On March 17, 1917, five young female students at Washington Square College Law, a Division of New York University, founded Delta Phi Epsilon. There were only about two dozen women enrolled in the college. The DIMES, as they are referred to, are Dorothy Cohen Schwartzman, Ida Bienstock Landau, Minna Goldsmith Mahler, Eva Effron Robin, and Sylvia Steierman Cohn. Delta Phi Epsilon was formally incorporated under New York State law on March 17, 1922.
Keilah Kuzminski Goff became a member of Delta Phi Epsilon in the 1980s at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hills. She earned a B.A. in Radio, Television and Motion Pictures. After graduation, her career took her to Mississippi.
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She married an Air Force man and they had four children. After many deployments and five moves, the Goffs ended up back in North Carolina. There, she began reporting for a local newspaper and immersed herself in local activities, including a regional theater company and a civic development organization.
In 2017, she received a life changing diagnosis – stage IV colorectal cancer. It lead her to become a Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) Ambassador in 2020. Despite the pandemic, she and her fellow Class of 2020 Fight CRC Ambassadors “found creative and interesting ways to get their messages into the world” and served as “relentless champions of hope for all affected by this disease through informed patient support, impactful policy change, and breakthrough research endeavors.”
In an interview about her experience she said, “My time as an ambassador has helped me share my experience as a stage IV colon cancer patient; challenge the fears, stigmas, and misconceptions surrounding cancer; and promote better screening, prevention, and treatment.” Goff added, “I want to make sure no one ever has to face a devastating colon cancer diagnosis.”
After a valiant fight, she died on July 24, 2021, at the age of 55. The Fight CRC staff said of her, “Keilah was a light. Even though our team had only met her through Zoom, you could feel her energy and spunk for raising awareness for this disease.”
