Brown School

Mary M. McKay joined the Brown School as dean in July, bringing her expertise that blends social work, public policy and public health. Read more about McKay’s work, her reasons for joining the university and her goals on the Brown School website.

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its poverty numbers for 2015. The poverty rate fell to 13.5 percent from 14.8 percent the year before. The problem with these estimates is that they only provide a snapshot of who is poor in any single year, says an expert on poverty and inequality at Washington University in St. Louis.

After serving seven stints in prison for writing bad checks, Shawntelle Fisher is now pursuing a master’s of divinity and master’s of social work at the Brown School, and she has started a nonprofit, SoulFisher Ministries.

National experts, advocates, and leading academics will gather in the Brown School’s Hillman Hall Sept. 14-16 as part of a timely policy conference designed to hammer out constructive solutions to pressing social issues facing the country and the next administration.

The cost of incarceration in the United States exceeds $1 trillion, or six percent of gross domestic product. That dwarfs the amount spent on corrections alone, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

It’s been three years since the launch of For the Sake of All, the groundbreaking multidisciplinary project on the health and well-being of African Americans in St. Louis. The initiative, led by Jason Purnell, assistant professor at the Brown School, continues to gather momentum as it moves into its third phase: implementation of recommended strategies.

The Brown School’s Health Communication Research Laboratory (HCRL) at Washington University in St. Louis has received a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute to study ways to help low-income smokers quit smoking through specialized quitlines and helping with basic needs.

The Center for Diabetes Translation Research, led by Debra Haire-Joshu, the Joyce Wood Professor at the Brown School, has been awarded $3.7 million to continue five years of funding by the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a National Institutes of Health institute.

Nancy Morrow-Howell, the Bettie Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy and director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, will receive the Crown Leadership Award Nov. 6 from the Gladys and Henry Crown Center for Senior Living in University City.

The St. Louis Integrated Health Network, in partnership with the City of St. Louis and two Washington University in St. Louis initiatives of the Brown School — the Evaluation Center and the Center for Social Development’s Smart Decarceration Initiative — has received a $1.8 million RE-LINK grant from the U.S. Department of Human Services Office of Minority Health to assist 18-26-year-olds who recently have been released from St. Louis’ city jail.