The United States’ major American sports leagues, the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL, are turning to franchise expansion to increase their presence in the economic and media markets along the West Coast, including the NHL’s expansion to Las Vegas for the 2017 season and future expansion to Seattle for 2021. However, expansion franchises are very difficult to get off the ground since they require new ownership and management structures, buy-in from the local fan base, and are often subject to much higher scrutiny during their first few years than other franchises. Currently, no universal metric exists to determine whether or not an expansion franchises was successful, and it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to convince leagues to expand when they are unable to evaluate the likelihood of success for potential candidate cities. This research analyzed four major factors I identified that contribute to overall success for a team in any sport: financial prosperity, quality of national media coverage, public and local governmental support, and in-game accolades. Using these metrics as a starting point, I created an index that scored prior expansion franchises using a variety of indicators to quantify their overall success. Additionally, I applied this index to select cities currently under consideration for an expansion franchise to serve as a predictor of their potential success. Going forward, the use of this index as a predictive metric will allow leagues to make more informed decisions about the success of future candidates for expansion.

Over the last decade Seattle has seen the most dramatic population growth of any large American city. The accompanying rapid change in urban form of the city has been called staggering by longtime Seattle natives, causing a state of worry not unlike the feeling of solastalgia, a neologism that describes a form of mental or existential distress caused by environmental change. Longtime citizens can be forgiven for feeling as though their home has been irreparably changed in a way that doesn’t name them as a benefactor. But what has the effect of this rapid change had on the homeless community? Can a stable and strong sense of place have positive influences on the day to day lives of the homeless individuals? Can we facilitate a stronger sense of place as part of our response to the homelessness crisis in Seattle? My study examines the link between sense of place and stability in homeless individuals through interviews with individuals from within the homeless community, hearing perspectives from tiny house villages, tent cities, and the streets of Seattle. Through these conversations I demonstrate the impact that sense of place has on social stability, especially in times of rapid change to the urban environment, and how sense of place differs depending on the method of temporary shelter. The resulting study builds a better understanding of the intersectionality of the existential effects of placelessness in the homeless population, the differences between being homeless in a variety of spaces, and the meaning and significance of place making to people without a place.

While some high school students are able to make the transition to higher levels of education, if they so aspire, other students have great difficulty achieving the goal of higher education. This study broadly examines barriers to higher education for students who face challenges graduating from high school and continuing to higher education. For example, students who become truant, attend poorly funded schools, of color, and/or are court-involved face real challenges and barriers in the transition to college. This research explores a variety of sustainable education-driven interventions that have the potential to widen the pathway wherein these populations of young adults can find success in transitioning to a college or university setting. Through multiple interviews with community stakeholders (including governmental, non-governmental, for-profit, and non-profit agencies), I have explored and assessed interventions and programs that are making an impact. These include student to advisor ratios, being surrounded by diversity in leadership positions, family support, neighborhood environments, and additional outside of school influences that ultimately effects these students’ lives every day. Yet, for all these interventions and programs some students still fall through the cracks. There remains a significant lack of equity. This research contributes by drawing attention to the best programs and practices that successfully widen the path for young adults to achieve higher education.

Substantively engaging with local communities is critical to ensuring effective quarantine response and treatment to disease outbreaks. This engagement involves the integration of international-based aid with religious and government leaders to reach affected residents and treat disease while respecting local cultures. Significant gaps in community engagement by international humanitarian organizations were observed during the 2013-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic. These shortcomings hampered trust in aid collaborators, impacted dissemination of disease information, and disrupted the daily lives and community frameworks of residents. Such issues continue to have relevance as the Kivu Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo enters its third year. This research explores how humanitarian organizations operating in Kivu incorporate community engagement procedures into their work. Institutions such as the World Health Organization and Red Cross are qualitatively analyzed using an evaluation matrix designed to measure the scalability and implementation of community-based integration and participation. Indicators are drawn from official directives and policies. General patterns of cultural understanding and respect of local traditions are observed but vary across organizations. Applying similar collaborative procedures to future epidemics may aid organizational response in engaging affected populations.