PASSHE DEI - Diversity Works at KU

Dr. Melinda Quiñones-Arias, Director of Multicultural Services, was KU’s 4th recipient of the annual PASSHE Keepers of the Flame Award in 2025.

As the Director of Multicultural Services, Melinda oversees KU's Multicultural Center. She has served KU in this capacity for five years. She facilitates campus-wide instruction and programming involving diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. As our campus and those nationwide come under fire for DEI efforts, Melinda fearlessly and tirelessly moves forward and remains steadfast in her commitment to DEI.

Melinda is a change agent by participating in an array of projects even beyond DEI initiatives. For example, she is involved in assessment, student outreach, and forges meaningful working relationships with faculty. She also serves in the following capacities: Diversity Council Advisor; member of the Commission on Human Diversity; committee member of the KU Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JEDI) Committee; and was a committee member of the Pennsylvania State Athletics Commission DEIJ Committee.

Three new programs she has started on campus is our SISTERS program – a mentorship and empowerment program for women, especially women of color, Representation Matters – a informal gathering of folks in a safe space to discuss representation issues on campus, and she has spearheaded the return of the NAACP Chapter to Kutztown University.

Melinda's openness, empathy, and knowledge are crucial in how she forges meaningful relationships with faculty, staff, and students across KU.    These are just a few ways she had continue to fan the flame of progress here at KU and why she is this years recipient of our Keeper of the Flame Award.

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.