Sheldon M. Schuster
President

Sheldon M. Schuster has extensive experience in higher education as a researcher, teacher and institute director. Before coming to KGI, Dr. Schuster was Interim Assistant Vice President for Research and Graduate Education, Director of the Biotechnology Program and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Florida in Gainesville. His current research is aimed at understanding the relation between structure and function of ATP synthase and asparagine synthetase with the goal of finding new targets for synthesis of mechanism-based inhibitors of disease related enzymes. Before coming to the University of Florida in 1989, Dr. Schuster was Professor of Chemistry and Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He had gone to the University of Nebraska as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Life Sciences in 1976 directly from his postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin Institute for Enzyme Research. He earned a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Arizona and BS degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis.

James D. Sterling
Vice President for Academic Affairs;
Dean, School of Applied Life Sciences;
Sidney J. Weinberg, Jr. Professor

Jim Sterling provides academic leadership for KGI. He is responsible for planning and support of instructional and research activities, degree programs, academic policies, and faculty governance and personnel matters. He also oversees student services, career services and academic aspects of sponsored research and corporate partnerships. Dr. Sterling co-directs the Microfluidics Research Laboratory with Dr. Ali Nadim performing research aimed at the development of miniaturized systems for biomolecular diagnostics. As a founding faculty member at KGI, Dr. Sterling led the development of the bioengineering programs and has served as director of the Team Masters Project program. He has taught elements of engineering design, systems modeling, biotransport, microfluidics and microfabrication, flow cytometry, and product development. Dr. Sterling received degrees in mechanical engineering with a BS from Texas A&M University and MS and PhD degrees from Caltech.

Kathy Webster
Founding Dean, School of BioPharmacy;
Professor of Pharmacy

Kathy D. Webster is the Founding Dean of the KGI School of BioPharmacy, and is guiding the school through the accreditation process toward a fall 2014 opening. Dr. Webster has extensive experience helping to establish and working with new schools of pharmacy, including the University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy, where she recently served as professor and associate dean of academic affairs. Previously, she was the assistant dean and chair of pharmaceutical sciences and a professor at Feik School of Pharmacy, University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She held several positions at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, including director of science education outreach, director of the pharmaceutical analysis laboratory and associate and assistant professor of medicinal chemistry. Also, as head of the analytical section there, she helped found and develop the Campbell University Pharmaceutical Sciences Institute (CUPSI), which provides contract services to small local and regional pharmaceutical companies. She holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Robert W. Caragher
Vice President for Finance and Operations

Bob Caragher oversees the Business Office at KGI which is responsible for accounting, budgeting, human resources, facilities and information technology for the Institute. Before joining KGI in 2001, he was an Assistant Controller at Claremont University Consortium, providing investment and endowment accounting and financial reporting to the member institutions of The Claremont Colleges. Prior to coming to Claremont in 1997, Mr. Caragher was Assistant Controller at Middlebury College in Vermont for investment and student services accounting, and a Senior Associate in the audit practice at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) in Boston, where his clients included colleges and universities. He holds a CPA license from Massachusetts, an MBA from Thunderbird in Arizona, and a BA in German and Geography from Middlebury.

Karen Schneider
Vice President for Advancement

Karen Schneider brings a wealth of experience in fund-raising, management and development to her mission of building a major donor infrastructure to support KGI’s academic programs and centers. Most recently, Schneider was senior director of special projects for the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles, where she was instrumental in forming a program for Jewish genetics involving the greater Los Angeles medical community, including Cedars Sinai, City of Hope and UCLA. Before that, she spent six years as senior officer of major gifts at City of Hope in Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism/business administration from California State University Northridge and an MBA in non-profit management from American Jewish University in Los Angeles.

Elizabeth Wright
Assistant Vice President/Secretary to the Board of Trustees

Elizabeth Wright is responsible for supporting President Sheldon M. Schuster and the KGI Board of Trustees in areas such as governance, planning, strategic direction, and coordination of special projects. Wright came to KGI after 11 years as executive assistant to the president at Western Washington University. Prior to that, she served as executive assistant to the executive vice president in the University of Wisconsin System and as assistant to the chancellor of the UW Colleges. Wright was both a member and a chair of the board of directors of the National Association for Presidential Assistants in Higher Education, and is a member of the board of directors of the Whatcom Museum of History and Art Foundation in Bellingham, Washington. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she earned her BA in psychology, Wright received her JD, MPA and MA in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

E. Sofia Toro
Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid

With more than 13 years of experience in the education and non-profit worlds, Sofia Toro brings a passion for education to her position. Toro came to KGI in September 2008 and oversees the admissions, recruiting, financial aid, and international student processing for KGI's graduate programs. She brings operations expertise as well as experience in professional school admissions, thanks to her work in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Before joining KGI, Toro helped improve the organizational effectiveness of LA Universal Preschool (LAUP), the largest universal preschool effort in the history of the US educational system. While there, she co-designed and implemented a continuous quality improvement system, and she facilitated the California Award for Performance Excellence training for organizational learning, process improvement, problem solving and implementation. Prior to her work at LAUP, Toro spent more than five years in MBA admissions at Pepperdine University. Toro holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Woodbury University and an MBA from Pepperdine University.