Kent State-Geauga Dean Given Prestigous Award

Dr. David Mohan, dean of Kent State University at Geauga, has been awarded the university’s 2012 Diversity Trailblazer Award.

Kent State’s Diversity Trailblazer Award is a universitywide award that recognizes faculty, staff or departmental group for their significant contributions to enhance diversity and inclusive excellence at Kent State.

Mohan oversees the university’s Regional Campus in Burton and the . The two locations serve more than 2,500 students.

“This award is important because it is designed to recognize a person who internalizes one of the core values of the university, which is excellence in diversity and inclusion,” said Rev. Ronald Fowler, a member of the selection committee and recipient of last year’s Diversity Trailblazer Award. “The award is an affirmation of what kind of community we want to be, and Dean Mohan really cares about creating a diverse community for students to learn in and learn from. The committee made a very wise choice, and we’re very fortunate here in our Kent State family to have a person of this stature working at the university.”

Upon notification that he was going to receive the 2012 Diversity Trailblazer Award, Mohan said his reaction was one of “extreme appreciation and thankfulness” on behalf of the faculty, staff and students at Kent State at Geauga and Kent State University Regional Academic Center in Twinsburg.

“Diversity provides a greater synergy across all segments of both our campuses to ultimately benefit our students and enrich their university experience,” Mohan said in a press release. “It is an additive dynamic which increases the level of ‘community well-being’ in both curricular and extracurricular experiences for all concerned. It also broadens a variety of perspectives within the organization at a time when tolerance for others’ contributions must be respected for the special attributes all people bring to the university.”

Mohan will receive the 2012 Diversity Trailblazer Award and be recognized during Kent State’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, which occurs on Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information about Kent State’s Diversity Trailblazer Award, visit www.kent.edu/diversity/trailblazers.cfm.