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Medgar Evers College dean from Brooklyn among those dead in Amtrak derailment

May 14, 2015 Associated Press
Derrick E. Griffith, dean of student affairs and enrollment management at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, was among those killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed Tuesday in Philadelphia. Clareese Hill/Medgar Evers College via AP
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Derrick Griffith, dean of student affairs and enrollment management at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York, believed in education — for himself as well as others.

Griffith was one of at least eight people killed in an Amtrak train derailment Tuesday night in Philadelphia.  

He formerly was a school principal, and in 2003 he founded the City University of New York Preparatory Transitional High School. He also was executive director of Groundwork. Inc., an organization formed to support young people living in high poverty urban communities.

Griffith joined Medgar Evers College in 2011 as assistant provost. It was the first of a number of roles he would fill at the college, where officials said he urged students to pursue education “with vigor” and “with passion” and that he was “a champion for the downtrodden.”

A month ago, the 42-year-old received a doctorate of philosophy in urban education from the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Others killed in the crash include an Associated Press employee, a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, a Wells Fargo executive and the CEO of an education startup. At press time, the others had not been publicly identified.

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