Howard College professor amongst victims in midair collision

A Howard College professor and former Miss Kansas contestant identified for her shiny smile and zest for all times was among the many victims in Wednesday’s midair collision between an Military helicopter and an American Airways airplane close to Reagan Nationwide Airport.

Kiah Duggins, 30, was named as a sufferer within the catastrophe by Howard College President Ben Vinson III, who known as for privateness and respect for her household, college students, and colleagues throughout this troublesome time.

In a press release, the college mentioned Duggins was set to start a brand new chapter as a professor at Howard College College of Legislation this fall.

Kiah Duggins was identified for her shiny smile and zest for all times. (Howard College)

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“As a civil rights lawyer, she devoted her profession to combating in opposition to unconstitutional policing and unjust cash bail practices in Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C.,” the assertion reads. “Plans to honor her legacy shall be shared in coming days.”

Duggins was additionally a civil rights lawyer with the non-profit Civil Rights Corps, based mostly in Washington D.C.

The group’s web site says she labored with the ACLU of Northern California and with Neufeld, Scheck and Brustin LLP to “problem police misconduct and different harms of the legal authorized system” earlier than coming to the Civil Rights Corps. She studied the jail industrial complicated abolition and lawyering motion as a Legislation For Black Lives fellow, a Black liberation group.

She earned her regulation diploma from Harvard Legislation College, the place she served because the president of the Harvard Authorized Assist Bureau. Earlier than that, she earned a bachelor’s diploma from Wichita State College and accomplished a Fulbright grant in Taiwan, in response to the Civil Rights Corps.

Emergency response items reply to the crash website of an American Airways airplane and Black Hawk helicopter on the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday. Duggins was certainly one of 67 folks to lose their lives within the catastrophe. (Leigh Inexperienced for Fox Information Digital)

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Larry Sturdy, who was Duggins’ native pageant director when she competed for Miss Kansas and Miss Butler County, instructed KBTX that Duggins had “such a shiny future forward.”

In a Fb publish, he described her as “Miss Butler County 2014, 2015.”

“Kiah was a high 10 finalist in 2014 and 2015 on the Miss Kansas Pageant. She was getting ready to be a regulation professor at Howard College within the fall. Maintain her household in your ideas and prayers throughout this troublesome time.”

Annie Montgomery, minister of Tabernacle Bible Church in Wichita, instructed KMUW that she is going to bear in mind Duggins for her shiny smile and her zest for all times.

“Kiah was probably the most stunning younger girl inside and outside,” Montgomery mentioned. “She was adventurous. She made buddies so simply. She had the form of character that you just simply couldn’t resist.”

A part of the wreckage is seen as rescue boats search the waters of the Potomac River after a airplane on strategy to Reagan Nationwide Airport collided with a helicopter and crashed into the river close to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. Duggins was certainly one of 67 folks to lose their lives within the catastrophe. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

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Lacey Cruse, a former Sedgwick County commissioner, described Duggins as “a courageous and delightful soul, a light-weight within the battle for civil rights.”

“Her loss is heartbreaking, not just for her household and buddies however for everybody who believes in justice and equality,” she wrote on Fb. “Could her work, her message, and her spirit proceed to encourage and create change. Gone too quickly however by no means forgotten.”

Duggins was certainly one of 67 folks to lose their lives within the catastrophe. The reason for the collision is being investigated.