Friends and Colleagues,

The University of Kansas School of Health Professions celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. It was a wonderful time to reflect on all of the accomplishments that our school has made over the past half-century. However, we aren’t resting on our laurels. As you will read in this issue of The Insider, the KU School of Health Professions has been working to expand opportunities for our students by offering a number of new degree programs. Among them are a new hybrid Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, a new degree program in the rising field of genetic counseling and a bachelor’s degree in diagnostic science. Our school has also assumed the operation of KU’s master of science in health informatics program. We firmly believe that the addition of these new programs will continue the upward momentum we have seen in our school the past 10 years.

Also in this newsletter, we explore the many outstanding outreach initiatives supported by our faculty, students and staff. One of our most successful outreach programs is U-CHaMP (Underserved Communities Have a Medical Provider). U-CHaMP’s goal is to improve the lives of all Kansans by strengthening the health care workforce pipeline to medically underserved areas. Under the leadership of Dave Burnett, U-CHaMP is working to recruit potential health professions students from economically and educationally underserved backgrounds. U-CHaMP isn’t our only successful outreach program — you can also learn more in this newsletter about initiatives like JayStart, the ANW Special Education Cooperative and other community engagement and workforce resources.

We are continuing to explore every opportunity to fulfill our mission to provide the best education and training possible for the health care professionals and researchers of tomorrow. Thank you for all your support.

Abiodun Akinwuntan, Ph.D., MPH, MBA, MIH, FASAHP, FACRM, FAMedS, FNAP
Dean, School of Health Professions
Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation Science and Athletic Training
Professor, Department of Neurology