Dr. Strada, along with his fellow alumni award recipients, were honored by UMKC at an awards luncheon in Kansas City, Mo., on April 27, 2011.
Each year, individuals are selected to receive alumni awards from each of UMKC’s academic units. The alumni awards process is highly competitive, with a nomination by the award committee and the endorsement of the nomination by the dean and by a campus-wide independent selection committee comprised of both former award recipients and top faculty.
UMKC’s Alumni Association highlighted the recipients’ stories and accomplishments at the luncheon as well as through speeches, presentations and classroom visits where they shared their experiences with students. One alumnus is chosen from each of the University’s 12 academic units.
Dr. Strada joined USA in 1983 as professor and chair of pharmacology. In 1994, he was named senior associate medical dean for the USA College of Medicine. During his tenure at USA, Dr. Strada has served as acting director of the graduate program in basic medical sciences, assistant dean for admissions, acting chair of psychiatry, and was faculty athletics representative from 1990-97.
In addition, Dr. Strada was instrumental in the creation of the Office of Technology Development, Office of Research Compliance and Assurance, and the USA Technology and Research Park. He currently serves as president of the South Alabama Medical Science Foundation.
Dr. Strada has national recognition for his research on cellular signaling mechanisms and has published more than 200 articles and abstracts. He has been active in the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the Council of Academic Societies of the Association of American Medical Colleges. He has served as president of the Association for Medical School Pharmacology Chairs as well as the Southeastern Pharmacology Society.
Dr. Strada received both his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and master’s in pharmacology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and his doctorate in pharmacology from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. He conducted his post-doctoral training in neuropharmacology at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Washington, D.C. Prior to USA, he spent 11 years on the faculty as the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, where he rose to acting chair of pharmacology.
