In the News: Conway-Turner Featured in 'Insight Into Diversity'

Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner is the focus of Insight Into Diversity magazine’s October 2019 cover story (PDF, 29 MB) “From Classroom Leader to College President, One Woman of Color Works to Close the Gap” (p. 36).

In the piece, Conway-Turner explains, as a first-generation college student herself, how becoming president of a college was not her goal starting out in academia.

“Students often ask me if I always wanted to be a president and how that happened, and I tell them it was never even on my radar. What I wanted to do was be a wonderful faculty member, the kind that really moves students forward,” Conway-Turner said in the article. 

She also explained how growing up poor turned out to be an asset.

“Being from the Midwest, being from a small community, and being so excruciatingly poor when growing up gave me a work ethic, and that’s what has really helped me,” she said. “When I see an obstacle, I find a way around it because the way I was raised, we would not have survived if we took no for an answer. That basic sense of being community-minded and working really hard are attributes which have served me in every role I’ve ever had.” 

The opportunity to make change at Buffalo State, along with the diversity of the student body, inspired Conway-Turner to take on the presidency, she said. 

“You’ve got to be intentional in understanding who you are and what you need to move forward, and I very much knew it was important to me to have people that understand the absolute strength of diversity,” she said.