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St. Louis-based Unlocked Labs is one of nine companies nationwide, and the only one from the Midwest, to win a $100,000 grant from the New York-based Robin Hood anti-poverty nonprofit’s AI Poverty Challenge to incorporate artificial intelligence into its educational platform for incarcerated people. Unlocked Labs is currently offering artificial intelligence-powered smart tutoring to around 6,000 incarcerated users in 13 prisons, partnering with Washington University, the State University of New York, Cornell University, Arizona State University and the non-profit Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison.

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, dean designate for Washington University in St. Louis’ planned School of Public Health, will provide a first look at his vision for the new school at the Public Health at WashU Annual Conference Oct. 21-22. The school — WashU’s first new school in a century — is set to galvanize public health research and scholarship in the St. Louis region. 

It’s the result of concerted efforts to attract immigrants here by organizations including Greater St. Louis Inc., the International Institute of St. Louis and the St. Louis Mosaic Project. By raising private donations for targeted recruitment, the campaign has attracted Latin American and Cuban immigrants and provided job training and placement with the help of the Missouri AFL-CIO. More than 1,300 Afghan refugees have come for programs including entrepreneurial grants. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has created a city Office of New Americans to help facilitate immigrant settlement.

St. Louis is vying for a $160 million grant that leaders and academics hope will turbocharge the neuroscience sector and rectify entrenched health disparities throughout the region. The effort is part of an application to be one of the next National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines. NEURO360, the St. Louis proposal, is led by Washington University and BioSTL. It aims to build upon the region’s existing prowess in neuroscience research and develop those discoveries into new products, treatments and approaches to medicine, said Eric Leuthardt, chief of Washington University’s division of neurotechnology and one of NEURO360’s principal investigators.

Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that efforts to increase the St. Louis metro’s immigrant population are succeeding, as the 15-county bi-state St. Louis metropolitan area recorded the highest percentage increase in foreign-born population among the 30 largest metro areas in the United States from 2022-2023. 

The name Charles Fleming might not be universally known in St. Louis, but it should be. The first African American graduate of Washington University’s University College with a B.A. in architecture in 1961, Fleming would go on to become one of the most successful Modernist architects in St. Louis, with offices across the country in Atlanta, Washington D.C., and San Francisco. And, at a time when federal assistance in home mortgages discriminated against African Americans, he helped members of his community work toward home ownership. Fleming died in St. Louis on July 8, 2024.

Area health systems including BJC HealthCare and WashU are addressing community concerns by collaborating on the Community Health Needs Assessment, investing in local businesses, donating, volunteering, and more.

Physicians, scientists, patients and WashU leaders — all united in hope — gathered Sept. 10 to celebrate the new home for world-class cancer care on the Washington University Medical Campus. The nine-story, 657,250-square-foot building will be devoted exclusively to outpatient care at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and will welcome its first patients Sept. 30.

How do older adults understand and experience ageism? The Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, at WashU is organizing community focus groups to increase knowledge about ageism for intervention development. 

Mark Kamimura-Jiménez has been instrumental in Washington University’s efforts to center diversity and inclusion for the entire student body and university community, fostering a learning environment that enriches and supports students from all backgrounds.