The school's new Dissemination & Implementation Science Innovation Research Network (DISIRN) aims to promote collaborative, innovative research to promote the translation of evidence into practice and policy quickly, sustainably and at scale.
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WashU Public Health will have a key role with a U.N. group dedicated to protecting and preserving life on land. Professor of Practice Joe Steensma and SPHERE network manager Jen Mandeville will help lead the effort.
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Growing up in North Carolina, Stephanie Mazzucca-Ragan envisioned becoming a teacher. But her journey led her toward public health research and the critical role of nutrition in children's development.
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The weekly Talking Public Health seminar series features leading thinkers in public health at WashU and elsewhere. Catherine Oldenburg, an associate professor at UCSF, gave a talk January 13 titled, “Azithromycin for the Prevention of Child Mortality: From Efficacy Trials to Public Health Policy and Beyond.” See a recording of the talk here.
At noon Tuesday, January 20, Nhial T. Tutlam, an assistant professor at the Brown School with a secondary appointment at WashU Public Health, will give a talk titled, “Theory-informed interventions to address the mental health impact of war trauma among children from refugee families resettled in the United States and those living in refugee settlements in sub-Saharan Africa.” The talk will be in the Danforth University Center (DUC), Room 234. Join in person or on Zoom.
Additionally, at noon Thursday, January 22, David Spielman, director of the innovation policy and scaling unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C., will give a talk titled, "Public goods, private investment and innovation in the global food system.” It will be in the DUC, in McMillan Café. 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 administration's cuts to Medicaid have hurt rural residents the most, said Timothy McBride, a health policy expert at WashU Public Health. (Source: The Washington Post)
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WashU Public Health researchers Lindsay Stark and Ilana Seff delve into the findings of their recently published article on how refugees, when provided with targeted support outside of designated camps, have a better chance of finding jobs, economic stability and safety, and becoming self-reliant. (Source: The Conversation)
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Health policy researcher Sarah Moreland-Russell, an associate professor at WashU Public Health, says that most legislators, regardless of political party, find testimony from constituents and experts compelling. (Source: Los Angeles Times. Originally published in Mississippi Today.)
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The proportion of St. Louis adults surveyed who heard in the last seven days that “flu season may be bad this year” reached its highest point in five weeks – 48%. This is up from 29% in early December. Among those who had heard it, all believed it was true.
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 Kevin Xu, a member of the WashU Public Health secondary faculty, is the corresponding and a co-senior author on "Prescribing Trends in Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Medications Among Pregnant and Postpartum Persons," published in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
WashU Public Health's Ilana Seff, a research associate professor, is the senior and corresponding author of, "Beyond shelter: Exploring the potential impacts of rental assistance on self-reliance and well-being for Venezuelan migrants in Colombia," published in Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health. Lindsay Stark, a professor at WashU Public Health, is the first author.
Karen Skinner, an academic coordinator at WashU Public Health's Health Communication Research Laboratory, was the first and corresponding author on, "A Three-Year Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Patterns Among Homebound Older Adults: Implications for Future Preparedness," published in the American Journal of Public Health. Matthew Kreuter, the Kahn Family Professor of Public Health at WashU Public Health, was a co-author.
Dean Sandro Galea co-authored,"Methodological Rigor in Health Policy and Health Services Research," published in JAMA Health Forum.
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To start the new year, WashU Public Health faculty, students and staff volunteered at Operation Food Search, an organization that has hosted WashU MPH students for fieldwork experience. Faculty members Mary Politi and Todd Combs; staff members Eliana Goldstein, Krista Cooksey, and Viktoria Vonder Haar; and MPH student Yosef Chernet packed 60 boxes of food to be sent to Operation Food Search’s food pantry partners and shared with those in need.
Pictured (back row, left to right): Goldstein, Combs, Politi, Cooksey, and Vonder Haar; (in front) Chernet. (Photo: Jenn Voss/Operation Food Search)
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In this episode, "The Field Formerly Known as Global Health," Dr. Salma Abdalla speaks with Dr. Seye Abimbola about his new book, "The Foreign Gaze," and how global health knowledge is shaped by distance, power, and audience.
Their conversation reflects on questions of authorship, evidence, and voice in global health research, including how research priorities are set. Together, they invite listeners to consider how knowledge is produced, whose perspectives are centered, and how the field might evolve to better engage with the communities it seeks to serve.
"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. CT
At WashU and online
This 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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| Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 9 a.m. CT
At WashU and online
This gathering will explore how implementation science — the field that studies how to put evidence into practice — can help us communicate more effectively so that accurate, trustworthy health information is able to hold its ground in a crowded information landscape.
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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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