Wichita State University has quietly become one of the most innovative applied learning campuses in the country — and most Kansans don't even know it. Sitting down with President Rick Muma on location at WSU, we get the full story: from his roots as a physician assistant on the front lines of the HIV epidemic, to becoming the only PA to ever lead a major university, transforming a former club golf course into a thriving innovation campus where 12,000 students are earning nearly $40 million a year working alongside real industry partners.

Highlights

President Muma is the only physician assistant to serve as president of any university in the country — and he didn't even know it until the national PA organization called him.
WSU's innovation campus was literally a golf course just eight years ago — now it's home to companies like Airbus and Deloitte, with students earning real paychecks from day one.
The Shocker Career Accelerator connects students to industry partners from the moment they step on campus — not just junior or senior year — to keep them on track and in Kansas after graduation.
WSU's National Institute for Aviation Research has students operating multimillion-dollar robots, doing real work that other universities fly in to study.
WSU just surpassed $400 million in research expenditures and $600 million in research awards — and is now partnering with KU on a biomedical campus that is the largest capital investment in downtown Wichita's history.
A WSU anthropology professor rediscovered Etzanoa, a lost city of 20,000 people in southern Kansas — one of the largest pre-Columbian settlements in North America — and a local high schooler found the cannonball that proved it.
Tours of the Etzanoa site are available through the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum in Arkansas City for just $10.

Chapters

0:00 – Hike With Madeline

1:04 – Childlike Presence

2:04 – On Location at WSU

3:08 – Meet President Muma

3:37 – Kansas Roots and Return

6:10 – From PA to Professor

9:00 – Clinician Mindset in Leadership

11:37 – Campus Transformation and Innovation

15:14 – Book and Applied Learning

17:43 – Shocker Career Accelerator

18:55 – NIAR: Real-World Research

19:56 – Keeping Talent in Kansas

21:23 – Future Vision: Biosciences

23:34 – AI's Impact on Campus

27:03 – Kansas Support and Research Growth

29:23 – Post-Interview Reflections

30:23 – Sheriff's Reflection on Ramadan

31:46 – Kansas's Lost City Rediscovered

38:27 – Tours and Episode Wrap

Resources

Learn more about the podcast at askakansan.com!

This show is part of the ICT Podcast Network, for more information, visit ictpod.net

Wichita State’s Rick Muma on Education and Economic Growth | Kansas Shocker