Washington University in St.Louis is partnering with the St.Louis Integrated Health Network(IHN)on afive-year$3.8 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC).The grant is part of the CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health(REACH)program.The funding aims to help improve health,prevent chronic diseases and reduce health disparities in the local Black community residing in the St.Louis Promise Zone.The St.Louis Promise Zone is an area that includes parts of north St.Louis city and north St.Louis County,designated in 2015 as part of afederal program intended to increase economic activity,improve educational outcomes,reduce serious and violent crime,invest in transformative development and improve health and wellness in high-poverty urban,rural and tribal communities.Andwele Jolly,president and CEO of IHN;Denise Wilfley,the Scott Rudolph University Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine,and aprofessor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts&Sciences;and Diana Parra Perez,an assistant professor at the Brown School,will lead the REACH-STL project,which will implement proven public health strategies.It is among 41 REACH recipients.“The St.Louis Integrated Health Network is committed to advancing health equity,improving health care delivery and eliminating disparities in the St.Louis region,”Jolly said.“This grant provides us the opportunity to address the interconnectedness of medical,social and environmental contexts that influence health outcomes.”The REACH-STL project will use three main strategies:Healthy food choices easier everywhere:promoting food service and nutrition guidelines and expanding fruit and vegetable voucher incentives and produce prescription programs.REACH-STL will work with the Building Resilient Inclusive Communities(BRIC)program led by Parra Perez and with Nutrible,a web app that will help deliver medically tailored meals to individuals at home,and digitize and incorporate BRIC’s 24 community organizations into Nutrible’s robust collection of healthy food options,diverse dietitians and community resources.Safe and accessible physical activity:connecting pedestrian,bicycle or transit transportation networks to everyday destinations through collaboration with community partner Trailnet.Family healthy weight programs:improving access to effective,family-centered,culturally relevant health behavior and lifestyle treatment programs.“Through REACH over the next five years,we will continue to leverage the work that BRIC started in 2021 and expand our partnership to include much-needed clinical-community approaches,”Parra Perez said.“We will continue to address health equity in aconsistent manner across all strategy areas by assuring that the solutions and interventions are community-driven,placing ahigh value on food sovereignty,dignity,agency and food justice.”“In REACH-STL,we recognize that health is at least as much astructural issue as it is an individual one,”Wilfley said.“Through robust academic-community partnership across disciplines,we seek to improve community health at multiple levels simultaneously.“We will expand access to our CDC-recommended family-based behavioral treatment for promoting overall health and healthy lifestyles across the lifespan by helping families develop skills for navigating an unequal food and built environment,while also facilitating access to healthful foods and improving St.Louis’infrastructure for safe spaces for physical activity.I couldn’t be more thrilled to work with this outstanding team of community collaborators.” 查看详细>>

The Social Policy Institute(SPI)at Washington University in St.Louis has received atwo-year$475,000 grant from the Lumina Foundation.These funding supports aresearch project to understand the impact of short-term credentials on various aspects of individuals’lives,while also exploring the transferability of non-degree credentials across employers and geographic contexts.In doing so,this project seeks to provide novel insights for individuals,educational institutions and communities seeking to meet local labor market demands.SPI anticipates that the project’s findings will be avital step toward demonstrating the transformative potential of short-term credentials in improving social mobility and advancing racial equity for adults working in various sectors,including manufacturing,technology,education and health care. 查看详细>>

Washington University in St.Louis has partnered with Handshake,a career management platform,to better help students and alumni discover new career paths and find jobs and internships.A replacement for CAREERlink,Handshake enables users to schedule interviews for jobs and internships on campus;stay connected with peers and job-related news;navigate upcoming employer events on campus;and register for career fairs and events.“Handshake is apowerful platform that offers WashU students and alumni much broader exposure to internship and job opportunities at top companies and organizations all over the world,”said Rebekah Paré,associate vice chancellor for career development and education.“Through Handshake,employers will be able to review students’and alumni’s profiles and directly invite them to apply for specific internships and jobs.”University departments are encouraged to create Handshake accounts and to post opportunities,including for work-study positions.University hiring managers with questions may email hiretalent wustl.edu.Students and alumni may build an account at Handshake.Career services staff are available to help students develop their profiles and utilize the platform.More than 1,400 universities use Handshake to connect its community to more than 650,000 employers. 查看详细>>

NASA announced March 8that it has selected scientists at Washington University to build arover-mounted drill sensor to quantify the 3D distribution of water at the moon’s south pole.A laser probe located at the bottom of the drill,capable of analyzing regolith,would quantify the amount of water and other chemicals present beneath the surface.Principal investigator Alian Wang,research professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts&Sciences,will lead the research team and reconnaissance instrument development under NASA’s first-ever Lunar Surface Technology Research(LuSTR)solicitation.“Planetary exploration has been and will always be an enterprise that needs the joined forces of science and technology,”Wang said.“Washington University has the heritage,the brains and the energetic young people to contribute to these great adventures of humankind.”Through LuSTR,NASA selected three university-led proposals to research innovative ways to identify resources,like water,on the moon,and inventive designs for extraction and utilization equipment. 查看详细>>

On May 5,St.Louis became the first jurisdiction in the Midwest—and just the fourth in the country—to adopt acomprehensive new standard designed to reduce its carbon footprint.The Building Energy Performance Standard(BEPS)will apply to all buildings in the city 50,000 square feet and larger and represents atremendous step forward in the city of St.Louis’climate leadership.Getting the BEPS measure passed in St.Louis was atrue team effort.Washington University in St.Louis’Office of Sustainability provided technical expertise to support the development of the new standard,along with government,nonprofit and local stakeholder partners,including city officials,the U.S.Green Building Council-Missouri Gateway Chapter,the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Institute for Market Transformation.“Starting last fall,our staff worked closely with the city of St.Louis to help it develop astrategy to set ambitious,yet achievable,BEPS targets,based on local building energy benchmarking data,”said Phil Valko,the university’s assistant vice chancellor for sustainability.“The BEPS passage is just part of WashU’s broader work to accelerate climate action in the St.Louis region and beyond through cross-sector partnerships.”The measure stipulates that aBuilding Energy Improvement Board,which will include local business and labor leaders,will be established to approve the new standards,review alternative compliance plans and provide technical expertise.A new city office,the Office of Building Performance,will help building owners navigate compliance during each compliance cycle and offer resources aimed at improving abuilding’s energy performance.The policy is set to take effect in 2021,with buildings required to meet the new standards by 2025. 查看详细>>

Jerry Steiner,EMBA’92,is CEO of CoverCress,a St.Louis-based ag tech startup.The company recently closed another round of financing as it moves toward the commercial launch of anew cash crop in 2021.Steiner has held the post since January 2015,two years after the company was founded as Arvegenix.CoverCress closed its latest$2 million round of funding in November 2018.The funding round was co-led by Bayer Growth Ventures,the venture capital arm of Bayer and formerly Monsanto Growth Ventures;and BioGenerator,the investment arm of local nonprofit BioSTL.The round brings the company’s total funding to nearly$7 million,according to the St.Louis Business Journal.CoverCress is based in the Helix Center,a plant science incubator run by the St.Louis Economic Development Partnership. 查看详细>>

Turning researchers into entrepreneurs is one of three changes Powers says America needs to make in order to revive its entrepreneurial spirit.He notes that researchers are often disconnected from the practical application of their discoveries and points out that universities have increased efforts to help their innovators translate research from the lab to market.At Washington University,this function is carried out by the Office of Technology Management(OTM).Powers points to SentiAR as asuccessful example.The company has created augmented reality software for use in cardiac procedures.The technology was developed by founders(and husband-and-wife team)Dr.Jennifer Silva(Washington University School of Medicine in St.Louis)and biomedical engineering professor,Dr.Jon Silva,Ph.D.,Washington University School of Engineering&Applied Science.Then,working with OTM,the Silvas founded the company,sought the funding and have remained actively involved in the business.Powers cites the Silvas’ongoing oversight of their concept and product as an example of the entrepreneurial leadership needed in business today. 查看详细>>