Kiah Duggins was returning from visiting her mother, who was undergoing surgery in Kansas, when the civil rights attorney was killed in a plane crash in Washington, D.C this week.

The 30-year-old civil rights lawyer was scheduled to join the faculty at Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C., this fall, the university said Thursday.

A Harvard Law School alum known for her pro bono legal work was one of the 67 people who died Wednesday when an airliner collided with a military helicopter in Washington, D.C. , was set to join the teaching staff at Howard University School of Law in the fall, the school said in a Facebook post. She graduated from the school in 2021.

Several people online paid tribute to Kiah Duggins, a 30-year-old civil rights attorney and former Miss Kansas contestant who was identified as one of the 64 people on board the American Airlines flight,

When I found out she got into Harvard Law. I mean, of course, she did,” one of her undergraduate professors said.

Civil rights attorney Kiah Duggins was among the 64 passengers and crew on the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., that plunged into the Potomac River Wednesday evening after colliding with a military helicopter.

The fight for justice does not end with Kiah Duggins. Friends, family, and supporters are coming together to carry on the mission of the Harvard-trained civil rights attorney and incoming professor who was among the 67 on board the American Airlines plane that crashed over DC.

The American Airlines passenger plane crash has left families and their communities in mourning after the incident left 67 people dead on Wednesday. Among the fatalities were civil rights attorney Kiah Duggins and flight attendant Danasia Elder.