WashU Public Health events

Talking Public Health: Dana March Palmer, PhD, MPH
2025-03-19 09:00 - 10:00 (America/Chicago) | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Dana March Palmer, PhD, MPH, senior associate provost for academic programs, associate dean for doctoral education in public health, director of undergraduate studies in public health and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, spoke March 19 on “Public Health Education for the Next Generation; Here and Now, Why and How.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-dana-march-palmer-phd-mph/

Talking Public Health: Sarah Moreland-Russell, PhD, MPH
2025-03-18 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Sarah Moreland-Russell, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in the School of Public Health, spoke March 18 on “Power and possibility of policy: Implementation Science for promoting equitable and sustainable public health policy.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-sarah-moreland-russell-phd-mph/

Talking Public Health: Jaime Miranda, MD, MSc, PhD
2025-03-11 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Jaime Miranda, MD, MSc, PhD, professor and head of the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, and International Distinguished Visiting Scholar, spoke March 11 on “Rethinking Chronic Disease: From Healthcare Services to Sustainable Well-Being.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-jaime-miranda-md-msc-phd/

Talking Public Health: Elisabeth Stelson, PhD, MPH
2025-03-05 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Elisabeth Stelson, PhD, MPH, MSW, spoke March 5 on “Advancing occupational vicarious trauma research to protect healthcare and social service workforces.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-elisabeth-stelson-phd-mph/

SPH Assembly – March 2025
2025-03-05 10:00 - 11:00 | Umrath Lounge, Umrath Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Notes from March 5, 2025, Assembly
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/sph-assembly-march-2025/

Talking Public Health: Zachary Butzin-Dozier, PhD, MPH
2025-02-27 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Zachary Butzin-Dozier, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist in the Division of Biostatistics at UC Berkeley School of Public Health, spoke Feb. 27 on “Evaluating Long COVID through Targeted Machine Learning.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-zachary-butzin-dozier-phd-mph/

Thinking Public Health: Navigating political divides to promote the health of the public
2025-02-21 10:00 - 11:00 | Kuehner Court, Weil Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
We are at a pivot point for public health. Although public health has been responsible for extraordinary gains in population health over the past two centuries, it finds itself facing a backlash in public esteem that threatens to undermine work the field has done, and that it can do in coming decades. There are many reasons for this challenge. They include willful disinformation spread by cynical actors who have undermined public health to advance personal gain, the emergence of new technologies that have upended what we previously knew about health communication, and, in the aftermath of COVID-19, public health being seen — fairly or unfairly — as aligning with one political party at the expense of engagement with whole populations.

This poses a tremendous challenge for public health. Compounding this problem, we are grappling with the re-election of a U.S. president who, in a previous term, showed himself to be in disagreement with some of the aims of public health and whose recent actions suggest a reprise, perhaps even more so, of his first term. This should be a “mirror-to-self” moment that requires all of us in public health to take a long, hard look at ourselves and ask: How can we reimagine how we think, talk, and act, to position the field to improve the health of all of the public in deeply divided times? The following five readings might be helpful to ground the discussion.

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/epdf/10.2105/AJPH.90.5.702

https://www.drvinayprasad.com/p/nature-the-science-journal-endorsed?utm_source=publication-search

https://sandrogalea.substack.com/p/the-political-decision-that-health

https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/0817945822_59.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/opinion/covid-vaccine-republicans/html
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/thinking-public-health-navigating-political-divides-to-promote-the-health-of-the-public/

Talking Public Health: Stephanie L. Mazzucca-Ragan
2025-02-19 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Stephanie L. Mazzucca-Ragan, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School, spoke Feb. 19 on “Moving evidence to impact: working with organizations to promote evidence-based practice.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-stephanie-l-mazzucca-ragan/

Talking Public Health: Pasquale Rummo, PhD, MPH
2025-02-13 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Pasquale Rummo, PhD, MPH, associate professor, Department of Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, spoke Feb. 13, 2025, on “Social Determinants of Diet and Strategies to Improve Healthy Eating Behaviors: Food and Nutrition Policy.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-pasquale-rummo-phd-mph/

Talking Public Health: Alvin Thomas, PhD
2025-02-12 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Alvin Thomas, PhD, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Psychiatry at WashU Medicine, spoke Feb. 12, 2025, on “Research Frameworks to Promote Healthy Aging: Insights from Frailty & Resilience.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-alvin-thomas-phd/

SPH Assembly – February 2025
2025-02-12 10:00 - 11:00 | Umrath Lounge, Umrath Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Notes from Feb. 12, 2025, Assembly
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/sph-assembly-february-2025/

Talking Public Health: Theresa Bastain, PhD, MPH
2025-02-11 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Theresa (Tracy) Bastain, PhD, MPH, associate professor, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, spoke Feb. 11, 2025, on “Maternal Origins of Health and Disease: Investigating Pregnancy as a Susceptible Window of Exposure for Women’s Health.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-theresa-bastain-phd-mph/

Talking Public Health: Katherine Dowdell, PhD, MS
2025-02-06 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Katherine Dowdell, PhD, MS, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow in biology at the University of Texas at Austin, spoke Feb. 6, 2025, on “Opportunistic pathogens in municipal drinking water: Combating a threat to public health.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-katherine-dowdell-phd-ms/

Talking Public Health: Carrie Breton, ScD, MPH
2025-02-05 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Carrie Breton, ScD, MPH, a professor of population and public health sciences and director of the Maternal And Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Center for Environmental Health Disparities at the University of Southern California, spoke Feb. 5, 2025, on the “Impact of the prenatal environment and stress on child health and biology.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-carrie-breton-scd-mph/

Talking Public Health: Mengmeng Ji, PhD
2025-02-04 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Mengmeng Ji, PhD, an instructor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at WashU Medicine, spoke Feb. 4, 2025, on “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Public Health: Applications in Obesity Research.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-mengmeng-ji-phd/

Talking Public Health: Massy Mutumba, PhD
2025-01-30 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Massy Mutumba, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, spoke Jan. 30, 2025, on “Promoting Mental Health and Resilience Among Adolescents: School-Based Strategies and Innovations.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-massy-mutumba-phd/

Thinking Public Health: Changing the conversation: On the utility of symbols and statements
2025-01-28 09:00 - 10:00 | Kuehner Court, Weil Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Building a healthier world starts with how we communicate the ideas of public health. When we speak, does the public listen? Or do we sometimes communicate in ways that can cause the public to tune us out? We aspire to moral clarity in what we say and do. But moral clarity can tip into scolding or even, at times, moral grandstanding. We are in a moment, informed by the lessons of the 2024 election, when it seems appropriate to take an honest look at how we communicate a progressive vision for a healthier world, how our communication style can best serve our mission, and how it may, at times, poorly support our capacity to create a big-tent movement for health.

This Thinking Public Health session will hold space to discuss the utility of the symbols and statements we embrace in our engagement with the public and whether there is reason to rethink some aspects of how we talk about health and the forces that shape it, to ensure we can most effectively create a healthier world in this moment. This following four readings might be helpful to ground the discussion.

“The Power of the Powerless,” Vaclav Havel.

“In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries,” Affective Science.

“Resisting the Allure of Moral Grandstanding,” Sandro Galea.

“Enough with the Land Acknowledgements,” Kathleen DuVal, guest essay, The New York Times.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/thinking-public-health-changing-the-conversation-on-the-utility-of-symbols-and-statements/

Talking Public Health: Daniel Zhao, PhD
2025-01-23 12:00 - 13:00 | 333A Goldfarb Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Daniel Zhao, PhD, associate dean for research and Presidential Professor of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Hudson College of Public Health, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences, spoke Jan. 23, 2025, on “Statistical Analysis of Family Studies with Kinship Matrices: Applications to the Strong Heart Family Study.” See here for a recording of the talk.
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/talking-public-health-daniel-zhao-phd/

SPH Assembly – January 2025
2025-01-15 10:00 - 11:00 | Umrath Lounge, Umrath Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, 63105, United States
Notes from Jan. 15, 2025, Assembly
View full details of the event at https://schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu/event/sph-assembly-january-2025/
