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As the 2025 legislative session kicks off, the Office of Government & Community Relations at Washington University in St. Louis has launched an advocacy program as well as an online map demonstrating WashU’s impact across the state.

Flint Fowler, a strong champion for St. Louis’ young people and a WashU alumnus, will receive the annual Rosa L. Parks Award at the 38th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration at 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20, in Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis. Fowler retired in December from Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Louis, where he served as executive director for 28 years. During his tenure, he helped the organization grow from a single location to 11 sites in the region offering about 14,000 young people programs in leadership, academic success, career readiness, the arts and sports. 

Two summers ago, Angela Chen joined the first class of the Washington University Rural Scholars Academy, a free program that introduces talented high school students to all that WashU and St. Louis have to offer. Next fall, she is set to return — this time as a first-year student on a full-ride scholarship.

WashU will once again partner with Greater St. Louis Marathon, a St. Louis tradition that features a marathon, half-marathon, marathon relay, 10K, 5K and 1-mile family fun run. The 2025 race will take place April 26 in downtown St. Louis. 

Illustrator Carson Ellis, sculptor Beatriz Cortez and architect Rahul Mehrotra are among the internationally renowned creative professionals who will discuss their work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis this spring. These events are free and open to the public.

Eight floors up in the nondescript Security Building in downtown St. Louis, a small legal team has been engaged in public service work for over two decades at the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center. Last summer as part of the WashU St. Louis Fellows Program, Jordyn Ederer ‘26, a Goldman Fellow, worked out of the firm’s book-laden office on North Fourth Street and interned under the guidance of Bruce Morrison, the General Counsel of Great Rivers, and a WashU Law alumnus. Great Rivers is Missouri’s only public interest law firm focused on tackling the environmental and public health crises facing people in Missouri and Southern Illinois through legal avenues.

The St. Louis Fellows Program is a flagship initiative of the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement which advances Washington University’s commitment to be in St. Louis and for St. Louis. This six-month competitive fellowship prepares WashU students for lifelong civic leadership through an experiential curriculum and local internships focused on advancing mission-critical work that moves the St. Louis region forward

Learning a sport typically starts at a young age. Parents often give their child a ball, a bat, a racquet, or a glove to help build their interest in athletics. Kids swing and miss or throw in the wrong direction, but they often get to hear words of encouragement from those at a practice or game to keep going. But it’s not that easy for everyone. Some children have challenges that they must overcome and do so on a daily basis. One group in particular are those children who are deaf and/or hard of hearing. Luckily some have the opportunity to attend the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) here in St. Louis. Part of their education is learning about physical activities and sports. That is where the Washington University in St. Louis men’s tennis team has been able to make a connection and give back to the community.

Each summer, the Sam Fox School’s Office for Socially Engaged Practice works to place students in 12-week fellowship roles with community partners through the CityStudioSTL program. The fellows and firms intentionally focus on community-driven projects in the St. Louis area, often partnering with area nonprofits to strengthen the region while providing students the opportunity to experience the city beyond WashU’s campus.

Mitra Naseh, an assistant professor at the Brown School, has received a three-year, $463,654 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to study and improve the health of refugees in Missouri. Naseh’s project, titled “Structural Barriers and Health Outcomes of New Missourians,” will focus on identifying and addressing the challenges refugees face when seeking initial assistance. The goal is to develop and test community-led solutions to improve health outcomes for newly resettled refugees across the state.

Public health education in St. Louis is on the brink of transformative growth. The Washington University School of Public Health, slated to open in 2026, will mark the university’s first new school in a century and signal a major shift in how public health research and community engagement will be organized on campus.

St. Louis has been home to a branch of the NAACP for more than a century. While the organization has had a presence on many university campuses, it’s launching it’s first chapter at Washington University in St. Louis this year.

Washington University in St. Louis is preparing to launch its first new school in a century: the school of public health. Dr. Sandro Galea, the dean of the school of public health, says public health is many things from pandemics, infectious disease, to chronic disease and mental health. “What distinguishes public health is that we think about how we can structure the world to keep us healthy for as long as possible to prevent disease,” said Galea on ‘Total Information A.M.’

Brickline Greenway is kicking off 2025 with three huge wins! Great Rivers Greenway (GRG), the public agency connecting the region with greenways who turns 25 this year, has received a major boost to support the project’s vision to connect 14 neighborhoods with 12+ miles of greenways. Significant investments from both BJC Health System (BJC) and Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) push the $245 million public-private partnership past the halfway-funded mark, as well as provide critical match for future federal funding applications. Greater St. Louis, Inc. (GSL) stepped up its commitment by forming a working group of CEOs to support capital campaign efforts, further ensuring success for the project in 2025.

At Washington University’s Olin School, Izzy Gorton and Chiara Munzi are disrupting the quick breakfast market – and have raised $234,000 to take their startup national. Gorton and Munzi leveraged the school’s Skandalaris Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to guide the launch of their venture, ChiChi. Even more, adds Gorton, they took advantage of their startup-friendly local ecosystem in St. Louis.

Precious Barry, a WashU undergrad, has partnered with the St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP to help charter a student chapter at the university that will launch this January. The chapter is housed under WashU’s African and African American Studies Department. Its goals are to register to vote as many students as possible, create civically minded leaders and work to promote diversity, equity and inclusion on campus.

One evening in November, a class of about 30 WashU graduate students trickled onto the Cortex campus to learn more about BioGenerator Ventures, the investment arm of the bio-sciences ecosystem nonprofit BioSTL. They were met there by James McCarter, the new head of BioGenerator. McCarter, a major player in St. Louis’ bioscience industry, assumed his role in October. He sees untapped potential for investment particularly at WashU Medicine, which both this year and last garnered the second-highest amount of research funding among all U.S. medical schools from the National Institutes of Health.

The chairman of St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings and his wife have donated $50 million to Washington University’s neuroscience department. Andrew and Barbara Taylor gave the gift in appreciation for care he received from Wash U neurologists during a recent Illness, according to an announcement from the university.

Duke University and Washington University in St. Louis have each reported receiving $50 million gifts this week in support of advanced medical care. Washington University announced on December 12 that Andrew Taylor and his wife, Barbara, had made a $50 million gift to the university’s neurosurgery department. In recognition of the gift, the department has been renamed the Taylor Family Department of Neurosurgery. The gift was made out of gratitude for the medical care Andrew Taylor recently received from neurosurgeons at Washington University. Mr. Taylor is the executive chairman of Enterprise Mobility, the global car rental and transportation company based in St.Louis.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis received $683 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health this year, making it the second-largest recipient of the federal health funds in the nation for the second straight year. The funding comes in the same year the university opened its $616 million Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building, a recently completed $165 million six-floor expansion of the Steven & Susan Lipstein BJC Institute of Health at Barnes Jewish Hospital, and its new $280 million Siteman Cancer Center building on Forest Park Ave.

St. Louis is a forgotten place in a way. In fact, it has long been on lists of the most underrated cities in America. Back in 2016, Thrillist called St. Louis the “most overlooked city in America.” Perhaps the low-profile is due to the humility of its mid-west residents, who are easily approachable and nice, even when you’re wearing the wrong jersey at Busch Stadium. Or maybe it’s because of the city’s location, far from the coasts. No matter, the secrets of St. Louis, like they always have, await those who pass through.

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation’s Cara Starke shares must-see art experiences in St. Louis, from museums to monuments and beyond.

Across the metro area, transplants can quickly make an impact, both in the community and in their own careers.

The Washington Post recently named the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) as one of the top art museums in the nation. The Post’s art critics ranked SLAM as #12, citing its geography in the “huge, gorgeous” Forest Park and calling its art collection “broad and deep.”

Joi Riley is one of three female business owners selling products in Park Central Development’s Eric Outlaw Business Center at 4256 Manchester Ave. The Grove neighborhood’s business incubator, which opened Oct. 10, helps women in the St. Louis region develop their businesses online and in store.

The employment gain by the St. Louis metro area that ranked as the fourth highest percentage increase in the nation is an indicator of progress, but it must be sustained for the rest of this decade to charge the region’s narrative, some officials say. Federal data released Oct. 4 showed that the number of non-farm employees in the St. Louis region grew 2.6% from August 2023 to August 2024. That’s an addition of 36,600 employees, from 1,422,200 a year ago to 1,458,800 in August, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Only the metro areas of Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Indianapolis showed larger percentage increases.

The number of employees in the St. Louis region grew 2.57% from August 2023 to August 2024, the fourth-highest percentage increase in the nation, according to federal data released Friday. The St. Louis metro area in the time added 36,600 employees, growing from 1,422,2000 a year ago to 1,458,800 in August, according to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Only three U.S. metro areas posted larger percentage employment increases: Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Indianapolis.

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.

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 Financial Times recently showcased the International Institute of St. Louis’s efforts to grow the St. Louis metro population by recruiting immigrants and refugees to live and work in the area. The Financial Times article also said the St. Louis metro area “stands out in both its method and ambition” to increase foreign-born communities and in how nonprofit, governmental, and business communities have come together to support the effort.