Drum Major Awards recognize faculty, staff, students at WashU Medicine

Drum Major Award recipients were honored at a ceremony on the WashU Medical Campus. (Photo: Jasminen Krueger/WashU Medicine)

Twenty-two individuals were recognized by WashU Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with Drum Major Awards during Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Week 2026.

The peer-nominated awards celebrate members of the WashU community who speak and work toward peace and justice for all and are named in honor of King’s 1968 sermon “The Drum Major Instinct,” in which he said, “Yes, if you want to say I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness.”

Read more on the WashU Medicine website.