Chinasamy: Dr. Karen Hardin to receive MLK 2024 Diversity Award

Dr. Karen Hardin (Submitted photo)

The Town of Paradise Valley will observe and celebrate Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 15, 2024. During the ceremony Dr. Karen Hardin, president of NAACP, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Maricopa Country Branch will be awarded the 2024 Paradise Valley Martin Luther King Diversity Award.

Dr. Hardin dedicated 31 years in the Maricopa Community College District where she served as a Counseling Faculty member, Career Center director and where she volunteered as the Faculty Advisor for the college students’ NAACP club. Dr. Hardin has numerous years of experience instructing psychology and counseling courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. She currently serves as the president of the Maricopa County Branch of the NAACP after becoming president in December 2017.

Dr. Hardin has been a mentor to students and was voted as Outstanding Teacher of the Year and the Mesa College student government awarded her with the Outstanding Advisor award. She was selected by the YWCA as Educator of the Year in 2005.

Students Striving Toward Excellent Performance, known as STEP, helped hundreds of students achieve academic and personal success, and gained acclaim through conference presentations as far away as Paris. Also, Karen created the Student’s Opportunity for Success program, which equips students with skills and techniques to achieve classroom success. Through projects such as the Non-Traditional Institute for Girls, Karen introduced young girls to careers not traditionally held by women. She is one of the first faculty members to teach service-learning classes at MCC, a program that is now offered in all disciplines.

Dr. Hardin’s positive leadership abilities have been demonstrated in many ways. She was the founding president of MCBAA, Maricopa Council on Black American Affairs, and elected as president again in 2008 and 2010.

 She was honored with the Dr. MLK award by Mesa for her support of students and her volunteer work in the community. Her work with students from all groups promotes diversity and inclusion because she brings people together from different ethnic backgrounds to work toward a common benefit to all.

Her strength as a service leader is manifested in the creation of several programs such as Saturday Super Scholars, a program that helps low-income elementary children to increase skills in math and science. Another program created by Dr. Hardin is Student’s Striving Towards Excellent Performance (STEP), that provides students scholarships and helps high school students transition to college.

Hardin holds two earned master’s degrees. One is a M.S. in psychology, and another is a M.A. in counseling. She earned her doctorate degree in education leadership from Northern Arizona State University and continues to teach graduate and undergraduate university and college level courses.

We congratulate Dr. Karen Hardin on receiving the 2024 Paradise Valley MLK Diversity Award.

During the ceremony on Jan. 15, 2024, the mayor of the Town of Paradise Valley, Mr. Jerry Bien-Willner, will deliver the welcome and opening remarks. Dr. Nafys Samandari, representing the Baha’i Community of Paradise Valley, will give his address.

The Bahá’i Faith, the world’s newest independent global belief system, teaches that all human beings are equally God’s creation regardless of gender, race, nationality or creed. Some pertinent principles are the independent search after truth; the oneness of the entire human race, which is the pivotal principle of the Bahá’í Faith; the abolition of all forms of prejudice; the harmony which must exist between religion and science; the equality of men and women.

The commitment of the mayor and the Town of Paradise Valley, together with the Baha’is to promote the ideals of Dr. Martin King Jr., goes beyond just the observation and celebration. For the past 26 years, many projects have been carried out in the community to further Dr. King’s legacy. For 2023/24, the following projects are ongoing: Clothing drive for ASU Project Humanities Homeless Outreach and Grandfamiles Apartment Art Project.

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