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’s College of Business and Technology has earned extended accreditation from the AACSB International, one of the most widely recognized and prestigious accreditations for schools of business worldwide.
Rockhurst University and Saint Louis University have named a program director to guide a new Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist program expected to launch in 2028 as a partnership between the two institutions.
Nicholas Curdt, DNAP, CRNA, CHSE, will lead the program, design its curriculum and guide it as it undergoes the accreditation process. Curdt will also serve as a point of contact for interested prospective students for what promises to be a high-demand program.
For nearly 20 years Brian Hesse, ’93, ’96 MBA, has welcomed adorable puppies into his home, loved them, showed them the world and then said goodbye to them after about a year and a half. Hesse doesn’t have attachment issues, he’s a volunteer puppy raiser for KSDS Assistance Dogs Inc.
Kimberly Reynolds, ’24 M.S. in speech-language pathology, traveled to Uganda to advocate for children with disabilities, completing her clinical fellowship with Hope Speaks in Kampala and serving with Imprint Hope in Jinja.
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.
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.
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.
