ii This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. iii DEDICATION This is dedicated to all those that struggle in their search to fight for peace and to those that dedicate their lives to justice. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am truly thankful and indebted to my advisor, Dr. Costas Apostolides, for the support and guidance he has shown me throughout my dissertation writing. This thesis would not have been possible without his guidance and direction. The support of the faculty and staff of both MEDAC and S-CAR was invaluable. I also owe a great deal of gratitude to my family and friends for their support of me throughout this process. I sincerely appreciate all of your help.

ii Dedicata ̆ mamei mele, Ana Plămădeală, din tot sufletul Acknowledgments The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without the help and support of the following people. I am sincerely grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Rosenberger, for clearly defining, and allowing me to work on, the problems addressed in this thesis. I appreciate his guidance through the development of the solutions, while giving me the independence to work on my own. I thank him for the chance to give my first talk at a statistics conference and for exposing me to the research community in statistics. I thank him for trusting my ability to grow despite my many weaknesses and shortcomings as a statistics student. I am immensely appreciative to Dr. Sutton for teaching me statistics and for having to endure many senseless answers in my homeworks and exams during my beginning years at GMU. He has influenced the way I think not only by being my

This project could not have been successful without the love and support of my wife, Tanya

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throughout the program. Your advice has been invaluable and will be a great asset in my career. I enjoyed the courses you taught. Thank you so much. To my committee members, Terry Flanagan and David Brackey, thanks for your time and expertise in reviewing and providing constructive criticism to this paper. David, I greatly appreciate your mentorship and advice at work. Thank you for your interest in seeing me fulfill the requirements needed to complete this paper and thereby this degree. To each person who allowed me to conduct personal interviews and to all of the individuals who participated in my survey (or attempted to), thanks for all of your input. I hope you are able to contribute to a better and prosperous Africa for future generations. Without the information gained from the interviews and the survey, I would not have been able to complete the evaluation section of this field project. Thanks to my company for supporting my career goals and providing me with the opportunity to achieve my Masters Degree in Engineering Management. To my family, who inspired my love of learning and motivated me to stick with the

ii Copyright 2008 Katherine D. Jefferson All Rights Reserved iii

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