Kansas State University Salina
As Kansas State University Salina has experienced historic growth, its leader is being recognized for her innovative influence in successfully transforming the campus into a national leader of aerospace and technology education.
Alysia Starkey has been inducted into the Kansas Aviation Museum Hall of Fame, joining three other inductees for 2025.
Starkey, who has been the K-State Salina CEO and dean since 2019, has overseen the campus transition into a holistic aerospace and technology leader.
While K-State Salina is still recognized for its elite training of aircraft pilots, the campus has expanded its focus on industry needs in recent years. This shift meets all needs of the aerospace industry, including the need for qualified aviation mechanics to ensure airworthiness, and a new emphasis in advanced air mobility, an emerging focus on autonomous systems to solve delivery and transit problems and revolutionize air transportation.
Thanks to Starkey’s dynamic vision and proactive leadership at K-State Salina, the campus is aligning itself to support advancements in technology and industry. A key component of this mission is not only offering undergraduate degrees but also providing education and technical training at the graduate and professional levels.
Expanding the number of learners K-State Salina serves fulfills growing needs from industry and impacts the growth of aviation in the state of Kansas.
“To be inducted into the Kansas Aviation Museum Hall of Fame Class of 2025 is an incredible honor,” said Starkey. “The state of Kansas has a rich aviation history — arguably the best in the country. To be selected with other leaders and innovators who came before me is greatly humbling. There are so many people to thank who have helped me along the way and who have believed in our mission at K-State Salina — a one-of-a-kind destination campus that offers truly unique learning experiences, through the latest technologies that revolve around real-world, industry-guided application and leading the way in aviation and technology education.”
Tasked with a mission
In 2021, then K-State president, Ret. Gen. Richard Myers, recognized the Salina campus’s unique position as a premier education beacon of aviation excellence. Myers put Starkey in charge of leading a new, one-of-a-kind mission that would revolutionize the aerospace industry in Kansas and beyond.
The Global Aeronautics Initiative aimed to make the K-State Salina campus a global aerospace leader. Starkey would establish K-State Salina as the first campus solely dedicated to the aerospace and technology industries, because of conversations with more than 150 corporate partners and collaborations with the Salina Airport Authority, Salina Area Chamber of Commerce and the Salina Community Economic Development Organization.
The campus refined its mission to be dedicated to serving all career entry points in aerospace and technology fields.
“Dr. Starkey’s leadership and accomplishments have positively impacted state, national and global aerospace individuals and businesses,” said Tim Rogers, former executive director of the Salina Airport Authority. “Her diligence resulted in bringing together a coalition of local, state, national and international aerospace focused stakeholders to implement the K-State Global Aeronautics Initiative. Her career has not only significantly impacted the growth of aerospace in Kansas, but the entire United States.”
Because of this initiative, Starkey propelled K-State Salina to the forefront of the aerospace and technology industries by securing more than $160 million in federal, state and private contributions to the campus. The bulk of the donations are going toward a complete transformation of the southern end of the K-State Salina campus.
These fundraising and corporate engagement successes have also coincided with many other successes thanks to Starkey’s leadership including a complete curriculum redesign for the college, establishing new degrees and training programs dedicated to the future of aerospace careers, as well as record enrollment and improved graduation rates over the past seven years at K-State Salina.
“Starkey is not only a transformative leader within the Kansas State University system, but also a strategic thinker whose work will have a lasting impact on our institution, region and the broader aerospace industry,” said K-State President Richard Linton. “Her achievements exemplify the values and goals set forth in K-State’s strategic plan, and her vision for the future ensures K-State Salina will remain at the forefront of innovation and excellence.”
‘Without her, it would not exist’
It didn’t take long before Starkey’s efforts during the Global Aeronautics Initiative bore tremendous results.
By 2022, K-State Salina built upon an already decade’s long partnership with California-based company, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. Through Starkey’s vision, K-State Salina received the largest corporate gift in the campus’s history from General Atomics to create the new General Atomics Aerospace Innovation Ramp at the K-State Salina campus.
The record $10 million gift allowed K-State Salina to revitalize and transform its footprint, while also enhancing the campus’s learning environment to keep up with the needs of industry.
"We have been working with K-State Salina for several years and recognize that now is the time to invest in the campus," said General Atomics CEO Linden Blue in 2022 at the time of the donation. "Their campus has a laser-focused vision to be a leader in aerospace and technology, and we are ready to support them in this vision. As General Atomics looks to the future of the aerospace industry, we are proud to have K-State Salina as our educational partner."
The following year, K-State Salina announced another historic success under Starkey’s guidance. The campus would be teaming up with another California-based company, one that specializes in entertainment technology and spatial computing, Pure Imagination Studios.
The partnership with Pure Imagination is resulting in the construction of the Kansas Artificial Intelligence Research and Entertainment Studio, or K-AIRES, a $41 million, 47,500-square-foot facility that will house virtual reality, or VR, augmented reality, or AR, and other emerging technology education. K-AIRES will be a studio and training facility for researchers and academics interested in spatial computing and the new corporate home for Pure Imagine. Construction has already begun on this new facility and plans to be completed by 2026. K-AIRES will put K-State Salina at the forefront of the technology industry.
“Starkey’s belief in the future of aerospace and spatial computing, her tireless pursuit of opportunity and her passion for elevating Kansas as a national leader in aviation and emerging technologies are what brought this project to life,” Josh Wexler, Pure Imagination Studios CEO, said. “Quite frankly, without her, it would not exist.”
The successes didn’t stop for Starkey with implementation of the General Atomics Aerospace Innovation Ramp and K-AIRES. In 2024, the campus announced that it had obtained a third major investment in as many years and announced the Aerospace Education Hub, thanks to $33 million in federal funding and support from U.S. Senator from Kansas, Jerry Moran, who is also a 2025 inductee into the Kansas Aviation Museum Hall of Fame.
The new facility will again transform education at K-State Salina and be the new educational home for the campus’s aviation maintenance, composites and uncrewed aircraft systems programs. These modernized state-of-the-art facilities are critical when it comes to K-State Salina's dedication to develop graduates who are prepared to innovate, problem-solve and lead industry into the future.The federal funding secured also included a separate $5.5 million grant to provide aviation training equipment to amplify the pilot training partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
The Aerospace Education Hub is scheduled to open in 2027.
A vision that put people first
Starkey’s more than 20-year tenure at K-State Salina began in 2002. At the time, her passion was in library services and technology, having earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Fort Hays State University in 2001 and a master’s in library science from the University of North Texas in 2002. She started out as a technical services/automation coordinator and assistant professor at K-State Salina.
By 2007, Starkey had received her first promotion in the K-State system, advancing to library director and associate professor. It was after this promotion, where Starkey’s career in leadership began to take off.
She was promoted to assistant dean of academics and distance education, while still retaining her director of libraries title in 2010. In 2012, she was named the associate dean of academics/undergraduate students while also being promoted to a full professor in 2014. Starkey then gained additional duties of acting director for the School of Integrated Studies in 2016 and then associate dean of academics and acting director of professional education and outreach in 2017.
In 2018, the K-State Salina campus was in search for a new leader and a freshened identity. Initially, Starkey was given the interim title as CEO and dean while the university conducted a national search for a permanent leader. However, after more than a year in the interim role, Starkey was able to prove herself as a trusted and effective leader and was chosen to be the full-time CEO and dean of the campus.
Starkey’s tenure as K-State Salina’s leader has proven to be a resounding success. She has secured more than $160 million in strategic investments, launched a new strategic plan that will continue the Global Aeronautics Initiative, led the campus through exponential enrollment gains, overseen the construction of the campus’s third residence hall and many more successful initiatives.
From growing up in Colby to a completely revitalized and reimagined vision for the K-State Salina campus, Starkey has led K-State Salina into a position where the campus will be recognized as a one-of-a-kind destination for aerospace and technology innovation and education.
“Dr. Starkey is a visionary leader who has excelled at amplifying aviation education and partnering with industry and governmental leaders to expand Kansas’s impact as an aerospace leader,” said Kirsten Regan, executive director of strategic initiatives. “Her work has transformed K-State Salina, honoring the tradition of the college while also looking ahead and expanding partnerships, expertise and facilities to lead the future of aerospace. Her collaboration and foresight has impacted the Salina community and state that will be felt for generations. Her ability to foster learning, advancement, and economic growth is a testament to her abilities. She is most deserving to be recognized for her commitment and contribution to aviation in Kansas.”
