Dr. Linda Moerschell shares how staying connected with faculty has furthered her research.
Dr. Linda Moerschell.
Photo credit:
Kathryn Deuel phtography.
For many academics, the adage “publish or perish” drives their research. For Dr. Linda Moerschell ’09, the phrase could be rewritten as “publish and flourish.” Publishing her dissertation, The Spontaneous Nature of Leadership Emergence, was just the beginning.
After earning her PhD in Applied Management and Decision Sciences (now PhD in Management), Moerschell asked her dissertation chair, Dr. Teresa M. Lao, to co-author an article based on her research. That article was published in Emergence: Complexity & Organization (E:CO) (Vol. 14, Issue 2).
Next, Moerschell looped back in with Lao and her committee members, Dr. David Banner and Dr. Thea Singer, to continue her research by co-authoring another article. Their piece appeared in the Leadership & Organizational Management Journal (Vol. 2013, Issue 1).
And in September 2013, Moerschell and Banner presented the team’s paper at a business conference in Chicago, sponsored by Roosevelt University’s Heller College of Business and the Franklin Publishing Co. “After working on the research with my committee members, I’ve found I’m never short of ideas,” Moerschell says.
The research continues to be self-sustaining. Dr. Christopher Burman of the University of Limpopo in South Africa asked her—having seen one of her publications—to partner on a new article to leverage her research in HIV/AIDS intervention.
“Aligning my research with Walden’s mission was the coolest part of getting a doctoral degree,” says Moerschell, who is a lecturer at the State University of New York at Potsdam and an instructor at Kaplan University. “Positive social change is the heartbeat that sustains my continuing research and publications.”
For Walden PhD students who want to publish, Moerschell offers a few words of advice. “Don’t think that once you defend your dissertation and the chief academic officer signs off that your work is complete. Maintain open communication with your dissertation committee. It’s only the beginning of friendships that support incredibly valuable opportunities.”