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Adverse childhood experiences, known as ACEs, have been shown to negatively impact an individual’s health as an adult. While efforts to decrease children’s exposure to these traumatic experiences are beneficial, they are not able to fully eliminate these experiences and do not address how to help children who have already been exposed. Resilience, which has been defined as managing and adapting to significant sources of trauma, has been thought to be a protective factor against the toxic stress of ACEs. While the relationship between ACEs and poor health outcomes has been established, the relationship between resilience and health outcomes is largely unknown.  This study seeks to determine the association between resilience scores on a validated resilience questionnaire and health outcomes in adolescents. Looking specifically at body mass index, blood pressure, and depression scores on a validated depression screen we hypothesize that higher resilience scores will be associated with better health outcomes. In addition, we examine the relationship between ACE scores and resilience scores. If this validated resilience instrument is able to help predict health outcomes, this can direct development of intervention programs to build resilience in those living in ACE-heavy environments. / Urban Bioethics

The world is an extraordinarily dangerous place with an array of escalating threats. Reports of terrorism, natural disasters, and political unrest are stark reminders of the dangerous context in which businesses must perform. To learn more about what firms can do to perform despite these dangers, we conduct two studies about the relationship between organizational preparedness and performance. The research question addressed by our first study is whether international businesses somehow convert previous terrorism exposures and/or experience operating in high-risk locations into an ability to bounce back quickly from future terrorist attacks. Our second study looks within the firm to see whether efforts to ensure workplace safety translate into performance. Our research addresses gaps in the literature concerning how firms maintain performance in a dangerous, uncertain world, and specifically into what organizational preparedness efforts help firms maintain performance despite unexpected disruptions. Our research contributes to a theory of organizational resilience and suggests to managers that business continuity planning and safety preparedness enhance resilience and performance in a dangerous world. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Resilience is a phenomenon that refers to the ability to overcome risk factors that increase the likelihood of academic or social failure. Considerable research has been conducted to determine what may enhance or hinder the ability of individuals to overcome adversity. Unfortunately, much of the research has focused primarily on factors that place individuals at greater risk of failure. Today in the United States, a number of students experience academic failure due to multiple risk factors. However, the research is clear that there are individuals referred to as resilient who are able to achieve at high levels in spite of many of the same risk factors. This heuristic phenomenological study provides insight, based on interviews with high risk, African-American, young adults, into those factors that enabled them to exhibit behaviors consistent with resilience in spite of risk factors in the home, school or community. The study helps to illuminate their challenges and the reasons for their success. / Ed. D.

Throughout the past several decades, research regarding counselor resilience has shifted from a pathology-based to a strengths-based approach. As a result, researchers have moved away from primarily identifying risk factors and now focus on protective factors. Researchers have found that social supports serve as a protective factor in counselor resilience. However, there is a lack of understanding of how counselors receive that social support, specifically after a professional adverse event. Professional adverse events are common given the nature of counseling work. For example, undesirable occurrences such as client suicide, attempted suicide, life threatening illnesses, accidents, overdose, or loss of a child are considered professional adverse events. This study explored how ten professional counselors experienced social support following professional adverse events. Three themes emerged from these counselors' stories: difficulty seeking support, misplaced support, and acts of kindness. Implications for counselors include honoring both confidentiality and their own humanness, the cultivating co-regulating relationships, and reinforcing acts of kindness. Counselor educators and supervisors can foster counselor resilience by using the implications to teach counselors how to invite effective social support. / Doctor of Philosophy / Being a counselor can be both challenging and rewarding. Given the heavy caseloads and complexity of cases, it is common for counselors to experience adverse professional events. Research shows that protective factors serve as a buffer against stress. Social support is a protective factor that assists counselors in maintaining wellness and building resiliency. This study explored how professional counselors received support from interpersonal relationships following a professional adverse event. Findings from this study indicate the importance of counselors honoring their own humanness while protecting the client’s confidentiality, the importance of having co-regulating relationships, and the healing power of acts of kindness.

Heightened awareness of the impact of climate change has led to rapidly increasing penetration of renewable energy resources in electric energy distribution systems. Those distributed energy resources (DERs), mostly inverter-based, can act as resiliency sources for the grid but also introduce new control and stability challenges. In this thesis, a cyber-physical system (CPS) testbed is proposed combining a real-time electro-magnetic transient power system simulation and a practical model for communication network simulation. By regularly updating the CPS testbed with real-world SCADA information, a digital twin is effectively created. The digital twin allows the testing of novel microgrid control and cybersecurity strategies. Simulations using the Virginia Tech Electric Service (VTES) as a test case demonstrate the capability of adequately controlled resources, including solar PV, energy storage, and a synchronous generator, to enhance resilience by providing energy to critical loads. The DERs comply with IEEE disturbance ride-through requirements and switching transients are maintained within acceptable limits. A comprehensive DER-based resiliency plan is developed and validated for the Virginia Tech smart grid. / M.S. / In the last two decades, the increased occurrence of major power outages in the United States underscores the critical need to improve the reliability and resilience of the power grid. Massive investments have been made to install information and communications technology enabling near real-time monitoring and control of the smart grid. Simultaneously, heightened awareness of the impact of climate change led to rapidly increasing penetration of renewable energy resources at the distribution system level. Those distributed energy resources, mostly inverter-based, can act as resiliency sources for the grid but also introduce new control and stability challenges. In this work, a comprehensive testbed is proposed for the real-time simulation of both the power systems and communication networks. This method allows the testing of novel microgrid control and cybersecurity strategies. The testbed is used to develop and validate a resiliency plan for the Virginia Tech Electric Service using distributed energy resources.

Yes / Poor medicines management places patients at risk, particularly during care transitions. For patients with heart failure (HF), optimal medicines management is crucial to control symptoms and prevent hospital readmission. This study explored the concept of resilience using HF as an example condition to understand how the system compensates for known and unknown weaknesses. We explored resilience using a mixed-methods approach in four healthcare economies in the north of England. Data from hospital site observations, healthcare staff and patient interviews, and documentary analysis were collected between June 2016 and March 2017. Data were synthesised and analysed using framework analysis. Interviews were conducted with 45 healthcare professionals, with 20 patients at three timepoints and 189 hours of observation were undertaken. We identified four primary inter-related themes concerning organisational resilience. These were named as gaps, traps, bridges and props. Gaps were discontinuities in processes that had the potential to result in poorly optimised medicines. Traps were features of the system that could produce errors or unintended adverse medication events. ‘Bridges’ were features of the medicines management system that promoted safety and continuity which ensured that, despite varying conditions, care could be delivered successfully. ‘Props’ were informal, temporary or impromptu actions taken by patients or healthcare staff to avoid potential adverse events. The numerous opportunities for HF patient safety to be compromised and sub-optimal medicines management during this common care transition are mitigated by system resilience. Cross-organisational bridges and temporary fixes or ‘props’ put in place by patients and carers, healthcare teams and organisations are critical for safe and optimal care to be delivered in the face of continued system pressures.

In order to integrate a mind, body, spirit approach in school settings, yoga programming such as Y.O.G.A. for Youth was introduced to one public and two charter schools in Los Angeles area urban neighborhoods. The study examined the effectiveness of the overall program and its effect on adolescent stress, emotional affect, and resilience. A survey was administered to measure the three dependent variables and informal interviews were conducted to determine the overall effectiveness of the program. The results of the mixed method approach indicated that the overall program was effective in creating a general sense of well-being and statistically significant in alleviating stress (p < .05), increasing positive affect (p < .05), and resilience (p < .001), in the participants (N=30).

When a family member is incarcerated, the task of emotionally and financially supporting the remaining family members and the incarcerated loved one often falls upon women, who are likely to be under-resourced and overwhelmed. Women whose husbands are incarcerated in India are likely to possess multiple marginalized identities, increasing their vulnerability to intersecting forms of oppression. Empirical research is lacking on wives of incarcerated men in India, contributing to their invisibility in policy-making and programmatic interventions. Guided by intersectional feminism and symbolic interactionism, the purpose of this study was to document the stories of women who had experienced spousal incarceration in the Indian context. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 wives of prison inmates who resided in or around the National Capital Territory of Delhi, all of whom either held a lower caste identity or a Muslim religious identity. Transcribed interviews were analyzed following the steps of narrative analysis. Results illustrate the diversity of storied experiences of wives of incarcerated husbands in India. First, by grouping narratives that conveyed the same overall storyline into the same cluster, I identified three story clusters: Ambivalent but Hanging On, Unconditionally Devoted, and Independent and Disillusioned. Second, by attending to how women's day-to-day lives are shaped by intersecting systems of privilege and oppression, particularly those tied to gender and class, I identified three overarching themes that spanned women's narratives: (a) a complicated relationship with patriarchy, (b) the weight of socioeconomic disenfranchisement, and (c) when resilience is not a choice. The results of this study emphasize the need to distinguish between feminist agency and welfare agency, to recognize women's experiences of ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief, and to critique the systemic injustices that forced women to be resilient. Documenting their stories is instrumental in bringing attention to the needs, challenges, and triumphs of this underserved and overlooked population. / Doctor of Philosophy / When a family member is incarcerated, the task of emotionally and financially supporting the remaining family members and the incarcerated loved one often falls upon women, who are likely to be under-resourced and overwhelmed. Women whose husbands are incarcerated in India are likely to possess multiple marginalized identities, increasing their vulnerability to intersecting forms of oppression. Empirical research is lacking on wives of incarcerated men in India, contributing to their invisibility in policy-making and programmatic interventions. The purpose of this study was to document the stories of women who had experienced spousal incarceration in the Indian context. Interviews were conducted with 14 wives of prison inmates who resided in or around the National Capital Territory of Delhi, all of whom either held a lower caste identity or a Muslim religious identity. Results illustrate the diversity of women's stories and experiences with spousal incarceration. First, by grouping narratives that conveyed the same overall storyline into the same cluster, I identified three story clusters: Ambivalent but Hanging On, Unconditionally Devoted, and Independent and Disillusioned. Second, by attending to how women's day-to-day lives are shaped by intersecting systems of privilege and oppression, particularly those tied to gender and class, I identified three overarching themes that characterized women's narratives: (a) a complicated relationship with patriarchy, (b) the weight of socioeconomic disenfranchisement, and (c) when resilience is not a choice. The results of this study emphasize the need to distinguish between feminist agency and welfare agency, to recognize women's experiences of ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief, and to critique the systemic injustices that forced women to be resilient. Documenting their stories is instrumental in bringing attention to the needs, challenges, and triumphs of this underserved and overlooked population.