The WashU Public Health Moment 

November 23, 2025

Cancer patients who quit smoking live significantly longer than those who don’t quit. A multicenter trial led by WashU and funded by the National Cancer Institute aims to help cancer centers choose, implement, and sustain effective programs to provide tobacco treatment to all patients who need it. 

WashU Public Health offers scholarships to students from St. Louis, the region and the heartland to boost access to its MPH program and strengthen the Midwestern public health workforce. 

A licensed social worker and social epidemiologist, WashU Public Health’s Beth Stelson examines how secondhand exposure to trauma affects the mental and physical health and well-being of professionals who treat patients who have experienced trauma.

The Talking Public Health seminar series features leading thinkers in public health at WashU and elsewhere. Christina L. Stallings, a professor of molecular microbiology at WashU Medicine, gave a talk November 6 titled, “Combating the tuberculosis global health crisis.” Stallings studies tuberculosis, the most common infectious disease in the world, and how its bacteria defend themselves against assault by immune cells and antibiotics.

The next Talking Public Health seminar will be at noon Wednesday, December 3, when William Effah, a lecturer at WashU Public Health, speaks on, "Building for Impact: Directions for Public Health Education and Practice." The talk will be in the Havana Room at 4240 Duncan Avenue and available via Zoom.

Dean Sandro Galea talks with Cal Halvorsen, an associate professor at WashU's Brown School and a secondary faculty member at WashU Public Health, about older populations, productive aging, and longer lives.

WashU Public Health Dean Sandro Galea and faculty members Ross Brownson, Feng Jiao and Byron Powell were named to the Institute for Scientific Analysis’ Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list. The honor is given to scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields of research, and whose exceptional and communitywide contributions shape the future of science, technology and academia globally.

WashU Public Health Professor of Practice Kim Thuy Seelinger, JD, spoke at the Harvard Kennedy School about justice responses to conflict-related gender-based violence and how the dismantling of public health systems impedes attempts to obtain justice for victims. Her remarks were part of a panel discussion that kicked off a three-day academic workshop on conflict-related sexual violence and armed groups.

Dean Sandro Galea speaks with "St. Louis on the Air" about a report he co-authored outlining a five-step, evidence-based roadmap to safer firearm regulation. (Source: St. Louis Public Radio)

A policy analysis co-authored by WashU Public Health’s Tim McBride, Sarah Eisenstein, and Claire Ami Pavlides explains dramatic shifts in Missouri Medicaid coverage. (Source: Fox2 Now)

Thank you to those who have completed the strategic planning survey. We welcome feedback from all members of our extended community on our plan via a brief survey that should take about 5-10 minutes to complete; the survey will be open until Wednesday, November 26. Thank you in advance for helping us move forward toward our mission. And, as a bit of extra incentive, those who participate can choose to enter a raffle to win WashU SPH swag.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services issued an advisory warning October 25 about 7-OH products. Sometimes called synthetic kratom, these products are sold in gas stations, smoke shops, and online in the form of gummies, candy, supplements, drinks and drink powders. 7-OH products are addictive and potentially deadly. However, most St. Louisans (85%) did not hear about the advisory. 

iHeard is a listening project of WashU Public Health's Health Communication Research Laboratory. iHeard surveys about 200 people weekly who live or work in St. Louis to find out what they know, believe and care about in regard to health.

Anita Kabarambi, a doctoral student in the Public Health Sciences program at WashU Public Health, is the first and corresponding author on, "Preliminary Impact of Public Health Messaging on HPV Vaccine Uptake Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women Living with HIV in Central Uganda," published in AIDS and Behavior.

WashU Public Health Professor Lindsay Stark is the corresponding author on, "Setting Research Priorities To Support Arabic-speaking Newcomer Students Resettled in the U.S.: Findings from a Consensus Ranking Activity," published in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. Co-authors include Ilana Seff, an SPH research associate professor.

WashU Public Health's Emmanuel Tetteh, a research assistant professor; Harry Obeng, an MPH student; Sara Malone, an assistant professor; and Ginger McKay, an assistant professor, co-authored, "Dissemination of a facilitation strategy to de-implement unnecessary postoperative antibiotics at children's hospitals: The Optimizing Perioperative Antibiotic in Children (OPerAtiC) trial 2.0," published in Implementation Science.

In this episode, "Health as a Human Right with Benjamin Mason Meier," podcast host Salma Abdalla speaks with Meier, a professor of global health policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about the history of the idea of health as a human right, from the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) to the HIV/AIDS movement and today’s debates over the pandemic treaty. Meier explains how international law can make the right to health more than just a slogan, and why WHO’s reluctance to engage politically can weaken its mission. The conversation explores the evolving role of human rights in the face of change and shifting world order.

"Complicating the Narrative” is supported by WashU Public Health and the Frick Initiative.

The WashU Public Health Moment is published by the School of Public Health Office of Communications. You can reach us at sphcomms@wustl.edu.

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