Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program/Concentration

Public Administration and Policy

Committee Director

Adam M. Eckerd

Committee Member

John R. Lombard

Committee Member

Kirk A. Leach

Committee Member

Pamela Steinke

Abstract

In an era marked by escalating environmental challenges and an urgent need for sustainable development, higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly positioned as critical actors in advancing sustainability within the communities they serve. Regional comprehensive universities (RCUs), in particular, occupy a distinctive position as access‑oriented, community‑embedded public institutions; yet sustainability efforts at these institutions often unfold under conditions of limited resources, diffuse responsibility, and informal governance. This dissertation examines how individual actors at RCUs effectively advance environmental sustainability initiatives in the absence of centralized infrastructure or formal authority.

Guided by the overarching research question—How can individual actors at regional comprehensive universities effectively advance environmental sustainability initiatives? —the study employs analytic autoethnography as its primary methodology, complemented by survey and interview data. Drawing on Transformative Change Theory, Transformative Learning Theory, and Social Capital Theory, the dissertation analyzes how sustainability work is initiated, experienced, and sustained through individual learning, relational networks, and institutional response.

The findings demonstrate that sustainability advancement at RCUs emerges as a learning‑driven, relational, and governance‑embedded process rather than a technical or compliance‑based function. Individual actors act as sustainability champions by navigating ownership gaps, mobilizing social capital, and leveraging disorienting dilemmas to catalyze reflection, collaboration, and action among faculty, staff, students, and community partners. Across three empirical essays, the study shows how transformative learning reshapes professional identity and practice among faculty and staff, how informal governance structures enable or constrain institutional change, and how relational networks sustain momentum in resource‑constrained settings.

This dissertation contributes a process model of sustainability advancement at RCUs, provides empirical evidence of the central role of informal governance in public institutions, and extends transformative learning scholarship by demonstrating perspective transformation among faculty and staff, not only students. Methodologically, it offers a rigorous application of analytic autoethnography in public administration research. Together, these contributions position sustainability not as a peripheral initiative, but as an emergent institutional process shaped by learning, relationships, and organizational context.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.25777/dceq-r797

ISBN

9798197810465

ORCID

0009-0004-7732-1395

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