Continuing efforts to establish a new School of Public Health that will drive equitable, evidence-based public health initiatives and world-class training, WashU is moving forward with a host of milestone activities. These include completing inaugural dean interviews by spring; submitting the accreditation application in June; finalizing faculty appointment, promotion and tenure policies; and opening student enrollment for the new Public Health and Society minor by fall 2024.

Our WashU community and St. Louis partners are excited to collaborate to build a new school focused on team science, collaboration, and community.

Click here for a detailed timeline.

Yin Cao, ScD, an associate professor of surgery and of medicine in the Public Health Sciences Division at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is leading an international team seeking to understand what is driving the increase in young-onset colorectal cancers globally. Her team will do so with an award of up to $25 million over five years from Cancer Grand Challenges, a global research funding initiative co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, boosts previous findings that combining medicines into one pill can help reduce heart attacks, strokes, and deaths due to cardiovascular risks. As a result of the research by Anubha Agarwal, MD, and Mark Huffman, MD and team, the World Health Organization (WHO) has added polypills to its most recent Model List of Essential Medicines. 

According to a study by Nancy Morrow-Howell, the Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy and lead author, age isn’t usually considered a factor in diversity, equity and inclusion program planning. Morrow-Howell, co-director of WashU’s Friedman Center for Aging says age is a fundamental component of diversity and advocates for a more “age-just society.” 

A recent study led by Brown School assistant professor, Proscovia Nabunya, also a Public Health Faculty Scholar, and researchers from Makerere University in Uganda suggests that group-based interventions could effectively reduce HIV-related stigma among adolescents living with the virus. The Suubi4Stigma trial in Uganda tested three approaches: usual care, group-cognitive behavioral therapy, and family strengthening through multiple family groups. Nabunya emphasized the significance of group settings in providing peer support and enhancing coping skills. Read more about the trial.

Have you noticed the high cost of rent these days? A new two-year study by Carol Camp Yeakey in Arts & Sciences and Public Health Faculty Scholars, Vetta Sanders Thompson and Will Ross will assess how corporate investors in St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Atlanta are taking advantage of single-family renters to maximize profits at the expense of tenant safety and well-being. 

WashU alumna and former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, returned to WashU earlier this month with an important message: universities can no longer consider medicine and health policy as separate and distinct fields. She sat down with WashU's J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine, William G. Powderly, to discuss "the importance of transdisciplinary education, the need for integrated data, and the vital role of public health in responding to emerging threats." Click here to read about the visit, and here to watch the event recording.

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