Popejoy Dissertation Prize recipient inspired by the power of healthcare apprentices

Amber Gallup, who received her Ph.D. from The University of New Mexico in 2024, is the recipient of the Tom L. Popejoy Dissertation Prize for 2025, which will be presented at the UNM graduate commencement ceremony at University Arena on Dec. 11.

The Popejoy Dissertation Prize is presented in recognition of the highest level of academic excellence in the social sciences and education. This semester, eligibility was for the period spanning spring 2022 through fall 2024. The award is one of UNM's most distinguished honors for graduate students, recognizing original, impactful and innovative doctoral research.

Gallup received her Ph.D. in Organization, Information and Learning Sciences. Her dissertation was titled "The Development of Identity, Self-Efficacy, and Persistence Intentions Among Frontline Healthcare Apprentices." The review committee cited the fact that her research on registered apprenticeship in healthcare was nationally recognized and has influenced workforce policy and program design, leading to appointments on multiple state and national boards.

Gallup, who is now the state director of adult education at the New Mexico Department of Higher Education, said the research was an investigation of how registered apprenticeship programs may be designed to promote learning; the development of identity and agency; and program completion among essential workers in high-demand healthcare occupations.

She explained how she became involved in this area.

"Throughout my career in adult education, I have worked frequently within registered apprenticeship programs in construction fields and in healthcare," she said. "I started over 20 years ago as a night instructor, teaching English for Ironworkers to a group of apprentices from Guatemala."

Gallup said that over the years, she continued to work as a teacher, teacher trainer, instructional designer, and program administrator in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.

"I was always impressed by the hard work and care that the apprentices put into their difficult, important jobs and also by how perfect a well-designed apprenticeship model could be for them, in that it offered paid, hands-on learning under the direction of an experienced mentor," she said.

She realized that there were ways that the programs could best be designed to promote success for the apprentices and the persistence and completion of the programs, which benefits everyone.

"I wanted to focus on this topic so that I could perhaps help sponsors and designers of registered apprenticeship programs know how best to support the worker-learners within them," Gallup said.

For Gallup, receiving this prize is an honor and a labor of love.

"For me, the recognition reinforces my conviction that my dissertation research was practical and useful in the world, which was very important to me," she said. "The recognition emphasizes that registered apprenticeship, and the people who participate in the model, are important for our state and our nation during a time of shocking income inequality and widening social divisions based on education and access to basic necessities."

It is meaningful on a professional note, but a personal one as well.

"I worked on this dissertation through 7 years of my daughter's childhood and during a global pandemic, so I am particularly grateful for the sense that those sometimes-challenging years produced work that merits recognition."

The Popejoy Dissertation Prize was established as a permanent memorial to the late Tom L. Popejoy, president of UNM from 1948 to 1968. The award recognizes and encourages the highest level of academic excellence, with competition structured among academic units on a three-year rotation. A $2,500 stipend is awarded at commencement.

Additional information about eligibility for the prize and the nomination process can be found online or by emailing [email protected].