June 28, 2026

New WashU Bursky School of Public Health research indicates that exposure to common air pollutants during early pregnancy may increase the likelihood of persistent depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy. The study was led by Tracy Bastain and co-authored by Carrie Breton, professors at Bursky Public Health.

Brownson’s journey from public health practice to academia has shaped a career focused on disease prevention, evidence-based public health, and implementation science. 

Elfenbein, an Olin Business professor and Bursky School secondary faculty member, talks with Dean Galea about the intersection of emotion and aspirations of public health.

Julia Fleckman, a Bursky Public Health associate professor, led a team that built the New Orleans Firearm Violence Dashboard, which integrates data from multiple sources to construct a comprehensive picture of firearm violence trends across the city.

WashU Medicine's Jeffrey I. Gordon, a Bursky Public Health secondary faculty member, has received the Gabbay Award from Brandeis University in recognition of his contributions to the field of gut microbiome research.

WashU Medicine's Graham Colditz, a Bursky Public Health secondary faculty member, and WashU Medicine's Shu (Joy) Jiang have received the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, for developing an AI tool that refines breast-cancer risk prediction.

At several lakes in Missouri state parks, water testing shows that levels of E. coli bacteria are high enough to pose a health risk. Few St. Louisans had heard about the unsafe swimming conditions, and fewer knew why conditions were unsafe.

iHeard is a listening project of the Health Communication Research Laboratory at WashU Bursky Public Health. iHeard surveys about 200 people each week who live or work in St. Louis, to find out what they know, believe and care about in regard to health.

Lindsey Filiatreau, an assistant professor at Bursky Public Health, is the first and corresponding author on, “Thoughts of death or self-injury, non-same-day ART initiation, and 2-year incidence of disengagement from care among people entering HIV care in Cameroon,” published in AIDS and Behavior. Bursky Public Health co-authors include Morgan Shields, an assistant professor, and Junu Rana Magar, a 2026 MPH graduate.

WashU Law’s Rachel Sachs, a member of the Bursky Public Health secondary faculty, is the last author on, “The Rural Health Transformation Program: trends in projected scores and actual awards,” published in Health Affairs Scholar.

Bursky Public Health’s Ross Brownson is the senior author on, “Advancing health equity through the development of a scholars training program in implementation science,” published in Implementation Science Communications. Rebekah Jacob and Cheryl Valko, both members of Bursky Public Health’s Prevention Research Center, are co-authors.

Kevin Xu, an assistant professor at WashU Medicine and a Bursky Public Health secondary faculty member, is the senior author on, “Hallucinogen-psychosis associations are confounded by baseline psychiatric history,” published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. WashU Medicine’s Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, a member of the Bursky Public Health secondary faculty, is a co-author.

The latest post in The Healthiest Goldfish is co-authored by Dean Sandro Galea and longtime colleague Nason Maani, senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. The piece is titled, "The responsibility of idea stewards: What we owe the ideas we inherit."