It’s back to school for students of all ages, and in just a few short weeks, the mood has shifted from summer fun to the anticipation of cooler weather and autumn happenings all over St. Louis. Step onto the campus of Washington University in St. Louis this fall, and you’ll likely notice another shift – that is, if you’ve been on campus before.
Chelsea Clayton bought her first home with the help of a program backed by her employer. “I’ve wanted to buy a home since I was a kid, but I always felt like there’s so much you have to do to actually buy a home,” said Clayton, a respiratory care supervisor at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “You have to have this huge lump sum of money, and I’m like: ‘I don’t have that type of money.’ So, it was always something I wanted to do. I just didn’t think it would be an option for me, to be honest.”
Washington University is joining with a health care investment firm to form a new research and development business. The university is collaborating with Deerfield Management to form VeritaScience, a private R&D company intended to advance the discovery, clinical development and commercialization of therapeutic and diagnostic candidates with the potential to benefit human health, officials said Tuesday.
“This is a big statement by Washington University,” said dean of the medical School Dr. David Perlmutter.
The Clark-Fox Policy Institute has named Ellicia Lanier as its inaugural Scholar-in-Residence. Lanier is the founding Executive Director of Urban Sprouts Child Development Center and serves on the steering committee of the Gateway Early Childhood Alliance to reimagine St. Louis’ early childcare system. With over 20 years of experience in early childhood policy and practice, Lanier’s leadership as Scholar-in-Residence will elevate the importance of a thriving, high-quality early childhood education system for St. Louis.
Deepening and strengthening Washington University’s partnerships and impact in the St. Louis region is a top institutional priority, as evidenced during Chancellor Andrew D. Martin’s inauguration in 2019 and in the “Here and Next” strategic plan. The new St. Louis Confluence Collaborative for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Practice is part of the plan in action.
Members of the Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Association will receive the annual Rosa L. Parks Award from Washington University in St. Louis. The association has worked tirelessly to restore the historic Black cemetery on St. Louis Avenue in the north St. Louis County suburb of Hillsdale.
Students and faculty working in the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis’ School of Law were able to help a St. Louis woman reduce her tax debt and keep her house. The woman, referred to as “Katie,” suffered catastrophic medical setbacks and was forced to leave her longtime career. Without the ability to work, she withdrew all of her retirement funds to purchase a home.
Housing websites, like Zillow, screen listings for discriminatory language that violates the Fair Housing Act. Yet even without explicit discriminatory language, many online listings still reflect the implicit bias landlords and their renters have about neighborhoods based on their racial and socioeconomic makeup, according to Ariela Schachter, an associate professor of sociology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
At Washington University in St. Louis, we’re proud of our global reach as an educational and research institution. But we are equally proud to be a leader in our hometown of St. Louis. In many ways, we are who we are because of where we are.