Daniel Barwick, Ph.D., has joined the UMKC School of Dentistry as director of philanthropic giving and executive director of the school’s Rinehart Foundation. He brings 20 years of fundraising experience to help lead those efforts with Dean Steven B. Haas.

Barwick, who most recently was director of development at Indiana State University, points to the school’s growth potential and the opportunity to support its community service focus through its oral health clinics. Those clinics are set to expand with the planned construction of a new interprofessional health sciences building on the Health Sciences Campus. Barwick said he is excited to be starting at UMKC during the initial stages of that project.

“Education is a noble endeavor, and it’s amazingly rewarding to be a part of that process,” said Barwick. “Whether I am a fundraiser, a teacher or an administrator, as long as I’m helping to educate people, I’m part of something that I love.”

Barwick has worn many hats in his 30-plus years in higher education. He started as a professor of philosophy, moved into philanthropy and then transitioned to the role of president of Independence Community College in Kansas. He still gets recognized occasionally from those years in Independence, when the school was featured in the Netflix series “Last Chance U” in 2018 and 2019.

Born and raised in New York state, Barwick grew to love the Midwest while attending graduate school at University of Iowa, where he earned a master’s degree in philosophy. His time in Kansas cemented the central Midwest as his home, and when the position at UMKC opened up, he knew it would be a perfect fit.

Outside of his day job, Barwick stays busy with higher education content creation. He has written books on philosophy and higher education leadership and hosts the podcast and blog The Mortarboard, which focuses on solutions in higher education from an administrator’s perspective. He has a passion for cooking, specializing in French cuisine (even though he said his signature dish, eggplant pecorino, hails from Italy). Barwick and his wife live in live in the Kansas City area and have two grown daughters.