Dorian E. Traube, an expert on early childhood development, was installed as the Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis during a Feb. 15 ceremony in Brown Hall.
Traube was appointed dean in March 2023 and began her tenure Aug. 1. Previously, Traube was a professor in the Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on early child development, home visitation and telehealth solutions for families with young children.
“I am thrilled that Dorian Traube has joined the university to lead the Brown School,” Chancellor Andrew D. Martin said. “I know she will continue to advance the school’s mission of putting evidence-based research into practice. I also want to thank the Neidorff family and Centene Corporation for investing in the strategic vision of the university.”
Traube spearheaded the creation of Parents as Teachers @ USC Telehealth, a pioneering collaboration between a national home visitation model and a university-based telehealth clinic. This program provided virtual home visits, gaining recognition and awards while scaling up to 600,000 visits and training 12,000 home visitors.
Traube’s research, supported by prestigious organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Parsons Foundation, Queenscare Foundation and the Overdeck Foundation, also earned her a multimillion-dollar award for nationwide accessibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, she has served on the boards of the California Emerging Technology Fund and Child 360.
Traube earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and master’s and doctoral degrees in social work from Columbia University. She is a licensed clinical social worker in California and New York.
“At the Brown School, our compass will continue to be our ambitious school plan, Driving Equity 2030,” Traube said during her installation address. “We will prioritize access and affordability to our MSW degree with the ultimate goal of providing a debt-free education.
“We will amplify social impact by making academic expertise more easily accessible than ever before and apply academic rigor to addressing the world’s most intractable issues.”
About Centene Corporation
Centene Corp., a Fortune 500 company, is a leading health-care enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The company takes a local approach — with local brands and local teams — to provide fully integrated, high-quality and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial health-care programs, focusing
on underinsured and uninsured individuals.
Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare prescription drug plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace and the TRICARE program. The company also contracts with other health-care and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and value creation as well as the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities and government partners.
About Noémi and Michael Neidorff
Noémi Neidorff and her late husband, Michael, have been leading patrons of cultural and educational institutions in St. Louis and beyond. Their dedication to learning and the arts has made a significant impact in the lives of many. Michael and Noémi Neidorff married in 1974 and had two children, Monica and Peter. The family relocated to St. Louis in 1985 when Michael, who would serve as president and chief executive officer of Centene for 27 years, moved the company’s headquarters to Missouri.
In addition to the couple’s support for the deanship at the Brown School, they established three endowed professorships and a fellowship program at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They also provided funding for COVID-19 projects and research at the Brown School and the School of Medicine. Additional support advanced new and innovative cancer research at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the School of Medicine. Most recently, Noémi established a distinguished professorship in Arts & Sciences named in honor of her uncle, Bela Kornitzer, an acclaimed author, historian and journalist from Hungary.
Michael made significant contributions to the development of metropolitan St. Louis and served on many boards throughout the St. Louis area, including CEOs Against Cancer of St. Louis, Greater St. Louis Boy Scouts of America, the Grand Center board of directors, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Gateway Chapter, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, St. Louis Regional Chamber, Saint Louis Science Center, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the United Way of Greater St. Louis. He was appointed as chairman of the National Urban League board in 2014 and chairman of the Trinity University board in 2016. Michael also served on the Brown School National Council.
Noémi has been an active volunteer in numerous organizations. She is currently vice chair of the board of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and serves on the executive committees of the Manhattan School of Music and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Previously, Neidorff served as chair of the National Trustees of the National Symphony Orchestra and chair of the board of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, as well as serving on the board for Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. She played a significant role in founding the St. Louis radio station Classic 107.3 FM, which focuses heavily on classical music and the arts.
