Wright State staff member Nick Christian receives first Distinguished Dissertation Award

Nick Christian, director of assessment and accreditation at Wright State, received the Distinguished Dissertation Award for his dissertation on “Exploring the Relationship between Academic Program Assessment Practices and Institutional Performance.”

Through the years there have been many historic firsts at Wright State University.

It was September 1964 when students initially traversed the campus grounds; women’s sports teams competed beginning in 1972; the School of Medicine graduated its inaugural class in 1980; the Nutter Center made its much-anticipated debut in 1990.

And in the spring of 2024, Nick Christian, director of assessment and accreditation in the Wright State Office of Academic Affairs, received the first Distinguished Dissertation Award from the College of Graduate Programs and Honors Studies while earning his Ed.D. in Organizational Studies.

The goal of Christian’s dissertation, titled “Exploring the Relationship between Academic Program Assessment Practices and Institutional Performance,” was to empirically examine the significance of assessment activities on student success.

“The impact is assumed in all of the literature I found, but no one had examined it empirically,” said Christian. “The process of writing the dissertation, including planning and completing the research, took four semesters. The research considered faculty perceptions of student persistence as the measure of institutional performance.”

Christian submitted a dissertation summary and endorsement letter from a member of his dissertation committee to the Graduate Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate. Reviewers considered the project’s impact, justification of the purpose of the original work and the significance of the project’s contribution to Christian’s discipline before bestowing on him the Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Christian pursued his Ed.D. to advance professionally, he said, allowing him to focus on the assessment area of higher education in which he has always maintained an interest. He combined his interest in assessment with the impact of institutional performance.

“I appreciate the focus of Wright State University on career-connected programs and that the faculty and staff are focused on providing students the opportunity to advance their lives through education,” said Christian, who has worked at Wright State for five years.

He said his advisor and dissertation committee chair, Yoko Miura, Ed.D., associate professor and director of the Education Doctorate in Organizational Studies program, was extremely influential during the dissertation process through its completion. Miura often shared opportunities for Christian to present his research both on- and off-campus, including a future presentation at the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis.

“I was delighted to find out that his genuine effort to improve higher education institutional practice in order to enhance student learning was appropriately recognized,” said Miura. “He has started good first steps to improve the quality of student learning supported by the university’s organizational effort.”

Wright State staff member Nick Christian received his Ed.D. in Organizational Studies from the university in the spring of 2024. (Photo by Erin Pence)

Miura said a number of people assisted Christian, including Aaron Skira, Ed.D., director of institutional research and effectiveness; Marty Sexton, Ph.D., associate dean of the College of Health, Education and Human Services; and Brian Boyd, Ph.D., associate professor of teacher education.

Miura described Christian as a good mentor for the students in the Ed.D. program in organizational studies.

“I hope he will continue to sharpen his assessment and evaluation skills to improve our practices, and to inform others after him to join in that work,” she said.

Christian said his greatest professional achievements usually involve scrolling LinkedIn and discovering the successes of former students in their chosen career paths.

“That I had a role in developing an academic environment in which they could be successful is why I do what I do,” he said.

Married with two daughters who are both in college, Christian serves in leadership capacities in his church and at a Springfield not-for-profit organization.

“I am honored to receive the first Distinguished Dissertation Award,” he said. “There are many doctoral students across the institution who devote a lot of time and effort to their dissertations. To be recognized through this award among this group is humbling.”