A new year for public health |
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome back to The Moment. For those who have been reading The Moment over the past year, you will notice it has a new look, to match the new look of our school’s website. We are delighted to launch the redesign of both, reflecting the spirit of renewal that comes with the start of a new year. Thank you to Elizabethe Holland Durando, Zach Flauaus, and the rest of our Communications team for their role in designing and shepherding this digital update.
This spirit of renewal informs all we do, as we engage with the mission of our school at the start of a new year. Our mission is to build a school of public health that leans into interdisciplinary science and distinction in education, with a real commitment to local and global impact.
And there is much to do together, in pursuit of this mission, in 2026.
We emerge from the past year, which saw enormous challenges for health, with a greater appreciation for both the difficulties we face and the opportunities that can emerge during hard times. This is now a time to reimagine what we think about when we think about health, what we talk about when we talk about it, what we do in pursuit of it. It is a time to reimagine the science that informs what we do, and how we design public health education, to help our students learn how to think and to lead in the work of creating better health in the next quarter century and beyond. It is a time to reimagine our engagement with partners across all sectors—the public sector and the private sector—to advance the work of health. And it is a time to reimagine how we make sure all we do translates into local and global impact.
I am excited to be doing this work together in 2026. To everybody, here is to the new year, to meeting this moment as a public health community. I look forward to all we will do in the coming year.
Warmly,
Sandro
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Solutions through Planetary Health Research (SPHERE) aims to integrate public health and environmental research to improve the interconnected health of people and the planet. This research network will build partnerships to work toward solutions for public health challenges resulting from changes to our environment.
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Refugees receiving interventions in local communities are far more likely to regain stability and independence than those confined to traditional camps, according to WashU Public Health research. The data stem from 16 countries, 7,850 households, and responses from refugees, asylum seekers and people displaced within their own countries.
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In her work leading WashU Public Health’s master's program and helping shape the MPH curriculum redesign, Caburnay focuses on foundational questions: What is needed in the field of public health? What matters to students studying this field? And why?
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The weekly Talking Public Health seminar series features leading thinkers in public health at WashU and elsewhere. To see our collection of talks — including a presentation by Professor Susy Stark (shown) — visit our Talking Public Health playlist on YouTube.
Our first talk of 2026 will feature Catherine Oldenburg, an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Her talk is titled, “Azithromycin for the Prevention of Child Mortality: From Efficacy Trials to Public Health Policy and Beyond.” The presentation will be at noon Tuesday, January 13, in the Danforth University Center (DUC), Room 234. Join in person or on Zoom.
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Media coverage of WashU Public Health's people, research, and other news.
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| The Trump administration’s actions "could stall, if not reverse, efforts to improve population health,” wrote WashU Public Health Dean Sandro Galea and two co-authors in a Lancet article cited in this piece. (Source: The New York Times)
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WashU Public Health’s Derek Brown and the Brown School’s Kim Johnson, a member of the SPH secondary faculty, say that lack of health insurance could lead to delayed diagnoses, gaps in care, and worse outcomes. (Source: Scientific American)
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Agreements for deed — rent-to-own contracts targeting low-income people with poor credit — are predatory, says WashU Public Health’s Patrick Fowler, who tracks the rise of such contracts and is an expert on the role of housing in health.(Source: St. Louis Post Dispatch)
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The Trump administration’s actions "could stall, if not reverse, efforts to improve population health,” wrote WashU Public Health Dean Sandro Galea and two co-authors in a Lancet article cited in this piece. (Source: The New York Times)
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A lantern ceremony held to celebrate this mural was envisioned by WashU's Rebecca Messbarger, a member of the SPH secondary faculty and a cultural historian of medicine. (Source: Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis)
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Nearly half of St. Louis adults surveyed (48%) said homelessness was “one of the biggest problems facing St. Louis.” Another 48% said it is “a major problem, but not one of the biggest problems.” Only 4% called it a “minor problem.” Black community members were more likely than whites to say it’s “one of the biggest problems” (65% vs. 31%).
iHeard is a listening project of the Health Communication Research Laboratory at WashU Public Health. iHeard surveys about 200 people who live or work in St. Louis weekly to find out what they know, believe and care about in regard to health.
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WashU Medicine's Mark Huffman, a member of the SPH secondary faculty and a co-director of SPH's Global Health Futures research network, co-authored "GLP-1 receptor agonists for obesity: eligibility across 99 countries," published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
WashU Public Health's Alicia Persaud, a doctoral student, and Morgan Shields, an assistant professor, co-authored "Barriers individuals from racial-ethnic minority groups face in accessing eating disorder treatment and proposed solutions," published in Psychiatric Services.
WashU Public Health's Amanda Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow; Abygail Martinez, a research project coordinator; Alejandra Cortez, a research assistant; Debra Haire-Joshu, the Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Professor; Ross Brownson, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor; and Rachel Tabak, an assistant professor, co-authored "Social determinants of health influence maternal health behaviors and engagement in an obesity prevention intervention," published in Translational Behavioral Medicine.
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Photo: Zachary Linhares/WashU Public Health
| Spring semester classes begin Monday, but WashU Public Health faculty were busy on campus last week preparing for the new semester.
On Wednesday, January 7, Kate Barbier, Angela Hobson and Ragini Maddipati joined the Brown School's Jewel Stafford and Lorien Carter on a panel in Hillman Hall.
The panel focused on the integration of competency-based program assessment models in graduate education programs. The discussion was part of iTeach 2026, a teaching and learning conference organized by WashU's Center for Teaching and Learning, which provides resources and support for faculty. The conference shared innovative teaching strategies to help educators excel in the classroom.
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In this episode, "A One Health Approach to Antimicrobial Resistance," Dr. Salma Abdalla speaks with Professor Sabiha Essack, South African research chair in antibiotic resistance and One Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, about antimicrobial resistance as a global health challenge shaped as much by power as by biology.
They discuss how resistance is driven largely by practices in high-income countries, while low- and middle-income countries, often with weaker health and regulatory systems, bear a disproportionate share of the burden. Drawing on a One Health framework, the conversation explores the intersection of animal, plant, and environmental health; the importance of surveillance, stewardship, and governance; and the need for equitable access to antibiotics and alternative solutions. Abdalla and Essack also question prevailing fear-based narratives and ask whether such alarmist messaging helps or hinders effective, equitable action.
"Complicating the Narrative" is hosted by Professor Abdalla and supported by WashU Public Health and the Frick Initiative.
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| Public Health Ideas convenings |
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| Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 9 a.m.
At WashU and online
The event will bring together academics, clinicians, policymakers, and community leaders to explore the role climate change plays in reshaping patterns of infectious disease, and why coordinated, multisectoral collaborations are essential to build future readiness.
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| Monday, January 26, 2026, 4 p.m. CT
At WashU and online
This event explores the long-term impact of war on child development, the ethics of cross-cultural trauma research, and how evidence-based interventions can support recovery in the most challenging circumstances.
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The WashU Public Health Moment is published by the School of Public Health Office of Communications. You can reach us at sphcomms@wustl.edu.
Visit publichealth.washu.edu for the latest news and information, and follow us on social media.
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