Author: Neil Schoenherr

Political polarization has consistently influenced public reactions to disease outbreaks in the United States, from polio to COVID-19, according to a comprehensive new study by Caitlin McMurtry, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Leila Sadat, the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at WashU, has been appointed to the board of eyeWitness to Atrocities, founded by the International Bar Association.

Using a “check-the-box” opt-in process to open federally funded Trump Accounts for children will likely exclude millions of eligible families — and undermine the program’s promise to promote lifelong asset building, finds a new policy brief from the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.

A Brown School training program that helps educate and support mental health research and scholars has received a grant extension from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). When it’s complete, it will mark 35 years of continual funding.

WashU privacy law expert Neil Richards had a unique opportunity this year to put his training to use: He was named an ombudsman to guide the courts on how genetic data owned by 23andMe should be handled during its sale.

Three Brown School faculty members have completed specialized training designed to help social workers and nurse educators integrate psychedelic-assisted therapy into academic curricula.

The Brown School’s Mark R. Rank was named a finalist in three major independent publisher book awards for his recent book, “The Random Factor.”

The Brown School’s Vanessa Fabbre and Cal Halvorsen have been named 2025 Gerontological Society of America Fellows, while Nancy Morrow-Howell received the Barbara J. Berkman Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Research, Practice or Policy in Aging and Health Care.

Mitra Naseh, assistant professor at the Brown School, has been selected as one of four scholars nationwide for the 2025-2026 Visiting Poverty Scholars Program, administered by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Two Brown School faculty members have been awarded a combined $1.4 million in grants from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support research focused on improving economic mobility and reducing wealth disparities.