Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

Two debates, three weeks. There’s not a whole of time or opportunity for the presidential candidates to reach undecided voters, adding weight to tomorrow’s debate. And as we’ve seen in the last two debates, it’s not so much what is being said as it is how the message is being delivered. That’s why President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney have a crucial meeting tomorrow night and experts at Washington University in St. Louis are ready to comment.

The first presidential debate was most striking for Gov. Mitt Romney’s aggressiveness and President Barack Obama’s rhetorical reserve, but the town hall format in the second debate provides an extra challenge for the candidates, says Peter Kastor, PhD, professor of history and American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis. The two debates also reveal one of the greatest challenges to candidates as they try to appear Presidential: balancing emotional display with appropriate reserve.

Just two weeks before the presidential election, the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis puts the Affordable Care Act front and center with a policy forum on the signature legislation of Barack Obama’s presidency. “Affordable Care Act-the Evolution Continues” takes place at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Brown Hall Lounge on the Danforth Campus. Keynoting Jay Angoff, senior advisor at the U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Angoff is an expert on insurance law and insurance-related issues at both the national and state levels.

Gail Hillebrand, JD, of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will visit the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, Oct. 25, as part of the Center for Social Development’s Financial Capability Lecture series. Hillebrand’s talk, “Financial Capability Across the Life Course: The Role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” will focus on the financial issues of older adults. This lecture is in collaboration with the Freidman Center for Aging. It is free and open to the public.

Victoria L. May (right), assistant dean of Arts & Sciences and director of the Institute for School Partnership, speaks at a breakfast at Brittany Woods Middle School Oct. 3 to celebrate the university’s collaboration with the district. The partnership between WUSTL and UCity schools began informally through various programs, and became formal in 2009.

The most vulnerable and marginalized groups in this country stand to lose the most in this campaign, says Jason Q. Purnell, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, and all the rhetoric directed at the middle class fails to take into account the very real struggles of the poor and the working class in this country. It’s one of the issues that is being overlooked as the presidential campaign heads into the home stretch with the election just four weeks away. “I do believe this election is a stark choice between a vision in which government has a constructive role to play in enhancing people’s life choices and one in which individuals are largely on their own,” he says.

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.