Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

Sherrilyn Ifill, JD (left), president and director-general of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, shares a laugh with Kim Norwood, JD (center), professor of law at the School of Law, and Karen Tokarz, JD, the Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law and Public Service and director of the Dispute Resolution Program, before Ifill’s Assembly Series talk Sept. 17 in Anheuser-Busch Hall’s Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to celebrate the grand opening of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at Washington University in St. Louis from 4-5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, in Olin Library, Room 202. Attendees will be able to tour the space and meet with center staff and advisory board members.

Michael S. Kinch, PhD, joins Washington University in St. Louis as associate vice chancellor and director of the university’s new Center for Research Innovation in Business. H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, made the announcement.

Calling all entrepreneurs, innovators and anyone interested in the future of our economy — the Rise of the Rest Road Tour is headed to St. Louis and will be hosting a fireside chat at Washington University in St. Louis at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 10 in the Frick Forum. The tour also features a $100,000 business pitch competition. Applications are due Sept. 21.

Washington University in St. Louis has helped to establish a new consortium of U.S. universities and leading technology companies designed to promote development and adoption of Named Data Networking, a new Internet protocol architecture to increase network security, accommodate growing bandwidth requirements and simplify the creation of increasingly sophisticated applications. Engineering’s Patrick Crowley, PhD, is principal investigator.

In the wake of civil rights and social justice issues that have emerged following the death of African-American teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, the fall 2014 Washington University in St. Louis Assembly Series will feature presentations by several eminent civil rights scholars and authors, including NAACP executive Sherrilyn Ifill.

In continuing the university’s role as a welcoming place to discuss issues surrounding the events in Ferguson, Mo., the Office of the Provost at Washington University in St. Louis, in coordination with the Gephardt Institute for Public Service and the Office of Human Resources, are beginning a series of “Conversation Circles” on the Danforth Campus onThursday, Aug. 28.

Washington University in St. Louis is beginning to host events — the first of many — that will explore the roots of the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and support community members who have been affected. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to participate.

Washington University has joined forces with Operation Food Search to collect food for Ferguson and surrounding communities. Faculty, students and staff are invited to drop off canned meat or other food items at 21 bins located throughout the Danforth Campus as well as at West Campus, North Campus and the School of Medicine. The drive, modeled after the spring food drive PB&Joy, will run through Labor Day (Sept. 1).

You do get a second chance to make a first impression, thanks to the fact that any given day is full of firsts: First day of school, first day on the job, first day back after vacation. That’s the finding of a new study on forming impressions led by Robyn A. LeBoeuf, PhD, associate professor of marketing at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. “By connecting an everyday experience to a first – even an unrelated first – you can turn that experience into a first experience,” LeBoeuf said.