The Conservatory is pleased to note that Associate Professor of Music Composition Yotam Haber is one of three winners of The Azrieli Foundation awards. Haber has won the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music. Established in 2014, the biennial Azrieli Music Prizes offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance, and celebration of excellence in music composition.

The release notes, “The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music is awarded to the composer who displays the utmost creativity, artistry, and musical excellence in proposing a response to the question – “What is Jewish music?” – in the shape of a musical work. 2020 Commission winner, Yotam Haber, has been awarded to write a new song cycle for voice and ensemble. His new work – Estro Poetico Armonico III – will continue baroque composer Benedetto Marcello’s “telephone game” of hearing and re-hearing music he transcribed in a Venice Synagogue, and remembering and misremembering.”

Author and scholar Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D., examined the unconscious and unintentional forms of racism at UMKC Diversity and Inclusion’s 13^th annual Social Justice Book Lecture.

DiAngelo is an associate professor of education at the University of Washington, and has been an educator and trainer on issues of social justice for over 20 years. Her book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism, was released in June of 2018 and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List.

At the Social Justice Book Lecture, DiAngelo explained to a capacity audience that many white people simply do not understand the true nature of racism. They think of racism as deliberately offensive acts committed by people with clearly hurtful intent. Since they do not commit or condone such behavior, they believe they are not racist.

What they miss, DiAngelo said, is that they live in, and benefit greatly from, a system that provides enormous advantages to white people from cradle to grave, in areas ranging from education to careers to health care to justice. Those advantages confer on white people a responsibility to educate themselves on the racist nature of society and its impact, and to approach that responsibility from a position of humility.

“Niceness is not anti-racism.” – Robin DiAngelo

Numerous scientific studies over many years have demonstrated that all people carry unconscious biases, DiAngelo said; the difference for white people is that their biases are supported by legal authority and powerful institutions.

DiAngelo is an associate professor of education at the University of Washington, and has been an educator and trainer on issues of social justice for over 20 years. Her book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism, was released in June of 2018 and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List.

At the Social Justice Book Lecture, DiAngelo explained to a capacity audience that many white people simply do not understand the true nature of racism. They think of racism as deliberately offensive acts committed by people with clearly hurtful intent. Since they do not commit or condone such behavior, they believe they are not racist.

What they miss, DiAngelo said, is that they live in, and benefit greatly from, a system that provides enormous advantages to white people from cradle to grave, in areas ranging from education to careers to health care to justice. Those advantages confer on white people a responsibility to educate themselves on the racist nature of society and its impact, and to approach that responsibility from a position of humility.

Numerous scientific studies over many years have demonstrated that all people carry unconscious biases, DiAngelo said; the difference for white people is that their biases are supported by legal authority and powerful institutions.

About the Social Justice Book and Lecture Series

The UMKC Division of Diversity and Inclusion’s Social Justice Book and Lecture Series brings to campus thought leaders from across the country and various fields to explore issues of social justice with our students, faculty and staff. The objectives of the series are to:

• Foster a sense of community on our campus through shared literature and relevant dialogue.
• Prompt participants to think critically about the historical context of social justice issues while focusing on current social justice challenges and the interdisciplinary thought and leadership skills necessary for solving such challenges.
• Provide a platform for further reflection, dialogue and action within our campus and greater communities through related coursework, gatherings and exposure to local, regional and national social justice projects and initiatives.

Story by: John Martellaro, Strategic Marketing and Communications

Health equity is a broad concept that encompasses differences in disease and mortality rates, and in access to healthcare services, among different population groups. It also includes differences in social determinants of health, such as poverty, exposure to toxins and access to healthy food.

UMKC leadership quantifying and addressing these differences was the focal point of the UMKC Engagement Showcase, the university’s signature event celebrating Engagement Week – a special week of engaged leadership, partnership and learning hosted by UMKC and the UM System.

The event included a demonstration of the System’s new online Engagement Portal and a panel discussion on health equity led by the director of the new UMKC Health Equity Institute, Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D., of the UMKC School of Medicine.

Engagement with community partners by the UM System and its four universities is hardly a new phenomenon. Curt Crespino, UMKC vice chancellor for external relations and constituent engagement, noted that UMKC history is rooted in an enduring city-campus partnership.

Marshall Stewart, chief engagement officer for the UM System, said what’s new is a more systematic and coordinated approach to engagement, including a transformation of the system’s Extension programs, designed to expand engagement beyond Extension’s original rural focus to forge engagement partnerships in every community and corner of the state.

“Urban and rural communities are facing very similar issues across Missouri. Our mission is to work together with all of our stakeholders to expand our impact by using our research to help transform lives,” said UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal. “That spirit of connection to the city and engagement with our community was woven into the origin story of UMKC. And we are excited to take those efforts to the next level in collaboration with the efforts being led by the system.”

Following are excerpted highlights of the health equity panel.

Jannette Berkley-Patton, director, UMKC Health Equity Institute:

“We spend billions on healthcare but are still one of the unhealthiest countries in the world.” The burden of health disparities rests primarily on groups outside the mainstream, including people of color, rural communities, veterans and seniors. Large federal grants allow for the creation of effective programs, “but what happens when the grant ends? Everything goes away. We need to figure out how to take the Cadillacs we create with these million-dollar grants and turn them into Pintos.”

Rex Archer, director, Kansas City Health Department:

“We need to change the structural issues that create the (health equity) problem.” These include issues with disparities in housing, poverty, education, safety and more.

Mary Anne Jackson, interim dean, UMKC School of Medicine:

In 2014, the Kansas City area had to contend with a large outbreak of a serious respiratory illness among school-age children. Researchers were notified early enough to identify the virus responsible and contain the outbreak. “We were able to address this in time because of the strong connections we have with people in the community who brought it to our attention.”

Eric Williams, pastor, Calvary Temple Baptist Church:

Conducting funerals for victims of gang violence and AIDS led Williams to involvement in public health. “Conversations about HIV were happening, but it was all on the down-low. (Berkley-Patton) helped us to understand that some of the things we were already doing were working” to change behaviors.

Rashaan Gilmore, founder and director, BlaqOut:

BlaqOut surveyed gay African Americans about their health care priorities, and the top response was health care access. “It was because they didn’t feel welcomed by traditional providers. We asked them to recommend strategies to address that, and we developed interventions based on those results.”

Bridget McCandless, former president and CEO, Health Forward Foundation:

After 15 years working in a free health clinic, she changed her approach from providing care to impacting policy “because I saw that policy could be far more effective.” Citing a sampling of dramatic health disparities between local white and black populations, she said “there’s no excuse for us to have disparities like that.” Data analysis can empower highly effective strategies if we act on the findings. “We’re getting smart enough to figure this out. (Data-driven policy) can be the new germ theory; it can revolutionize the delivery and effectiveness of health care.”

Story by: John Martellaro, Strategic Marketing and Communications

The University of Missouri-Kansas City is celebrating the life of former Missouri State Senator Yvonne Wilson (1929-2019) for her commitment and devotion to education, the university and the Kansas City community.

Yvonne Wilson (MA ’71, EDSP ’76) worked in the Kansas City, Missouri School District for 35 years as a teacher, principal and director of elementary education. In an interview with the UMKC School of Education she recounted always wanting to be a teacher.

“I started teaching neighborhood children on my grandmother’s steps,” she said of the house in her segregated Leeds neighborhood. “I’ve never been anything other than a teacher.”

Wilson attended Lincoln University and UMKC. She was an advisor to the UMKC School of Education and served on the advisory board for the Institute for Urban Education. The Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals recognized Wilson as a “Pioneer in Education” in 2007.

Wilson began her career during desegregation and was the first African American principal of Rockhill Elementary and the first African American to serve as president of the Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals. As a principal at Woodland School, she introduced Samuel Rodgers dental care to each classroom and ensured each child received care.

An advocate of early education throughout the district, she advocated for pre-school programs and was a proponent of Head Start.

A Starr Women’s Hall of Fame inductee in 2017, retired educator and Wilson’s nominator Marjorie Williams lauded the breadth of Wilson’s influence.

“Wilson’s educational leadership was undisputed and continued though her retirement and beyond.”

While Wilson was a teacher at heart, her community influence and broad career in education and public service exemplify her dedication to enriching the city through strong neighborhoods and schools. After retiring from education, she became a community activist, serving as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri Senate. As a tireless advocate for education, she was known for working across party lines.

Beyond her political commitments, Wilson volunteered for many community organizations including the Kansas City of Fountains Foundation, the Mid-America Regional Council Early Learning Board and the Kansas City Sister Cities Association.

Wilson led her classrooms, her schools and her community with a quiet courage and endless energy.  She focused on understanding others’ views and developing relationships to further the success of individual children and broad constituencies. Her legacy will be a timeless reminder of the possibility of a steadfast commitment to a love of learning.

UMKC has been a pioneer in development of highly effective programs that promote success for a wide variety of students. A top education official visited campus to get a close-up look at two of them.

Mauli Agrawal and Johnny Collett sat in a meeting room at the University of Missouri-Kansas City to discuss the focus on student success that is becoming pervasive in American higher education. They agreed that the “sink or swim” attitude that held sway for generations is no longer workable; the nation’s skilled workforce needs are too great to allow universities to stand by and watch capable students fail.

Agrawal is the chancellor of UMKC; Collett is the assistant U.S. secretary of education. They met after Collett toured two highly successful programs at UMKC: Propel, a certificate-granting transition program for young adults with intellectual developmental disabilities; and the International Center for Supplemental Instruction, a student peer-driven program based on out-of-class group study sessions, developed at UMKC in the 1970s.

A recent study by Civitas Learning included Supplemental Instruction, founded by UMKC, among the top five student-success programs nationwide out of almost 1,000 reviewed.

Agrawal compared the modern approach – research-driven student success programs designed to provide individualize support for students to reach their full potential – to the practice of genetically individualized medicine.

“We all have an academic DNA as well,” Agrawal said. “Your educational needs will be different than mine.”

Collett nodded in agreement, adding that his federal department is dedicated to success for all students.

“When we say all, we really mean all. And all has to mean each,” Collett said.

Collett began his campus visit with a tour of the Propel program; he was accompanied by Gerren McHam, special assistant for external relations for the Missouri Department of Higher Education. They were greeted by John Herron, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; and Alexis Petri, associate research professor of psychology, who directs the Propel program.

Many of the 46 students currently enrolled in Propel live in on-campus student housing. Petri said they take 60 to 70 percent of their credits in standard classes with traditional degree-seeking students; 60 percent of the Propel students are eligible for Pell low-income tuition grants.

Herron said having Propel students immersed in the mix of the general student body is a teaching opportunity for all students, and campus visitors as well.

“We’re sending a message about what kind of place this is – a message about what we care about and what we value,” Herron said.

Collett asked about concerns of parents about their students succeeding in the college environment.

“Parents need to understand that this is a safe space for their student to bump into challenges, a place where we have support systems in place to help them meet those challenges,” Petri said.

The tour then moved from Cherry Hall, home of the Propel program, to the Atterbury Student Success Center, where the International Center for Supplemental Instruction (SI) is housed. Julie A. Collins, Ed.D., executive director of the center, led that tour.

Collins explained that SI is targeted to “high-risk” courses – courses necessary for graduation that have a historically high failure rate. Undergraduate students who have previously passed the course are hired to be peer coaches who lead small-group out-of-class study sessions focused on the hurdles individual students are facing.

A recent study by Civitas Learning included SI among the top five student-success programs nationwide out of almost 1,000 reviewed.

Following the meeting with Agrawal and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara A. Bichelmeyer, Collett announced that the Department of Education had just released new guidelines on the use of federal funds for higher education programs for young people with disabilities.

Collett said the department wanted to clear up confusion by stating that vocational rehabilitation and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds can be used to support dual enrollment, comprehensive transition and other postsecondary education programs for students and youth with disabilities.

Story by: John Martellaro

A new work of art will find a home on Volker Campus, thanks to a gift by the R.C. Kemper Charitable Trust.

The sculpture, titled “Any Word Except Wait” by Flávio Cerqueira, is one of three pieces that are being gifted to the city of Kansas City, Missouri.

The public art was part of last year’s inaugural Open Spaces, a two-month citywide visual and performing arts festival that was a collaboration between the City’s Office of Culture and Creative Services and a private arts initiative to highlight Kansas City’s arts, culture and creativity. The event, which gained national media attention, expanded opportunities for residents to experience world-class art created specifically for our city.

“Open Spaces 2018 illuminated the ability of public art to connect and unify people, enriching lives and communities through shared experience,” said Mary Kemper Wolf with the R.C. Kemper Charitable Trust. “The Trust is proud to underwrite the permanent placement of three significant works from the inaugural Open Spaces.”

The University of Missouri-Kansas City has received the 2019 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest publication focused on diversity and inclusion in higher education.

Each year INSIGHT Into Diversity evaluates universities’ practices relating to recruitment and retention of students, faculty and staff.  The process also considers the universities’ leadership commitment and program support.

UMKC embraces a broad spectrum of diversities including race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, linguistic ability, learning style, religion, socioeconomic and veteran status, life experiences, educational level and family structure.

“We are thrilled to be recognized for outstanding work in creating an inclusive environment for our students, faculty and staff.”—Susan Wilson

Susan Wilson, Ph.D., vice chancellor of the division of diversity and inclusion, leads the university’s diversity organizational development strategy.

“We are thrilled to be recognized for outstanding work in creating an inclusive environment for our students, faculty and staff,” Wilson said. “This award is even more special as we remember how far we have come as an institution. This accomplishment is truly a team effort, as many across campus worked with the Division of Diversity and Inclusion to reach this milestone.”

The HEED Award and the Health Professions HEED Award are the only national awards that honor individual institutions for being outstanding examples of colleges, universities or health professions schools that are committed to making diversity and inclusion a top priority across their campuses.

“The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. “We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus.”

UMKC will be featured along with the other 92 recipients in the November 2019 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. It was the only college in Missouri to receive the recognition. The UMKC School of Medicine received a HEED award in 2018 and the School of Dentistry received the award in 2016.

Story by: Patricia O’Dell

Students, faculty, staff and the Kansas City community gathered to celebrate the investiture of Mauli Agrawal, Ph.D., as the ninth chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Agrawal took the opportunity at the ceremony — his university inauguration — to share the vision for UMKC that he has been crafting for the past nine months.

“A university should be a place of light, of liberty and of learning,” he said, quoting Benjamin Disraeli. “…That vision calls for all of us to make the commitment to be not only a Place of Light but also become a Community of Excellence.”

So what’s a Community of Excellence? Agrawal referenced a biography about philanthropist Henry Bloch, founder of H & R Block, who has given generously to Kansas City and UMKC.

“’The person who succeeds is the one who does his or her own job, and then some; who is thoughtful to others, and then some; who meets obligations and responsibilities, and then some. That’s the person who steps ahead of the crowd and goes on to great heights,’” Agrawal quoted. “That is the philosophy we must live by to become a Community of Excellence; that is the culture we must grow here at UMKC. The path to excellence is not very complicated — it is as simple as truly living the culture of ‘and then some.’”

Agrawal introduced five signature initiatives — each aligning with the new UMKC Strategic Plan 2018-2028 — that help provide a path to excellence.

Student Success: Roo Strong

Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer and her team have introduced Roo Strong, a new student-success model. It’s a personalized plan for education and support that makes these commitments:

• We will meet each student exactly where they are.
• We will assess, but not assume or judge.
• We will treat each student as a member of our family.
• We will engage each student with learning experiences and co-curricular supports to meet their unique needs.
• We will provide each student with constant guidance and feedback.
• We will help each student take responsibility for their personal progress, their education, their decisions and their futures.

Research: UMKC IDEAS

Agrawal introduced the UMKC Institute for Data Education, Analytics and Science, or IDEAS for short.

The vision of the institute is to position UMKC as the top option for data science education, research and service in the region, building on the university’s strengths in biomedical informatics, big data analytics, image analysis, natural language processing and geospatial analysis.

The coordinator of the new institute is Brent Never, associate professor of public affairs at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Never is a “civic hacker” who uses city data to analyze abandoned housing, and was interviewed about his work last year by Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News.

Professional Education:
UMKC TalentLink

Individuals enrolled in UMKC TalentLink will not pursue a traditional degree but will work to earn badges, stackable certificates and other new forms of credentials that are evolving in the 21^st century. Sarah Morris, the new executive director of informal and continuing education, is leading the development of the initiative.

Healthy Communities:
UMKC Health Equity Institute

Jannette Berkley-Patton, associate professor in the UMKC School of Medicine, will lead a new initiative to ensure that individuals and families in the Kansas City area have equal opportunities for improved health and well-being. The Institute will use UMKC research and outreach to identify, quantify and address health care gaps in our neighborhoods.

Berkley-Patton is a national leader in African American health research. One of her noted projects, Taking It to the Pews, was funded with a $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to assess HIV testing. She is the director of the UMKC Community Health Research Group, which supports collaborative community research, and provides doctoral and undergraduate training in community participatory research. She collaborates with networks of churches in her health research in Missouri, Kansas, Alabama and Jamaica.

Building Pride: Mentorship

Several new faculty and staff mentorship and support programs are underway, including “Talk It Up,” focused on career and professional development.

“This commitment to our people is truly foundational,” Agrawal said. “It is the rock on which everything we hope to achieve will be built…More than anything, I want our people to be as proud of themselves, and our university community, as I am proud of all of you. And we have a lot to be proud about. Look around Kansas City.”

• Where you see urban education succeeding against long odds, you see Roos.
• Where you see the sick being healed and new cures being discovered, you see Roos.
• Where you see the innocent being freed from unjust imprisonment, you see Roos.
• Where you see communities reducing crime and neighborhoods organizing to improve, you see Roos.
• Where you see burgeoning opportunity in engineering, science and technology, you see Roos.
• Where you see the arts flourishing and enriching lives, you see Roos.

As you have no doubt been reminded lately, Roos really are everywhere, and they excel everywhere.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City took another step forward in shaping the future of health care. In the fall, it welcomed the first class of students into the new Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree program.

The goal is to integrate public health into the community and improve health outcomes for the population at large. The new program is based at the UMKC School of Nursing and Health Studies. While a nurse or doctor will treat individuals, public health professionals look at prevention measures that can help people stay healthy. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, over the past century, public health efforts are responsible for 25 of the nearly 30 years of improved life expectancy.

UMKC Public Health Program Director Joseph Lightner sees great value in all health care students getting a taste of what public health has to offer.

“Medicine alone can’t solve all the problems,” he said. “Public health brings everyone to the table and having all disciplines interact is the only way public health issues will get solved.”

Prevention plays a big role and that is primarily what drew public health student Kinzie Aulgur to the program. She was initially pursuing a path in nursing, but it was her experience in hospitals that began to change her thinking.

“So many of the people in the hospitals were sick due to preventive diseases and I wanted to do something to help them avoid the hospital altogether,” said Aulgur. “I wanted to go directly to the source, and when I heard about the public health program at UMKC, I knew it was a perfect fit.”

Recently, a group from the program; including Lightner and another one of his students, Krunal Bombaywala; attended the American Public Health Annual Meeting. The national conference is the largest for public health professionals with nearly 13,000 attendees.

Lightner said these experiences can be instrumental in a student’s career path. When he was an undergrad at Kansas State University, one of his faculty members suggested that he present their research at a large national conference.

“That trip was the reason that I applied to graduate school and started a career in research,” said Lightner. “Learning from experts in the field and gaining exposure to the newest research is essential to getting the next generation of public health practitioners and researchers excited about research and advocacy. Doing so will contribute toward the goal of making UMKC the premier undergraduate research institution for public health.”

According to Lightner, the program works to get its students doing the work of public health right away. The goal of the program is to get boots on the ground working on public health outcomes immediately.

“Medicine alone can’t solve all the problems. Public health brings everyone to the table and having all disciplines interact is the only way public health issues will get solved.”

– Joey Lightner

The culmination of the program is the capstone course, where seniors in the program choose what public health entity they’d like to work with and then effectively evaluate their processes and design thinking. The students do the work that consultants in the field would perform. They provide the entity the data from their research and gain valuable real world experience.

Aulgur was able to incorporate her capstone project into the work she was doing as the gender violence prevention intern at the UMKC Women’s Center. She is evaluating the effectiveness of the programs that the Women’s Center provides and looking at ways to get more students involved with the center. Once she’s finished with her research, she’ll present that data directly to the Women’s Center leadership.

That research component is critical throughout the program, not just during the capstone course. A number of the public health students will be presenting their research at upcoming UMKC Undergraduate Research Symposium on a number of innovative topics that cover a wide array of issues. The students will present on racial justice in the courts and incarceration system, the link between sodium intake and cardiovascular disease, and e-cigarettes usage, among other interesting topics.

Bombaywala says public health’s focus on the entirety of the health care spectrum is making him a more well-rounded health care provider. He plans to pursue a career in dentistry but appreciates how his pursuit of a public health degree is giving him a deeper understanding of the health care system as a whole.

“As a future dental student, the public health program has provided me a perspective beyond just clinical,” said Bombaywala. “I’ve been able to collaborate with a variety of health care providers so I will have a better understanding of the entirety of the health care issues my future patients may be facing.”