Campus & Community

Rochelle Smith, director of diversity, summer programs and community outreach for the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS), has been appointed assistant provost of diversity initiatives at Washington University in St. Louis. She will continue to serve in her role in DBBS.

After a year of faculty members sharing perspectives, a new program from the Office of the Provost at Washington University in St Louis is reaping the benefits of collaboration. Throughout 2014, faculty from across the university met in the Bring Your Own Idea (BYOI) program. BYOI grants provided opportunities for faculty to meet and talk about topics ranging from income inequality and global cities to data translation and the creative process.

Legail P. Chandler, assistant dean and executive director of human resources at the School of Medicine, has been named vice chancellor for human resources at Washington University, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Chandler, whose appointment is effective immediately, succeeds Lorraine Goffe-Rush, who was named vice president for human resources at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

​Some 120 ​Washington University students help mentor local high school students through the college application process in a national mentoring program called Strive for College. The program was started on the Washington University campus in 2007 by a group of Rodriguez Scholars and today thrives under the leadership of alum Michael Carter. On Monday, Feb. 16, local high school participants will visit Washington University, where they will shadow mentors in class and around campus. ​

Topics both timely and thought-provoking will be covered in back-to-back Assembly Series lectures. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17,  eminent religious scholar and bestselling author Reza Aslan will address “Faith, Extremism, and Democracy: Examining the Parallels of Religious Fundamentalism at Home and Abroad.” At 7 p.m. the next evening, Feb. 18, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates will explore one of the most enduring and controversial issues of race in “The Case for Reparations.”

The discovery was an important first step; the dialogue continues. That’s the takeaway more than 600 participants from within the Washington University in St. Louis community heard in a unique, universitywide forum called “Race & Ethnicity: A Day of Discovery and Dialogue” that took place Feb. 5 and 6.

Seven things you should know about the energetic and driven Josh Whitman, the John M. Schael Director of Athletics at Washington University in St. Louis, who is six months into the job and working nonstop to build an already-successful athletics department into the best in NCAA Division III.

Five staff members of Washington University in St. Louis will travel to South Korea in June 2015 through the Global Diversity Overseas Seminar, a professional development opportunity for staff that looks at diversity from a global perspective.

The School of Medicine’s 11th Annual Art Show is underway in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center atrium on the Medical Campus. Visitors may view the art through Feb. 11.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton installs the Brown School’s Sean Joe as the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development during a ceremony Jan. 26 in Brown Lounge.