About the Institute for Community Engagement

The Institute for Community Engagement supports engaged scholarship across KU Medical Center. Engaged scholarship is practical work with community partners beyond our walls that propel communities and academia forward. Engaged scholarship advances KU Medical Center's mission: it is a mode of teaching, a method of research, an approach to clinical care and a form of service.

The Institute directs many initiatives, but it does not manage all KU Medical Center outreach activities. The Institute facilitates further success for outreach initiatives by providing collaborative resources for relationship-building, grant and research assistance, and communications support to KU Medical Center faculty, staff and students.

Our Mission

KU Medical Center works with communities to improve health across the city, state, region and world. We do that by:

• Enhancing educational opportunities to prepare students of all ages for their careers in health and science;
• Strengthening Kansas' health care workforce;
• Conducting research with communities to improve public and community health; and
• Advancing access to health care in medically underserved areas.

Institute Leadership

• Ryan Spaulding, PhD, Associate Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement; Director of the Institute for Community Engagement
• Michael Kennedy, MD, FAAFP, Joy McCann Professor for Rural Health Education; Associate Dean for Rural Health Education, School of Medicine; Director, Office of Rural Medical Education; Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Faculty Director for Murphy Academic Society; Medical Director for the Institute for Community Engagement; Medical Director of Student Health Services; Associate Professor, Family Medicine
• Cindy Teel, PhD, RN, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, KU School of Nursing; Nursing Director of the Institute for Community Engagement

Internal Advisory Board (IAB)

• Jim Albertson, Chief Executive Officer, the University of Kansas Physicians
• Martha Barnard, PhD, Professor, Behavioral Pediatrics
• Heather Clay, Development Director, Kansas University Endowment Association
• Glen Cox, MD, MBA, MHSA, Chair and Professor of Health Policy & Management; Director of the Institute for Community and Public Health; Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education, School of Medicine
• Christine Daley, PhD, MA, SM, Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine & Public Health; Adjunct Faculty, Anthropology
• Gary Doolittle, MD, Professor and Medical Director, Midwest Cancer Alliance
• Ed Ellerbeck, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair, Preventive Medicine & Public Health
• Allen Greiner, MD, MPH, Professor and Associate Chair for Research in Family Medicine
• Stephanie Grinage, Vice President for Medical Development, Kansas University Endowment Association
• Rick Kellerman, MD, Professor and Chair, Family and Community Medicine-Wichita
• Kim Kimminau, PhD, Associate Professor, Family Medicine
• Bob Klein, PhD, Associate Dean for Professional Development and Faculty Affairs; Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology
• Barb Langner, PhD, RN, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health Policy; Associate Professor, Health Policy & Management
• Vince Loffredo, EdD, Vice Chancellor of Student Services
• Michele Mariscalco, MD, Associate Dean for Research, School of Medicine-Wichita
• Mark Meyer, MD, Associate Dean for Student Affairs, School of Medicine
• Karen Miller, PhD, RN, Senior Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of Nursing and the School of Health Professions
• Garold Minns, MD, Dean, School of Medicine in Wichita 
• Rebecca Mullen, MD/MPH student
• Tammy Peterman, RN, MS, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer, The University of Kansas Hospital 
• Sue Pingleton, MD, Professor, Continuing Education; Professor, Office of Scholarly, Academic & Research Mentoring
• Greg Thomas, MD, Southcentral Kansas Medical Education Network Site Director and Clinical Associate Professor. He lives and practices in McPherson, Kansas.
• Patricia Thomas, MD, MA, Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Director, University of Kansas Cytopathology Fellowship Program; Executive Director, Research, Development and Grants

• Kenny Wilk, Consultant, The University of Kansas Hospital