Author: Neil Schoenherr

Kurt Shepherd has been appointed vice chancellor for budget and financial planning and chief budget officer at Washington University in St. Louis, effective May 20, Chancellor Andrew D. Martin announced.

Richard “Dick” Roloff, a former administrator and trustee of Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, March 6, 2026. He was 96.

A new WashU Law report examining environmental racism in St. Louis offers updated data and a series of policy recommendations aimed at addressing longstanding disparities in health, housing and environmental conditions across the region.

Tonya Edmond, at the Brown School, has been installed as the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor. A ceremony took place Feb. 9 in Hillman Hall.

High prescription drug prices are not caused by any single company or practice, but by the system itself, said WashU Law’s Rachel Sachs. If Congress wants lower drug prices, it has to fix the structure and incentives of the entire supply chain, said Sachs, an expert on prescription drug pricing.

Widespread promotion has started for so-called Trump Accounts, including an ad during the Super Bowl. The accounts allow parents to opt in to claim investment seed money of up to $1,000 for their children. But that opt-in part is problematic, say two experts on child development accounts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Guaranteed income programs may reduce food insecurity and improve nutrition among low-income Black households in Georgia, according to a new study led by the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Sean Joe, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, received an honorable mention for the 2026 Excellence in Research Award from the Society for Social Work and Research. 

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has called for a phaseout of the state’s income tax, a move that would cause the most pain to the state’s low-income residents, says an expert on tax law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mark Rank, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare, won the 2026 Independent Press Award in the category of sociology for his book “The Random Factor: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us.”