In St. Louis, For St. Louis

Mohamed A. Zayed, MD, PhD, a vascular surgeon known for his pioneering research in vascular diseases, has been appointed director of the newly established Division of Surgical Sciences in the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He will assume his new role July 1.

Members of the Washington University in St. Louis community are among those selected by Focus St. Louis, the region’s premier leadership organization, to participate in its 2024-25 civic leadership programs. Lindsey Alt, director of leadership development and of the Institute for Leadership Excellence in the Office of Human Resources, and Sean Armstrong, dean of the School of Continuing & Professional Studies, were selected among 60 local leaders.

Experiences with St. Louis organizations led WashU alumna Samantha Searls to a career in advocating for immigrants. Now a program director at Cincinnati’s Ignite Peace, with a focus on immigrant rights, Searls was named one of the city’s 10 Women of the Year for 2023.

This spring saw the graduation of the first cohort of the WashU Pledge, the bold scholarship initiative for Pell-eligible students from Missouri and southern Illinois set into motion by Chancellor Andrew Martin at his 2019 inauguration.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is launching a Center for Translational Bioinformatics, an innovative joint effort of the university’s McDonnell Genome Institute and the Institute for Informatics, Data Science & Biostatistics. The center will bring together experts from diverse fields to accelerate precision medicine research and improve patient care by integrating comprehensive patient data and expansive genomic datasets.

When Shradha Challa, MBA 2024, was challenged to develop a business idea that solved a problem, she focused on a problem she had experienced in St. Louis: Getting a good cup of chai. Finding the solution set Challa on a path to founding her own business, Rasa Chai. It’s also brought recognition in the form of a national entrepreneurship prize.

One in eight of those who experience a stroke die within a year of hospital discharge. But a clinical trial led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that modifications to stroke survivors’ homes – such as grab bars, shower seats, ramps and other safety interventions – reduce the risk of death within a year or so of leaving the hospital and allow many to keep living independently in their homes.

Erin Foster, an associate professor of occupational therapy, and Scott Norris, MD, an associate professor of neurology, have established a site at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for the Black and African American Connections to Parkinson’s Disease (BLAAC PD) study, an international study aimed at understanding the gene changes that may lead to Parkinson’s disease in people with African ancestry.

In fall 2025, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, in collaboration with WashU’s McKelvey School of Engineering and Arts & Sciences, will launch a new Master of Design for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology (MDes). Led by Jonathan Hanahan, an associate professor in the Sam Fox School, the program aims to forge a curricular and research model in which designers, engineers, humanists and scientists work together on the next generation of socially innovative digital products.

To boost access to healthy food for St. Louis-area residents in need of improved nutritional options, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is collaborating with BJC HealthCare and Schnuck Markets, the regional grocery chain, to fill prescriptions for fruits and vegetables.