Featured Alumni

Hines earned three degrees from Eastern Michigan University and began working at private universities, major public research universities and colleges within the state of Michigan before embarking on her doctoral education at Kansas State.

Hines was not only successful in earning her doctorate, but her dissertation work was also recognized with a national award. She was selected as a recipient of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award, the first for a K-State student.

Hines currently serves as vice chancellor of academic accountability and policy at the Wayne County Community College District in Detroit.

We caught up with Dr. Hines to ask her about her K-State experience, attaining her PhD, and being published in a pair of peer-reviewed journals.

You earned three degrees at Eastern Michigan University and were already in the workforce. Why a doctorate and why K-State?

Hines: I earned my bachelor’s, master’s and specialist in education degrees prior to arriving at K-State. They afforded me significant opportunities to work within my passion for learning in higher education as a member of the faculty, working with undergraduate student researchers, academic deans and senior leadership. Completing my terminal degree was a personal goal, desire and dream fulfilled. Kansas State University’s Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) was the only choice, given its rich history as the oldest land-grant university in Kansas, a renowned community college leadership program with a rich culture of teaching, learning and distinguished faculty as community college leaders and practitioners. No other university-based doctoral leadership program boasts the same, so it was the wisest choice.

You spent 8-10 hours per day working on your doctorate. Describe how you managed your time. How were you able to stay focused on your career while also pursuing a degree?

Hines: Determination. Having appreciation for the 34 community college chancellors/presidents who afforded me their time for my research. The need to explore the silence in the literature on the Why and Causes.

I am a woman of faith and my family including children, siblings, extended family, church family and friends were each sources of resolute strength and encouragement to me.

Strength and support from my fellow KSU-Motown Cohort who we fellowshipped, practiced, bemoaned and we encouraged one another for each to get through the finish line. My Motown Cohort alone is significant in our diverse make-up, topics and completion, boasting an 83.3 percent cohort completion rate within two years of course completion. Of the 33 students completing their doctorate at KSU-CCLP, 27 percent are from my Motown Cohort. We are all making a difference in so many ways and I am so proud to be among them.

To complete a doctoral during a pandemic is indescribable. The distraction and noise from the world reflecting health, civil and social unrest were immensely difficult to block out. My family, support group and cohort members prayed me and each other through the losses and epic unknown times. The ability to invest a significant portion of time towards something more positive and meaningful while allowing me to connect with other persons with a common love for, appreciation of and passion for learning and helping others was a welcome respite to quiet the external distractions. It saved my peace, quite frankly, to focus on doing good and good work.

You have been published in two peer-reviewed journals in the last two years. Talk about the feeling you had when you found out the first time you were going to be published.

Hines: Ecstatic! Humbled and blessed. Grateful to the editors of the “Journal of Applied Research in Community Colleges” (JARCC) and “New Directions for Community Colleges” (NDCC) for their receptiveness to my research, and expressed ‘timeliness’ in highlighting particular aspects of the study found relevant and impacting conversations in higher education today. I’m grateful for their guidance of me as a practitioner-scholar where research is not my dominant practice and for embracing my work early on. The journey for being published in peer-reviewed journals is typically three years from proposal, interest not withstanding completion of the degree. I guess you can say I’m living my best life as I’m proud to be a K-State advanced degree graduate!

Read more about Dr. Hines’ research.

Sikorsky grew up in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and has always loved being outdoors, no matter the activity. Sikorsky began the path to pursuing her passion by earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental stewardship and education at West Liberty University in West Virginia. During Sikorsky’s senior year of her undergraduate, her ecology professor led her class through a week-long trek through the swamp at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Here she learned that this refuge could support both a huge tourism industry and a habitat for native species, including rare and endangered plants.

“To a new ecologist, anthropogenic use was the enemy, and everything I had learned until this point convinced me that these areas were contrived in concept and artificial representations of the habitats that once were,” Sikorsky stated while speaking about her undergraduate studies.

Sikorsky was driven to know more about how protected areas like Okefenokee could balance recreational use while still protecting natural resources, and she learned this would require a very specialized program that was available at Kansas State University. The graduate program in horticulture and natural resources offers a focus in park management and conservation (PMC) that allowed Sikorsky to combine her newfound passion for public lands with her background as an ecologist.

Sikorsky said, “The PMC program at K-State is like no other. It allows students to pave their path to success for the career they hope to have.” The program supported each student’s individual goals and allowed the Applied Park Science Lab members to assist and learn from one another. Sikorsky was also sent all over the country to participate in projects focused on restoring, protecting, or managing public lands for various agencies.

Sikorsky’s advice for success to future and current graduate students is, “Take every opportunity to try something new. Trying out different areas of research, attending professional conferences, learning from other researchers, and networking will broaden your horizons and make you a more well-rounded student.”

While at K-State, Sikorsky was a member of Kansas State’s chapter of the George Wright Society. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students, the K-State chapter hosts volunteer opportunities around local parks and protected areas.

In 2020, Sikorsky participated in the Three Minute Thesis Competition. Graduate students are challenged to present the complexities of their thesis project in a succinct, three-minute presentation using only a single, static slide. Sikorsky’s “Ready for Takeoff – Using Drones to Protect Our Parks” presentation was selected as the People’s Choice Award Winner.

Perhaps one of the best opportunities Sikorsky did not pass up was presenting her thesis research at the Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals’ annual conference during her first year at K-State. A member of the audience was impressed with Sikorsky’s knowledge and passion for her field of study and invited Sikorsky to have coffee to learn more about her research and interests. The audience member was a national leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Sikorsky was invited to shadow a national leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a week in Washington, D.C., to see what working for a federal agency was like.

During this experience, Sikorsky learned of the Presidential Management Fellowship Program as a pathway to achieve her dream of working for the federal government. In this program, she could fast-track her career in federal service leadership. After a highly competitive application process, selected finalists are matched with the federal agency of their choice for a two-year fellowship and possible appointment to that agency once their fellowship has been completed. Today, Sikorsky is a Recreation Staff Officer in the Safford Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest in Safford, Arizona, and will convert to a permanent Forest Service employee at the end of her fellowship in spring 2023.

When asked what she hopes to do in the next ten years of her career, Sikorsky said, “I will be moving and starting my new position as Recreation Program Specialist on the Pisgah Ranger District of the National Forests in North Carolina once my two-year fellowship is completed. I would love to stay in this position for several years before striving to earn a position that will allow me to serve as a national leader with the Forest Service.” Sikorsky also said, “If you’re considering graduate school, think of the opportunity as a greater investment in yourself.”

You might say that the Presidential Management Fellowship program was Sikorsky’s golden ticket to professional success. On the other hand, Sikorsky says, “I largely attribute my success in the PMF Program to what I’ve learned during my time at K-State. Attending graduate school was the easiest decision I’ve ever made and, by far, the most worthwhile. My time at Kansas State University was the first glimpse into my new life as a recreation ecologist, the career my 8-year-old self was dreaming about.”

“In my career today, I get to pursue novel, groundbreaking research working in a technology start-up solving some of the greatest hydrology challenges to build a safer and better future,” McDonough said.

To get to where she is today, McDonough decided she needed to take a route that involved pursuing a graduate degree.

She decided to become a graduate student after completing an REU during the summer of 2013 at Kansas State called “Climate Change and Mitigation.”

“I was studying biological engineering at NCSU at the time and went out to Kansas for that summer for the first time ever,” McDonough said.

In 2015, McDonough was one of 10 students selected from the Midwest region to participate in the fifth annual RDG Design Residency, which was an eye-opener to career possibilities beyond academia.

“There are so many cool and creative career opportunities post-PhD that aren’t well highlighted or communicated as career options when you are in graduate school,” she said. “While in graduate school, it often felt like the only career choice post-PhD was research and academia. RDG was the first step to me exploring what else was out there for me, beyond research and academia.”

After graduating from K-State, she moved to Germany to work as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Professorship for Ecosystem Services at the University of Bayreuth.

While in Germany, she was awarded a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship to the University of Newcastle in Newcastle, Australia, which she had applied for while finishing her PhD at KSU.

The focus of McDonough’s Fulbright postdoctoral work was to study and quantify the ecosystem service contributions in the Macquarie Marshes, a Ramsar-listed wetland in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia.

McDonough moved to Australia in January 2020 for what was supposed to be a 10-month period. Unfortunately, with the Covid pandemic, the U.S. State Department canceled State Department funded programs in March.

“I was shipped back to the United States and completed some of my research remotely – at least what could be done from that distance,” she said.

In October of that same year, McDonough began working with Advanced Environmental Monitoring (AEM) in Colorado, leading a professional services team in the rollout of operational flood forecasting solutions to provide real-time flood insights to users around the world.

From there, she joined FloodMapp.

“My goal while at KSU was to complete my PhD and pursue a career in academia,” she said. “While that didn’t exactly pan out as I had planned it, I think the way that my career has evolved was perfect for me. I had the incredible opportunity to move overseas for two postdocs – Australia and Germany – which fulfilled a lifelong goal of mine to live and work overseas.”

While McDonough relied on the interdisciplinary network of professors, from biological and agricultural engineering, to statistics, to sociology, to guide her towards the answers to her research questions, she also contributes her success to the community life she experienced among the close-knit group of researchers in her graduate program. She saw them as more than willing to help support their students in their goals and pursue the answers to their scientific questions.

“I would strongly encourage anyone considering KSU for graduate school to consider it as a top contender. While I may have moved on from Manhattan, I still think of my time at KSU fondly and have some of the best memories of my life there,” she said.

“For current KSU graduate students, I would encourage you to get involved!” said McDonough. “There is so much more to graduate school than what is just going on inside your lab or department. Engaging with others outside of your department and interacting with new or different ways of thinking can be both a great stress relief and inspiration to solving your latest research challenge. You never know who you will meet, what opportunities may come your way, or what skills you’ll pick up that may be the key to your graduate school and career success.”