Brown School

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.

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.

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​​.

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.

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.

Today, a group of the nation’s leading universities announced plans to launch a new, innovative program that transforms the model of online education. The new online education program, Semester Online, will be the first of its kind to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from a consortium of universities. The program is delivered through a virtual classroom environment and interactive platform developed by 2U, formerly known as 2tor.

Washington University in St. Louis has taken a leadership role in helping to shape the future of online education by being a catalyst to bring together a consortium of the nation’s leading colleges and universities that plans to launch Semester Online. This program is a transformative new model for online education, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from consortium schools.

Ann Kittlaus has been named assistant dean for communications at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. She was a senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard  in St. Louis and held several positions at government agencies in Washington, D.C.