BJC supports interdisciplinary science at Bursky School of Public Health

If you know the history of public health at Washington University, you know how important WashU Medicine Dean Emeritus Larry J. Shapiro, MD, is to the timeline.

Shapiro served as the medical school’s dean and executive vice chancellor for 12 years, during which time he played an instrumental role in establishing the university’s Institute for Public Health (IPH) and its mission to foster transdisciplinary research in public health across the university. The institute was largely the foundation of the university’s newly established WashU Bursky School of Public Health.

Shapiro stepped down from his deanship in 2015, but his influence at the university, with BJC HealthCare and on public health remain and continue to be recognized. When Shapiro left his position, BJC designated an endowment to support the work of IPH. BJC has shifted this support to Bursky Public Health, and the funds have evolved into three distinct funds bridging medicine and public health and supporting innovative interdisciplinary science.

The funds generated by the endowment will bolster a professorship, a career-development award and a Bursky Public Health dean’s fund, each honoring the former dean’s successful tenure and his dedication to public health. The funds will be administered by The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital. 

“I left the university more than 10 years ago, but continue to care deeply for the institution, its wonderful people, and its ever-growing support of public health,” said Shapiro, who recently returned to St. Louis to celebrate his 55^th School of Medicine class reunion. “The establishment of the Institute of Public Health many years ago was necessary and meaningful. We intentionally structured the institute to engage with each of the schools in the university, particularly the Brown School, to create a highly interdisciplinary environment to take advantage of the great strengths represented across the WashU community.

“To know that it was a key factor in the eventual establishment of the Bursky School of Public Health is so wonderful. And to be honored with a professorship, career-development award and dean’s fund — all of which will elevate public health even more at the university — is a great honor.”

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean, and Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health at WashU Bursky School of Public Health, said he and the school are grateful for such support. “We are delighted and honored to shepherd this endowment, and we are grateful to BJC HealthCare for reinforcing this commitment to advancing public health.

“We at Bursky School of Public Health recognize those at WashU and BJC who showed their commitment to public health years ago,” continued Galea, who is also WashU’s vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives. “Dean Shapiro, Bill Powderly and BJC’s leadership then and now are among those who helped bring us to this point. And this professorship and these interdisciplinary initiatives add to the momentum to keep moving the very important work of public health forward.”

The Larry J. Shapiro Distinguished Professorship in Interdisciplinary Health Science takes the place of a directorship held until recently by WashU Medicine’s William Powderly, MD, the J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine and a member of Bursky School of Public Health’s secondary faculty. Previously the Larry J. Shapiro Director of the Institute for Public Health, Powderly is now the Larry J. Shapiro Distinguished Professor in Interdisciplinary Health Science. The professorship is funded by BJC HealthCare.

Powderly — whose work has been instrumental in building the interdisciplinary underpinnings of the Bursky School — is also director of WashU’s Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS), which seeds and encourages interdisciplinary scholarship throughout the university.

“I am honored to continue to play a role in advancing public health at WashU, particularly in continuing my work to grow interdisciplinary public health research and scholarship,” Powderly said. “It is my expectation that this university — with its new Bursky School of Public Health, the medical school, engineering, business, and other schools, as well as the enduring relationship with BJC HealthCare — will take full advantage of the tremendous opportunities here to advance health through interdisciplinary work.”

The new Larry J. Shapiro Bursky School of Public Health Dean’s Fund will support interdisciplinary health science activities. The Dean’s Fund will be used to support catalyst grants that will help seed interdisciplinary faculty work that can then generate other extramural funding. Bursky School faculty will be able to compete for these grants annually. A call for proposals is expected to occur this summer.

The career-development award stemming from the endowment created by BJC is for the designated Larry J. Shapiro Scholar in Population Health. This early-career investigator is selected competitively by the ICTS and becomes part of the ICTS KL-2 Scholar Cohort. To become eligible, applicants must be early-career primary or secondary faculty of Bursky Public Health. The award provides salary and research support.

The inaugural Larry J. Shapiro Scholar in Population Health is Nicholas Szoko, MD, PhD. A WashU Medicine assistant professor of pediatrics and a secondary faculty member at Bursky Public Health, he earned the award after proposing a project titled, “Addressing Dual Epidemics: Violent Injuries and Substance Use in Adolescents.” His project has him partnering with adolescents and young adults, researchers, clinicians, and other practitioners, with the goal of improving interventions.

Elizabethe Holland Durando is the Bursky School of Public Health director of communications and change management. She began working at WashU in 2012. Prior to that, she was a newspaper journalist for 24 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in communications from Ohio State University.