The UMKC Campus Community is invited to meet and greet Dr. Mun Y. Choi, President-Designate of the University of Missouri System, at a special on-campus event Friday, Dec. 2.

UMKC will welcome and hear from Dr. Choi at a rally-style event that will begin at 9 a.m. in room 401 of the Student Union.  All UMKC students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

The University of Missouri Board of Curators announced the choice of Dr. Choi, 52, as the System’s 24^th president on Nov. 2. Dr. Choi comes to the four-campus UM system from the University of Connecticut, where he has served as provost and executive vice president since 2012.

While Dr. Choi will not formally succeed Interim President Michael Middleton until March 1, 2017, he plans to visit each of the four system campuses before taking office “to gain a deep appreciation of its unique aspects as well as opportunities for collaborations to better serve the citizens of Missouri and beyond.”

At UConn, Dr. Choi has overseen a budget of $700 million while working with 1,500 full-time faculty, 31,000 students and 2,000 staff across 12 schools and colleges, including Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine and Law.  Under his leadership, UConn developed several innovative new programs that have resulted in enrollment growth, increased faculty hiring, innovative research and new and expanded industry partnerships.

Born in South Korea, Dr. Choi came to the United States as a child. As a young man, he worked in his family’s successful business in Chicago, and later graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in general engineering in 1987. He later earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University.

Prior to serving as provost and executive vice president, Dr. Choi was dean of engineering at UConn from 2008 to 2012. Earlier, he was department head of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Drexel University (2000-2008) and assistant and associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“I am looking forward to forging a strong partnership with Dr. Choi, with whom I share both a background in engineering, and a passion for higher education” said UMKC Chancellor Leo E. Morton. “I’d like all of our university community to join me on Dec. 2 to give him an enthusiastic welcome to Kansas City.”