KGI Community Mourns Loss of Dean Kathy Webster

Dear KGI Community, 

I am deeply saddened to inform you that Kathy Webster passed away after a brave battle with cancer. There are few words to express the enormity of this loss.

As the Founding Dean of our School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (SPHS), Kathy was a visionary leader and a genuine innovator in higher education. She was named founding dean in 2013 and successfully led the school from candidate to accredited status. Kathy’s incredible energy and dedication made her vision for the school’s future a reality. 

Kathy shared our dream to develop the most innovative School of Pharmacy in the country and joins a small fraternity of pharmacists to have founded a school in the last decade. Under her leadership, the entire SPHS leadership team was hired, she recruited world class faculty and staff, and she successfully integrated an entirely new hands-on active learning curriculum into the design of the program. For Kathy, her first priority was always putting the students first and ensuring their success. She was consistently meeting with them, gaining their feedback and modifying and changing the process to make their experience one-of-a-kind. Kathy’s hard work and dedication to the students has already been shown by their remarkable licensure exam scores for our first graduating class, by their acceptance into prestigious residency programs and recruitment into industry and healthcare jobs. Seeing all this come together made Kathy exceptionally proud, and we are all comforted by knowing that her remarkable efforts have created a lasting foundation for excellence for the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at KGI. 

We will miss her vision and leadership greatly, but will carry her flame forward with our faculty, students, and staff, in the pursuit of excellence. Kathy’s many contributions to KGI, and to higher education, will be felt for generations to come.
 
As we grieve together, please know there are a variety of services available to you as well as for our students. Students seeking support can contact Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services (MCAPS) at 909.621.8202 or the Chaplains at 909.621.8685. KGI Division of Student Affairs is also available to provide emotional support during this difficult time. 
 
Please keep Kathy’s husband David and her four children in your thoughts at this difficult time. We invite you to join us at a Community Support Gathering for Kathy on Wednesday, January 9 from 12-1 p.m in the Founder’s Room (Building 517, Room 165) at KGI.
 
Sincerely,

Shelly Schuster
President, KGI