Leaders of several Kansas City-area hospitals and schools have formed a steering committee designed to help the area become a leader in life sciences.

It will be chaired by Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the Kansas University Medical Center and executive dean of the KU School of Medicine. Irvine O. Hockaday, chairman of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, will be the committee’s spokesperson.

Other members are Richard Brown, co-chair, Stowers Institute for Medical Research; Irene Cumming, president and chief executive officer, University of Kansas Hospital; Bill Hall, president, Hall Family Foundation; G. Richard Hastings, president and chief executive officer, St. Luke’s Health System; Robert Hemenway, KU chancellor; Randall L. O’Donnell, president and chief executive officer, Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics; David Powell, member, St. Luke’s Hospital board of directors; Charles Sunderland, member, KU Hospital Authority; and Maurice Watson, chairman, Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics board of directors.