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St. Louis has a long history of welcoming refugees from across the globe. For people escaping war or political turmoil, the region can be a place of safety and opportunity. While migrants often encounter obstacles as they try to remake their lives, they also manage to hold on to personal goals, ambitions, and measures of success in their new homes, said Margot Moinester, assistant professor of sociology. Moinester helped conduct a unique study gathering interviews from 36 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq who settled in St. Louis and Denver.

To connect with communities locally and globally, the Brown School created Open Classroom – a series of free, one-hour webinars on a wide range of social work, public health, and social policy topics. The Open Classroom library now includes more than 250 programs, with new webinars offered every month.

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 Center for Dissemination and Implementation announces the launch of a new Midwest Developmental Center for AIDS Research (D-CFAR) in Missouri, which brings together researchers from across the translational spectrum to address the HIV epidemic. This D-CFAR is part of a national network of 20 NIH-funded centers, and it is the first of its kind in the Midwest. The center is a collaboration between Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis University, and Harris-Stowe State University.

The best teachers never stop learning. That is why the School of Continuing & Professional Studies (CAPS) at Washington University in St. Louis, in collaboration with partner Teach St. Louis, has opened its Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning (MATL) program to veteran teachers who work in high-need classrooms. Initially designed for novice teachers in the Teach St. Louis Residency, now known as Teach St. Louis, the MATL program introduces educators to instructional strategies that accelerate better learning outcomes. CAPS also is introducing a new certificate for educators who already have a master’s degree but want to further their skills. 

BioSTL, the biosciences economic development organization, has named a new leader for its investment arm. The organization said this week that Dr. James McCarter, a Washington University-trained physician and biologist, has been named a senior vice president of BioSTL and senior managing director of BioGenerator Ventures.

Dr. Katherine Weilbaecher was concerned about the trends. As an oncologist at WashU Medicine specializing in metastatic breast cancer, she noticed Black patients from North County were coming to her office with more advanced cancers. She recently created a mammography clinic targeted to the high-risk population to find those cancers earlier and ensure patients receive follow-up care.

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.

A motion-activated nightlight in the hall. A bench in the shower. Non-slip tape on rug corners. Practitioners like Susan Stark, professor of occupational therapy at WashU Medicine, have long turned toward these simple, proven strategies to reduce a person’s risk of falling. Through the Home Hazard Removal Program (HARP), a one-on-one intervention system Stark designed, she strives to bring these kinds of solutions to as many older adults as possible. HARP has already reached nearly 1,000 St. Louis-area residences.

The Summer Teacher Researcher Program administered by WashU’s Institute for School Partnership (ISP) is one of many ways the ISP supports partnership and outreach opportunities between WashU faculty and local educators.