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.

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.

She was a civil rights attorney, once worked as a policy intern in the White House for first lady Michelle Obama and competed twice in the Miss Kansas pageant. Kiah Duggins seemingly could do it all.

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.

Kiah Duggins, a soon-to-be Howard University law professor, died in the mid-air crash near Reagan National Airport. Details emerge.

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

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,

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.