2016 Pursuit of Inclusion Staff Award Recipient:
Kathryn Kay Coquemont
Kathryn Kay Coquemont, from New Student and Family Programs, is the 2016 Pursuit of Inclusion Staff Award recipient. She is described as “a person
works tireless[ly] to ensure that everyone finds a sense of welcome and belonging
here at the U”
One nominator wrote, “Kathryn coordinated intentional outreach [efforts] to marginalized populations for all open positions within our office, which lead to a dramatic increase in diversity and representation among both full-time and part-time student positions. Within our office, she has made significant and thoughtful changes to policies that consider various aspects of identity. These include, but aren’t limited to: updating travel policy to allow staff to have their own rooms based on identity needs; adding preferred name and gender pronouns to registration and nametags; initiating monthly staff development conversations on topics of diversity; creating three progressive training modules for student leaders; mandating attendance at a minimum of three trainings for graduate and professional staff; and she incorporated social justice into the office core values.
Nationally, she is committed to professional development issues of equity and access as a faculty member for the NASPA Dungy Leadership Institute, a board member for the NASPA Center for Women, and she serves as the co-chair of the NASPA Asian Pacific Islander Knowledge Community mentoring program. She has been an active member of The Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education. She was the co-chair of the NASPA Undergraduate Fellows Program (NUFP) Institute at the 2014 Western Regional Conference, and most recently, she is serving as part of the NASPA Region V Board at the Utah state representative. She does all this while currently enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the University of Utah’s Educational Leadership and Policy program, and works as a Leadership Studies Instructor at the University of Utah for Fall 2016.