Dean Sandro Galea frequently closes talks and gatherings with this simple question. We thought sharing answers to that question would be an uplifting tribute to public health and National Public Health Week.
|
|
|
|
|
Leaders of four national public health organizations convened Tuesday, March 31, at WashU to discuss challenges facing public health, and how to strengthen the field, build trust, and improve population health.
|
|
|
|
| Most St. Louis-area adults are unaware of nitazenes, a dangerous class of synthetic opioids detected in local school wastewater, but once informed, support monitoring efforts.
|
|
|
|
|
An associate professor at WashU Public Health, Tabak applies implementation science to her research on healthy eating and promotion of physical activity.
| |
|
|
The Talking Public Health seminar series features presentations at WashU by leading thinkers in public health from WashU and elsewhere. The talks are in person and online. Last week there were four presentations.
|
|
|
This week, there will be three presentations:
Uriyoán Colón-Ramos, ScD, MPA, director of the Diet Disparities Lab and an associate professor at Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University, will give a talk titled, “Community-Participatory Mixed Methods meets Systems Science Approaches to Address Diet Disparities.” The talk will be at noon Tuesday, April 7, in 4240 Duncan's Havana Room and online via Zoom.
Rachel Tabak, RD, PhD, an associate professor at WashU Public Health, will present, “Implementation of Health Promotion Interventions in Community Settings.” Her talk will be at noon Wednesday, April 8, in 4240 Duncan's Havana Room and online via Zoom.
Briana N.C. Chronister, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, will give a talk titled, “From exposure to health: The impact of pesticide exposure on neurobehavior and health among adolescents and young adults in rural agricultural communities.” The talk will be held at noon in 4240 Duncan's Havana Room and online via Zoom.
To see the school's collection of recordings, see here.
|
|
|
Media coverage of WashU Public Health's people, research, and other news.
|
|
Ahead of a panel discussion at WashU on March 31 focused on the pressures facing public health and how best to move the field forward, WashU Public Health Dean Sandro Galea spoke on KMOX Radio about the importance of drawing on both blue and red perspectives to build a “purple” public health. (Source: KMOX Radio)
|
Recent improvements at the St. Louis County jail are threatened by overcrowding, understaffing and aging infrastructure, writes WashU Public Health's Tim McBride, who has served on the Justice Services Board since 2019. (Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
|
|
|
|
|
March was colorectal cancer awareness month. Colorectal cancer is usually thought of as a disease affecting older adults. But cases are rising in younger adults. Now, 1 in 5 such cases are diagnosed in adults under 55. iHeard asked St. Louis adults if they knew about this.
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.
|
|
|
|
WashU Public Health Professor Lindsay Stark is the last author, and Ilana Seff, a research associate professor, the first author on, “Feasibility, acceptability and implementation of a whole-family mental health intervention for displaced adolescent girls in Colombia: A mixed-methods pilot randomized controlled trial.” The paper was published in Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health. WashU Public Health co-authors include the Brown School’s Byron Powell, a member of the secondary faculty; and MPH/MBA student Feven Gebrekidan.
Lora Iannotti, the Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor at WashU Public Health, is the senior author on, “Development of a sustainable blended food aid product using local ingredients for nutritionally vulnerable populations in Haiti,” published in Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. WashU Public Health co-authors include Rachel Zimmerman, a program coordinator; Michelle Dorce, a project coordinator; and Ilana Seff, a research associate professor.
WashU Public Health's Emmanuel Tetteh, a research assistant professor; Gifty Aboagye-Mensah, a research assistant; and Nwali Anidi, a research project coordinator; along with secondary faculty members Elvin Geng, a professor at WashU Medicine; Byron Powell, an associate professor at the Brown School; Mark Huffman, the William Bowen Endowed Professor of Medicine; and Alison Antes, an associate professor at WashU Medicine, co-authored, "What constitutes risk in implementation research? Perspectives from a qualitative key-informant study," published in Implementation Science Communications.
Dean Sandro Galea authored, “JAMA Health Forum — the year in review, 2025,” published in JAMA Health Forum.
|
| |
|
|
Giving Day is this week! On Wednesday, April 8, the School of Public Health will participate for the first time in WashU’s annual Giving Day. Faculty, students and staff are encouraged to participate in Giving Day as One WashU for the 24-hour fundraising blitz. Make a gift of any amount to any WashU fund before midnight Wednesday — or give early, using this link. Your contribution will help the university reach a goal of 2,500 donors and unlock a $250,000 challenge gift. Please consider a gift to the School of Public Health to support our future public health leaders and critical research. If you have questions about making a gift, please reach out to Caitlin Bristow.
|
|
|
|
Dean Sandro Galea's latest post in The Healthiest Goldfish — "A conversation on the future of public health practice; Learning from leaders in the field in a time of challenge" — comes on the heels of a very interesting and relevant panel discussion at WashU last week.
|
|
|
|
| Public Health Ideas convenings |
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
The WashU Public Health Moment is published by the School of Public Health Office of Communications. You can reach us at [email protected].
Visit publichealth.washu.edu for the latest news and information, and follow us on social media.
|
| |
|
