March 10 School briefs

New dean at pharmacy school

The University of Missouri-Kansas City has announced the appointment of Russell B. Melchert as Dean of UMKC’s School of Pharmacy.

Melchert is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Ark.

Melchert will assume his position at the UMKC School of Pharmacy on July 1.

“I am extremely pleased we were able to attract someone of Dr. Melchert’s reputation and experience as Dean of UMKC’s exceptional School of Pharmacy,” Gail Hackett, UMKC executive vice chancellor and provost said in a statement. “I am confident that Dr. Melchert will continue to build on the School’s long-standing tradition of excellence and lead it to higher levels of success.”

Since earning his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1994 at the University of Oklahoma, followed by the completion of a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin, Melchert gained more than 14 years experience as a pharmacy academician and administrator.

Ray Young Bear reads at Rockhurst

Poet Ray Young Bear, known for contemporary and traditional Meskwaki song-poems, will present his work as part of the Midwest Poets Series at 7 p.m. March 18 in Rockhurst University’s Mabee Theater, located on the Rockhurst University campus, 1100 Rockhurst Road.

Young Bear lives in Iowa’s Meskwaki, or Red Earth People, Settlement. His great-great grandfather initiated purchase of the land in 1856, which is now an 8,000-acre cultural sanctuary. Young Bear began writing poetry as a teenager with the Upward Bound program, writing in his native Meskwaki and translating into English.

His poems retain the heightened, formal style of the Meskwaki oratory. Young Bear often includes a hand-drum performance.

Admission is $3 at the door. A reception begins at 6 p.m. in the adjoining Greenlease Gallery atrium. Books will be available for purchase. For more information call The Center for Arts and Letters at 501-4607.

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