USD’s Darla Biel Honored with 2026 Distinguished Dissertation Award
The dissertation awards are presented annually to doctoral students who, in the opinion of the award committee, have completed dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to their disciplines. The Council of Graduate Schools allots the Distinguished Dissertation Awards in two out of four categories, which alternate every two years.
Biel, who received her degree in educational administration and leadership in higher education, has been selected as the recipient in the category of Social Sciences for her dissertation, “Mapping an Organizational Saga: An Exploration of Faculty and Leaders’ Perspectives on Community-Engaged Scholarship.”
“Receiving this award is incredibly meaningful to me because it's an acknowledgment of the time, effort and thought I put into the research and to the excellent mentorship and support I received throughout the process,” said Biel. “It also recognizes the insights and experiences of the faculty, leaders and staff who are doing community-engaged work every day and highlights the importance of community-engaged scholarship to higher education's mission to serve communities, prepare future leaders and contribute to the public good.”
Biel’s research focuses on how faculty, leaders and staff understand and support community-engaged scholarship (CES) at a public university. Her research participants shared in discovery and meaning-making about the benefits and the challenges of aligning CES with institutional and discipline-specific priorities and with the tripartite mission of teaching, research and service.
“My findings revealed that a lack of shared definition, unclear expectations and competing pressures, such as workload, faculty review and public perception, can make it difficult to fully institutionalize CES,” said Biel. “At the same time, however, the research highlighted strong interest in CES among participants and opportunities for ongoing scholarly collaboration to build a more unified, community-engaged campus culture.”
In the future, Biel, who is the assistant director of the USD Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment, hopes to contribute to research and conversations that strengthen CES in practice, both university-wide and among discrete units. She’s also interested in expanding her research to explore operational pathways for institutionalizing and sustaining CES that align with a broader institutional strategy.
“I hope to contribute efforts at universities to strengthen bidirectional leadership and to elevate the perspectives of faculty, staff and community partners engaged in CES,” said Biel. “Ultimately, my goal is to help institutions create more collaborative and impactful approaches to community engagement.”
Each year, the USD winners are nominated and, if selected, will travel to the Council of Graduate Schools’ Annual Meeting to represent the university and accept the award. This year’s meeting will be held in December 2026.
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