Rockhurst News

As part of the annual Rockhurst University Leadership Series event April 1, the Dunn family of JE Dunn Construction Co. received the Rashford-Lyon Award for Leadership and Ethics.

Jim McKelvey — the artist-turned innovator who was the featured speaker at the Rockhurst University Leadership Series event Wednesday — had to jump into the unknown on his way in to Kansas City. That crucible served as a fitting metaphor for McKelvey’s views on innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. Sometimes, it pays to be a wildcard, to drive into the storm and hope for the best.

This spring, the Office of Residence Life and Student Success is helping bring some homecooked favorites to the Rockhurst campus in a new initiative called the Comfort Food Project.

Rockhurst University will honor members of the Dunn family with its Rashford-Lyon Award for Leadership and Ethics, recognizing the family’s impact on the Kansas City community through its century-old business, JE Dunn Construction, and their philanthropic and civic leadership.

Innovator and entrepreneur Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Block, Inc. (formerly Square), and former chair of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, will headline the 2026 Rockhurst University Leadership Series event, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 1, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Broadway Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108.

Joanna Cielocha, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, has received a $206,112 Mid-Career Advancement grant from the National Science Foundation to study parasites known as gregarines, which infect grasshoppers, in the American West to broaden the understanding of the gregarine diversity and distribution.

Kelly Domkoski Meiners, Ph.D., ’97, will bring “Inner Lines," an exhibition of paintings capturing her transformation from sudden, debilitating post-COVID illness to a resilient, evolving artistic voice, to the Greenlease Gallery on campus.

Rockhurst University’s online graduate business analytics and management MBA programs have earned recognition from U.S. News and World Reports as among the nation’s best.

Rockhurst University sponsors solidarity immersion trips both in the United States and abroad several times a year, giving students the opportunity to experience the world beyond campus or their home communities. Though service is a component of the trip, the students also learn about the perspectives and the people in the locations they travel to.

Rockhurst University has announced the dean’s list for the fall 2025 semester. This honor recognizes students who have achieved a grade-point average of 3.5 or above.