Sapat, Alka K.

As cities respond to accelerating climate impacts, scholars have identified climate gentrification as a phenomenon exerting displacement pressures on low-income communities, including ethnic enclaves. While climate gentrification pathways literature primarily addresses economic causes and effects, an opportunity exists to better understand policy contributions and social impacts surrounding resilience and displacement.
For this dissertation project, I expanded the concept of climate gentrification pathways to examine connections between displacement, resilience strategies, and urban planning. Using an interpretive approach, I explored how an ethnic enclave experienced and responded to displacement pressures, especially regarding social impacts related to (climate) gentrification. In addition, this project compared resilience and planning policies and strategies discourse with community discourse related to climate gentrification.

In this dissertation, I examined the lived experiences of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) and their perceptions of protective actions when making evacuation decisions during disasters or extreme weather events. Compared to other members of society, individuals experiencing homelessness during disasters face unique challenges, including a lack of shelter, transportation, access to news, and the need to carry all their belongings. This vulnerability is further heightened when natural disasters occur, as they lack physical protection, leading to increased exposure to hazards and adverse weather effects.
The literature on homeless evacuation decision-making is limited (Donley & Wright, 2012), and the direct experiences of PEH and their decision-making processes during natural disasters remain underexplored (Brookfield & Fitzgerald, 2018; Brown et al., 2013; Every & Thompson, 2014; Gaillard et al., 2019; Settembrino, 2017). Additionally, the unsafe living conditions of PEH, coupled with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 virus, posed unique challenges for homeless communities, increasing the risk of virus transmission and exacerbating social disparities.
In this study, I explored PEH’s lived experiences and perspectives when making evacuation decisions during disasters. I utilized Lindell and Perry's (2012) Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) as the theoretical framework. The PADM enabled me to analyze various factors influencing the evacuation decisions of PEH, including their physical aspects (shelter use and mobility) and social context (relationships with other PEH and employment). The findings presented in this study are the result of 41 in-depth semi-structured field interviews with PEH living unsheltered in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County.

Representative bureaucracy theory has mainly been used to understand how identities related to race, ethnicity, and gender influence how bureaucrats administer public services. Although representation through lived experience has expanded the scope of the theory, this theoretical thread has mostly focused on the perspectives of management. In addition, the literature has generally analyzed the values, beliefs, and actions of minoritized bureaucrats rather than those of the racial and ethnic majority. The purpose of this dissertation is to employ lived experience and traditional representative bureaucracy theories to understand the influence of first responders’ experiences with addiction on their viewpoints regarding the humanness and deservingness of clients with opioid use disorder; examine how white first responders perceive clients of different races; and analyze the effect of lived experience on sentiments regarding clients of color.
In this dissertation, I surveyed county- and municipal-level EMS-providers and law enforcement workers in the United States, utilizing a survey experiment and mediation models for the analysis. Results show that indirect and direct lived experiences—respectively, having a family member or friend who has experienced an addiction and feeling addiction has had a direct impact on respondents’ lives—predicted increases in client deservingness, mediated by ascribed humanness and driven largely by EMS-providers. However, responding to opioid overdoses and administering naloxone— on-the-job lived experiences—were associated with reduced deservingness and ascribed humanness in both law enforcement and EMS organizations. Regarding the race of the client, white police personnel had more positive views of white clients with opioid use disorder relative to Black and unidentified clients, with effects amplified by on-the-job and indirect experiences but blunted by direct experiences.

This dissertation examines some of the challenges women face in the public sector in New York City. Workplace communal and agentic attributes and transactional and transformational leadership provided the theoretical frameworks through which women are viewed when they ascend to executive or managerial positions in city agencies. Communal and agentic attributes delve into feminine and masculine roles, the leadership challenge and biases toward women, and the preference in leadership style for women and men.
Scholars organize these attributes to help us understand gender stereotypes whereby men are described as independent, assertive, and initiating, while women are described as caring, emotionally expressive, and responsive to others. Because leadership has been associated with men for centuries, women leaders’ evaluations create incongruencies. Perceived social norms are activated in people’s minds about women not conforming to their gender role and communal attributes and the expectations of what a leader should be. Therefore, the perceived dissimilarity creates a dilemma and potential for prejudice against women leaders. Some policies, non-discriminatory laws, and different administrations changed some of those perceptions and enabled women to lead numerous city agencies in New York City. Nevertheless, challenges remain.

The history of the United States is rooted in differences and actions that has culminated in the current reality of culturally incompetent behaviors with a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion prevailing in organizations and society. Through a cultural competence conceptual framework, this research highlighted an action-oriented approach for organizations seeking to engage in efforts to support and integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion.
To conduct this research, I developed a cultural competence conceptual framework with eight types of initiatives derived from the scholarly literature on diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural competence. The types of initiatives point to organizational efforts to engage in developmental and action-oriented strategies that: facilitate leadership engagement, sensitivity, and responsiveness to diversity, equity, and inclusion; specify strategic and operational goals; incorporate cultural awareness and sensitivity in policies, practices, programs, and procedures; integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into human resource management to build a diverse and representative workforce; cultivate a supportive, inclusive, and equitable organizational culture/climate; reinforce and sustain a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; employ sensitive and inclusive communications; and implement targeted training and professional development on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The cultural competence framework presented ways for organizations to actively engage in setting action-oriented goals targeting ingrained, systemic, and institutionalized disparities.

For years, scholars have investigated the effectiveness of aid dollars. Some
scholars measure aid effectiveness at the country level in terms of achieving good
governance, promoting democratic accountability, accomplishing growth goals, or
attaining macroeconomic goals. This study looks at the aid flowing through nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs). It posits that effective aid consists of resources and
processes that promote sustainability. It attempts to uncover the meaning of
sustainability for the NGOs and recipients that are involved in agriculture while
surveying how the aid process works. It looks at NGOs and recipients, resource flow, and
activities, and sought to understand the elements that could render aid more or less
effective in achieving sustainability in agricultural sectors. This study uses a qualitative
case study research strategy that focused on developing theory/hypotheses grounded in
the data and the literature (Agranoff, Radin, & Perry, 1991). This approach is adopted because (a) the
meaning and promotion of sustainability is a complex topic, (b) aid effectiveness is a
multi-faceted puzzle, (c) NGOs represent a diverse group, (d) the collaborative process is
complicated, and (e) the context (Haiti) is a challenging place. It uses a data triangulation
process (Denzin, 1989, 1997) by combining different types of data and sources (personal
interviews, observations, and documentation) to arrive at a convergent understanding of
the elements that are more or less likely to influence the NGO aid process in the
promotion of sustainability in agriculture.
This study finds that most NGOs and recipients focus on one or two dimensions
of sustainability (economic or environmental); the social or cultural dimensions are
somewhat neglected. I also find that funding and funding horizons are two of the major
issues that impede the promotion of sustainability in addition to communication and
collaboration in the design of the plans, execution, and follow-up. Recipient education,
paternalistic attitude, and poverty levels also play a major role in promoting
sustainability.

This dissertation examines how different United States Department of the Interior
(USDOI) employees’ perceive fairness and support for diversity. The USDOI is an
agency with numerous STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) employees
who have the opportunity to influence future generations through their STEM internship.
Specifically, this dissertation examines the relationship between: (1) the perceived
fairness of performance appraisals and the empowerment index, demographic
characteristics, satisfaction, accountability and recognition; and (2) the perceived support
(or lack thereof) of departmental programs and supervisors to foster diversity in the
workforce and the empowerment index and demographic characteristics.
This dissertation accomplishes several things. First, it provides a review of
literature relating to gender diversity. Second, it provides a brief history of organizations
that were created and acts/executive orders that were passed in order to support women in their fight against gender discrimination. Fourth, it provides a review of the USDOI’s
recruitment, promotion, and employment policies. Finally, it presents an analysis of how
USDOI employees’ perceptions of diversity differ by gender.
This inquiry utilizes a theoretical framework based on Thomas and Ely’s (1996)
and Selden and Selden’s (2001) four diversity paradigms; “discrimination and fairness,”
“access and legitimacy,” “learning and effectiveness,” and “valuing and integrating.”
These paradigms suggest that the true benefits of diversity can only be realized in the
valuing and integrating paradigm where employees’ individual differences are used for
the betterment of the organization.
It is found that women tend not to perceive that their organization supports
diversity. It is also found that the empowerment index, federal tenure, pay category,
satisfaction, accountability and recognition are important in explaining employees’
perceptions of fairness and that the empowerment index, federal tenure, supervisory
status, gender, and minority status are important in explaining employees’ perceptions of
support for diversity.

This study is about advocacy coalitions' efforts at influencing the debate
surrounding the formulation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).
Policy change as utilized in the dissertation views the adoption of CERP as a change in
government policy on Everglades restoration that was achieved through competing
stakeholders and coalitions. As one of the largest environmental restoration projects ever
undertaken in the U.S. and possibly the most complex in terms of reconciling stakeholder
views and understanding the science of restoration, the federal government and the state
of Florida were keen on providing a formal participatory process for stakeholder input.
The formulation process leading up to the adoption of CERP forms a unique study in our
understanding of coalition behavior, their efforts at influencing governmental policy and
the way the deliberative and participatory process worked. The major purpose of the
dissertation is to examine the perceived effectiveness of stakeholders and coalitions,
specifically the environmental and agribusiness coalitions, to influence policy change in
Everglades restoration. The study looks at how policy change was achieved within the formal institutions established and other infonnal channels developed through
cooperation and consensus.
Utilizing the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), interest group and coalition
building literature, I hypothesize that the influence of coalitions in bringing about policy
change is affected by five factors: internal factors such as (I) heterogeneity of
stakeholders' beliefs, (2) membership size and external factors including (3) the presence
of policy brokers, (4) change in the systemic governing coalition, and (5) presence of
multiple coalitions. These factors are assumed to have contributed to altering or
changing the dynamics and the direction of discourse in the policy process. Data was
drawn from interviewing stakeholders who are members of the environmental and
agribusiness coalitions and from secondary sources.
The study shows that both the environmental and agribusiness coalitions perceive
their efforts to be effective and instrumental in impacting the events and issues in the
restoration process and particularly in influencing policy change. The study also reveals
that the deliberative and participatory process, although sometimes contentious, has been
a successful mechanism in allowing stakeholders to influence the formulation of CERP.

The purpose of this dissertation was to add to the literature on the school choice
debate and educational voucher programs through an analysis of Florida’s John M.
McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities. This dissertation looked at
the major aspects of school choice theory, parental satisfaction, and reasoning for choice.
A theoretical framework for analyzing school choice programs was put forth in this
dissertation through an analysis of the over-arching dynamical elements that have shaped
the administrative and political arguments for and against these programs. A
comprehensive review of the literature on school choice comprised a substantial part of
this study due to the need for citizens to better comprehend the origins and evolution of
school choice planning and programming.