From the dean

Rural Health Task Force

Dear colleagues,

Rural health is central to the concerns of public health, both domestically and globally. As we build WashU School of Public Health, we are well-positioned to embed within all we do questions of concern for rural health. A comprehensive rural health agenda needs to contend with issues of demographics, equitable access to health care, social and economic inequities, infrastructure constraints, workforce shortages, geographic isolation, and changes to the environment, including the adverse impacts of climate change on agricultural communities. Concomitantly, there are opportunities within such an agenda to highlight individual, organizational, community, and cultural assets in rural communities that can promote health. 

To ensure that, as we build, we keep rural health concerns at the heart of what we do as a school, we are constituting an ad hoc Rural Health Task Force. The task force is chartered to map current WashU research, community engagement, curriculum, faculty expertise, and programs related to rural health; to conduct a landscape analysis of rural health needs and assets in Missouri and the surrounding region, leveraging partnerships with state and local health departments, hospitals, and community-based organizations amongst others; to develop a framework for advancing rural health improvement through collaboration in research, education, and practice; to identify how rural health can become part of the school’s educational offerings, building on local and extending to global insights; to highlight opportunities for policy engagement and dissemination around rural health where WashU may have a comparative advantage; and to identify funding priorities and opportunities from state and federal agencies, philanthropic organizations, and private-sector partners that align with the emerging research agenda. 

The task force will prepare a preliminary report that summarizes key findings from the mapping and landscape analysis exercises; identifies opportunities for advancing a research, educational, and practice agenda on rural health; and provides recommendations for areas to be prioritized by the school over the next three years to build a sustainable program of engagement with this agenda.

The preliminary report will serve as a foundation for broad consultations with faculty, staff, and students from across WashU and will be further refined to incorporate these insights. Next, workshops with rural health stakeholders from representative organizations external to WashU will be convened, creating space to listen, learn, and ensure that community and partner priorities are centered in shaping the school’s next steps in rural health. 

The final work product will be a white paper (e.g., A Rural Health Research Agenda) that articulates research priorities, actionable recommendations, and implementation pathways that will be used to catalyze coordinated investment and collaboration. Our goal is to have the white paper completed by the end of spring 2026. The full Terms of Reference for the task force can be found here. 

I am grateful to the following faculty and staff who have agreed to be a part of this task force: Morven McLean (chair), Abigail Barker, ThuVan Dinh, Lindsey Filiatreau, Maura Kepper, Lisa Klesges, Alexis Marsh, Tim McBride and to everyone in our community who will engage in the task force’s deliberations, and to the team from the Dean’s Office and the Office of Networks & Innovation who will staff the task force.

I look forward to reading and learning from the task force report, and then to advancing our collective agenda forward informed by this work.

Warmly,

Sandro

From the associate dean for education

Note from the director of student applied practice

The Office of Student Applied Practice is looking for new opportunities for Summer 2026 student practicum (applied practice) experiences.

We are seeking recommendations for community partners to participate in the Public Health Practice Corps, a cohort-based model in which small groups of students work collaboratively with organizations, faculty, and each other to develop and implement projects, provide support for public health initiatives, and further their application of foundational skills. Students will receive instructional guidance and support from our faculty as well as day-to-day supervision from experienced professionals working in partner organizations. Students will complete their required applied practice experience deliverables and contribute to the work of partners in a meaningful way. 

WashU faculty and staff also may host MPH students for a traditional three-credit (360-hour) practicum.

Please contact Kate Barbier or Bill Effah to make a recommendation or if you are interested in hosting a student this summer.

Note from the director of doctoral programs

Colleagues, 

Thank you for the productive conversation at the December faculty breakfast regarding the vision for doctoral admissions and funding in the new school. The core elements of ongoing doctoral student student admissions and funding we discussed were: (A) The school will pay for tuition and benefits for all admitted doctoral students; and (B) Stipends for doctoral students will be funded through a combination of school resources, faculty research grants, and training fellowships. In order to make this model work effectively, all incoming doctoral students will be matched for their stipend-funded work with specific primary or secondary faculty of the school. We will complement this by building in opportunities for students to engage with other faculty throughout the course of their doctoral education. Fundamentally, this model will allow us to diversify funding sources and expand and train more next-generation leaders in public health. 

We will follow up in Inside WashU Public Health on January 12 with additional comprehensive details, both about program mechanics and how we will implement this new approach. We will in that communication include information about how faculty who are interested in working with a student can access applications to determine whether there are suitable candidates. Turnaround time will be short; our first set of reviews will likely need to be completed before the end of January to make timely decisions. Thank you in advance for everyone’s patience as we align program function this first time around. Please contact me any time with questions. 

Sincerely,

Patrick Fowler

From the interim associate dean for research

Funding opportunity

The NIH Common Fund Replication Prize is crowdsourcing ideas to boost current replication efforts and encourage a culture of replication in biomedical research. Submissions should address either Replication Ideas (high-impact areas of research in need of replication studies) or Replication Exemplars (strategies used to integrate replication into ongoing research activities). Winners will receive up to $5,000. Submissions are due December 19 at 7 p.m. CT.

Changes to NIH funding framework

Per new NIH funding guidelines, beginning in 2026, NIH no longer will rely on paylines when deciding which applications to fund. Instead of automatic funding for applications above a certain percentile, as has previously happened, decisions will reflect a broader set of criteria. NIH institutes, centers, and offices (ICOs) will consider peer-review outcomes alongside their strategic priorities, the overall mix of funded research, and fiscal sustainability among others. This change means that applications that were previously outside of the payline may now be competitive, and conversely, that applications with good scores are not guaranteed funding. There likely will be variations across the ICOs as they implement the new funding framework, so communication with program officials will be essential. 

Learning opportunities

Sign up for the session, “Learning from Peers: Data Strategy and Practice Knowledge Exchange.” As part of the “Data Tools for Everyone” series, regional and national practitioners will discuss strategies for working collaboratively with data. The session will be held December 9, 10-11:30 a.m. CT via Zoom. See here for more information and to register.

SPH events this week

SPH Compass session

SPH’s monthly Compass session will be held today, Monday, December 8 from noon to 1 p.m. at 4300 Duncan, Room 3104. These sessions are held the second Monday of every month. This month’s session will include updates and best practices from HR, IT, and finance. 

SPH School Assembly

There will be an SPH School Assembly from 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, December 10, in 4240 Duncan, in the Havana Room. Those unable to attend may participate via Zoom. These monthly gatherings are an opportunity for our community to hear progress updates and discuss steps we are taking to build the school. We encourage all SPH faculty and staff to attend. See the agenda here. 

Talking Public Health with Tim McBride

As part of the Talking Public Health seminar series, Tim McBride, MS, PhD, the Bernard Becker Professor at the School of Public Health, will give a talk at noon Wednesday, December 10, titled “Translating Research to Policy: The Example of Medicaid.” The talk will be at 4240 Duncan (Havana Room) and available over Zoom. 

Annual faculty review information session

On Thursday, December 11 from 10-11 a.m., 4300 Duncan, Room 2104 and Zoom, join the Office of Faculty Affairs for a hybrid Q&A session on annual faculty evaluations and general faculty affairs topics. Associate Dean Debra Haire-Joshu, along with committee members and others, will be available to answer questions. Submit questions in advance, and attend in person or online. 

Other events

Talk on health system performance

Today, Monday, December 8 ,from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 301 of the Farrell Learning & Teaching Center on the Medical Campus, Todd P. Lewis, an assistant professor at WashU Medicine, will discuss his research on health system performance. Lunch provided for in-person attendees; Zoom link sent upon registration. Open to WashU faculty, staff, students, and external collaborators. Registration details here.

Universitywide food drive

WashU’s universitywide food drive will continue through December 20, with collected items delivered weekly to Operation Food Search and the St. Louis Area Foodbank. Collection bins have been placed all over campus, including in Goldfarb Hall and 4300 Duncan. For a complete list of requested items and drop-off points, see the WashU food drive page.

New to the school

We welcome five new secondary faculty and three new staff this week.

Cindy Brantmeier, PhD, MA, a professor of applied linguistics and of global studies in Arts & Sciences, joins the SPH secondary faculty. A scholar of health literacy, Brantmeier studies language use in the services provided to linguistically diverse patients at sites within and outside the U.S.

Burel Goodin, MA, PhD, a professor of anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, joins the SPH secondary faculty. A clinical health psychologist with a specialization in pain-related behavioral medicine, Goodin studies how social factors influence pain physiology, perception, and treatment responses, with a goal of finding ways to eliminate disparities in pain and its treatment. 

Melissa Kroll, MD, an associate professor of emergency medicine at WashU Medicine, joins the SPH secondary faculty. Kroll’s clinical research is targeted at improving prehospital care and delivery of medicine in low-resource environments.

Mitra Naseh, PhD, an assistant professor at the Brown School and director of the Forced Migration Initiative, joins the SPH secondary faculty. Naseh is a forced migration scholar whose research focuses on the multidimensional social and economic integration of forcibly displaced populations, shaped by her interdisciplinary academic training, lived experience as an immigrant, and extensive fieldwork with nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies. 

Michelle Silver, PhD, ScM, an assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Public Health Sciences at WashU Medicine, joins the SPH secondary faculty. An epidemiologist and health services researcher, Silver examines how to best use results from epidemiologic studies to make and implement evidence-based decisions in cancer screening and prevention globally.  

Amari’ Cunningham, MBA, joins the Office of Administration team as an administrative coordinator. Cunningham has more than eight years of experience in business operations, financial administration, and customer service across higher education, government, and corporate settings. She comes to SPH from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she served as a senior business support specialist.  

Hemisha Desai, MPH, joins the School of Public Health as a data analyst in the continuous improvement unit. A physical therapist, Desai earned an MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics from Texas A&M University and has experience in data collection, program evaluation, and statistical analysis across public health research and community-based projects. 

Danielle McCall, EdD, MBA, joins the Office of Administration team as a research administrator. She comes to SPH from WashU Medicine’s McDonnell Genome Institute, where she managed complex NIH-funded portfolios exceeding $20 million, supported multi-institutional collaborations, and led process improvements that strengthened compliance, efficiency, and audit readiness. 

SPH Notables

Transcend Initiative grant awarded

The Children and Youth Collaborative Network — a multidisciplinary group of WashU researchers working toward the shared goal of improving the health and well-being of children and youth — has received one of four 2025 Transcend Initiative grants. Awarded by the Provost’s Office and the Research Development Office, Transcend Initiative grants are designed to help multidisciplinary teams expand and sustain their research. Several SPH faculty are part of the network, including the Brown School’s Kim Johnson, a member of the SPH secondary faculty, who plays a leadership role. See here for more on the Transcend Initiative grants.

Looking ahead: Events in the coming weeks

Thinking Public Health December 18

This month’s Thinking Public Health will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, December 18, in the Havana Room at 4240 Duncan. The topic is agency and vulnerability. Public health often centers the notion of vulnerability as a fixed state: Populations are “at risk,” “marginalized,” or “exposed.” Yet human experience also includes agency — the capacity to act, adapt, and shape one’s circumstances even under constraint. The tension between these two ideas is central to public health. See here to read more about the topic and for a list of articles to read ahead of the discussion.

Get to know the Office of Networks & Innovation

Attend a mixer for SPH faculty to connect with network managers and co-directors from WashU Public Health’s Innovation Research Networks (IRNs) and the Office of Networks & Innovation (ONI) data team. The event will be from 4 to 5:30 p.m. January 12 in Kuehner Court, on the second floor of Weil Hall. Enjoy drinks, snacks, and door prizes while learning more about ONI. Closest parking is at the East End Garage, with validation available. Register to attend here.

SPH Toolbox

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.