May 17, 2026

Dear colleagues,

This was a remarkable week. 

We celebrated our first-ever graduates. What a joy it was to see the future leaders in public health walk across the stage at Graham Chapel and take their place in the world. I cannot wait to live in a healthier world that they create.

And we inaugurated our new school name, the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health, representing a transformative partnership with the Bursky family that aims to accelerate the work we are doing — allowing us to be ever better at generating interdisciplinary science and scholarship, offering distinctive educational programs, and leaning into work that creates healthier local and global populations.

The confluence of these two happy moments marks an extraordinary moment in the Bursky School history, a moment when we come into our own as a school and lean further into the commitment we made to WashU and the world a little over a year ago: to build toward a vision where all can live healthier, fulfilling lives.

Much as I am excited to see what our graduates will do, I am excited to see what our school will do in the coming years — in partnership with the community of scholars, teachers, doers, inside and outside WashU, who are similarly motivated by our mission. 

As we end this, our first full academic year, I hope everyone has a restful summer, ahead of our next year, and what we shall do together.

Warmly,
Sandro

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Margaret C. Ryan Dean
Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health
Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health
Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives 
Washington University in St. Louis

The newly named Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health celebrated its first class, and the school's new name, with the school’s inaugural Recognition Ceremony for graduates on Thursday, May 14.

Master’s and doctoral students of the Bursky School of Public Health joined nearly 5,000 of their fellow WashU students at the university’s 165th Commencement, held at Francis Olympic Field on Friday, May 15.

Dual-degree MPH/MBA graduate Sridharan "Sri" Gopalsamy Ramaswamy, a member of the Bursky School of Public Health Class of 2026, uses business thinking to move care into practice.

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

Washington University School of Public Health has received a record $200 million commitment from the Bursky Family Foundation to advance the school's efforts to rethink how public health is taught, studied and applied, and to accelerate progress toward solving public health challenges. (Source: Forbes)

Related news coverage of the Bursky gift: Bloomberg, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Business Journal, KSDK-TV, St. Louis Public Radio and Inside Higher Ed.

Read the university's announcement here.

WashU researchers including Arts & Sciences' Jeff Catalano, a member of the Bursky School secondary faculty, are studying soil samples from neighborhoods in St. Louis' tornado-impacted areas, searching for lead contamination that may have been spread when the May 16, 2025, tornado dispersed building materials across yards and soil. (Source: FirstAlert 4)

Susy Stark, a professor at the Bursky School, is the senior author on, "Fall research funding in the U.S. from 2018-2022 relative to fall-related mortality, disability-adjusted life years, and healthcare expenditures,” published in the American Journal of Health Promotion. Melissa Krauss, a senior statistical data analyst in Stark’s lab, is also an author.

Bursky School secondary faculty members Kenton Johnston of WashU Medicine and Kim Johnson of the Brown School co-authored, “Associations of state mandatory paid sick leave policies with cancer outcomes in the United States,” published in JCO Oncology Practice.

Bursky School PhD student Lixin Cindy Kang and WashU Medicine’s Mark Fiala and Kim Johnson, both members of the Bursky School secondary faculty, co-authored, “Disparities in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation among acute nyeloid leukemia patients,” published in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

WashU Medicine’s Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, a Bursky School secondary faculty member, is the first and corresponding author on, “Acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of a mobile app for teens with or at high risk for eating disorders: a three-arm pilot randomized controlled trial comparing self-help, guided self-help, and guided self-help with a social network,” published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Co-authors include WashU Medicine’s Hannah Szlyk and Denise Wilfley, both Bursky School secondary faculty members.

Dean Galea's latest "Healthiest Goldfish" is a message to the public health class of 2026, with some thoughts on the aspirations that guide guide public health professionals' work. 

We are in the midst of graduation season, which I have long considered to be the happiest time of the year. It is a joy to gather with graduates, family, and friends and wish the next generation of public health professionals well — as I had the privilege of doing last week at the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, where I serve as dean. The commitment of these graduates to the work of public health, and to the values that support this work, is a source of hope indeed, as much a sign of renewal as the flowers that accompany this time of year. ...