed Chebyshev Polynomials and Sums of Taylor Polynomials for the Exponential”
Committee Chair: Robert Boyer
Committee Members: Anatolii Grinshpan, Dmitry Kaliuzhnyi-Verbovetskyi, Jay Douglas Wright, Kris Novak

Dr. Joshua D. Jackson
“Determinantal Representations of Bivariate Polynomials Without Roots on the Bitorus”
Committee Chair: Hugo Woerdeman
Committee Members: Anatoli Grinshpan, Thomas Yu, Ron Perline, Kelly Bickel

Dr. Felix Gleeson Edward Jones
“High and Infinite Dimensional Filtering Methods”
Committee Chair: Gideon Simpson
Committee Members: David Aristoff, J. Douglas Wright, Robert Boyer, Cecilia Mondaini

Dr. Tayler Anne Pangburn
“The Effect of Boundary Correctors on Scattering by a Periodic Obstacle”
Committee Chair: Shari Moskow
Committee Members: J Douglas Wright, David Ambrose, Gideon Simpson, Fioralba Cakoni

Dr. James J. Thomas
“Three problems in the Asymptotics of Group Elements”
Advisor: Jay Wright
Committee Chair: Eric Schmutz
Committee Members: Eric Schmutz, Robert Boyer, Patrick Clark, Pawel Hitczenko, Charles Burnette

Dr. Aleksandr M. Yaroslavskiy
“Cental Limit Theorems for Tableaux Related to the Partially Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process”
Committee Chair: Pawel Hitczenko
Committee Members: J. Douglas Wright, Eric Schmutz, Cecilia Mondaini, Hosam Mahmoud

Physics

Dr. Erin V. Hansen
“Radon injection for light response calibration of the nEXO detector”
Committee Chair: Michelle Dolinski
Committee Members: Dave Moore, Naoko Kurahashi Neilson, Brigita Urbanc, Steve McMillan

Dr. Kaho Long
“The effect of insulin on self-assembly and toxicity of amyloid [beta]-protein: Implications to type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease”
Committee Chair: Brigita Urbanc
Committee Members: Frank Ferrone, Naoko Kurhashi Neilson, Daniel Marenda, Reinhard Schweitzer-Stenner

Dr. Jackeline Moreno
“The Optical Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei”
Advisor: Michael S. Vogeley
Committee Members: Gordon Richards, Michelle Dolinski, Andrej Prsa, Adam Lidz

Psychology

Dr. Meghan M. Colosimo
“The Chronic Illness Risk and Resiliency Profile Project: Utilizing Machine Learning to Build a Multivariate Correlational Model of Disease”
Committee Chair: Damaris Oquendo
Committee Members: Christine M. Nezu and Arthur M. Nezu

Dr. Christopher Elias Diaz
Committee Chair: Tara McNair