March 15, 2026

WashU scholars wrote the textbook on dissemination and implementation — the science of how to put research into practice — and have been building on that expertise ever since. Their work is needed now more than ever.

A study led by WashU Public Health researchers found that nearly half of young adults across eight countries report feeling lonely, and that those who do face a much higher likelihood of depression and anxiety.

Dean Galea and other national leaders in public health will gather March 31 to discuss what is at stake for the field and what a sustainable path forward looks like. This Assembly Series event is titled, “Public Health in Challenging Times: Finding a Way Forward."

A PhD candidate in public health sciences, Kinzer began her path to public health in an immunobiology lab, but now studies how to improve health communication and build trust to boost the control of infectious diseases. 

Media coverage of WashU Public Health's people, research, and other news.

The Transformation of Rural Community Health (ToRCH) program is the brainchild of WashU Public Health's Abigail Barker and Kirk Mathews of MO HealthNet. The program aims to improve the health of Missourians enrolled in Medicaid by tackling nonmedical factors that influence health. (Source: The Beacon)

WashU Public Health Dean Sandro Galea said that the school will, among other things, be empathetic toward people whose primary interface with the world is faith. (Source: The New Yorker)

"Even if the FDA makes it easier to approve biosimilars ... these other barriers remain," said WashU Law's Rachel Sachs, a WashU Public Health secondary faculty member. (Source: Axios)

iHeard asked St. Louis adults about cannabis: What are their views? How do they rate its risks and benefits? Do they understand its contents? Here’s what we learned. 

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.

Emmanuel Tetteh, a research assistant professor at WashU Public Health, is the first and corresponding author on, “Perceived HIV risk, barriers, and preferences for HIV testing in structurally vulnerable communities in St. Louis: a best-worst scaling survey,” published in the Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care. WashU Public Health co-authors include McKenzie Swan, a research assistant; Julia Lopez, an assistant professor at WashU Medicine and a member of the WashU Public Health secondary faculty; Todd Combs, a research assistant professor; and Ginger McKay, an assistant professor.

Milena Franco Silva, a PhD student at WashU Public Health, is the first and corresponding author on, “A content analysis of physical activity and priority climate action plans across U.S. states,” published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. WashU Public Health co-authors include Rodrigo Siqueira Reis, a professor; Raul Gierbolini-Rivera, a PhD student; and Yi Wang and Alexandre Augusto de Paula da Silva, both postdoctoral researchers.

Dean Sandro Galea co-authored, “Triggering change: Evaluating the impact of ATF actions on firearm assault rates in a large U.S. city,” published in Injury Prevention. The dean's co-authors come from several other institutions.

WashU Public Health’s Rachel Tabak, an associate professor; Debra Haire-Joshu, the Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Professor in Public Health; and Candice Woolfolk, an assistant professor at WashU Medicine and a member of the WashU Public Health secondary faculty, co-authored, “Short and disrupted sleep is related to perceptions of neighborhood in pregnant African American women of low socioeconomic status,” published in Public Health in Practice.

Artificial intelligence tools in health care and public health can bring efficiency and new approaches that might improve health — and  may have implications for health equity. Kevin Johnson, of the University of Pennsylvania, joins JAMA Health Forum Editor-in-chief Sandro Galea to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI in health care and public health. Listen to the podcast episode, "Keeping health equity at the forefront of the AI revolution," here.

For more on the topic, read the companion article by Dean Galea, "Keeping health equity at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution in medicine and health."

In the most recent Healthiest Goldfish, Dean Galea partners with a longtime collaborator, Nason Maani, a senior lecturer in inequalities and global health policy at the University of Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science, in Edinburgh, U.K. Their piece —"The economics of attention: Why the ideas we see are not all there is" — is part of their Ideas about Ideas project. Cross-posted on the Money Power Health Substack, the project is a series of reflections of how thought lives in the world. It is built on the notion that without ideas we have nothing, and that the business of creating a healthier, better world rests on ideas.

Tuesday, March 17, 2026, 4 p.m. CT
At WashU and online

"Better Ways of Knowing" is a multiyear initiative led by the Healthier Futures Lab at WashU Public Health, in collaboration with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. The focus of this convening is, “Asking Better Questions to Improve the Health of Populations.” 

Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 4 p.m. CT
At WashU and online

Dean Galea will lead a panel featuring national leaders in public health and their thoughts on the erosion of public health infrastructure funding and the consequences for preparedness, workforce stability, and population health. They will discuss strategies to safeguard core public health functions, and other ideas regarding population health.  

Friday, April 3, 2026, 9 a.m. CT
At WashU and online

This symposium, hosted by WashU Public Health and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, brings together scholars, community advocates, and practitioners to explore critical intersections of race and public health. The participants will explore how to translate scholarship into actionable strategies that address racial health inequities. 

Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 4 p.m. CT
At WashU and online

WashU Public Health and Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice together host the St. Louis Public Health Annual Lectureship to celebrate National Public Health Week and the impact of public health on our nation’s well-being. 

Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 9 a.m. CT
At WashU and online

This symposium, led by WashU Public Health’s Global Health Futures research network, will convene leading voices to consider global health's future amid reduced commitments to health-related development assistance, as well as calls to reform or replace the institutions underpinning global health policy and coordination since the end of World War II. 

1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130

[email protected]

Manage preferences | Unsubscribe
Sign up if you received this as a forward.