Thesis and Dissertation Advisors -
Social Work

DR. S. C. BENEDICT, DSN, FAAN

Dr. Benedict has been a professor of nursing for over 25 years. She was a Fulbright Scholar to the University of Iceland and a Visiting Professor at the University of Botswana. She has taught research methods courses at the master’s degree and PhD level at Columbia University [New York], the University of Alabama [Huntsville], the University of Iceland, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of Botswana [Africa] and has served as chairperson or member of over 30 thesis and dissertation committees at universities in the US, Scotland, and the Republic of South Africa.

Dr. Benedict’s research has been funded by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Nursing Research of the US National Institutes of Health, the Greenwall Foundation, and the University of Botswana. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Medical Ethics and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC and has done numerous scholarly presentations in the US, Europe, Africa, and Israel.

Dr. Benedict’s experience has involved extensive guidance of graduate students and includes written critiques of more than 400 research proposals. She has worked with numerous students to delineate research problems, select appropriate research designs and sampling plans, and organize the findings into implications and conclusions. Although the majority of her work has been with graduate students in nursing, she has also worked with doctoral students in health policy, public health, history, and education.

In addition to degree completion, Dr. Benedict’s former students in the US, Europe, and Africa have published in peer-reviewed journals and have made presentations at national and international conferences.  Dr. Benedict has guided many of these efforts.

Feedback:

“Dr. Benedict is an *outstanding* consultant!  She was easy to work with and helped keep me focused and well-prepared for my dissertation.  Susan was able to identify weaknesses in my research and provided suggestions of things I could do to make my dissertation stronger.  She was also able to generate questions that might be asked by my committee to help me prepare fully for the defense.  Without any question, this was a smart investment.” (Contact information on request) 

“Great job! Thanks for all your help.” - P. Cotter, American Society for Testing and Materials

“Dr. Benedict has been a delight! She is professional, thorough, understanding and really pays attention to your needs! I appreciate her guidance especially through the obstacles. She’s a motivating force who navigates her clients through the murky waters quite effortlessly. She makes herself readily available and never makes you feel slighted.” - Anna Rojas, Master’s Degree, Walden University

“Your work on chapter one is superb. I really appreciate your input.” (On file with network coordinator)

“Dr. Benedict was absolutely superb in her editing, recommendations, consulting on my writing ideas, and made suggestions that helps me to solidify my chapters 1 & 2. Her recommendations were well thought-out and I incorporated them into the final draft. I strongly recommend her services to any doctoral student who is struggling to pull the proposal together for ARB review and approval.” - Connie Ekkens, doctoral student, University of Phoenix

"Dr. Benedict is OUTSTANDING! We are not finished, but we are making excellent progress. She is a joy! Easy to work with, very personable, and extremely knowledgeable and helpful!!" ~ PhD student, University of Oklahoma (on file with network coordinator)

Selected articles:
An ethics of testimony: Prisoner nurses at Auschwitz
Duty and "euthanasia": The nurses of Meseritz--Obrawalde
Maria Stromberger: A nurse in the resistance in Auschwitz
Nurses and the sterilization experiments of Auschwitz: A postmodernist perspective

Additional Information>>

PROF. B COLLINS

PROF. B COLLINS is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at UCLA. His numerous publications cover social psychology, applied social psychology, research methods, attitude change, persuasion, and social influence, Dissonance Theory, the design and evaluation of questionnaire measures, interviewing, health education, and community-based participatory research. These publications use a wide variety of statistical analyses. He served as Director of Research at Healthy African American Families II. He has taught at Yale and Stanford and was a Prof. of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He has written a textbooks on social psychology and research methods. He coauthored a book on Theories of Attitude Change. He has served and chair and vice chair of the human subjects protection committee (IRB). He has been an advisor for over a hundred undergraduate honors theses and MA and PhD theses. He has served as a social-psychology expert witness in court cases. His BS and MA were in communication at Northwestern University. He has focuses on one-on-one mentoring on activities ranging from: (a) the choice of a research topic that is relevant to the interests and skills of a particular student, (b) the identification of the most relevant theories, (c) the development of hypotheses, (d) research design, (e) the organization of research writing, (f) methods sections, (g) data analyses and the presentation results, and (h) the interpretation of results.

Prof. Collins has experience with qualitative methodologies including structured and unstructured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and computer-assisted qualitative analyses. He can use and tutor students for the ATLAS.ti content analysis software program and with the CAT web-based content analysis software that is free to students. He has also published and supervised students in a wide variety of quantitative methodologies including: laboratory experiments, experiments in field setting, behavior observation, multivariate analyses, and the design and evaluation of pencil and paper measurements.

E-mail: bcollins at dissertationadvisors.com

Research Interests

• Applied Social Psychology
• Close Relationships
• Communication
• Culture/Ethnicity
• Ethics/Morality
• Health
• Interpersonal Processes
• Person Perception
• Persuasion/Social Influence
• Prejudice/Stereotyping
• Research Methods/Assessment
• Self/Identity

Services for psychology graduate students and researchers:

• Provide you with customized tutoring in all aspects of a research project that is tailored to your interests and skills.
• Help you select and formulate solid research questions (hypotheses).
• Help you learn to use literature searches and reference tools.
• Identify a strategy and keywords for your literature search.
• Help identify the most relevant theories.
• Provide theoretical guidance on content.
• Help identify the most relevant prior research.
• Assist with literature review searches.
• Provide recommendations regarding structure, organization, arguments, and ideas.
• Suggest research designs.
• Help with writing the methods section.
• Suggest specific statistical tests of your hypotheses.
• Tutor you in the use of statistical packages to conduct your statistical analyses.
• Conduct statistical analyses and help prepare tables and graphs.
• Tutor you in writing your conclusions in clear English (within ethical boundaries).
• Help with the interpretation of results.
• Revise for clarity, precision, and conciseness.
• Incorporate input from degree-granting institution’s advisors/mentors and committee members.
• Prepare you for your oral defense and/or comprehensive exams.

TOM DAVIDSON
Organizational/Industrial Psychology

Dr. Tom Davidson has been an advisor on more than a hundred research committees for students who have achieved their doctorate or master's degree. He specializes in students who are near the beginning of their thesis or dissertation work. He will help you choose a topic, select a quantitative or qualitative methodology, and develop an effective research design. Dr. Davidson has a great deal of research experience, including hundreds of research studies for private industry. He can quickly hone in on key constructs and measures, practical methodological designs and clear statistical tests for your thesis or dissertation study. And he keeps students focused on doing only what is necessary to graduate with their master's or doctorate degree as soon as possible. Dr. Davidson takes the confusion out of thesis and dissertation development, helping students save time and money by making swift progress.

"Dr. Davidson  was not only helpful but crucial in my Ph.D. journey.  He inspired me to identify a meaningful topic, control my topic scope, and formulate workable hypotheses.  He is particularly insightful in quantifying concepts in abstract domains like leadership, and effectively drives students to operationalize variables.  While completing a dissertation is a painfully long process, Dr. Davidson  patiently encouraged his students to go forward each day, and always with a sense of humor.  He is always available to respond to students' questions and requests, and never procrastinates.  I will forever be grateful to Dr. Davidson , who has become my role model when supervising other students." - Paul K. Sin

"Dr. Davidson had a profound impact on my dissertation experience and was instrumental to my successful completion. Thank you so very much Dr. Davidson , for being a great thinker and scholar, demonstrating tremendous patience, and providing reflective and generative guidance." - Don Pomraning

"I would like to thank Dr. Davidson for his patience, constructive feedback, guidance, encouragement and most of all for his ability to treat others as scholars in our own rights." - Melissa Minardo

"Dr. Davidson encouraged me consistently and brought clarity to a very scary process. He helped me define and simplify my research ideas into a manageable project, while maintaining the meaning of the study. I am so thankful for his approach." - Brigit Olsen

Additional Information >>

DR. TRACY JACKSON
Human Services - Social Work - Criminal Justice - Sociology

Dr. Tracy Jackson earned her PhD in Human Services (with a specialization in social work and community services) from an online university.  She has a Masters in Social Work and Bachelors in Criminal Justice from Indiana University.  Dr. Jackson has worked in the social work field since 1996. She has helped children and families in her roles as mental health therapist, case manager, school social worker, supervisor, coordinator and qualified mental health professional. She has worked in such settings as mental health facilities, school systems, residential group homes, and juvenile justice and federal half way houses for adult offenders.

Currently, Dr. Jackson is an online instructor for two universities. She teaches in the associate, bachelor and doctorate programs. She is also a dissertation chair and committee member for several online learners. Dr. Jackson takes pride in her work and has a passion for instructing, advising and guiding students.

Her online learners have said:

“Thank you for your support. You were a great online teacher.”

“Thank you so much for your time during this course, I really enjoyed it!”

“I learned a lot and have a new found interest in the policy/political side of Human Services.”

“Thank you for assisting me outside of our regular class meetings. I really appreciate all you have done and continue to do to assist me with achieving my goal.”

Dr. Jackson assists her students in developing their research problems.  She does role playing exercises to help students convey to an audience (i.e., chair and committee) the purpose of their studies, significance and findings. Dr. Jackson helps masters, capstone, and doctoral students develop a plan to conduct a thorough search of the literature. She provides guidance on choosing the most relevant theories for research topics. She is excellent at organizing and revising papers. Dr. Jackson’s own dissertation went through her committee with no rewrites before her final defense.

Dr. Jackson understands that the capstone, thesis, or dissertation writing process is a time of high stress and, therefore, the need for quick turnaround times and fast responses to emails.

Additional information