Richard Muma
American academic and university president
Richard D. Muma (born December 6, 1962) is an American academic, physician assistant and president of Wichita State University. He was named Wichita State University president by the Kansas Board of Regents in May 2021 after serving in an interim role following the departure of Jay Golden in September 2020.
Muma is the first physician assistant to be named president of a university, and he is the first openly gay president of Wichita State.
Initiatives
Major university initiatives forwarded during Muma's presidency include:
Began construction on Phase I of the Wichita Biomedical Campus, a joint project between Wichita State University and the University of Kansas to create an academic health science center that fosters job creation, collaboration, research, and interprofessional learning. Once complete, the campus will combine WSU’s College of Health Professions programs, including its Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, WSU Tech’s health care program and the Wichita campuses of KU School of Medicine and KU School of Pharmacy — all into one location.
Launched the Student Success and Persistence initiative, a university-wide effort to improve persistence and graduation rates.
Created the Shocker Success Center, a renovated facility opened in fall 2024 that centralizes 19 student support services in a single building.
Launched the Marcus Welcome Center — Milly Marcus Annex, which brings together the Office of Admissions and Shocker Career Accelerator career services.
Continued year-over-year enrollment growth to over 25,000 students between Wichita State and its affiliate WSU Tech.
Grew research and development expenditures to more than $392 million, up from $192 million in 2021.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q111219360. VIAF identifies the subject as 73076685. The Library of Congress control number is n93801823. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1962, 2021, 2020 and 2024.
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