(seated, left to right)

Lindy Eakin, Kansas State University Olathe Innovation Campus
Kathleen Huttmann, Burns & McDonnell
Terry Calaway, Johnson County Community College
Dan Richardson, Kansas State University Olathe Innovation Campus
Sen. Karin Brownlee, Kansas 23rd Senate District
Angela Kreps, Kansas Bio

(middle row, left to right

Joe Sweeney, Ingram's Magazine
Ed Eilert, Johnson County Commission
Dick Bond, University of Kansas Edwards Campus Advisory Board
Bob Regnier, Bank of Blue Valley
Tom Thornton, Kansas Bioscience Authority

(back row, left to right)

Mayor Mike Boehm, City of Lenexa
Lynn Mitchelson, Northland National Bank and JCCC Board of Trustees
Ed Phillips, University of Kansas Cancer Center
Annabeth Surbaugh, Johnson County Commission Chairwoman
Mary Ryan, KU Edwards Campus
Mary Birch, Lathrop & Gage
Mike Fenske, Burns & McDonnell

The Research Triangle: Assessing Progress, Challenges

Some of them were there when the visionary seed was planted for what’s becoming known as the Johnson County Research Triangle. Others are carrying that vision into an emerging reality today. They gathered, nearly 20 in number, at Johnson County Community College earlier this month for Ingram’s Magazine’s first special assembly dedicated to Johnson County’s budding research triangle. The assembly was jointly sponsored by Johnson County Community College and Burns & McDonnell, and co-chaired by the college’s president, Terry Calaway, and the engineering giant’s Vice President Mike Fenske.

Those in attendance offered sunny assessments of the triangle’s potential for transforming the regional economy. Their discussion, though, was not without concerns. Public funding, a key piece of the success to date, will be harder to come by, and challenges remain for recruiting private money into the process. But the conversation invariably returned to the positive developments flowing from the combined efforts of the University of Kansas and its area campuses and medical center, Kansas State University and JCCC.