“This partnership demonstrates WashU’s ‘In St. Louis, For St. Louis’ commitment to our region in concrete and tangible terms,” Chancellor Andrew D. Martin said. “Under the leadership of Dean Dorian Traube and her team in the Brown School, the Public Exchange and the researchers leading CLEAN STL are creating a model for connecting academic expertise with local leaders to effect real change.”

The agreement formalizes and expands CLEAN STL — Contaminant Level Evaluation and Analysis for Neighborhoods — a multidisciplinary initiative launched in fall 2025 to provide residents and city leaders with accurate air and soil data to support long-term recovery efforts. The project began as a pilot developed in partnership with community organizations Better Family Life, Love the Lou and 4theVille and is now growing into a multiyear collaboration with the city.

The expanded initiative represents a significant investment of university resources, with WashU committing more than $500,000 over the next two years to support the project’s first phase of growth.

The signees on the partnership were St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer; Julian Nicks, chief recovery officer for the city; Victoria Anwuri, St. Louis health commissioner; and Dorian Traube, the Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the WashU Brown School.

It brings together the resources of the WashU Public Exchange with the city’s Recovery Office and Department of Health to safeguard community health during demolition and rebuilding and to give residents direct visibility into the conditions in their neighborhoods.

Led through the WashU Public Exchange initiative, CLEAN STL brings together expertise from WashU’s Brown School, Arts & Sciences, McKelvey Engineering, Sam Fox School and School of Law.

“St. Louis is moving into the next chapter of recovery, and that work has to be grounded in trust, transparency and good science,” Spencer said. “This partnership puts real-time information in the city’s and residents’ hands, brings world-class expertise to the neighborhoods that have waited too long for it, and shows that the rebuilding of north St. Louis is going to be done in a community-centric way.”

A shared commitment

“This reflects the kind of university WashU aspires to be — one that brings its research, expertise and institutional capacity into direct partnership with the community to help address urgent regional challenges,” said Lisa Weingarth, senior advisor to the chancellor and executive director of the university’s “In St. Louis, For St. Louis” initiative. “The work is rooted in listening, long-term partnership and a shared commitment to supporting the health and recovery of St. Louis neighborhoods.”

The WashU Public Exchange works across the university to connect researchers with community and industry partners to address complex social challenges through collaborative research and action.

“Public Exchange is designed to move ideas beyond the university setting by creating pathways for research, lived experience and cross-sector expertise to inform one another,” Traube said. “By connecting WashU researchers with community and industry partners, we can translate research into practical solutions faster, strengthen recovery efforts and create lasting impact for the St. Louis region and beyond.”

Following the tornado, many residents raised concerns about potential environmental health risks tied to debris, demolition and contaminated soil. Lead and other heavy metals can become airborne during destructive events and subsequent demolition activities before settling into surrounding soil, creating long-term public health concerns.

Public data, practical strategies

CLEAN STL was designed to help address those concerns through community-centered environmental testing and public-facing data sharing.

The project draws on a breadth of WashU expertise, including environmental geochemist Jeff Catalano, a professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences; air quality expert Jay Turner, the James McKelvey Professor in Engineering Education at McKelvey Engineering; and Matt Bernstine, director of the Office for Socially Engaged Practice at the Sam Fox School. The WashU Environmental Law Clinic also is supporting the effort.

Under the expanded partnership, WashU researchers will broaden soil testing efforts with additional community partners and establish a network of air-quality monitors in neighborhoods experiencing concentrated demolition activity. The monitors will provide neighborhood-level air-quality data to help track dust and contaminants during rebuilding efforts. WashU researchers will place 10 air-monitoring units around the city in the areas of highest demolition concentration.

Researchers also will explore practical and cost-effective remediation strategies for residents with contaminated soil concerns. In addition, the Health Communication Design Studio at the Sam Fox School will help translate complex scientific findings into accessible public information for residents and community organizations.

Additional information about CLEAN STL and opportunities for community engagement will be shared as the expanded project moves forward.

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Soobin Park, a doctoral candidate at the WashU Brown School, will receive a $10,000 grant from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy to support her PhD dissertation project.

Park is among just 20 people receiving awards out of more than 845 applicants, a 2.4% acceptance rate. Her dissertation project is titled “Identifying Dementia Care Deserts: A National Study of Community Resource Gaps for People Living with Dementia.”

“This project develops a Dementia Resource Environment index to identify where community-level dementia supports are most lacking,” she said. “By revealing ‘dementia care deserts,’ the study provides an evidence base for better targeting of community supports that enable older adults with dementia to remain safe and supported at home.”

Established in 1997, the Horowitz Foundation issues awards for policy-related research in all major areas of the social sciences. Only doctoral students whose dissertation proposals have been approved by their committees are eligible to apply.

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The study, “Health Policy and Direct Democracy: Predictors of Successful Measures, 2010–2024,” forthcoming in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, analyzed 448 statewide ballot measures across 34 states, including 96 measures directly related to healthcare policy. 

“Our findings show that healthcare policy stands apart in direct democracy,” said Caitlin McMurtry, an assistant professor at the Brown School and senior author on the study. “Voters are more engaged with these measures and more likely to approve them — but they’re also highly responsive to organized opposition.”

McMurtry and her co-authors, Cerise Siamof and Michael Youssef, both fourth-year medical students at WashU Medicine, found that healthcare-related measures had a higher passage rate than non-health measures — about 70% compared with 63%. After adjusting for other factors, healthcare measures were more than twice as likely to pass, and when “moral” issues such as abortion and physician-assisted death were excluded, healthcare measures were more than 3.5 times as likely to pass.

At the same time, campaign spending against a measure proved to be one of the strongest predictors of failure. For every additional $1 million spent in opposition, the odds of a measure passing dropped by roughly 8–10%, their study found. 

“This raises concerns about equal representation: does money from special-interest groups help to educate voters or does it serve to protect corporate profits?” Siamof said.

The study also found that healthcare measures drew higher levels of voter engagement. Ballot completion rates, a measure of how often voters cast a vote on a given issue, were three times higher for healthcare ballot measures than for others on the same ballot, largely driven by controversial moral topics. 

The authors suggest this heightened engagement reflects the personal and economic stakes of healthcare policy, which can range from insurance coverage and drug pricing to hospital operations and medical debt. 

However, the research raises questions about whether voters are equipped to evaluate increasingly technical policy proposals. Unlike high-profile moral issues such as abortion, many healthcare ballot measures involve complex regulatory or financial details, such as provider staffing ratios, that voters may encounter for the first time at the ballot box. 

“Voters are clearly paying attention to healthcare issues,” McMurtry said. “But many of these policies are highly technical, and it’s not always clear that voters have the information they need to make fully informed decisions.”

The study also highlights the growing role of interest groups in shaping health policy through direct democracy. Healthcare-related measures attracted significantly more campaign spending overall than other ballot initiatives, including substantial funding from industry groups seeking to defeat proposals that could affect profits. 

The findings underscore the increasing importance of ballot initiatives in shaping U.S. health policy, particularly in states where legislative action has stalled.

“Direct democracy gives voters a powerful tool to influence healthcare policy,” McMurtry said. “But it also raises important questions about the role of money, voter understanding and the future of policymaking in the U.S.”

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The paper, “Learning Models and Modalities to Build Data Equity Competencies,” argues that everyone is a data person, regardless of one’s role or title, and makes the case that centering community input, ethical decision-making and collaboration is essential for equitable and effective social sector data practice. 

Drawing on the work of Data for Social Impact (DSI) initiative at WashU and Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) at the University of Pennsylvania, the authors show how equity-focused, nontechnical training programs can help practitioners better understand how data practices impact communities and build both trust and more equitable outcomes.

“Data is never neutral. It reflects the assumptions and structures of the systems that produce it,” said Dan Ferris, an associate professor of practice at the WashU Brown School and a member of the WashU Bursky School of Public Health’s secondary faculty. Ferris is a co-author of the paper with Amy Hawn Nelson, of the University of Pennsylvania. “If we want data to serve the public good, we have to recognize that everyone brings valuable expertise and strengths. That means investing in people, culture and capacity across social-sector organizations to make that possible.” 

The paper highlights DSI and AISP as complementary case studies, using cohort-based learning and practical toolkits to embed data equity into organizational practice and strategy. The authors suggest that building these competencies at scale is essential for organizations seeking to responsibly leverage data in ways that benefit all communities.

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Cal J. Halvorsen, a gerontological social work scholar and an associate professor at the WashU Brown School, will step into a new leadership role this summer as co-director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging. 

Beginning in July, Halvorsen will share leadership of the center with Brian Carpenter, a professor of psychological and brain in WashU Arts & Sciences. Halvorsen succeeds Nancy Morrow-Howell, the Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Brown School, who is stepping back after more than a decade as co-director. Morrow-Howell will remain involved as a senior adviser.

Halvorsen also will serve as assistant dean for faculty affairs at the Brown School beginning July 1. Read more on the Brown School website.

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The WashU Brown School presented its 2026 Awards of Distinction on April 23, honoring alumni and supporters for their work advancing positive change in communities worldwide.

The annual awards recognize individuals whose efforts reflect the school’s mission and commitment to improve lives globally.

Read more information, and see videos of the honorees, on the Brown School website.

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“It’s really hard being a queer person right now … it was hard coming into a social justice-oriented program, and then immediately the political climate shifted to where none of the things that we are paying to go to school for are valued anymore,” said Worley, who is scheduled to graduate in May with a master’s in social work. “It can feel really disheartening, but I think the work that we all do is really meaningful.”

Worley said the Brown School provided opportunities to conduct research with the field’s leading experts, including practicum supervisor Joshua Rusow, an assistant professor, who studies how queer youth learn about romantic relationships. They also have worked with Paz Galupo, the Audre Lorde Distinguished Professor in Sexual Health & Education, and the late Jeremy Goldbach, the Masters & Johnson Distinguished Professor in Sexual Health and Education. 

Worley, of San Diego, also served as vice president of the Brown School Student Coordinating Council and helped organize mutual aid after the tornado last May. Worley also enjoys hiking and camping, writing poetry, community organizing and watching movies. 

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“Our main finding is that giving people cash not only helps them live a more secure life, it also provides a pathway toward personal, professional and artistic growth,” said Stephen Roll, an assistant professor and an expert on asset building and economic security.

Roll is co-author of the paper “Empowering Artistic Labor: How Guaranteed Income Enhances Intrinsic Motivation and Fosters Human Flourishing,” published online in the journal World Development Perspectives.

Roll and his co-authors examined data from the Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) Guaranteed Income for Artists program, which provided 2,400 artists with $1,000 per month in unconditional cash assistance for 18 months beginning in 2022.

Applicants had to demonstrate financial need and be residents of the state of New York. The selection process used an “equitable distribution” method rather than competing based on artistic merit. The initiative was primarily funded by the Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the Ford Foundation and Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

“We know from prior research that guaranteed income (GI) programs improve participants’ well-being, including their mental health, their ability to put food on the table, their financial security and a variety of other outcomes,” Roll said.

“However, a lot of guaranteed income advocates view these programs not just as a way to help families meet their needs, but as a way to give people the freedom to pursue their goals and passions,” he said. “In line with other research, we found that the GI payments improved their financial stability. However, we also found that the program improved participants’ artistic output, including the time they could dedicate to their art and their satisfaction with the quality and the impact of their work.”

The GI program was found to reduce financial stress and debt; increase artists’ ability to invest time in their art; increase motivation and productivity; and improve mental health, while showing no reduction in other sources of income.

The findings are context-specific, Roll said, reflecting the institutional, cultural and labor-market conditions of the state of New York and the particular design features of the CRNY program.

Even so, he said, nearly everyone values the arts to some degree, and the ability to produce lasting works of art is one of the signs of a healthy and flourishing culture.

“What art could we produce as a society if our artists could invest more time and money in their craft?” Roll asked.

“Perhaps more importantly, consider how many great artists never get to emerge because an artistic career often carries such high risks of financial hardship and insecurity,” he said. “Supporting artists financially helps ensure that we maintain a growing and healthy artistic culture, but it also helps ensure we are rewarding artists for the value they create in our society.”

Such support also might help artists to weather the changes wrought by the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), Roll said.

“We’re already starting to see companies rely on AI more and more for graphic design, advertising, communications and other arts-adjacent jobs that could support artists financially while they pursue their own artistic goals,” he said.

“If that trend continues, the options for artists to support themselves while refining their skills will grow narrower and narrower. In that world, it will be even more important to support artists financially in order to cultivate successive generations of human artists in this country and around the world. The alternative is continuing to outsource one of the most fundamental and important modes of human expression to machines and algorithms.”

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The award recognizes Rosenberg for his 37-year career in executive leadership within the Jewish community, 19 of which he served as president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. 

The Barry Rosenberg Professional Leadership Award recognizes outstanding professional leadership in a St. Louis Jewish organization. Recipients excel in their field, have introduced important innovations and are perceived as role models by other professionals and volunteers.

This year’s winner is WashU alumna Jacqueline Ulin Levey, who has been the CEO of WashU Hillel since October 2009, enriching the lives and Jewish journeys of thousands of students and leading the organization through a significant period of transition and growth.

A leader within the Hillel movement, Ulin Levey, AB ’97, JD ’01, has served on the Hillel International board of directors and the Hillel directors cabinet, and she has mentored numerous Hillel professionals. 

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Tonya Edmond, a professor at the WashU Brown School, has been installed as the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor. A ceremony took place Feb. 9 in Hillman Hall’s Clark-Fox Forum.

A nationally recognized expert on violence against women and children, Edmond’s research tests the effectiveness of trauma-focused interventions and the implementation of evidence-based treatments for survivors of sexual violence, intimate partner violence and childhood abuse.

Although Gordon was not a social worker, then-Dean Benjamin Youngdahl, a fellow University of Minnesota alumnus, recruited him in 1951 to establish one of the nation’s first doctoral programs in social work at the Brown School. Gordon awarded the school’s first doctorate in social work to Sidney E. Zimbalist in 1955.

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