Author: Diane Toroian Keaggy

As director of the Digital Art History Lab, Betha Whitlow provides work experiences to students that are both fruitful and fairly compensated. She wants the same for her WashU colleagues. On the Danforth Staff Council, she successfully advocated for parental leave. 

Emily Martin, a prospect management consultant with University Advancement, has been selected for Focus St. Louis’ fall 2025 Women in Leadership cohort. 

Roughly 550 WashU undergraduate and graduate students gathered in Tisch Park Sept. 3 for the annual civic dialogue event — a nearly fourfold increase since its debut in 2023.

Chancellor Andrew D. Martin has announced a new Washington University in St. Louis initiative to further promote academic freedom, viewpoint diversity and civic education. The Ordered Liberty Project will recruit endowed faculty across disciplines and support existing programs to build an intellectual culture where rigorous debate strengthens both scholarship and student learning. 

Career Catalysts, a series about WashU interns, by WashU interns, visits junior Kiersten Anderson as she leads a therapy session with individuals with memory-related illnesses. Her internship at St. Louis nonprofit Memory Keepers is funded by the Chancellor’s Career Fellows Program, which supports low-income, first-generation students.

The Bauer Leaders Academy is accepting seed grant applications from faculty in any discipline to develop a new course or infuse an existing course with material that helps students think critically about purpose and leadership. Submissions are due Nov. 30.

Even as a child growing up in north St. Louis County, WashU junior Precious Barry was aware that society often underestimates young people from communities like hers. Yet Barry defied expectations and earned admissions to dozens of colleges, including a full-ride scholarship to WashU.

Washington University in St. Louis continues to draw talented students from across the nation and around the globe. The Class of 2029 is the second-largest in university history and comprises 1,963 students from 49 states and 29 countries. While American universities continue to navigate federal guidelines that have changed how they recruit and admit students, WashU’s incoming class represents a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives.

This summer, students in WashU’s Digital Transformation Summer Corps developed AI-driven tools and products that advance important interdisciplinary research projects. The new program is part of the Digital Intelligence & Innovation Accelerator, a “Here & Next” initiative.

Catherine Hanaway, a member of WashU’s Board of Trustees, has been appointed to serve as Missouri attorney general. As such, Hanaway will step down from the board. She will be sworn in Sept. 8.