In St. Louis, For St. Louis

In Missouri, women hold only two of the 10 seats in the U.S. House and Senate (20%), 55 state legislature seats (28%) and no statewide elected executive seats, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Illinois fares somewhat better, with seven women among the 19 seats in the U.S. House and Senate (37%), 76 women in state legislature seats (43%) and two women among the six statewide elected executive seats. While both states are in line with nationwide averages, they still have a long way to go to achieve equity in women’s representation. A new program offered at Washington University in St. Louis aims to change that.

Early in the morning of a summer day, high school students Hope Jett and Kari Koerner are counting mosquitoes in a tree-canopied clearing of Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis’ sprawling environmental field station in west St. Louis County. They are part of the Mosquito Team, a WashU research project to better understand the ecology and evolution of mosquitoes.

This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present “Design Agendas: Modern Architecture in St. Louis, 1930s–1970s.” With nearly 300 architectural drawings, models, photographs, films, digital maps and artworks, “Design Agendas” is the first major exhibition to examine how interlocking civic, cultural and racial histories, as well as conflicting ideological aims, reshaped the city.

Washington University recently announced that Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH — one of the world’s most influential public health leaders — will become inaugural dean of its planned School of Public Health, effective Jan. 1, 2025. In this critical role, Galea will help shape WashU’s first new school in 100 years. The school is part of “Here and Next,” WashU’s 10-year strategic plan to make both the university and St. Louis a global hub for solving society’s deepest challenges.

The WashU & Slavery Project is an initiative started in spring 2021 to advance scholarship around WashU’s history with slavery. But the project is also reshaping public history in the St. Louis region by striving to add or improve information around slavery and racial discrimination at area historical sites, including the General Daniel Bissell House and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

While some some progress has been made in the 10 years since Michael Brown’s death on Aug. 9, 2014, in many ways we have regressed as a nation, said Kimberly Norwood, the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis and editor of, and contributor to, the 2016 book “Ferguson’s Fault Lines: The Race Quake That Rocked a Nation.” The reverberations from Brown’s shooting death manifested in the form of worldwide protests and contrite promises of investigations, reform and racial reckoning, Norwood said.

Experiencing the nuances of local leadership and judicial impacts are an important part of student civic learning. In the Gephardt Institute’s St. Louis Fellows Program, the Fellows engage in summer weekly seminars centered on civic engagement. While most of their sessions are at Stix House, two of the seminars took place off campus at the Delmar DivINe and the Eagleton Federal Courthouse in Downtown St. Louis. 

At St. Louis ArtWorks in University City, St. Louis Fellow Duaa Mohamed ’26 works in communications, helping the nonprofit make the community aware of the ways that they bring the arts to underserved people.

This spring, WashU Philanthropy Lab students granted a total of $68,000 to nine St. Louis community nonprofit organizations, including $10,000 to A Red Circle. The strength of the organization—along with the advocacy work led by one student in the class, St. Louis Fellow Mason Shaver—resulted earlier this month in the nonprofit being granted an additional $50,000 by The Philanthropy Lab, a national organization.

Mary and Tom Stillman are the recipients of the 2024 Jane and Whitney Harris St. Louis Community Service Award. Chancellor Andrew D. Martin presented the Stillmans with the award at a June 5 luncheon at the Whittemore House. Mary McKay, vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at Washington University in St. Louis, hosted the event. The Harris Award committee selects a couple to receive the annual award, which was established in 2000 in honor of the late Jane and Whitney Harris to recognize couples who contribute to the betterment of the greater St. Louis community.