A note from the dean
As we look ahead to the 2025-26 academic year, all School of Public Health (SPH) meeting dates can be found here. We do not have rooms allocated yet, given some uncertainties on space availability, but those details will be added on the website when available. As mentioned in a previous note, there will be a series of regular meetings in the upcoming academic year that I shall be hosting, and all will be listed on the website, but just for a summary, a few key meetings:
Talking Public Health seminars. Weekly, with invited speakers from inside and outside the WashU community presenting about science. These are generally Wednesdays at noon. The first one of the academic year is this week; see note below.
School Assembly for all SPH faculty and staff. Monthly, to discuss items relevant to ongoing school structure and function.
Thinking Public Health. Monthly, conversations for faculty, staff and students. Chatham House rule conversations, intended to be open discussions about difficult topics linked to public health.
Faculty and dean breakfasts. Monthly, opportunities for informal conversations about issues of the moment relevant to faculty.
Staff and dean breakfasts. Monthly, an opportunity for informal conversations about issues of the moment relevant to staff.
Student coffee chats with dean. Monthly, open to all students, an opportunity for informal conversations about issues relevant to students.
Doctoral student meetings with dean. Monthly, open to doctoral students, with focus on mentoring and on issues of particular relevance to doctoral students. This is part of the fuller suite of doctoral trainee development opportunities.
Early-stage investigators (ESI) meetings with dean. Monthly, open to early-career faculty (self-identified). These meetings will center around mentoring and a broad range of issues (from science to the world around us) and also will be an opportunity for conversations about other issues relevant to ESI faculty. This is part of a full suite of faculty development opportunities.
We are working on an SPH calendar that shall be downloadable to Outlook for anyone who finds that helpful. We will communicate about that when it is available.
Events this week
Talking Public Health, with Joe Steensma
This academic year’s Talking Public Health kickoff will be at noon, August 27, featuring Joe Steensma, MPH, MA, EdD, a public health professor of practice at the School of Public Health. He will give a talk titled “From Toyota to Tilapia: Sustainable Aquaculture Through the Deployment of Lean Production Systems in Rural Nigeria.” The talk will be in Room 3104, on the third floor of 4300 Duncan Avenue, the SPH’s space in the Cortex Innovation District. The talk also will be available over Zoom.
Memorial for Jeremy Goldbach
A memorial celebration to remember and honor Jeremy Goldbach, a close colleague and friend to many in the school, and the inaugural Masters & Johnson Distinguished Professor in Sexual Health and Education at the Brown School, will take place at 4 p.m. Tuesday, August 26, in the Clark-Fox Forum in Hillman Hall. Goldbach, who also served as associate dean for faculty affairs at the Brown School, died Saturday, June 7, of cancer. He was 42. Please RSVP to attend the memorial celebration. See here for thelivestream.
From the associate dean for education
Happy First Day of Classes for Fall 2025! A few notes as we start the semester.
Syllabi: Please remember to upload your syllabus here and post to Canvas by your first class meeting. It is critical we have all syllabi on file for accreditation purposes, including submitting our final self-study to CEPH in October. I thank you for your partnership on this.
Student Support: If you have any concerns about students in your class or working with you in your research, please reach out to Katharine Pei at kpei@wustl.edu. She is associate dean of student affairs within WashU’s Division of Student Affairs, and is helping us in the School of Public Health. She can help faculty and students navigate their way to resources and services that are important for student engagement and success.
Professional Development for Instructional Effectiveness (and Excellence!): Be sure to check out the wealth of training opportunities offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning. A sampling of upcoming events include: Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement; AI Learning Community: Teaching with Custom AI Chatbots; The Allure of Play: Using Game-Inspired Design to Spark Engagement and Deep Learning; Building Community and Civility in the Classroom; Developing Effective Summative Assessments, and much more. All sessions are open to full- and part-time faculty, doctoral students, and postdocs.
Workday Student: This is the last go-live semester at WashU for Workday Student, and all public health academic programs have transitioned to the SPH academic unit within Workday. If you find Workday Student challenging to navigate, you are not alone! Please visit this website for information on tutorials, trainings, support office hours, and the Workday helpline.
‘Complicating the Narrative’ podcast
A new episode of the “Complicating the Narrative” podcast with Salma Abdalla, SPH assistant professor, director of the Healthier Futures Lab, and a co-director of the Global Health Futures Innovation Research Network, is available for viewing and listening.
This episode features Dr. Anders Nordström, director of the Health Diplomacy Initiative at the Karolinska Institutet and the Stockholm School of Economics. Drawing from his distinguished career — including his roles as acting director-general of the World Health Organization, Sweden’s first Ambassador for Global Health, and head of the Secretariat for the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response — Nordström examines the evolving practice of health diplomacy in our interconnected world. Together, Abdalla and Nordström explore how health diplomacy might achieve healthier — not merely longer — lives for populations. They also discuss why optimism is essential in navigating today’s complex global health challenges.
This podcast is supported by the School of Public Health and the Frick Initiative. You can find it on YouTube, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, Podbean, or wherever you get your podcasts.
New to the school
We welcome a new secondary faculty member and recognize a staff member’s new position at SPH.
Emily Cloessner, MD, MSPH, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at WashU Medicine, joins the School of Public Health secondary faculty as an assistant professor. An expert on global emergency medicine, Cloessner studies how to adapt protocols developed in high-income countries to resource-limited settings.
Alexis Marsh, MSW, joins the School’s Innovation Research Networks (IRN) team as the senior network manager for the Health Communication Collaborative IRN. Marsh previously directed the iHeard national coordinating center within SPH’s Health Communication Research Laboratory. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the laboratory’s RADx-UP initiative, part of a national network of community-engaged projects to respond to COVID-19’s health disparities in diverse populations.
Notables
Iannotti to speak at International Congress of Nutrition
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, will speak at the International Congress of Nutrition 2025 conference in Paris on Tuesday, August 26. She joins a scientific symposium exploring how to harmonize efforts to evaluate biodiversity and diet so as to better assess their impacts on global food systems and health.
Filiatreau joins JIAS statistical committee
Lindsey M. Filiatreau, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health, has joined the statistical committee of the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS).
Jiao named fellow of the American Chemical Society
Feng Jiao, PhD, the Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and whose role also supports the School of Public Health’s Food and Agriculture Research Mission (FARM), has been named a fellow of the American Chemical Society.
Funding opportunities
Here and Next research grants
Here and Next Grants support interdisciplinary research activities at WashU across disciplines, departments, and schools. The grant program is designed to provide initial funding and assistance for interdisciplinary research of the highest caliber in alignment with the larger Here and Next Plan. These grants support work in public health, global health, environmental research, digital transformation, and research impacting the St. Louis community. Grant programs accepting applications can be found on InfoReady.
Here and Next Seed Grant Programs, available to WashU faculty members, have their own specific aims and objectives, deadlines, and requirements. Please see each page for details: Spark Funding Grants; Ignite Interdisciplinary Grants; and Transcend Initiative Grants. FY 2026 calls for proposals are now available, and application portals for all programs are available via InfoReady.
Also available are special topic seed grant opportunities that are collaborations with the Here and Next seed funding program and other campus entities whose goals align with Here and Next priority areas of research excellence. See each individual page for details: Global Incubator Seed Grants (FY 2026 applications are due at noon September 15); AI for Health Seed Grant; and Implementation Science Pilot Grant.
Training program on health and criminal justice
The Justice Community Overdose Innovation Network offers a one-year mentorship program for researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of public health and the criminal legal system. Called Learning Experiences to Advance Practice (LEAP), the program is offered on two tracks: an investigator track, designed for people interested in a career as an independent investigator; and a scholar track, for clinicians, practitioners and analysts interested in collaborating on such research. The deadline to apply is September 15. For more information, see here.
Papers of note
Kevin Y. Xu, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of psychiatry at WashU Medicine and a member of the secondary faculty at SPH, was the senior author on “Ten-year trends in opioid prescribing and vaso-occlusive crises in sickle cell disease: a population-based national cohort study (2011–2022),” published in The Lancet: Regional Health-Americas.
SPH’s Todd Combs, MA, PhD, a research assistant professor; Douglas Luke, MA, PhD, the Distinguished Professor in Public Health Systems Science; and Veronica Chaitan, MPH, a senior data analyst at SPH’s Center for Public Health Systems Science, co-authored, “Cooling down hotspots of retail tobacco products: addressing disparities in the built environment through policy,” published in Health & Place.
Kyle Pitzer, MSW, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at WashU Medicine and a member of the secondary faculty at SPH, co-authored “Loneliness Factors in Aging Veterans and Civilians: A Comparative Study,” published in Military Medicine.
Also of note
Dean Galea’s Healthiest Goldfish blog explores “the practical consequences of losing a country’s commitment to science.”
Looking ahead
SPH school assembly
The first School Assembly of this academic year will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, September 2. A location is being finalized and will be noted in the next Inside WashU Public Health newsletter. These monthly gatherings for SPH faculty and staff 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. There will be a Zoom link for those unable to attend in person.
The Longest Table
The Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement is hosting The Longest Table, a dinner-and-dialogue event, from 5-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 3, in Tisch Park. The event is an opportunity for students to meet new people, get more comfortable conversing with faculty and staff, and to find common ground while learning more about how to amicably engage with civic topics and in the St. Louis community. For more information and to RSVP, see here.
Dissemination & Implementation (D&I) Day
Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Day is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, September 5, in Clark-Fox Forum in Hillman Hall. Registration has closed.
SPH faculty development seminars
SPH will hold a faculty development seminar, on “Enhancing Your Mentorship Practice,” at noon September 16, with Alison Antes, PhD, of WashU Medicine. Antes directs a national program aimed at supporting early-career researchers and enhancing their leadership and management skills, and co-directs a coaching program for researchers facing issues related to research integrity or compliance. The location is yet to be determined, but register here to attend in person or over Zoom.
A second SPH faculty development seminar, on “Enhancing Effectiveness Through Communication Skills,” will be held at noon October 14, with John Horn of Olin Business School, location TBD. Register here to attend in person or over Zoom.
ITF Unbound: Resilience and Hope
Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures event, “ITF Unbound: Resilience and Hope,” 4 p.m. Tuesday, September 16, in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum main lobby. Focusing on broad themes and contemporary challenges, the ITF Unbound series brings together experts from diverse fields for an unscripted conversation that explores divergent approaches and perspectives, sparks intellectual connections, and inspires collaborations. For details and to RSVP.
Validating Your Idea: Pre-Seed Metrics that Matter
A hands-on workshop with startup advisor Jake Truemper on how to test assumptions, gather user insights, and validate early-stage ideas, hosted by the Skandalaris Center, 4-5 p.m., Thursday, September 18, in the Skandalaris Center, Mallinckrodt 128. For more information, see here.
D&I Bootcamp proposals
If you have a dissemination and implementation research proposal in the works, or an idea for one, submit a proposal for discussion at the D&I Proposal Development Bootcamp, co-sponsored by the Dissemination & Implementation Science Innovation Research Network (DISIRN). To participate, submit a concept paper by September 22. For more information, see the D&I Bootcamp page.
Visual Informed Consent Workshop
The Visual Informed Consent Workshop will be held from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. September 25 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center (EPNEC) on the Medical Campus. Informed-consent forms for research can be confusing for participants and challenging for study recruiters. Learn about a novel approach that uses visual elements & health literacy best practices to present such information in a simple, engaging way. Details and registration here.
Let us know
If you have SPH news, events or research to share, please send details to sphcomms@wustl.edu or Elizabethe Holland Durando, SPH director of communications and change management.