Bio

Kiyah McDermid, she/her/hers, is an experienced educator and student affairs professional with a demonstrated history of working in several educational settings to include K-12, non-profits, and higher education institutions. Kiyah earned her Bachelors of Arts in Sociology with a concentration in Community Organizing and Advocacy from the University of North at Chapel Hill in 2015 and received her masters in Higher Education, Student Affairs and International Education Policy from the University of Maryland in 2020. She currently serves as a Project Coordinator in the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education. 

Kiyah’s teaching and scholarship centers social justice and equity within various educational contexts, specifically focusing on critical consciousness raising for BIPOC students at predominantly white institutions and culturally conscious pedagogy and assessment practices in study abroad. During her tenure at the University of Maryland, Kiyah worked as a research assistant within the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education assisting with a various projects that focused on equitable campus climates, cross-cultural competency building, and anti-racist psychology. She has also served in various teaching capacities as an instructor for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s intergroup dialogue course and the teaching assistant for a hybrid international course focused on decolonizing student development theories, in partnership with the University of Cape Coast in Ghana.