Crystal Kuykendall ’72 MA

Crystal Kuykendall is the owner and president of Kreative and Innovative Resources for Kids, Inc. (K.I.R.K.) and owner and president of the law firm, The Kuykendall Company.  As K.I.R.K. president she has given over 2,000 presentations and provided consulting services in 49 states and on 4 continents over the past 30 years.  K.I.R.K. has also produced audio and video tapes, publications, workbooks and learning tools for educators, counselors, administrators and parents. A human relations and education expert, Kuykendall has gained national recognition for her expertise in promoting problem resolution. A former schoolteacher, she has also been a guidance counselor for minority undergraduates and potential high school dropouts and an instructor in the Black Studies and Sociology Departments of Seton Hall University and in the Education Department of Montclair State University.  She is currently Adjunct Faculty in Humanities, Law, Sociology and Philosophy for Strayer University.

Kuykendall has more than 30 years of experience working with charitable and nonprofit organizations. She is former executive director of the National Alliance of Black School Educators, director of urban and minority relations for the National School Boards Association and director of marketing for RLA, Inc. She has served on the board of directors of Health Power, Inc., has served as chair of the Family Life Center Foundation of Washington, DC.  Her expertise has provided assistance to the Congressional National Youth Leadership Conference and to the Education Task Force of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change.  Appointed by a U.S. President to the National Advisory Council on Continuing Education, she served as chair for 2 years.

She was a member of the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Chesapeake and the Maryland Mentoring Partnerships and is a lifetime member of the NAACP and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In 1988, she was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Kuykendall earned a BA from Southern Illinois University and an MA in Sociology from Montclair State College. She holds a doctorate in educational administration from Clark Atlanta University, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and an M. Div from the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia University. She is the recipient of over 350 Awards including the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lewis and Clark College and the Montclair State University Distinguished Alumni Award of 2016.