College of Doctoral Studies

Beverly Galbreath gave up a chance at higher education because she was raising her family, but she was determined that her only daughter wouldn’t suffer the same fate. Now she can look proudly at Dr. Trish Galbreath-Varner, who not only is the family’s first college graduate — she has earned her doctorate.

The College of Doctoral Studies has learned a lot about its learners over the past 10 years, and that’s why it’s introducing a 2.0 version of its programs. This redesign will take tools such as the dissertation template and early dissertation focus and build upon them to address both quantitative and qualitative research. A higher emphasis also will be placed on better preparing students for dissertation writing.

GCU’s Eta Chi chapter of Delta Mu Delta, the international business honors society, has doubled in size the last four years, and its stature has grown even more. But now it has its biggest honor of all: It was voted the No. 1 chapter out of the 350 in the United States.

Dr. Breanna Naegeli has worked for the University for almost 11 years and has multiple siblings with GCU degrees, but she couldn’t herself be called an alumna — until now. She successfully defended her dissertation in May and completed her Ph.D. in Performance Psychology.

When Spring Commencement was postponed because of COVID-19, the Graefe family still wanted to celebrate its two graduates: Jake, who had earned his bachelor’s degree, and his mother, Beth, who had just completed her dissertation defense. Beth asked her dissertation committee chair, Dr. JoAnn Foley Markette, if she would give a speech via Zoom for the impromptu ceremony, and Markette delivered a talk they won’t forget. “I got teary eyed because Dr. Markette said such beautiful things,” Beth said.

What makes Dr. Brandon O’Neil’s doctoral degree so interesting is where he conducted his dissertation defense: via Zoom while he was on Air Force deployment in Saudi Arabia — and, on top of that, under the threat of a missile attack. Fortunately, it all went well.

After Dr. Yolanda Stokes earned her doctorate, she wanted to do something for the learners following in her footsteps. So she wrote a manual, “Starting to Finish: A Doctoral Journey,” and also meets with learners to help them even further. The College of Doctoral Studies provides similar assistance with its DC Network.

When a teaching job for Dr. Steven Mohler (pictured) depended on approval of his dissertation, the College of Doctoral Studies sped up the process. Mohler praised the work of his committee, led by Dr. Kevin McClean. “He was very helpful, very supportive and went to bat for me several times at the college to make sure that the process continued on,” said Mohler, who got the job.

The postponement of Commencement wasn’t going to stop the College of Doctoral Studies from celebrating its spring 2020 graduates — it just had to get creative. Friday morning, it hosted a virtual celebration of its graduates.

Dr. Eric Peterson refused to let the postponed Commencement ceremony dampen his enthusiasm about earning a doctoral degree. But what stands out about his story is that he had virtually no time to prepare for defending his dissertation because he spent most of the day with his mother at a hospital. It still turned out fine. “God knew what I needed,” he said.