Washington People

Get to know Stephens, the new vice provost and university librarian, who brings a wealth of experience and a forward-looking vision to University Libraries. She discusses how the research library is like a laboratory, evolving technology and plans for adding to the collection.

Noted researcher Sarah England, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, encourages those in her lab to embrace tenacity and tackle new challenges. She researches ion channels and their effects on pregnancy and preterm birth.

Nancy Y. Reynolds and Anne-Marie McManus, both of Arts & Sciences, discuss the environmental humanities and their new Mellon Sawyer Seminar, “Grounding the Ecocritical.”

Laura Cobb was struck by a drunken driver during her senior year at Washington University in 2008. She was seriously injured and today has aphasia, which severely limits her ability to speak. But she battled back, returned to school and graduated in May. She now works as a research technician on campus.

Chemical engineer Jay Turner, of the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has spent his career studying air quality, working to identify risks and solutions to improve the air from St. Louis to Hong Kong. He also recently became engineering’s vice dean for education.

Bradley Schlaggar, MD, PhD, a pediatric neurologist, studies brain development at the School of Medicine. And he has a lot of empathy for patients and their families. A series of medical challenges his own family has endured in recent years deepened his understanding of what it means to be a doctor.

Lizzy Crist, goalkeeper for the women’s national champion soccer team, will take numerous awards and honors along with a tremendous work ethic to her next stop in life: a PhD program in biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota.

Charles A. Goldfarb, MD, is a hand specialist who treats a range of patients, from children with birth differences to injured athletes. He is director of the Division of Pediatric and Adolescent Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.  

Segregation is no accident. Nearly five decades after the Fair Housing Act of 1968, American cities remain racially, culturally, spatially and economically divided. In this Q&A, Catalina Freixas, assistant professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, discusses St. Louis, segregation and the hidden histories that shape our urban landscape.

William Hawkins, MD, never met the man who helped inspire him to become a cancer surgeon and researcher. Hawkins was born six months after his grandfather Gabriel Jooris, an artist and art restorer, died of the disease. But his and other losses guided Hawkins’ career path.