Washington People

Organizations often are thought of as machines, cogs and wheels turning to crank out products or ideas. “But ultimately organizations are made up of people, and people interact in different ways,” says Stuart Bunderson, PhD, the George and Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics and Governance at Olin Business School.

Kevin Black’s family didn’t have any physicians in it. Well, one of his great-great-grandfathers had a medical license back in the late 1800s, but he had no formal training — and Black himself wasn’t planning on medical school. But during his first year of college, a teacher helped change his career plans.

Sophia Hayes, associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, leaning toward an economics major when she stumbled into a quantum mechanics class and then a chemistry class with a collaborative research focus. Research projects were the hook, and “I crammed the chemistry major into my last two years,” Hayes says.

​Training in England gives Jane Garbutt, MBChB, a unique perspective on medical issues in the United States and how care can be provided differently. Garbutt strives to help pediatricians in private practice find the most effective treatments for everyday medical problems.

Guillermo Rosas, PhD, an associate professor of political science, is developing sophisticated statistical models to examine complicated questions in a credible way. Much of his research hearkens back to his homeland in Mexico City, as he strives to infuse thoughtful analysis into the public dialogue.

David Warren, MD, medical director for infection control at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, works diligently to prevent infections, but when they do occur, he pulls out all the stops to halt their spread. And in a world that is increasingly interconnected, Warren also must keep abreast of emerging global epidemics that have the potential to wreak havoc if there’s a local outbreak.

If you were a wandering shepherd and suddenly the government began parceling out land your flock grazed to your fellow citizens, would you be better off as a landowner instead? That’s the question that Carolyn Lesorogol, PhD, associate professor of social work, pondered when Kenya began to distribute property in the land registration movement of the 1970s.

Kurt Dirks, PhD, Bank of America Professor of Managerial Leadership at Olin Business School, discusses trust in the workplace. “It’s particularly timely,” he says, “given that trust in leaders of almost all sectors ranging from business to government to education are at record lows.”

Growing up in the picturesque town of Sandomierz in southeastern Poland, Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, PhD, was a serious student and an uncommonly avid reader. Today, Solnica-Krezel, professor and head of the Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is a leading expert in understanding the earliest stages of life’s development. 

Whether surfing in his native Hawaii, promoting the rule of law in a newly independent country or navigating difficult issues in legal education and theory, Brian Z. Tamanaha, JD, JSD, the William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law, approaches each adventure with thoughtful consideration.