Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

More students with an autism spectrum disorder gravitate toward science, technology, engineering and math majors in college than other students. But they have low college admission rates because of gender, finances and other barriers, finds a new study, co-authored by Paul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Ann Kittlaus has been named assistant dean for communications at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. She was a senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard  in St. Louis and held several positions at government agencies in Washington, D.C.

Members of the Washington University in St. Louis community were recognized during the fifth annual James M. Holobaugh Honors ceremony Nov. 7 in Ridgley Hall’s Holmes Lounge. The award honors individuals and organizations that promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality, perform direct advocacy and service to the St. Louis metropolitan area and incorporate education and dialogue as part of their practice.

The Office of the Provost at WUSTL has launched a new website, diversity.wustl.edu, as the focal point for all diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus. The site has a comprehensive list of resources and programs, and will use photographs and videos to tell stories of the university’s people and programs that support diversity on campus.

SIFT (Shaw Institute for Field Training) and TERF (Tyson Environmental Research Fellowships) — a collaboration between WUSTL’s Tyson Research Center and the Missouri Botanical Gardens’ Shaw Nature Reserve — gives high school students authentic engagement in environmental research and prepares them for careers in biology and other sciences.​

The Brown School’s “Evaluation for Social Impact: A St. Louis Summit” Oct. 16 and 17 was an innovative conference designed to elevate understanding of evaluation techniques for agencies and nonprofits throughout the St. Louis region. It featured top national experts giving keynotes, spark talks and breakout sessions.

That Mitt Romney, when he became governor of Massachusetts, did not know a sufficient number of women leaders in business and politics to appoint women he knew or knew about to positions in the state government is troublesome, says Mary Ann Dzuback, PhD, director of the Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Smoking is both a physical addiction to nicotine and a learned psychological behavior, so the best way to quit is to attack it from both sides, says Sarah Shelton of the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. And help may be right at your fingertips in the form of your smartphone.

The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis commemorated World Food Day Oct. 16 by holding a lunch in Goldfarb Commons with a discussion following. Students were given “money” base on their random selection as being from rich, poor or moderate-income countries, and were given the opportunity to join with others to receive additional funds to pool cooperatively which they could then use to purchase food reflective of items available in those countries.

In remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr., the Society of Black Student Social Workers (SBSSW) and the Office of Student Affairs at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis will host its annual Financial Freedom Seminar on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013.