Mark Richter
On the wall of Mark Richter’s intensive care room, where he lay sedated as he fought COVID-19, hung two pieces of paper. On one was a bulleted list of facts about his life that he was a professor, that he had four kids, that he enjoyed a competitive match of croquet and on the other were photos of him and his family.
What the posters could not capture was his baritone voice and its Australian accent, the bounce in his step, or why people always felt comfortable coming to him with their problems. They could not capture the hyperactive kid who found his way from a cattle yard in Australia to a biochemistry lab in Lawrence.
The university has assembled a COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Administration Task Force to develop a strategy for campus immunization, according to an email from Provost Noel Wilkin.
The task force will be chaired by Dr. David Allen, dean of the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Allen has been dean of the pharmacy school since 2012 and has authored 74 peer-reviewed articles and 44 professional publications. He is joined by 13 other members of the university community to complete the task force, including students, faculty, administrators and a staff physician.
“I’m deeply appreciative of their willingness to serve. We will keep the university community informed of the task force’s work as it moves forward,” Wilkin said in the statement.