Inside WashU Public Health

July 14, 2025

RSVP for orientation and All-School Retreat  In last week’s newsletter, we shared details about the School of Public Health’s upcoming All-School Retreat, as well as details about our faculty and staff orientation. Thank you to our many colleagues who RSVP’d. For those who have not yet registered, please RSVP here for both the retreat and orientation; there is one link to register for both events. Orientation for staff will be held over breakfast, from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, August 13, at the Lopata House on the northwest side of the Danforth Campus. Orientation for faculty will be held over lunch, from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, August 13, also at the Lopata House. Our inaugural, in-person All-School Retreat will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, August 14, at the Bayer Event Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Pre-reads and an agenda for the ASR are here. New to WashU Public Health We welcome nine secondary faculty and four staff members to WashU Public Health this week. Our new secondary faculty members: Ellis Ballard, MSW, MPH, an assistant professor of practice at the Brown School, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as an assistant professor. A leader in advancing participatory methods to model the behavior of complex systems, Ballard uses computational simulation models and group model building to support community-driven strategies to improve health access and social justice. Jacquelyn Benson, PhD, MA, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Palliative Medicine at WashU Medicine, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as an associate professor. A family gerontologist, her research focuses on improving health outcomes and advancing health equity for older adults and caregiving families across the continuum of serious illness.   Hillary Anger Elfenbein, PhD, MA, the John K. Wallace Jr. and Ellen A. Wallace Distinguished Professor and a professor of organizational behavior at Olin Business, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as a professor. Her research is in organizational behavior, focusing in particular on emotion and emotional disorders in the workplace. Bradley Evanoff, MD, MPH, is the Richard A. and Elizabeth Henby Sutter Professor of Occupational, Industrial and Environmental Medicine, and director of the Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics at WashU Medicine. He joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as a professor. Evanoff studies the epidemiology and prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses, work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and workplace health promotion, including mental health.  Peter Uwe Fischer, PhD, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at WashU Medicine, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as a professor. Fischer directs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Death to Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis (DOLF) Project, which seeks to develop and evaluate new treatments and methods for mass drug administration to accelerate programs to eliminate parasitic worm infections.   Sunny C. Lin, PhD, MS, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of General Medicine & Geriatrics at WashU Medicine, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as an assistant professor. Her research aims to improve cost, quality, and access of health-care delivery for older adults by evaluating the impact of Medicare payment reform programs and innovative models of care delivery enabled by IT solutions and other innovations.  Mark Manary, MD, the James P. Keating Professor of Pediatrics and a professor in pediatric emergency medicine at WashU Medicine, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as a professor. An expert in childhood malnutrition, Manary helped develop a peanut-based ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) that has been successfully used to treat malnourished children worldwide. His nonprofit Project Peanut Butter produces and distributes the supplemental food in Malawi, Sierra Leone and Ghana. His research in malnutrition and his advocacy with United Nations agencies has successfully reshaped international policy and practice.  Caline Mattar, MD, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at WashU Medicine, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as an associate professor. Her research focuses on antimicrobial resistance, infection prevention and control in resource-limited settings, global health policy and the health workforce. She also serves as the director of global health education and partnerships at WashU Medicine.  Kevin Young Xu, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of psychiatry at WashU Medicine, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as an assistant professor. A health services researcher who specializes in substance use disorders, Xu studies how clinical trial findings on the treatment of and recovery from addiction apply in real-world situations, especially in populations underrepresented in research such as pregnant people. Our new SPH staff members: Jonesey Johnson joins the School of Public Health as manager of the master’s in public health program. In this role, which they previously held at the Brown School, Johnson works closely with the program director and associate dean of education on program administration and student support. They also sit on the Internal Advisory Council for WashU’s Center for the Environment and are a member of WashU’s Mindfulness Science and Practice cluster.  Jamie Macon, MHRM, joins the school’s Office of Faculty Affairs as the faculty affairs coordinator for appointment, promotion and tenure. In this role, she will support the operations of faculty review processes, manage candidate communications, and coordinate activities of the School’s Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Subcommittee.  Emily Sabens May joins the school’s communications team as art director. Sabens May is a visual designer who formerly worked at The Washington Post supporting the newsroom’s coverage of the environment, among other assignments. She attended Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., where she studied journalism and graphic design.  Tim Blaine Zielonko joins the school as data visualization manager. As a part of the data management team, he will partner with researchers to design interactive tools for analysis and dissemination. Zielenko comes from Mathematica Policy Research, where he led technical projects for federal agencies including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   Papers of note Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health, the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health, and editor-in-chief of JAMA Health Forum, wrote an editorial, “Inaction on artificial intelligence regulation in a time of upheaval,” published in JAMA Health Forum.  Mark Huffman, MD, MPH, the William Bowen Endowed Professor of Medicine at WashU Medicine, a secondary faculty member at the School of Public Health and a co-director of the School of Public Health’s Global Health Futures Innovation Research Network, co-authored “Trust, trust repair and public health: A scoping review,” published in Frontiers in Public Health.   Derek Brown, PhD, a professor at the School of Public Health, co-authored “Unemployment insurance generosity and child protective services involvement,” published in Child Abuse & Neglect.  Hilary Reno, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at WashU Medicine and a secondary faculty member at the School of Public Health, is senior author of  “Formalizing partnerships: How regional coalitions in sexual health can address the sexually transmitted infection epidemic,” published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.  Public Health Ideas A Public Health Ideas video of Phillip Marotta, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School and a secondary faculty member at the School of Public Health, talking with Dean Galea about harm reduction, substance-use treatment interventions, how the criminal justice system affects health disparities, and related topics.  Public Health news See here a story in the Record about an analysis authored by Rodrigo S. Reis, PhD, a professor at the School of Public Health. The research indicates that global progress to promote physical activity, a driver of better health, is in danger of stalling or reversing. The paper,  “Global progress in physical activity — Gains and growing threats,” was published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.   Also, a Record story about the School of Public Health welcoming its inaugural class of students this fall.Dean Galea and Lindsay Stark, DrPH, a professor in the School of Public Health and director of undergraduate public health education, are among the voices in this Arts & Sciences video about the Public Health & Society undergraduate program in Arts & Sciences.   Looking ahead A webinar at noon Thursday, July 24, is part of a series: “Methodological Approaches in Affordable Housing for Population Health: The Case of the MCMV Program.” Learn about the research strategies that provide insights into how Brazil’s Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV) program affects affordable housing, community, and public health. See details and register. Last day for orders Today – Monday, July 14 – is the final day to order SPH-branded polo shirts, half-zip fleece tops, green zip-up jackets and North Face jackets through our outside vendor. See https://wupublichealth.lipic.com for options. Let us know If you have SPH news or events to share, please send details to Elizabethe Holland Durando, SPH director of communications and change management.