WashU has a vision to mobilize research, education, and patient care to establish WashU and St. Louis as a global hub for transformative solutions to the deepest societal challenges. Read about how we are working to make this vision a reality with a proposed School of Public Health. Our aim is that the new school (our first in 100 years) will drive equitable, evidence-based public health initiatives and provide a world-class training ground for future public health leaders.

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Professor Kim Thuy Seelinger, JD, director of WashU’s Center for Human Rights, Gender & Migration, is helping the International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor lead his staff in policy and technical work related to gender-based crimes and crimes against children. Seelinger spent much of last year revising (and recently presented) both the new Policy on Gender-based Crimes and the Policy on Children and is now creating an implementation plan for the policies while supporting investigation and prosecution of the crimes.

According to a study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, diagnoses of breast cancer have increased steadily in women under age 50 over the past two decades, with steeper increases in more recent years. Studying such trends may offer clues to possible prevention strategies.

Ross Brownson, PhD, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor at the Brown School, has been named the recipient of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) 2024 Honorary Fellow Award. This is the Society’s highest honor to a non-member who has made significant and lasting contributions to health education and the public’s health.

Authors of a new study at WashU’s Brown School say, “While preventing the spread of the global pandemic is supposed to be a scientific investigation, the reality is that science and politics are often mixed in devising local policies.” Read study findings about “balancing” the spread of COVID-19 with socioeconomic, racial and social justice demands.

Implementation science serves as an important partner for reversing harmful trends, such as inadequately treated hypertension and falling life expectancy, while also accelerating beneficial innovations, like utilizing new technologies and expanding access to health care services. 

Read about how WashU’s dissemination and implementation efforts are deepening the methodological underpinnings of the field by involving practitioners and communities in processes that ultimately affect them the most.

We know that the brain loses volume as we age, but according to a study led by Alumni Endowed Professor of Psychiatry, Laura J. Beirut, MD, smoking actually causes the brain to age prematurely, which puts smokers at higher risk of dementia. The findings are published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science. 

In a “local to global” effort, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Abuja in Nigeria have received NIH grants to work with St. Louis and Abuja community organizations during and after pregnancy to improve cardiovascular health during and after pregnancy. Both project teams are collaborating with Parents as Teachers, a national organization that has long provided support to young families through home visits.

Fred Ssewamala, PhD, director of the International Center for Child Health and Development and Byron Powell, of the Center for Mental Health Services Research will use a five-year $3.5 million NIH grant to support the Bridges2Scale study, which tests implementation strategies for an intervention among young people affected by AIDS. Uganda is one of the Sub-Saharan African countries hardest hit by poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Professor Lora Iannotti, PhD, discusses how nutrition equity is essential, especially for vulnerable groups. In a commentary in One Earth she says, "Nutrition equity refers to the ethical obligation we have as a global community to ensure all humans have access to healthy, sustainable diets to reach their full health potential." Iannotti is the founder and director of WashU’s E3 Nutrition Lab, working to identify economically affordable, environmentally sustainable and evolutionarily appropriate nutrition solutions around the globe.  

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received a $17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address disparities in cancer research, treatment and outcomes in underrepresented populations. The research, funded through the National Cancer Institute’s  Cancer Moonshot program, will focus on African American patients with colorectal cancer and multiple myeloma, as well as patients of any race or ethnicity with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts. 

The Public Health at WashU Annual Conference, “Focusing on the PUBLIC in Public Health" for the first time in its 16-year history extended to two days as a joint collaboration between the Office of the Provost, the university's Here and Next strategic vision, and the Institute for Public Health. The event was the first in a series of high-profile public health events WashU will present through 2026. Watch conference videos.

As part of its ongoing Assembly Series and sponsored by the Office of the Provost, WashU recently hosted physician and popular media personality, Sanjay Gupta, MD, for an informal-style chat with a packed audience. Gupta took a hard look at the media’s role in conveying our nation’s sometimes frightening public health information, such as the post-9/11 incidents involving anthrax, and the H1N1 global pandemic.

The second installment in WashU's global health/research series featured guest speaker, George Kyei, PhD, associate professor of medicine and molecular microbiology. Kyei splits his time between labs at WashU and the University of Ghana training scientists and future physicians in HIV basic and translational research. Kyei’s talk centered on his current HIV-focused International Research Training Grant. The next installment in this series will be held next month.

WashU's Public Health Speaker Series was thrilled to have welcomed Viniece Jennings, PhD, a distinguished expert in the field of urban health, to discuss "Nature and Determinants of Urban Health: Pressing Topics and Priorities for the Future." Drawing on her innovative work on urban green spaces and public health, Jennings explored these topics within the broader context of ecosystem services, environmental justice, and social determinants of health.

The Brown School at Washington University celebrates Black History Month with its free webinar series themed, Art of Activism. The five webinars will span the month of February featuring panels of distinguished speakers discussing topics related to equity, identity, health disparities, and the challenges faced by Black artists.