Washington People

Aytakin Huseynli grew up in Azerbaijan. Seeing war and chaos around her, she knew she wanted to help others but didn’t know how to go about it. She eventually made her way to the Brown School, earned a master’s in social work and returned to her home country to establish the profession there. Today she is back on campus working toward a doctorate.

Meet Gerry Rohde, who works in the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. He is a stockroom manager and lab safety officer by day and a St. Louis Public Radio host by night.

The history of medicine is “embedded in the DNA of contemporary medical science and medical practice,” said Rebecca Messbarger, director of medical humanities in Arts & Sciences. In this video, Messbarger discusses the importance of medical humanities as well as her own research into the life and work of Anna Morandi Manzolini, one of the most important anatomists of the European Enlightenment.

Whether in person or through evidence-based decision tools, the School of Medicine’s Mary Politi, a health psychologist and associate professor of surgery, works with patients to empower them and help optimize their care.

Michael Avidan, MBBCh, anesthesiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, works every day with colleagues in the so-called Anesthesiology Control Tower to identify risks to people undergoing surgery and consider measures to optimize patient outcomes.

How do you restore community? Do you honor local context? Or do you bulldoze everything and try to start again? In this video, Patty Heyda, associate professor in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, discusses the history, isolation and current revival of Botanical Heights, the St. Louis neighborhood formerly known as McRee Town.

Will Ross, MD, knows he should be dead. Instead, he achieved success despite the odds. He has designed a program to expose first-year students at the School of Medicine to blighted St. Louis neighborhoods — similar to those in which he grew up. His experiences shaped the nephrologist’s work as a physician and professor.

Brown School social work student Luther Tyus spent nearly a decade as a St. Louis-area police officer. Now, he is studying both policy solutions and ways to improve officer training to address excessive use of force by police.

Jennifer M. Hudson, program manager for the Washington University Prison Education Project, discusses the project, its animating philosophy and the importance of the liberal arts.

Patrick Jay, MD, PhD, (center), is a pediatric cardiologist at the School of Medicine. He is studying the genetic and environmental roots of congenital heart defects, in hopes of finding ways to prevent them.