Within a year, Donna Crossman, her husband, and her daughter all had close brushes with death-prompting them each to reassess the direction of their lives. Their collective change of direction started when Donna clicked on an online ad to learn more about Capella University.
Before deciding to enroll, she pored over descriptions of the Training and Performance Improvement specialization: “I looked at the curriculum, I looked at the course descriptions, and I was just intrigued.” That was the beginning of a new career for Donna, whose family joined her in opening a safety consulting firm just as she started her PhD program at Capella.
A former English teacher, Donna found her Capella education provided essential knowledge for running the new company. “With all my courses, I could apply the principles to real life,” she says. “That's the key to success when you go back to school as an adult.” Perceptive faculty members also helped. One recognized that Donna was struggling to present statistical research, so the faculty member called Donna and strengthened her confidence in working with statistics.
In what became a turning point for her dissertation planning as well as her new professional work, Donna spent a quarter reviewing academic articles on safety and saw an opportunity to apply Thomas Gilbert's Human Performance Technology theory to promote safety-minded work cultures. She looked at three variables that potentially would enhance safety—communication, resources, and incentives—and concluded all three are essential. Lacking any one of them, a workplace safety culture does not develop as strongly as it should.
Her dissertation earned her recognition: a 2009 Distinguished Dissertation Award from the International Society for Performance Improvement and an article in the peer-reviewed Professional Safety magazine. Those achievements in turn are spurring interest in her company, which consults with organizations to enhance their workplace safety.
Now the company, RPT Safety and Health Services, is promoting itself via Twitter®, LinkedIn®, and Facebook®—thanks to her daughter, Julie, who
brings business and marketing savvy to the enterprise. And her husband, Rick, who had worked as a safety officer for corporations, decided to return to school, too. He's pursuing an MS in Public Safety from Capella. “He absolutely loves learning at Capella, and says he sees why it had such appeal for me,” Donna says.