Progress towards building a School of Public Health at WashU
A process update as key elements of building a school come into sharper focus.
Colleagues,
I wanted today, in this last note to the community of 2024, to summarize a few key steps we have taken towards building a School of Public Health at WashU. I note at the outset that this work is the work of the entire WashU village. I shall not here name individuals who have led on so many pieces of what I discuss below, but I lead with a warm thank you, a continued expression of my deep admiration of the work of so many throughout WashU who are making this project possible.
I have now had a few opportunities to present a vision for the School of Public Health, building on the work that has come before me, both in recent years and through decades of excellence at WashU. Background on the School and how it emerges from the Here and Next initiative is here. For anyone interested in this articulation of vision, my presentation at the annual fall Public Health conference at WashU is here. Broadly, I suggested that we build the School on a 4x4 plan: four strategies to build a school that leans into four new directions in population health science and scholarship. I organize the rest of this note around the four key strategies to help us realize the vision. For anyone interested in reading more about the four directions, I have now had an opportunity to publish those thoughts here.
Engage world-class faculty and staff. We are now well underway with our engagement of inaugural faculty for the School. We opened a call for faculty in October, and a Faculty Recruitment Committee is working to review all applications, inviting successful applicants to zoom interviews, and then to present an in-person seminar starting in January. We have, as of this writing, received 260 applications, with about one fifth being from inside WashU. The extraordinary interest in this call for faculty is truly encouraging, and a sign of the momentum that has been built to make this School a reality. We are also actively building a staff who will be partnering with faculty on creating an exceptional School, recognizing that nothing will happen without the right complement of both faculty and staff. All staff positions will be posted, as they open up, here.
Nurture outstanding teachers and students. A key part of the School’s evolution—and of central import to prospective students—is ensuring our School is accredited by the Council for Education for Public Health (CEPH). In summer 2024, we applied to CEPH to transition WashU’s currently accredited Public Health Program within the Brown School to a separate School of Public Health. The application was approved in October 2024. At this time, we are still an accredited program and a SPH applicant for accreditation. Our next step towards full accreditation is the delivery of preliminary and final self-study reports, due to CEPH in June and October 2025, respectively. On November 17-19, 2025, CEPH will conduct a 3-day site visit that will include meetings with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and University leaders to gauge how we are operating as a School. In that spirit, we are starting to prepare a transition plan for public health students in the Brown School to become part of the SPH. While this will include changes to many student facing functions and processes from admissions all the way through graduation, there will be no interruption or sequencing changes to students currently in programs of study.
As we effect this transition, the SPH is maintaining many close ties to the Brown School, and we are working very intentionally with Dean Traube and the Brown School to ensure that all students remain supported throughout this transition. I am looking forward to meeting with and involving students in this process, including preparing students for participation in the site visit. We anticipate a final accreditation decision by April 2026 and any MPH or PhD Public Health Sciences student graduating in May 2026 and beyond will be graduating from the accredited SPH. While, as I said at the outset, there is a village of colleagues working on all aspects of the School’s evolution, this is particularly true for this dimension, preparing our accreditation self-study and aligning us to ensure we can become a full free-standing School in 2026. Thank you.
Public Health plus. Our goal is to forge partnerships across WashU's nine schools and with the public and private sectors to create a big tent movement for public health. To that end we are now ready to start considering letters of interest for joint appointments with the School of Public Health. This applies to faculty who are primary in one of the eight other schools at WashU who would like to engage with the scholarly community of public health but who wish to maintain their primary appointment in other schools. Faculty interested in having joint appointments to the SPH should submit a CV and a letter describing their research and teaching interests and experience, and a summary of how they can contribute to the values and aspirations of public health at WashU and to the joint hiring unit. Letters of interest can be submitted here. All letters of interest will be reviewed by a sub-committee of the Faculty Recruitment Committee. Letters of interest may suggest a plan for specific focused engagement with the School or interest in the general work of the School, leaving open the opportunity for the evolution of further specific engagement in time. It would be helpful if interested faculty have early conversations with their primary School leadership, to ensure that a joint appointment is consistent with the vision of all units in the university, and this is noted as such in the letter of interest.
Central to the vision of Public Health plus has been the building of Innovation Research Networks that we see at the heart of the School’s identity. We aim to launch these Networks in the coming months. We envision an environment of interdisciplinary collaborations that deepen connections among academic and community partners to address pressing public health problems. The goal is to configure thematic Innovation Research Networks that advance research, develop thoughtful and informed public health teachers and practitioners, increase public health skills and research capacity, and accelerate transfer of knowledge into actionable improvement in public health. Each Innovation Research Network will be co-led by faculty who are primary to the School of Public Health and faculty who are primary in other WashU schools but have joint appointments in the SPH. The opening of opportunities for joint appointments is our key next step towards launching these Innovation Research Networks, advancing the vision of a School that leads with interdisciplinary scholarship and ideas.
Prioritize local and global impact. Our goal here is to ensure that we can pursue research, education, and practice that help build a better world, starting in St. Louis and extending our reach globally. We are taking our first steps on this strategy, including laying the foundation for our full suite of communication approaches, Public Health ideas, Talking Public Health series, and working with key WashU and community partners and stakeholders, exploring how we can best find local leverage to amplify the contribution the School can make. Much more on this to come starting in January onwards.
I end as I did at my presentation in October with a focus on our goal: to build a School that leads with excellence in inter-disciplinary population health science and scholarship, distinction in educational programs, and a deep commitment to local and global impact. Our strategies summarized here are all in service of this mission, informed by an understanding of new directions in the field. My goal is to make sure that we stay focused on this mission and execute our work with fidelity to this 4x4 plan. I am so enjoying our work together and look forward to doing ever more on all in the new year.
This will be my last note to the community from “outside” WashU. My family and I shall be moving to St. Louis over the holiday break, and we will be in place in January. I am much looking forward to closer engagement with everyone when on the ground, to continuing the many interesting conversations we have been having over the past 6+ months. I shall send out my next note at the beginning of January, looking ahead to the year.
Until then, I hope everyone has a lovely, restful holiday season.
Warmly,
Sandro
