Educational Leadership Doctoral Graduate Receives Dissertation of the Year Award
Posted on March 12, 2021 by Micaela Pickering
Dr. Lynsey Listau is a graduate of the University of South Alabama College of Education and Professional Studies and currently serves as the executive director for institutional equity and student conduct at Pensacola State College in Florida. Listau received the Association for Student Conduct Administrators Dissertation of the Year Award.
“I was incredibly honored when I found out I received the award, especially knowing the time and effort that went into completing my dissertation,” said Listau, who recently received a doctorate in Educational Leadership from South.“This was also an honor for me because it came from the ASCA, which is the national professional organization for individuals working in higher education in the field of student conduct. I was also excited that the association chose to present this award to an individual working at a predominately associate degree granting institution whose dissertation work focused on community colleges.”
The ASCA award recognizes a dissertation that makes an exceptional contribution to research on issues directly related to student conduct administration in higher education and that contributes to the knowledge base of the associations’ membership and professional practice. While a number of outstanding research projects might meet these criteria each year, the ASCA research committee selects one original work for its outstanding contribution to the field of student conduct.
The title of Listau’s study was “An Examination of Academic Integrity Violations at a Predominately Associate Degree-Granting Institution” and her major professor was Dr. Wanda Maulding Green in the College of Education and Professional Studies.
"At a time when delivery of instruction at the higher ed level has become increasingly electronic, it is critical that students understand, respect, and adhere to student codes of conduct,” Green said. “Lynsey did an excellent job of identifying not only why some students cheat but also identified their justifications as well. Based on this information, she was able to create informative recommendations for policy and practice for similar institutions."
Listau chose this subject for her dissertation because she became interested in academic misconduct cases.
“While there is a lot of research on cheating and academic integrity violations in higher education, there is not a lot focused specifically on community colleges or predominantly associate degree granting institutions,” Listau said. “Part of my work overseeing student conduct led me to see a rise in academic misconduct cases, which got me interested in looking at how prevalent of an issue this is. In addition, I wanted to explore what motivates students to engage in cheating behaviors and what could be done at the institutional level to stop students from cheating.”
Listau received her bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Tennessee and a master's degree in educational leadership and policy studies from Virginia Tech.
“I chose South for the educational leadership doctoral program because I wanted a program that would allow me to continue to work full-time and would have courses relevant to the work I was doing at my institution,” Listau said. “I was also looking for a program with a cohort so that I would have other peers going through the journey with me to offer support and different perspectives on educational leadership from their experiences.
Listau worked full-time while in the program at South. She started out as the director of student conduct at Pensacola State College, and during the course of the doctoral program at South, Listau was promoted to her current position as the executive director of institutional equity and student conduct. In this position she oversees student conduct, institutional equity, Title IX, case management, mental health services, relationship violence prevention and campus food pantries.
The Educational Leadership Ed.D. Program is an intensive 60 credit hour, modified cohort-based program designed for educators who wish to earn a terminal degree in educational leadership. The Ed.D. Program at South allows students to keep their current full-time jobs while also studying full-time. The program is intended to train an emerging generation of senior educational leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary to connect research, theory, and practice in leading high performing learning organizations to manage resources strategically, engage in evidence-based decision-making, promote continuous improvement, and encourage innovation. Coursework is delivered using a combination of face-to-face classes on campus, blended, and fully online formats. Designed with a theory-to-practice focus, the program brings the research literature and best practices together with the problems of practice faced in day-to-day educational settings.
To learn more, visit southalabama.edu/colleges/ceps/lte/graduate.html.