Increasing Enrollment and Excellence Defines KGI’s Success
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences reaches another milestone this fall, as we enroll nearly 100 new students. This significantly surpasses last year's record of 67 new admissions and reflects not only KGI's overall growth, but also the excellent education provided by our Master of Bioscience (MBS), Postdoctoral Professional Masters in Bioscience Management (PPM), and our still-young Postbaccalaureate Premedical Certificate (PPC), which is registering its second cohort of new students.
With each year, KGI's Team Masters Project (TMP) also increases in scope and ambition. The capstone of our MBS program, the TMP enables students to apply their education to real-world projects. We appreciate the corporate partners who offer our students meaningful real-world experience—just as we know they appreciate our students' drive and ingenuity. The TMP program's growth is yet another indication of KGI's ever-increasing importance to the life sciences industry, as both an educator and a partner.
Our commitment to academic excellence also was recently reaffirmed by our reaccreditation from WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges). Achieving this reaccreditation is a major accomplishment, and I want to thank our faculty and staff for their hard work.
Speaking of faculty, we continue to augment ours with industry leaders and are pleased to welcome three new faculty members this fall. Timothy Cote has joined us as professor of regulatory practice—an area becoming more important with each passing year. Tim previously served as director of the FDA Office of Orphan Products Development and currently serves as chief medical officer for the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). Joel West has been named professor of innovation and entrepreneurship and also will supervise TMPs. He brings with him the sort of industry insight combined with technological expertise that results from success as an engineer, manager and entrepreneur. And Jay Chok has come on board as assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship. His current research focus—how academic scientists who advise industry and government affect the financing of innovation—fits perfectly with KGI's position at the intersection of private industry and the public sector.
With growth, of course, come challenges and opportunities—which we are eager to meet. KGI remains a comparatively small institution, highly selective in the students we enroll and proud that our graduates are in such great demand when they complete their education here. Our position as a leader in the life sciences demands that we not just keep pace with developments in this rapidly changing field but that we also continue to innovate and break new ground. As just one example, our Center for Rare Disease Therapies continues to build collaborations with organizations such as NORD in the search for new disease treatments.
A key challenge we face as KGI grows is prioritizing our areas of focus. Frankly, because of our rapid success to date, KGI faces an overwhelming number of opportunities and options, and we simply cannot afford to pursue them all. With this in mind, we are in the process of assembling a president's executive council. This high-level group of industry leaders will help advise KGI as we decide where to best place our time and resources for the benefit of our students, the industry, and the patients we all ultimately serve. We also are in the midst of developing a new strategic plan to help guide KGI's accomplishments and progress over the next five years.
As always, we invite you to visit KGI to learn more about our educational model, plans for the future, and how our innovative institution can benefit you.
Sheldon M. Schuster