Campus & Community

Meshing mindfulness with anti-racism is the focus of a series of upcoming talks funded by Washington University’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity. The first virtual event features speaker Rhonda Magee on April 30.

Thurtene, the Washington in St. Louis junior honorary, will host “Dream On,” a virtual art show and benefit auction, from noon Saturday, April 24 through Sunday, April 25. The art, which will be available to view starting at noon Friday, April 23, was submitted by local artists of all levels, from elementary school students to professional artists.

Faculty, staff, friends and loved ones are invited to submit messages of support for the Class of 2021. Submit photo and video messages by Saturday, April 24.

Dolores B. Njoku, MD, a noted clinician, researcher and mentor, has been named director of pediatric anesthesiology at the School of Medicine and anesthesiologist-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She also will be the new Rudolph L. and Mary Frances Wise Endowed Chair in Pediatric Anesthesiology.

Washington University’s Prison Education Project has won a two-year, $980,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The award resulted from the Mellon Foundation’s “Future of Higher Learning in Prison” competition.

Five physician-scientists at the School of Medicine have been elected members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in recognition of original, creative and independent investigations in the clinical or allied sciences of medicine.

Welcome to Class Acts, a celebration of remarkable graduating students. In our first installment, Class Acts showcases three incredible makers — artist Erin Lewis, engineer Alex Levy and pop-up market founder Noor Bekhiet.

Macy Sprunger, a graduate student in Meredith Jackrel’s lab in the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, won a three-year $136,560 National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Such fellowships support predoctoral students conducting research in scientific health-related fields.

Washington University in St. Louis is welcoming alumni from the Class of 2020 back to campus for in-person Commencement ceremonies on May 30. Julie L. Gerberding, MD, the first woman to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will deliver the address to the returning graduates, announced Chancellor Andrew D. Martin.

Larry J. Johnson, a radiation safety specialist for decades in the Office of Environmental Health & Safety at Washington University in St. Louis, died of a heart attack at his home in St. Louis on April 2, 2021. He was 68.