NKU Hosting Diverse Educator Job Fair April 28

April 18, 2022 - Northern Kentucky University is hosting a job fair for diverse educators on April 28 at NKU’s George and Ellen Rieveschl Digitorium in Griffin Hall.

The NKU Diverse Educator Job Fair is intended to help currently licensed diverse educators and those professionals with a bachelor’s degree who are not yet licensed but interested in entering the teaching profession. The fair is designed to bring Kentucky school districts and teachers together to increase the diversity among the educator work force. 

“The diversity of teachers has a critical impact on diverse learners' attitudes, achievement, and motivation in schools,” Dr. Melissa Hess, facilitator of the NKU Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, said. “NKU’s Diverse Educator Job Fair and forum discussion help to advance efforts towards creating a more diverse workforce that more accurately reflects the diversity of our Kentucky students. With this and other initiatives, NKU is committed to the long-term efforts of recruiting and supporting diverse educators in our region.” 

Nationwide, 80 percent of teachers are white, according to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data. In Kentucky, those numbers are even more pronounced, with 95 percent of educators being white.The job fair will help close those diversity gaps within Kentucky school districts by leaders having critical discussions with diverse educators looking for a teaching opportunity. 

Light hors d’oeuvres will be offered at the job fair, as well as pop-up, on-the-spot interviews and a diverse educator forum, moderated by City of Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney. 

The NKU Diverse Educator Job Fair comes after the College of Education announced a partnership with the Covington Independent Public Schools that will provide eligible students with a scholarship to attend the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at NKU. NKU will contribute $10,000 toward the scholarship with CIPS contributing $4,000 for a total of $14,000, which is the approximate cost of the full MAT program. NKU’s contribution will come from the Diverse Educators grant received through the Council of Postsecondary Education. 

To learn more about the Diverse Educator Job Fair, click here. 

For more information on the Master of Arts in Teaching program at NKU, click here.