Flourishing Communities

With you, WashU improves the well-being of people and the planet through our new School of Public Health and interdisciplinary scholarship that combines environmental and population health science.

At WashU, we seek to ensure a thriving planet and populace. Building flourishing communities means protecting biodiversity and improving air and water quality, locally and around the world. It means addressing socioeconomic inequities that contribute to poorer health outcomes based on zip code, race, or gender. It means planning for future pandemics and mitigating infectious disease.

We will catalyze these efforts through our School of Public Health — founded on unprecedented interdisciplinary collaboration. We will draw on our formidable public health expertise at the Brown School and WashU Medicine as well as our Center for the Environment and other areas across campus. And we will enthusiastically partner with our passionate and dedicated WashU community. Together with your engagement and philanthropy, we can accelerate the pace at which public health insights inform and improve care. We can strengthen the way experts communicate about health. We can devise creative solutions to persistent global challenges. With you, this is what WashU can do.

Slide

“Parks and other public spaces are a key element in public health. They bring us together as a community, which is hugely important.”

Angelyn Chandler, AB ’89

Vice President-Planning,
New York Power Authority

Read her story

Slide

“About 15 to 20% of our locations are in traditional food deserts. It’s just an integral part of our business model: to lower the cost of serving healthy food. There is real value in putting our fridges into places where there are not a lot of other options. There’s business value and public health value.”

Luke Saunders, AB ’10

CEO,
Farmer’s Fridge

Read his story

Slide

“My vision for the future is that your ZIP code will not be a strong predictor for your health outcomes — a future where a baby born in any neighborhood has a fair opportunity to be well.”

Doneisha Bohannon, MPH ’14

Director of Community Health Initiatives,
BJC HealthCare

Read her story

Nourishing people and the planet

WashU’s wide-ranging efforts to improve the health of populations and our planet include the Food and Agriculture Research Mission (FARM). With the generous partnership of the Lauren and Lee Fixel Family Foundation, FARM addresses pressing challenges at the intersection of agriculture and public health, from malnutrition to climate change.