Washington People

Since Josh Walehwa and his family left Uganda and the dictatorship of Idi Amin in 1976, Walehwa, associate director of residential life at Washington University, has been surrounded by teachers who have encouraged and inspired him to aim higher and think bigger. But no mentor has been as important as his mother.

When Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, went to medical school, he was struck by the kinds of patients he saw in the hospital. Too many were suffering from heart attacks or lung cancer — conditions linked to smoking. “It made me wonder: Couldn’t we do a better job at prevention?” he says.

Lingxiu Dong, PhD, professor of operations and manufacturing management at Olin Business School, is passionate about making a difference in real-world business practices. Her research seeks solutions to problems managers face when juggling all the links in complicated supply chains.

When Kerry Kornfeld, MD, PhD, says his life began at the School of Medicine, he means that literally.

Hillel Kieval, PhD, the Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and Thought, has spent the past 25 years studying European Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries. His chief focus is the various ways in which they identified with, and struggled against, their European environment.  

A strong work ethic and the importance of family has fueled Terrie E. Inder’s  passion for determining the impact of premature birth on brain injury and development in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Steve Hoffner, associate vice chancellor for operations, seeks to create an environment that provides the campus community the support it needs to flourish and to truly feel at home at WUSTL.

Born and raised in Chicago, Carol Camp Yeakey, PhD, knew from an early age that cities would play a commanding role in her life.

When he returned from Vietnam and service at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., Louis “Pepper” Dehner, MD, set out to make himself into a pediatric surgical pathologist.

Surgeons and rehabilitation specialists concentrate on the anatomical and mechanical aspects, but Linda Sandell, PhD, looks at the biology behind arthritis, broken bones and cartilage tears.The Mildred B. Simon Professor and director of research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery says there are a number of opportunities to apply biology to orthopaedic problems.