Planned Osteopathic Medical School Names Parker CEO

Kyle Parker, former Fort Smith Regional Healthcare Foundation board chairman, has been named president and CEO of the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education and also a proposed osteopathic medical school planned to be built at Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith.

The $58 million project, the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine, was approved unanimously by the FSRHF board in February, with a target opening date of fall 2017.

 “I’m excited to accept the challenge of bringing this community’s vision to life,” Parker said in a news release. “Fort Smith is the perfect home for a school of this caliber, and we will focus our efforts on being able to fill gaps in health care and provide care for the medically underserved.”

Parkers work experience spans an array of fields, with impressive feats and acknowledgements in each. He began his career as an attorney and, prior to 2011, served as vice chancellor of operations at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Arkansas Tech University and a law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire.

“Kyle Parker brings vision, passion and years of business experience and expertise to the role of CEO of the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education,” said John Taylor, board chair of the FSRHF. “We are very fortunate to have Kyle serve as CEO as we develop a medical campus, beginning with a proposed college of osteopathic medicine.”

If completed, the facility could be the first osteopathic medical school in Arkansas.

The school would serve an estimated 600 students and would employ a full-time faculty and staff of 66, with an average salary of more than $103,000 a year, according to the news release.

“We’ve said it before; it’s not about building a school, it’s about recognizing needs in our area, in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and across the U.S., and using our resources to fulfill that need,” Parker said.