Community
It is planned for 1 p.m. at the PSU Veterans Memorial, 1909 S. Rouse Ave., and is open to the public.
Local sixth graders from Pittsburg Community Middle School and St. Mary’s Colgan will attend as a civics lesson.
Assistant Professor Carol Meza-Bakke, a 2014 graduate of Pittsburg State University, is a Purple Heart recipient with 12 years of military experience.
She is the founder of Outside the Wire Veterans Foundation, which provides outdoor therapy and VA disability claims assistance to veterans with a specialty focus on military sexual trauma.
She also is an independent accredited VA claims agent, making her only the fourth out of six individuals in the state of Kansas to hold this designation.
She was appointed to the Governor's Military Council as an advocate for service members, and most recently, she was crowned Mrs. Kansas-America 2025. Her platform as a candidate for Mrs. America earlier this fall was the veteran population, their non-profit, and its services.
Meza-Bakke worked for the Veterans Benefits Administration Regional Office at Fort Snelling, serving the veteran population and their families, before joining the faculty in the School of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences at Pittsburg State University in Fall 2022.
With a PhD, MSW, and BSW in Social Work, her teaching emphases are military social work practice and social work field practice.
In addition to the keynote address, Pitt State President Thomas Newsom and Vice President Kathleen Flannery will offer remarks.
Veterans for whom pavers have been installed will be recognized, and the Pittsburg Community Middle School Choir will perform patriotic musical selections.
Pitt State ROTC cadets will play a role in the ceremony, and a Music Education major will perform Taps.
In the event of rain or inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved indoors to the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts, 1711 S. Homer, a block west of the Veterans Memorial.
The ceremony will be recorded and available for later viewing on demand at youtube.com/pittsburgstate
