Student-led incubator blends entrepreneurship with medicine 

In an effort to create pathways for students to bring their healthcare innovation ideas to fruition, students from the UMKC School of Medicine have created a healthcare-focused incubator that connects medical students with business and entrepreneurial pursuits. 

With the support and guidance of School of Medicine's Dean Alexander Norbash — who created a similar program at UCSD — RooLink was founded in 2024 by a group of nine med students: Christina Cacoulidis, Rishabh Gaur, AJ Jenkins, Praneet Khanna, Samuel Kim, Zubin Mathew, Brandon Park, Hrushi Saranu, and Brody Whalen.

“RooLink is the symbol of UMKC’s imagination for the impossible. We hope to provide an open community of scholars and thinkers that bring about new insights into the art of healing.” - Kim

Want to know more? Check out the Innovator Spotlight on RooLink story — and stay tuned for next year’s Regnier Venture Creation Challenge where RooLink-generated ideas will undoubtedly shine. 

Digital accessibility in the classroom ensures equity

Course Accessibility Is Now Federal Law
As of 2024, public colleges and universities must follow ADA digital accessibility rules by meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for online content—including Canvas courses, documents, and departmental sites.

Even small design choices can make a big difference for students with disabilities. To help you meet these expectations, CAFE offers a faculty-focused accessibility resources site with tools and guidance for planning accessible courses this summer. (Log in with your UM System email.)

To help you stay ahead of these expectations, here’s a short, faculty-focused reading list:

Learn more about WCAG standards or how UMKC is supporting digital accessibility.

Announcements and congratulations

Professor Nancy Levit wins the Thomas Jefferson Award 

Congratulations to UMKC Law Professor Nancy Levit, recipient of the prestigious Thomas Jefferson Award, which honors a University of Missouri faculty member who embodies Jefferson’s ideals of education, free expression, and civic engagement. Levit’s connection to the award is especially meaningful: her father, a UMKC professor of philosophy and education, received it in 1984—the same year she joined the UMKC faculty. A celebrated teacher and scholar, Levit sees this award as a powerful affirmation of the university’s values. Learn more about the Levit legacy

While 2025 may feel like a slow burn in many corners of higher ed, UMKC faculty continue to shine. From NSF-funded research to prestigious fellowships and publications in top-tier journals, your work is gaining national and international attention.

Below, we highlight just a few of the achievements so far during this calendar year. Whether advancing chemical synthesis, pushing the boundaries of AI, or composing award-winning music, UMKC faculty are making bold contributions to scholarship and society.

Federal Grants 

Mohammad Rafiee, School of Science and Engineering

Md Yusuf Sarwar Uddin, School of Science and Engineering

Distinctions and Fellowships 

Publications

Offered by CAFE and campus partners, including UM System and platform trainers.

Applications are now open for the 2025–2026 Leadership Development Program—a cohort-based experience designed to sharpen your leadership skills, expand your campus network, and support your professional growth. Join fellow full-time faculty for retreats, workshops, and peer learning that will help you lead with purpose and confidence.

Looking for a little structure in your summer writing routine? Join our drop-in summer writing group—a quiet, supportive space to focus on your projects. Organized by Dr. Theresa Torres, this is a great way to stay connected and stay productive this summer. Weekdays through Aug 1 | 10 a.m.–12 p.m. | Faculty Commons. Come when you can. Write what you need. No registration required. Learn more.

As part of the NSF’s CISE Distinguished lecture series, Professor Rajeev Alur, founding director of ASSET Center for Trustworthy AI at University of Pennsylvania, is leading a webinar series on neurosymbolic learning architecture — which bridges deep learning and logical reasoning — and how it enables more accurate solutions to problems in healthcare and robotics. Learn more about Neurosymbolic Systems for Trustworthy AI or register now for the Thursday, June 26 lecture.

The Instructure Services team is thrilled to announce the launch of a free asynchronous course. Available for all Canvas educators in our On Demand Training Portal, this course provides foundational guidance for making digital content accessible to every learner. Learn more about Fundamentals of Accessible Digital Content in Canvas and get started today!  

This summer offers two key opportunities to learn more about how you can leverage Hypothesis to enhance student engagement with your course content. Join these vendor-hosted events to make the most of this tool in the 25-26 academic year. 

Hosted by the University of Ghana–Legon and co-sponsored by African Digital Humanities at KU, this online-accessible symposium explores African perspectives and projects at the intersection of digital media and the humanities. African Digital Humanities supports conversations and collaborations that center African knowledge systems, histories, and futures through digital scholarship. View the schedule and register to attend online June 5–6 from 4–11:30 a.m. CDT (9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. GMT).

Information that affects universities and education

American Student Assistance (ASA) and Jobs for the Future (JFF) have partnered on a report that highlights the need for more effective career navigation systems at the state level — and shows which states have done the best job of establishing the policies that are crucial to building them.  

According to the report, “How State Policy Can Transform Career Navigation for Young People: A 50-State Analysis,” state career navigation systems should incorporate four key components — encompassing 19 policies — to meet needs of people aged 16-24:  

The report shows that 31 states have implemented six or fewer of the 19 policies across all components — including Missouri, which has enacted only four. Read the full report. 

As states across the nation are reducing higher education spending, many colleges are reducing course offerings as a result, which increases the number of students who are unable to enroll in the courses they want.

The National Bureau of Economic Research has published an NBER working paper (May 2025) on the outcomes of course shutouts on college students. Some key findings of this report:  

Reducing course shutouts is key to improving outcomes and widening the path to high-return majors, particularly in STEM fields. Read the full report. 

Essential CAFE happenings

A group of 30 faculty met to learn more about mentoring at all levels. Entering Mentoring is an evidence-based, interactive mentor training curriculum that engages mentors of all career stages in collective problem solving and connects them with resources to optimize their mentoring practices. The workshop was led by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research, CIMER, out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Get Launched concluded with a drop-in breakfast with Provost Jenny Lundgren in the Faculty Commons.

The last meeting of Chairs Forum concluded with a workshop and a lunch with participants' deans at Kauffman Conference Center.

For the third year, a group of faculty kicked off their academic writing cycle with three full days of writing at the Faculty Writing Initiative retreat. Each day they set goals and spent the entire day writing with a lunch break. At the end of each day, they checked in with each other on their goals and progress.

Now that the mad rush between classes and coffees, meetings and mentoring sessions, and libraries and lunches has finally slowed (for now), why not take a stroll across campus just for the fun of discovery?  

Honoring historical figures like Harry Truman and Henry Bloch (both UMKC alumni!), and local flavor like Bannister Mall (IYKYK), UMKC’s collection of sculpture art brings the university’s fascinating, Kansas City-embedded history to life with pieces diverse in form, color, and media that come together to tell a singular story. Read about Sculpture Art at UMKC.

Learn about the History of UMKC in this walking tour from Clio. Or download The Clio history mobile app and discover history and culture around you, wherever you are!

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