Version March 30, 2025

School of Public Health website

The School of Public Health communications team manages the school website, currently available at schoolofpublichealth.washu.edu. A new, more permanent site is in active development and will include sections covering education, admissions, research, each of the school’s planned Innovation Research Networks, news, events, school governance, its faculty, staff, student-focused content and other areas. In addition, the site will have individual pages focused on each faculty and secondary faculty member. Faculty can choose to add links on their internal pages to external sites that represent their work if they so wish.

Faculty-specific sites

If a faculty member would like a website focused on a lab, center or program they are involved in, they are welcome to consult with the director of communications to determine whether such content is included in existing plans for the School of Public Health’s website. If not, the communications team can help in an advisory capacity, and can introduce those interested to the university’s self-service web publishing platform or to approved outside vendors.

A faculty member may create a site using the university’s self-service web publishing platform, WashU Sites, https://sites.wustl.edu. The platform has no cost, is mobile-friendly, accessible, and utilizes the WashU branding. WashU Sites is built and supported by teams within University Marketing & Communications, and Medicine Marketing & Communications. Of note, the current WashU Sites template does not yet use the updated WashU brand. As the brand rollout is expected to take two-three years, those who use WashU Sites will need to update their websites when that becomes possible. The communications team will help advise on such steps when the time comes.

Before creating a site, it is highly recommended to first determine the site’s audience(s), goals, and key features that are required. These requirements should then be compared with the features provided in the WashU Web Theme to make sure that the proposed content and functionality fall within the WashU Sites terms of use. The director of communications and the communications team’s web developer/designer and digital strategist can provide initial guidance and also help ensure that the content is not duplicative with that already available (or planned) for the SPH site.

Guidance on launching social media platforms

The School of Public Health’s communications team oversees the school’s official social media platforms – at present, on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Bluesky. Additionally, the Dean of the School of Public Health has an active LinkedIn account.

It is common for faculty to be active on social media, and many of these accounts are viewed as valuable ventures. Often, though, faculty and staff seek to create new profiles for individual labs, divisions, programs and other efforts, and these are often less successful due to low activity and/or a failure to maintain.

The communications team is not in a position to manage nonschool social media accounts, but does encourage faculty and staff to reach out for a discussion to help interested parties determine:

  • Whether a social media profile should be launched.
  • Which platforms might be most effective and suitable.
  • Who the audience would be.
  • Who will oversee and have access to the profile.
  • Quality-control steps.
  • Scheduling and maintenance plans for the profile.

Additionally, all accounts created on behalf of the university are subject to the university’s social media policy and must first be approved by University Marketing & Communications.

Those interested in establishing a social media profile should contact the director of communications at elizabethe.durando@wustl.edu.