Brown School

Kristy Anderson puts people at the center of her work, both in and out of the classroom. “I approach my research with a person-centered philosophy,” says Anderson, a master’s of social work candidate from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “Person-centered is allowing the person with a disability to govern their own lives and goals. We are simply there to help them through the process.” Anderson is one of 12 Outstanding Graduates for 2012 to be profiled in the Record.

Graduate student groups and individual leaders at Washington University in St. Louis who help “bridge the gaps” between graduate and professional students from diverse areas of study throughout WUSTL’s seven schools were recognized during a recent awards ceremony and reception. The Graduate Professional Council’s Bridging GAPS (Graduate and Professional Students) Awards Ceremony was held April 9 in the Danforth University Center’s Goldberg Formal Lounge.

The Advisory Committee for the Diversity and Inclusion Grants has awarded eight grants totaling nearly $174,000 to Washington University faculty and administrators for initiatives that improve the university environment for women and members of underrepresented minority groups.

The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) honored Timothy D. McBride, PhD, associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, with its Outstanding Researcher Award April 19 during the NRHA’s 35th annual Rural Health Conference.

The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis will award a Distinguished Faculty Award and three Distinguished Alumni Awards during its annual alumni awards celebration at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 2, at Steinberg Hall Auditorium. A reception will follow at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Register to attend the event and catch a glimpse of current “heroes in training” through a series of videos from the Brown School at brownschool.wustl.edu/DAA2012.

What is the American Dream’s role in today’s society? Experts from Washington University in St. Louis will explore this question in a panel discussion at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, in Brown Hall Lounge on the Danforth Campus. Panelists are Steven Fazzari, PhD, professor of economics in Arts & Sciences; Carter W. Lewis, playwright-in-residence in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences; and Mark R. Rank, PhD, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School.

What is the Burrito Index? Can marriage impact cancer survival rates? Washington University in St. Louis students in social work and public health will explore these and many other topics at the Brown School’s inaugural Research Without Walls Student Research Symposium at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 19, in Brown and Goldfarb Halls on the Danforth Campus.

If you were a wandering shepherd and suddenly the government began parceling out land your flock grazed to your fellow citizens, would you be better off as a landowner instead? That’s the question that Carolyn Lesorogol, PhD, associate professor of social work, pondered when Kenya began to distribute property in the land registration movement of the 1970s.

It can take decades for research discoveries to make their way into public health settings. The emerging field of dissemination and implementation (D&I) research seeks to narrow the gap between evidence-based research and routine practice. To help propel this crucial field forward, leading D&I scholars and researchers at Washington Univeristy have contributed to Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health: Translating Science to Practice, a new book published by Oxford University Press.

Winners of the seventh annual YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition were announced April 11. Winning teams represented community and WUSTL social entrepreneurs, including students, alumni and faculty. Their social venture ideas ranged from teaching teens about entrepreneurship through beekeeping to providing education to kidney transplant patients.