Maggi Elgin, PhD, the University of Maryland University College Graduate School faculty member who had the honor of carrying the university mace, led the UMUC doctoral class of 2015 procession into the ballroom at the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center on Friday, May 15, with their hoods—part of the traditional academic regalia worn by doctoral candidates—carefully draped over their right arms.

By the conclusion of the two-hour ceremony, the hoods—which are longer than those worn by other degree holders—were properly and proudly placed on each of the 35 candidates, signifying their scholarly achievement as newly minted DMs (Doctors of Management).

During the hooding ceremony, The Graduate School Vice Dean Bryan Booth counseled those earning their doctorates to savor the moment. "Look around and soak it all in. Congratulate your colleagues, and pat yourself on the back," he said.

"Let me be the first to officially welcome you to the community of scholar-practitioners. As professional doctorates you are acutely aware of the need to understand scholarship . . . to obtain the evidence . . . and to unconsciously question everything when making decisions in your professional and personal lives.

"We often talk about the 'journey' of obtaining a doctorate," Booth continued. "Now you understand this intellectually, you understand this emotionally, and you understand this viscerally. Your time at UMUC has been a journey—and an important one."

The academic rigor, time, and effort required to earn a terminal degree is reflected in the scarcity of people who hold them. In fact, less than 3 percent of the population has earned doctorates, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Student speaker Wanda Wagner, DM, who is a lead technology administrator for the Area Cooperative Educational Service Agency in Connecticut, described a journey that included the all-too-often "push-pull of school and family" and the balancing act of competing needs. "I will continue to lean on family, surround myself with critical friends who are open minded, examine alternative viewpoints, and embrace evidence-based practices," she said to her fellow graduates. "Armed with our scholar-practitioner competencies, I believe we really can change ourselves, our communities, and our world. We have the blessing of education. This is our time to make a difference."

UMUC President Javier Miyares noted that, while many of UMUC's doctoral candidates already hold leadership roles in business, government, or higher education, their influence "will only increase" by virtue of attaining their doctorate. "Your families and communities will look to you for leadership and guidance, just as our graduates, at all levels, will look to you as leaders, mentors, and role models in our dynamic and growing worldwide and lifelong community of more than 180,000 proud UMUC alumni."

Below is a list of UMUC's doctoral candidates and their dissertation titles.

Ronda Ansted: "Profit and Social Value: An Analysis of Strategies and Sustainability at the Base of the Pyramid"

Sheila Quirk Bailey:"Focusing on Impact: An Institutional Action Framework for Increasing Community College Student Completion"

Eric Baranick: "Confronting Crises: Fundamental Leadership Attributes for Managing Natural Disasters"

Linda Barthelus:"The Call Center Environment: The Effect of Cognitive Load on Emotional Labor"

Thamara Barthelus: "Management Influence on Bank Tellers' Voluntary Turnover and Affective Organizational Commitment"

Marcia Terese Bermel: "Impact of Nonacademic Factors on Students' Persistence in Community Colleges: Nurturing an Academic Resiliency Perspective"

Pao Hsun (Albert) Chang: "Managing Cloud Computing Health Care Implications in the Context of Dementia Care"

Hyeyeon (Holly) Cicconi-Eggleston: "An Examination of Hiring in the U.S. Private Sector: Ethical Considerations in Hiring Decisions"

Marshalee Elizabeth Monique Clarke: "Key Drivers to Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa"

Cheryl Yvonne DeVose: "Successfully Leading Needed Organization Change: Strategies for Leading Change and Managing Resistance"

Joseph Drasin: "Employee Trust in Leadership as a Moderator for Stress Brought on by Organizational Change"

Darrel Robert Earhart: "Doing Well by Doing Good: Examining the Relationship Between Environmental Performance and Profitability for Managers in Shareholder-Oriented Organizations"

Mohamed Esmat Ezz: "Global Virtual Team: Trust and Communication as Facilitators and Barriers to Performance and Team Conflict"

Acie Shannon Forrer: "The Effect of Technological Change on Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction: The Technological Acceptance Model"

Stephen Lloyd Fritts: "The High-Reliability-Seeking Organization: A Systematic Examination of the Principles of the Highly Reliable Organization that Effect Organizational Performance Improvements"

Jasmin Hammad: "Examining the Factors that Influence Physicians' Perceptions Toward Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Acceptance"

Jack Wayne Hawkins III: "Using Industrial Economics to Examine Complex Strategic Behavior: Collaborative Leadership in Wine Clusters"

Matthew Hicks: "Advancing E-Commerce Through the Adoption of Knowledge Management Systems: The Impact of Organizational Cultural Factors"

Michael Robert Keller: "Effective Global Virtual Teams: The Impact of Culture, Communication, and Trust"

John Kennedy Lewis: "The Academic Library in the 21st Century: Competencies Library Directors and Senior Managers Must Possess to Successfully Lead Their Organizations into the Future"

Justin Heath Lonon: "The Unintended Consequences of Performance-Based Funding on Community Colleges"

Roxanne Carrie Metz: "High School to College Transitions: P–16/P–20 Education Council Effectiveness"

Eddie Gene Montgomery: "Sustainability-Oriented Leadership for Nonprofit Social Enterprises: A Systematic Review"

James Muguira: "Examining an Organizational Knowledge Creation Culture Through an Open Innovation Lens: Exploring the Benefits and Trade-offs from a Management Perspective"

Moronke Oshin-Martin: "Managing Beyond the Contract: Communicating and Connecting to Build Sustainable Collaborative Relationships in International Public-Private Partnerships"

Nancy L. Sachs: "Modeling Sustainable Leadership: From Neurons to New Behavior"

Kasey Michael Sand: "Fostering Creativity: Adopting Mindfulness as an Innovative Approach to Managing Employee Stress"

Paul Cameron Schreffler: "Accountability for Noncredit Community College Workforce Programs: A Systematic Review"

Richard Carroll Staten: "Organizational Innovation Management Practices and Globalization Implications for Strategic Planning"

Thomas W. Tanner: "The Role of Transformational Leadership on Team Performance"

Tiffany R. Tesfamichael: "Unmeasured and Unseen: Program Evaluation in Noncredit Workforce Education Programs at Community Colleges"

Wanda Scanlon Wagner: "Learning to Innovate from the Globe: Developing Distributed Leadership in Professional Learning Communities Through Transformative Learning Strategies for U.S. K–12 Educational Leaders"

Margaret Walthall: "The Leader-Follower Relationship and Follower Behavior: The Influence of Dyadic Relationship Quality (DRQ) on Worker Performance"

James Robert Webb: "Enabling an Innovative Environment for Manufacturing Companies: An Examination of the Role of Leadership"

Janna West-Witherell: "Factors that Influence Employee Willingness to Share Knowledge"