Kim Barber is a business professional with an academic passion. She is an advocate for not only high school students but her advocacy extends to university students as well. Her passion and commitment over the last ten years has focused on several areas to include: increasing diversity, closing the achievement gap, academic excellence, preparation and motivation, to inspire the next generation to successfully reach their destiny. She has worked and produced many conferences, workshops and meetings for students in middle and high school, as well as university freshman and sophomores. Her constant perseverance and dedication led her to be appointed by the former Governor Steve Beshear to the Diversity Committee for The Council for Postsecondary Education for the state of Kentucky. Her continued work has also led her to an appointment on the Strategic Planning Committee for The Council for Postsecondary Education for the state of Kentucky. She continues to learn more through meetings and interactions with various university presidents, provosts and deans from around the state, in order to enhance diversity for underrepresented students and afford them the opportunity achieve success at every academic level.
Kim received her bachelor’s degree from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, her Master’s Degree from the University of Maryland, and received her doctorate from Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her involvement in the Hispanic community during 2013-2015 has been as an evaluator for the Lumina grant recipient of Kentucky Latino Education Alliance (K’LEA) for university and community programs. She has spoken at Kentucky L.E.A.D. at the University of Louisville in 2014 and has initiated and assisted in coordinating the White House Hispanic Initiative Visit in 2015 for Hispanic Awareness and Advancement.
Kim is the founder for The Color of Education. Its mission is to assist minorities, low-income or at risk students to be successful in postsecondary education. She has coordinated and run several conferences for students for the past nine years. The Color of Education started in Scott County, Kentucky, however is expanding in many other areas to empower students with a marginalized background to excel.
She currently is the Director for Pre-College and Early Outreach Programs at CSUMB. Kim has worked with high school and college/university students for many years. She aspires to continue to learn from these students about how to better assist them to be the best they can be.