Brown School

A groundbreaking study on young adults with autism, led by Washington University in St. Louis researcher Paul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School, has been chosen as one of the “Top Ten Autism Research Advances of 2012” by the advocacy organization Autism Speaks.​

There’s nothing wrong with a cookie or a glass of eggnog at the holidays, says Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, director of the Center for Obesity Prevention and Policy Research and the Center for Diabetes Translation Research at Washington University in St. Louis and associate dean for research at the Brown School. The key, Haire-Joshu says, is balance.

Melissa Jonson-Reid, PhD, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, is director of the Center for Violence and Injury Protection, which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is also a faculty scholar in WUSTL’s Institute for Public Health. She responds to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

A new study out of Washington University in St. Louis is one of the first to use technology to effectively measure the use of built environments — parks, greenways, trails and other man-made public areas — as a means to improve public health. The study, “Emerging Technologies: Webcams and Crowd-Sourcing to Identify Active Transportation,” is being published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Lead author is J. Aaron Hipp, PhD, assistant professor of public health at the Brown School.

The Brown School celebrated the holidays Dec. 12 by doing what it does best: Giving back to the community. School officials helped present toys collected at the Brown School during its annual Toys for Tots campaign to local Marines. Students from the KIPP: Inspire Academy also stopped by to thank the Brown School community for its help throughout the year by performing a holiday song and dance.

The Atlantic is inviting St. Louis residents to join local public health and medical leaders for a free “Conversation on Community Health” town hall forum from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Hyatt Regency, 315 Chestnut St. in downtown St. Louis.

You Bin Lim celebrates after participating in Washington University’s December Degree Candidate Recognition Ceremony in Graham Chapel Saturday, Dec. 1. Lim, a psychology major with a minor in French, is a candidate for a bachelor of arts degree in the College of Arts & Sciences. She was among some 800  students who filed as December degree candidates.

If Congress and President Obama don’t reach a compromise before the end of the year to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” it will have major consequences on Washington University in St. Louis as well as other universities and colleges across the country, say WUSTL administrators​​.

Washington University in St. Louis is taking part in a new U.S. Department of Education study, led by the Brown School’s Michal Grinstein-Weiss, to evaluate the GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness for Undergraduate Programs), the Education Department’s initiative to prepare youth for college.

More students with an autism spectrum disorder gravitate toward science, technology, engineering and math majors in college than other students. But they have low college admission rates because of gender, finances and other barriers, finds a new study, co-authored by Paul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.