Kathlyn Wolff
academic adviser, College of Health Professions
From administrative support to academic advising, Kathy Wolff never tired of her work for the College of Health Professions in 35 years.
Wolff arrived at Wichita State 1975 as support staff for what was then the health care administration program. Her natural affinity for helping HCA students led her to the dean’s office by 1986 to work with student records.
Wolff’s standout work made her the obvious person to start the CHP Advising Center, a concept developed in 1988 under then-dean Marty Shawver. There, Wolff not only advised students. She served as mentor to faculty members in one of the true arts of advising: working through a university’s policies and procedures.
Although her degrees are in music and she originally moved to Wichita because her husband, Arthur Wolff, had been hired in WSU’s School of Music, she has loved working in health professions.
“It’s a super college,” she said. “They really care about the students, and the faculty is wonderful.”
What stands out most for her is the growth of the college, and she was especially pleased at the big step of bringing communication sciences and disorders into health professions.
Besides advising, Wolff served the college as commencement coordinator for nine years; on the students exceptions committee for four years; and as scholarship coordinator for five years.
Her awards and honors include the 1996 Mortar Board Outstanding Educator Award and CHP Outstanding Classified Staff. She has performed music for the WSU President’s Holiday Brunch since 2000.
Now Wolff plans to turn even more attention to one of her best loves: playing and performing music in an eight-person recorder group that plays frequently around town. A gig for the Wichita Aviation Museum is right around the corner.
She plans to continue to volunteer for various events for health professions and the
university, already logging enough time over the summer for colleagues to joke fondly,
“She’s gone, but not gone.”