PASSHE DEI

Stephen G. Walker, academic coach for Student Support Services, was KU’s 3rd recipient of the annual PASSHE Keepers of the Flame Award in 2024.

In his role as an academic coach in the TRIO SS program, Walker is culturally inclusive in his approach when addressing and supporting the needs of people from diverse cultures and values their unique contribution. The TRIO students have a space for belonging which includes diverse curriculum and programming because of Walker.

He is also tasked with assisting the director with ways to engage program students in the FYS courses they instruct, learning communities and other program events.  Everything that Walker does is to promote and cultivate DEIB on KU’s campus and in his home community and life.

Information from KU Daily Brief announcement.

Dr. Deryl Johnson, professor, communication studies, was KU's recipient of the second annual PASSHE Keepers of the Flame Award in 2023. Johnson began teaching at KU in 1993 and helped establish the university’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center in 2005, along with Barbara Taliaferro, inaugural recipient of the Keepers of the Flame award in 2022. Johnson is a member of the PASSHE DEI Advisory Board and the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) Council of the National Communication Association. 

Information from KU Daily Brief announcement.

Barbara Taliaferro was recognized as a Foundation Builder for KU's first winner of the inaugural PASSHE’s Keepers of the Flame Award in 2022. 

Barbara Taliaferro retired in 2010 after serving KU for 21 years. She started as Coordinator of Minority Affairs, then Assistant to the President for Human Diversity, Associate Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, and then finally as Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion.

During all those years she was a consistent voice for diversity and inclusion at Kutztown. She supervised the Office of Human Diversity, oversaw the Women’s Center, affirmative action, minority affairs and the coordination of the ADA. During her tenure as vice president, she oversaw the expansion of the Office of Disability Services, the creation of the Multicultural Center, and PASSHE's first LGBTQ+ Resource Center.

Information from PASSHE Connectivity newsletter.