Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

There’s no debating the fact Washington University in St. Louis experts know presidential politics. The university hosted presidential debates in 1992, 2000 and ’04, as well as the VP debate in ’08. As President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney prepare to debate this week, you’re preparing your coverage. Washington University professors are ready to comment — over the phone, on air, on camera – to help clarify the issues that will define the 2012 campaign.

Health and human services organizations and programs are in constant growth and movement, and the need for effective evaluation of the impact of those initiatives in the community is greater than ever. The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, together with WUSTL’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Rome Group, will present a two-day summit, “Evaluation for Social Impact” Oct. 16 and 17 at the studios of the Nine Network in midtown St. Louis.​

A groundbreaking study aims to find out whether the opportunity to save will entice youth in developing countries to bank their money. Representatives from the Center for Social Development at the Brown School traveled halfway around the world to Nepal to meet with colleagues from the YouthSave Consortium, and had the unique opportunity to talk with Nepalese youth and learn more about their savings experience.

The Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis will host its fifth annual conference, titled “Rising to the Challenge: Public Health in the 21st Century,” from 12:30-5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Medical Campus. The keynote speaker is James S. Marks, MD, senior vice president and director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A new study suggests an estimated 46.3 percent of adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were the victims of bullying. The study originated at the Brown School and is part of a pioneering program of research on adolescents and adults with autism led by Paul T. Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor. Lead author Paul Sterzing, PhD, assistant professor at the School of Social Welfare of the University of California, Berkeley, completed this study when he was a student at the Brown School.

Before classes began at the Brown School, students, faculty and staff went out into the St. Louis area Aug. 25 for the annual Brown School Community Service Day. A video captures the program at Gateway Greening, one of 21 area agencies for which students, faculty and staff provided service. “It’s nice to start off the year ‘walking the walk,’” says Melissa Jonson-Reid, PhD, professor at the Brown School.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among children ages 1-14 and will affect over 12,000 families in the United States this year alone. To increase awareness, September is designated Childhood Cancer Awareness Month with Wednesday, Sept. 12, pegged as Childhood Cancer Awareness Day. WUSTL researchers Kimberly J. Johnson, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School and Todd Druley , MD, PhD, pediatric oncologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, are working to alleviate childhood cancer.

Washington University in St. Louis’ Institute for School Partnership has received a $2.2 million grant from the Monsanto Fund to take the institute’s cornerstone program, MySci, to the next level. In its eighth year serving the St. Louis community, MySci’s mission is to cultivate the region’s next generation of scientists by engaging elementary students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through interactive learning experiences and creative curriculum.

Before settling down to study, groups of Washington University in St. Louis law students worked with a variety of area community groups like the Wellston Community Gardens during the School of Law’s Orientation Service Project Week.

In recent decades, the federal government has relied more and more on contractors, private businesses, to perform public services. The federal government issues more than $260 billion in government contracts each year, with few restrictions on the employees of those contractors. Government ethics expert Kathleen Clark, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, has written extensively about this issue, provides some suggestions in a Q&A.