Events - WashU School of Public Health

Public Health Ideas convenings

Science for Health Systems

Wednesday, October 29, through Friday, October 31
At WashU and online

Learn more and register

A Conversation with Kenneth Cole

Thursday, November 6, 4 p.m. CT
At WashU and online

Learn more and register

Bringing Science to Society: A Conversation with Katelyn Jetelina: Wednesday, November 12, 4 p.m., at WashU and online. See here for details and to register.

View details on SPH Convenings

Events here and near

AmeriSpeak Panel and Talk, October 28, 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. in Seigle Hall, Room L006. “Closer to the Truth: How NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel Tackles the Challenges of Modern Polling.” To register, email weidenbaumcenter@wustl.edu.
An introduction to the scholarship of WashU’s provost. November 4, at 5:30 p.m. Provost Mark D. West will speak at Graham Chapel. His talk is titled, “An Introduction to the Scholarship of WashU’s Provost: Life and Love; Systems and Stories — and Japanese Law.” Register here.
Skandalaris and public health entrepreneurship. November 4, from 7 to 8 p.m, the Skandalaris Center will host an event introducing opportunities for public health students, faculty and staff to engage with WashU’s innovation and startup ecosystem. The event includes pizza and informal conversation. Register here.
NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (HAQAST) meeting, November 6 and 7 at the Knight Center. The event will feature short presentations from scientists and stakeholders, plus time for networking and discussion. Register here.
Global Health Seminar with Kim Thuy Seelinger. From 12 p.m to 1 p.m. on November 10, The Global Health Center is hosting a seminar with Kim Thuy Seelinger, JD, professor of practice, WashU School of Public Health. The seminar is titled “War, Gender, and Justice: What’s Public Health Got to Do With It?” and will be located at the Farrell Learning & Teaching Center. See here for details and to register.
The Vaccine Center Symposium will be November 12, 8 a.m. to noon, at Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Medical Campus, where WashU Public Health Dean Sandro Galea will speak alongside leading experts in vaccine science and public health. Register here.
Environmental research gathering. From 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. November 13 in Umrath Lounge, the Center for the Environment invites WashU graduate students to attend the Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Environmental Research Dinner, an evening of presentations on climate scholarship with networking, community building and dinner. See here for details and to register.
The Health Decoded Series will take place at 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 20, at Bauer Hall join WashU Olin Business for an engaging monthly seminar series where leaders in health and business pull back the curtain on real challenges, real solutions, and the lessons that matter most. Register here.
CAHSPER research seminar, November 20, noon to 1 p.m. at WashU and online. The Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research (CAHSPER) will host a research seminar with Alexander O. Everhart, PhD, an instructor in WashU Medicine’s Division of General Medicine & Geriatrics. Much of his work focuses on how safe, effective medical technologies come to market and how regulatory decisions shape the quality of these technologies. Register here.
The annual Enola Proctor Lecture will be at 9 a.m. November 21 in Holmes Lounge on the Danforth Campus and also will be available via webinar. Sponsored by SPH’s Dissemination & Implementation Science Innovation Research Network (DISIRN), the lecture will feature Greg Aarons, PhD, of the University of California, San Diego, who will speak on, “The Why and How of Leadership and Teamwork for Implementation.” See the lecture page for details and to register. Because of space constraints, registration is required.
CAHSPER research seminar, December 18, noon to 1 p.m. at WashU and online
The Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research (CAHSPER) will host a research seminar with Todd P. Lewis, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics at WashU Medicine. Lewis will present on health system performance and global survey research, drawing from his work with the QuEST Network and the People’s Voice Survey. Register here.

Talking Public Health seminar series

This seminar series features presentations by leading thinkers in public health at WashU and elsewhere. Speakers present their work and engage with the audience to advance the ideas that shape public health. Those who cannot attend may participate over Zoom.

Scheduled seminars: Check back here for talk locations, Zoom links and other details not yet listed. And please feel free to view recordings of our previous talks, available at the bottom of this list.

Oct. 29, noon, Susy Stark, PhD, professor of public health at the School of Public Health, will give a talk titled, “No Place Like Home.” The talk will be in the Havana Room, on the second floor of 4240 Duncan Avenue. The talk also will be available over Zoom.
Nov. 5, noon, Patrick Fowler, MA, PhD, professor of public health, director of the doctoral program in public health sciences at the School of Public Health. The talk will be in the Cortex district’s Dorris Building, 20 South Sarah Street, in the first-floor Showroom. The talk also will be available over Zoom.
Nov. 6, noon, Christina Stallings, PhD, professor of molecular microbiology at WashU Medicine, “Combating the tuberculosis global health crisis.” Location TBD.
Nov. 12, noon, Sara Malone, MSW, PhD, assistant professor of public health at the School of Public Health, “Advancing Systems for the Delivery of Pediatric Care.” The talk will be on the Danforth Campus in 162 McDonnell Hall.
Dec. 3, noon, William Effah, MD, MPH, MBA, lecturer at the School of Public Health. The talk will be in the Havana Room, on the second floor of 4240 Duncan Avenue.
Dec. 10, noon, Tim McBride, MS, PhD, the Bernard Becker Professor and co-director of the School of Public Health’s Policy and Structural Solutions Innovation Research Network, “Translating Research to Policy: The Example of Medicaid.” The talk will be in the Havana Room, on the second floor of 4240 Duncan Avenue.
Jan. 14, noon, Ross Brownson, PhD, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
Jan. 21, noon, Kate Barbier, MPH, MSW, lecturer at WashU Public Health. Talk details TBD.
Jan. 28, noon, Emmanuel Tetteh, MD, research assistant professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
Feb. 4, noon, Derek Brown, MA, PhD, professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
Feb. 11, noon, Rachel Garg, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
Feb. 12 TBD
Feb. 18, noon, Lindsay Stark, MPH, DrPH, director of undergraduate public health education, professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
Feb. 25, noon, Amy McQueen, PhD, professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
March 4, noon, Ragini Maddipati, MSW, MPH, senior lecturer at WashU Public Health. Talk details TBD.
March 18, noon, Ilana Seff, MPH, DrPH, research associate professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
March 25, noon, Doug Luke, MA, PhD, the Distinguished Professor in Public Health Systems Science at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
April 1, noon, Angela Hobson, MPH, PhD, associate dean for education, professor of teaching at WashU Public Health. Talk details TBD.
April 8, noon, Rachel Tabak, PhD, RD, associate professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
April 15, noon, Morgan Shields, MS, PhD, assistant professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
April 22, noon, Jean-Francois Trani, MS, MPhil, PhD, professor of public health at the School of Public Health. Talk details TBD.
April 29, noon, Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, RN, MS, MA, associate dean of faculty affairs at the School of Public Health, and the Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Professor in Public Health. Talk details TBD.

Recordings of previous talks

Fall 2025 semester

Ross Hammond, PhD, the Distinguished Professor in Public Health System Science at the School of Public Health, gave a talk titled, “Toward Precision Prevention in Population Health: Leveraging Agent-based Models.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Rodrigo Reis, MS, PhD, professor of public health at the School of Public Health, gave a talk October 15, 2025, titled, “Advancing People, Health and Place Research and Impact.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Abigail Barker, MA, PhD, a research associate professor at the School of Public Health, gave a talk October 8, 2025, titled, “Missouri Medicaid Policies to Build a Systematic and Evidence-Informed Approach to Maternal and Infant Health.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Lora Iannotti, MA, PhD, the Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor and co-director of the Food and Agriculture Mission (FARM) Innovation Research Network at the School of Public Health, gave a talk titled, “Why the 3 E’s of the E3 Nutrition Lab matter for public health.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Matthew Kreuter, MPH, PhD, the Kahn Family Professor of Public Health and co-director of the Health Communications Collaborative Innovation Research Network at the School of Public Health, gave a talk titled, “How Healthy is Today’s Health Information Ecosystem?” See here for a recording of the talk.
Maura Kepper, MPH, PhD, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health, spoke on, “From Insight to Impact: Designing Sustainable, Context-Aware, and Personalized Care for Chronic Conditions.” The talk was September 10, 2025. See here for a recording of the talk.
Mary Politi, PhD, a professor at WashU Public Health, spoke September 3, 2025, on “Multilevel Interventions Supporting Health Decisions Across Settings.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Joe Steensma, MPH, MA, EdD, public health professor of practice at the School of Public Health (SPH), spoke August 27, 2025, on “From Toyota to Tilapia: Sustainable Aquaculture Through the Deployment of Lean Production Systems in Rural Nigeria.” See here for a recording of the talk.

Spring 2025 semester

Catherine K. Ettman, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, spoke May 7 on “Population mental health, assets, and policy: leveraging longitudinal survey and electronic health data to understand drivers of population health.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Anusha M. Vable, ScD, MPH, an associate professor and associate director of the Center for Health Equity in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, spoke May 1 on “The Education System as a Potential Solution to Health Inequities.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Kirsten Beyer, PhD, MPH, MS, a professor in the Division of Epidemiology & Social Sciences in the Institute for Health & Humanity at the Medical College of Wisconsin, spoke April 29 on “Structural Racism in Housing and Health Outcomes in the United States.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Kim Thuy Seelinger, JD, a research associate professor at the Brown School, spoke April 24 on “Substance, Systems, Survivors: The essential synergy of public health and international justice.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Deshira Wallace, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Health Behavior and a faculty fellow at the Carolina Population Center, spoke April 22 on “Examining the intersections of mental health and physical health in U.S. and global research.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Susan M. Kiene, PhD, MPH, is a professor of global health in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and the director of Building Research Initiatives Advancing Global Health Equity (BRIDGE) at San Diego State University School of Public Health. She spoke April 17 on “Developing and Scaling Evidence-Based Interventions: Partnerships for Evolving Community Priorities.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Julia Fleckman, PhD, MPH, is an assistant professor in the Department of Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, and also serves as the director of research and evaluation for the Tulane University Violence Prevention Institute. She spoke April 14 on “Getting at the Roots: The Role of Public Health and Community-Partnered Research in Preventing Violence.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Marcus Howard, PhD, founder and CEO of GreaterHealth Pharmacy & Wellness in St. Louis’ Delmar DivINe, spoke April 9 on “Public Health in Action: The Story of GreaterHealth Pharmacy & Wellness.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Andrew Subica, PhD, an associate professor of social medicine, population & public health at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, and founding co-director for the U.S. Veterans Affairs Center for Pacific Islander Veterans Health, spoke April 8 on “Community Engaged Research to Address Health Disparities.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Stephen E. Lankenau, PhD, professor and director of the Medical Cannabis Research Center at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, spoke April 3 on “New Directions in Cannabis and Overdose Prevention Research.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Gregory Phillips II, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Medical Social Sciences and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern, spoke April 2 on “Engaging, Educating, and Empowering: A New Paradigm for Health Research and Evaluation with and for LGBTQ+ Communities.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Opeyemi Babajide, PhD MSc, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Urban Health Collaborative at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health, spoke March 27 on “The Intersection of Perinatal Health, Migration and Social Determinants of Health.” See here for a recording of the talk.
Lindsey Filiatreau, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at WashU Medicine, spoke March 19 on, “’What I know is that people don’t die from HIV, they die from stress:’ Closing the mental health treatment gap for people living with HIV in the Global South.” See here for a recording of the talk.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

School of Public Health Assemblies

These monthly gatherings serve as an opportunity for the WashU Public Health community to hear progress updates and to discuss steps we are taking to build the school. We hope that all SPH faculty and staff will attend these assemblies. There will be a Zoom link for those unable to attend. Locations will be posted here when finalized.

Scheduled Assemblies:

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 10-11 a.m.
Thursday, Dec. 11, 10-11 a.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 10-11 a.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 10-11 a.m.
Tuesday, March 10, 10-11 a.m.
Tuesday, April 14, 10-11 a.m.

Agendas and notes from previous assemblies:

Thinking Public Health conversations

The monthly Thinking Public Health gatherings are an opportunity for in-depth conversation within the WashU community about topics of current concern in public health. These are moderated, structured, in-person discussions observing the Chatham House Rule to encourage open conversation. If anyone has specific topics they would like to be considered for one of these conversations, please email Dean Sandro Galea.

Dates for 2025-26 Thinking Public Health gatherings are posted here; locations will be posted here when finalized.

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 11 a.m.-noon. NOTE: This time has changed.

This will be in the Dorris Building in the Cortex district, 20 South Sarah Street, in the Showroom on the first floor.

Topic: Public health in the age of MAHA

Public health is going through a period of unprecedented upheaval, catalyzed by policies wrought by the Trump administration, and spurred by the MAHA movement. Long-standing approaches are being reconsidered, with renewed debates around vaccines, shifting attention to unconventional areas of nutritional policy — for example, proposals to regulate ultra-processed foods or expand supplements guidance — and broader questions about the role of expertise in guiding health decisions. These developments present both challenges and opportunities, raising important questions about what drives these shifts and what they might mean for how public health thinks, prioritizes, and acts moving forward.

Pre-reads: