Qiana Lightner is an alumna of the Robert E. Cook Honors College, and has earned a double major in Sociology and Anthropology from IUP in 2009 and a M.A. in Sociology from New Mexico in 2011. While at IUP, Qiana was a Deans List and Provost Scholar as well as a Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program Scholar. She was also a member of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., Alpha Kappa Delta, Lambda Alpha, Sigma Delta Pi, and was active in the Faculty Student Action Network, Latino Student Organization (LaSO), and Residence Hall Council. For her student activism on campus and scholastic achievements, she was named IUP's African American Scholar of the Year in 2006. Upon graduating from IUP, she received numerous awards, among them, the Benjamin S. Carson Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, Frederick Douglas Superior Achievement Award, and the Molley E. Boling Scholarship. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at Harrisburg Community College and a staff associate at the PASSHE Chancellor's Office in Harrisburg. Her academic interests are many, but center around improving the educational plight of minority students and other underrepresented groups in the commonwealth and throughout the country.