Issue link: https://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1545861
Throughout her childhood growing up in a small Nebraska town, Laura Tatpati, M.D., knew she wanted to be a doctor. As her medical career materialized, she realized she wanted to help others become doctors, too. A faculty member of the University of Kansas School of Medicine- Wichita since 2007, Tatpati was named dean of the school in April 2025. She replaced Garold Minns, M.D., an early graduate of KUSM-Wichita who had led the Wichita campus since 2012. Minns, who was named dean emeritus, continues to oversee KU's efforts in establishing the Wichita Biomedical Campus, which is scheduled to open in fall 2027. FINDING THE 'PERFECT HOME' "I always loved biology and science … and I always thought I was going to be a doctor. … I never really was on a different path in my whole life … and women's health interested me," Tatpati said. "The idea of making sure that women had good medical care seemed important to me from a young age; so probably from junior high, I thought I would be in women's health." After finishing her four-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at KUSM-Wichita in 2004, Tatpati completed a three-year fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Mayo Clinic. Just as she was certain of her choice to become a doctor, Tatpati — who earned her bachelor's in biology and her medical degree at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska — was just as certain of where she wanted to set up her practice and be involved with teaching. It was Wichita. "From the moment I joined KUSM- Wichita for residency, I knew I had found something truly special. It quickly became clear that Wichita would be the perfect home for my academic and clinical career," Tatpati said in the news story announcing her appointment as the Wichita dean. "It was by design that I would go and do my fellowship and then come back and be part of medical education." Tatpati set up clinical practice with the Center for Reproductive Medicine, the only comprehensive fertility clinic in southern Kansas, where she continues Tatpati takes the helm and the challenge of growing KUSM-Wichita 4