New Director of Students of Color Success aims to improve college capacity to support African American and Latinx students in new role
Dr. Keyma Clark, a former Durham Tech College Liaison and middle school teacher, is working to improve the experiences and outcomes of students of color at Durham Tech.
Clark will serve as the College’s first Director of Students of Color Success, which is a part of the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion.
“I am passionate about motivating students and helping them achieve success,” Clark said. “The job duties detailed how I could take my previous experience to assist the College in implementing strategies to remove barriers to access, persistence, and completion for students of color.”
The role was created to evaluate and identify more ways the College can support students of color and their achievements, said Dr. Angela Davis, the Office’s Special Assistant and EEO Officer.
“For the past 16 years, Durham Tech has been an Achieving the Dream college, focused on implementing suggested strategies to eliminate equity gaps for minority students,” Davis said. “This new position will offer strategic direction in improving academic success, retention, and graduation rates of minority students.”
Clark is tasked with analyzing data trends, former and current academic and student support services, and policies and practices from the perspective of how these areas relate to prospective and current students of color.
“He will provide guidance and leadership to all areas of the College as it relates to improving minority student college experiences – leading to increased retention and graduation outcomes,” Davis said in a campus-wide email about the position.
Clark will collaborate with the Teaching and Learning Center and other college departments to develop employee training opportunities and work with community partners.
“We hope that through this position the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion can continue to build the necessary internal and external relationships to benchmark data; to identify and share best practices and resources while staying current of trends that may impact minority student performance; and to work collaboratively to increase and sustain the success rates of African-American and Latinx students,” Clark said.
Clark has been with Durham Tech for four years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in criminal justice from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and his master’s degree and doctorate in education from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
For his master’s degree, Clark researched the impact of racial matching on mentor-mentee relationships. For his doctorate, he studied how three school-based mentoring programs prepared African-American male students for post-graduation, college, and the work force. Clark said he has formed numerous African-American male mentoring programs.
Clark also has served as a middle school history teacher and has coached high school varsity football and middle school women’s basketball.
“I am extremely excited about the opportunity to join staff, faculty, and community partners on this journey of becoming an equity-minded leader college,” Clark said.
The Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion is located in the Edward L. Phillips Building on Main Campus in suite 3-103. For more information, visit the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion webpage.
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Contact Nathan Hardin, Director of Marketing and Communications at hardinn@durhamtech.edu