UMKC names KC native as chief academic officer

The University of Missouri-Kansas City on Monday named Kansas City native Barbara A. Bichelmeyer as the school’s chief academic officer.

Bichelmeyer, whose new duties as UMKC provost begin in mid-September, will come from Indiana University in Bloomington where she has served as executive associate vice president for university academic affairs and senior director of the office of online education. Bichelmeyer’s responsibilities there spanned all seven campuses of the university, including 8,800 faculty and academic staff and 115,000 students.

In announcing her appointment, UMKC officials noted that Bichelmeyer has “extensive experience” in overseeing the operation of university academic affairs, student success initiatives and online education. She also spent a year as interim chancellor of an Indiana University campus that’s in the Louisville metropolitan area.

Bichelmeyer said in a statement that she is excited about the future of UMKC, and that she is looking forward to collaborating with the entire campus and the Kansas City community.

Bichelmeyer, who earned her doctorate in education communications and technology from the University of Kansas, was chosen from among four finalists.

“She is the person best positioned to help UMKC maintain and advance academic excellence and fulfill our mission of research, education and service,” Chancellor Leo Morton said in a statement. “We are proud to welcome her back home to Kansas City, and to Kansas City’s university.”

Bichelmeyer began her career in higher education at IU in 1996.

While living in the Kansas City area, she worked in private industry, including for Sprint. In addition to having done education consulting for major companies including Microsoft, Allied Signal Aerospace, NCAA, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the U.S. Coast Guard, she also has been a teacher and girls basketball coach at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, and was an athletics official in softball and volleyball in Kansas and Missouri.

This story was originally published June 8, 2015 at 5:42 PM with the headline "UMKC names KC native as chief academic officer."