From the dean
Faculty and staff holiday party
Dear colleagues,
2025 has been a wonderful year here at WashU as we, together, have been building a School of Public Health. I shall take a moment to share reflections on the past year before the year is out. But today I wanted to reach out to invite all of our faculty and staff community to our first annual holiday party, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, December 11, at Work and Leisure. It will be delightful to get together (loved ones also invited), to take some time to celebrate, and to look to what we shall do in 2026. To help our planning, can all please RSVP via this form? Thank you. I do look forward to this.
Warmly,
Sandro
SPH annual survey reminder
Thank you to those who have completed the annual school survey. If you have not taken it yet, you can find the survey here. It will be open until Wednesday, November 26. Your feedback helps to develop a stronger school community. Plus, participants can enter a raffle to win exciting WashU SPH swag.
From the associate dean for faculty affairs
Annual faculty review
The Office of Faculty Affairs would like to remind all SPH primary faculty of their upcoming annual faculty review. Please submit a completed Annual Faculty Update (template here) and updated CV with all new or ongoing activities for 2025 to SPHFacultyAffairs@wustl.edu by December 31. Meetings with Dean Galea will be held January 15 through March 31. Additional details can be found in the SPH Faculty Handbook and the SPH website.
Book Club: ‘Labwork to Leadership’
The Office of the Provost is hosting a book club on “Labwork to Leadership,” by WashU Professor Jen Heemstra. The book offers a concise and relatable guide for developing leadership skills, with practical examples and actionable advice. While based in the context of leading a research lab, the lessons offered are easily translatable to managing a classroom and navigating department politics.
Membership in professional development community
WashU is a member of NCFDD, an independent organization that provides professional development in higher education. WashU faculty, graduate students, postdocs, trainees, and staff are welcome to access online resources by claiming free membership, available through our institutional membership. For more information about membership and how to claim it, see the NCFDD membership page hosted by Danforth Faculty Affairs and Development.
From the associate dean for education
Input on the doctoral program
The doctoral education subcommittee is seeking faculty and staff input to help inform program improvements. Please contribute by taking a few minutes to complete this three-question survey.
Designing a future-ready public health curriculum
The first of six faculty and staff input sessions aimed at informing the next phase of graduate public health education at WashU will be from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Thursday, November 20, in the Havana Room at 4240 Duncan. Please bring a laptop for collaborative note-taking and, more importantly, your best ideas for the core knowledge and skills MPH graduates need today and into the future. The second session, also focused on foundational courses, will be from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, December 5, in Hillman Hall 120. If you have questions, please contact Angela Hobson or Charlene Caburnay.
Nurturing Future Researchers
Applications for faculty to receive a one-year SPH-funded research assistant starting in Fall 2026 will remain open until December 1. If you have any questions, please contact Angela Hobson or Caroline Clasby.
From the interim associate dean for research
Learning opportunities
GrantForward is offering a free public webinar from 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, November 18, to showcase its new AI-powered tools for smarter, more efficient grant seeking. The session will demonstrate how to use integrated AI features to discover funding opportunities, set up custom alerts, receive personalized recommendations, and identify potential collaborators through AI matching technology. Open to all faculty, staff, and researchers, the webinar will help participants enhance their grant search strategies and make the most of GrantForward’s latest innovations. Join via Zoom.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is hosting a series of virtual applicant town halls designed to introduce its 2026 research funding opportunities. These sessions will cover key topics such as patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research, funding announcement details, application processes, and how to align proposals with PCORI’s mission. Those interested in generating evidence to inform health-care decisions for patients, caregivers, and the broader community are encouraged to participate. For more information and to register, see the PCORI applicant town halls page.
Funding opportunities
WashU ICTS provides up to $10,000 to help investigators and their community partners build trust, infrastructure, capacity, and skills necessary for future collaborative grant opportunities through its Partnership Development & Sustainability Support program. The program is open to new and existing partnerships seeking to strengthen foundations for long-term collaboration. Applications are open through December 8.
WashU is offering a grant opportunity to advance research and teaching on leadership development across disciplines. The Bauer Leadership Center Research Grants provide up to $10,000 to support empirical research exploring leadership emergence, dynamics, and impact within organizations. Applications are due January 14, with funding for the 2025–2026 academic year.
The Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation invites applications for its Transformation of Mental Health Care program, which supports research focused on improving access to high-quality mental health services for children and adolescents — especially those from under-resourced or minoritized communities. Applicants are welcome to submit rigorous research proposals that build on pilot data and are designed for scalability. The program will award $100,000 per year for two years. The application deadline is December 15.
The Gates Foundation invites proposals for innovative, scalable solutions to improve maternal and child nutrition in low- and middle-income countries. Projects should aim to reduce nutrient costs, especially for calcium, choline, and omega-3s, by at least 50% while ensuring safety, efficacy, and accessibility. Awards of up to $500,000 are available. Applications are due December 16.
A compilation of open funding opportunities can be found on the SPH Funding Opportunities page.
SPH events this week
Doctoral student chat with the Dean
Dean Sandro Galea invites doctoral students to visit with him over coffee Tuesday, November 18, from 5 to 6 p.m. in Hillman Hall, Room 300.
Thinking Public Health: Decolonizing global health
This month’s Thinking Public Health will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. Thursday, November 20, at 4300 Duncan, Room 3110, on the topic of decolonizing global health. For more information and pre-reads, see the events page.
Thinking Public Health is a monthly, in-person gathering for moderated, structured conversations on pressing public health topics. Held under the Chatham House Rule, these discussions encourage open dialogue within the WashU Public Health community.
Enola Proctor lecture on implementation science
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 here for details and to register. Because of space constraints, registration is required.
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.
Other events this week
Geospatial forum
From 9 a.m. to noon Monday, November 17, in Umrath Hall Lounge, join us for the Geospatial Forum, hosted by the WashU Geospatial Research Initiative, celebrating the innovative work of its seed grant recipients. Presentations will highlight a wide range of inspiring projects, with light breakfast and lunch provided. Registration is requested.
Health Decoded series
From 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 20, at Bauer Hall, join WashU Olin Business for the monthly Health Decoded seminar series, during which leaders in health and business pull back the curtain on challenges, solutions, and lessons that matter. This month features Kristi Hampton, a former FDA deputy director. Register here.
CAHSPER research seminar
From noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, November 20, 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, on regulatory review deadlines and medical device safety. The event will be held in the Doll and Hill Room in the Taylor Avenue Building on the Medical Campus and online. Register here.
New to the school
We welcome four new secondary faculty to SPH this week.
Jeff Catalano, PhD, a professor of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences, and director of the environmental studies program in Arts & Sciences, joins the SPH secondary faculty as a professor. Catalano investigates diverse topics spanning the fate of environmental contaminants, novel resources for critical minerals, and the habitability of other planets. He leads a team testing for soil lead in the path of St. Louis’ May tornado as part of the CLEAN STL project organized through the Brown School’s new Public Exchange.
Heather Corcoran, MFA, the Halsey C. Ives Professor of Art at the Sam Fox School, joins the SPH secondary faculty as a professor. A graphic designer and writer whose work explores data, place and belonging, Corcoran integrates personal and collective history with text, color and image. She teaches courses about the visualization of words and numbers, forming word and image relationships, and writing creative nonfiction in visual contexts.
Kenton Johnston, MPH, PhD, an associate professor of medicine at WashU Medicine, joins the SPH secondary faculty as an associate professor. He is associate director for research at WashU’s Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy, and Economics Research, and he studies the impact of Medicare value-based payment models on patients and health-care providers.
Cynthia Rogers, MD, the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry at WashU Medicine, joins the SPH secondary faculty as a professor. Also the vice chair and division director for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at WashU Medicine, Rogers specializes in psychiatric illness in young children and their mothers. Her research interests include the impact of adverse experiences on brain development and the relationship between abnormal brain development and psychiatric disorders in toddlers and preschoolers.
SPH Toolbox
- WashU has a page addressing the government shutdown: Research & Federal Updates: 2025 Government Shutdown.
- SPH events calendar resource page. SPH calendar. SPH events web page.
- Submit questions/requests to the SPH Data Management & Analytics team via this intake form for help with data strategy, management, visualization, and analytics.
- WashU provides licenses to several software titles for use by faculty, staff and students, and SPH has licenses for even more. See the catalog of available software.
- WashU IT support is available on the third floor of 4300 Duncan, in Suite 30 at Hillman Hall, or via SPHsupport@wustl.edu.
- Faculty and staff can schedule meeting and flex space at 4300 Duncan and Hillman Hall via Outlook. Here are instructions.
- The SPH faculty handbook is available on the SPH website.
- SPH Teaching and Education Resources is the go-to Box storage space for teaching resources.
- Classroom supplies are available in Suite 150. Contact Tish Torian or stop by workstation Hillman 149.
- For info on SPH’s Faculty Mentorship Program, contact Mary Politi or Leah Kemper.
- Bookmark our consistently updated Funding Opportunities page. And if you have tips on potential funding or training opportunities, send to sphresearch@wustl.edu.
- For guidance on working with IRB, see ORA’s IRB Assurance Guidance document.
- Visit the ICTS website for details on membership in the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences.
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.