Dr. Meg Holland (master's, Education and Human Development; Ed.D., Higher Education Administration) has received the Leo and Margaret Goodman-Malamuth Award from the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA) for her dissertation, "Women Leading Higher Education: Disrupting Patriarchal Mediation in Higher Education Spaces." This award is made each year to the author of an outstanding doctoral dissertation in the field of higher education or higher education administration.
According to Dr. Sharon Dannels, who chaired Dr. Holland's dissertation committee, "The beauty of the document is that it is a reflection of her learning... the design and execution of her study is exemplary. In this document you see the emergence of a researcher."
Criteria for selection include: the importance and relevance of the topic; evidence of the development of a theoretical framework which guided the research; the appropriateness of the research method and analysis; the overall quality of the writing; the potential for publication or other dissemination of research results; and the degree to which the results provide useful information for practitioners in the field of higher education. To determine who will receive the award, the AAUA scholarship committee does a search using the ProQuest Research Database, working the list of dissertations down to 4-5 finalists, and then picks the award winner via score card.