Unity in Communications dinner hosts diversity advocate Kim Hunter

During the initiative’s Nov. 11 dinner, students spoke with the managing partner of KLH & Associates and chairman of The LAGRANT Foundation.

The Unity in Communications program hosted Kim Hunter, one of the PR industry’s strongest advocates for diversity, for a dinner discussion on Nov. 11.

Hunter is the managing partner of KLH & Associates, a multicultural executive search firm that specializes in the recruitment and placement of diverse candidates in the communications industry with Fortune 500 companies and advertising, marketing and public relations agencies.

Additionally, he is the chairman of The LAGRANT Foundation, which has provided more than $2 million and more than 400 scholarships to continue its mission to increase the number of ethnic minorities in the fields of advertising, marketing and public relations.

Students sit down to eat with Kim Hunter at the Nov. 11 Unity in Communications dinner in Schar Hall.

In the last three years, the School of Communications has had six LAGRANT Scholars, including a two-time winner.

Hunter was the first keynote speaker of the semester for Unity in Communications, an initiative that support students of color and LGBTQ students, while promoting diversity and inclusion within the School of Communications.

“Unity in Communications hopes to have a series of keynote speakers who are leaders in the communications industry,” said group member Natalie Green ’20.

Green attended the dinner and said she enjoyed hearing Hunter’s public relations and media insights.

“It was also a great time to connect with other students of color in the School of Communications and graduate students in the iMedia program,” Green said.

Students gather together prior to the Nov. 11 dinner.

Hector Lopez-Sanchez, a first-year communications student who attended the dinner, explained that he saw it as an opportunity to network with someone in his field of interest, with a focus on diversity.

“Everybody wants to know what it’s like to be in the workforce with having that title of diversity, when you don’t really want to be known as someone that’s the face of color,” Lopez-Sanchez said. “You want to be you.”