The International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD) at the Brown School of Washington University in St. Louis and the Department of Psychiatry at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine are thrilled to announce the recruitment has opened for the 2023 cohort of the LEAD Global Training Program. LEAD provides a unique opportunity for those committed to global mental health disparities research within resource constrained settings to gain mentored research experience and training in Summer 2023. This intensive summer training includes 10 weeks of didactic training, networking, panels, workshops, and discussions as well as mentored research with a research faculty member conducting global mental health disparities research (virtual or in-person at a global site). The program will be offered in multiple formats in 2023 including virtual, in-person training sessions in Kampala, Uganda and St. Louis, Missouri, and a hybrid format. It is designed for medical doctors (MDs) and advanced pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral (PhD, EdD, PharmD, ScD, OTD, etc) early career researchers/junior faculty who are within 5 years of their terminal degree from diverse backgrounds in the U.S., especially groups underrepresented in biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social sciences research.
LEAD online application will deadline is January 31, 2023. For more information contact Chelsea Hand-Sheridan at c.hand-sheridan@wustl.edu
St. Louis American’s 2022 Person of the Year ‘Doing the greatest good’: Dr. William R. Ross, MD, MPH
“I believe all of us are placed on this earth to do the greatest good,” Ross explained. “When I go to bed at night, I ask myself ‘Have I done the greatest good?’ If I can’t answer that question affirmatively then I need to step up my game a little bit.
“I’m trying my best to heal and not just one individual, but heal people on a local, national and global level. That’s my calling.” Dr. Ross
Special Medical Grand Rounds Welcomes Lecturer Robert Hoover and Celebrates Will Ross’ Career with Portrait
The Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis hosted an extra special Medical Grand Rounds on December 15, 2022, with the presentation of the Eduardo Slatopolsky Lecture in Renal and Electrolyte Disorders annual lecture followed by a celebration of one of Washington University’s icons.
2023 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration: Amplifying Voices through Courageous Storytelling
A family of pediatricians paves way for health equity in St. Louis
Shown are pediatricians Helen E. Nash, MD, and her brother Homer E. Nash Jr., MD, St. Louis pediatricians who spent decades providing health care to and advocating for generations of children. On Oct. 14 on the Washington University Medical Campus, Nash Way will replace Children’s Place between Euclid Avenue on the west to Taylor Avenue on the east. The renaming is planned to honor the late siblings.
Long before scholars began studying racial, social and economic barriers to health care, the Nash family prioritized health equity by caring for the health and well-being of hundreds, if not thousands, of children in the St. Louis area, many of whom were poor and Black. The family’s legacy will be commemorated with the renaming of a street in its honor on the Washington University Medical Campus.
On Oct. 14, Nash Way will replace Children’s Place between Euclid Avenue on the west to Taylor Avenue on the east. The name change honors beloved pediatricians Helen E. Nash, MD, and her brother Homer E. Nash Jr., MD, who spent decades providing health care to and advocating for generations of children. The late siblings also influenced physicians, trainees and a range of other health-care workers to emphasize health equity in patient care.
2022 Homer G. Phillips 26th Public Health Lecture with special dedication of Nash Way
Eric P. Newman Center
320 S. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110
This public health lecture series is named in honor of the historic Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis, the premier training ground for African American medical professionals. Although it closed its doors on August 17, 1979, we can learn much from the hospital’s history, presented by the very people who worked diligently to provide culturally sensitive care to the patients who so deeply trusted and loved them. This year’s lecture will be hybrid.
Donald Suggs, D.D.S., Civic Leader Publisher and Executive Editor, St. Louis American
Donald M. Suggs, D.D.S. graduated with bachelor’s and doctor of dental surgery degrees from Indiana University, completing his post-graduate work at Washington University Dental School and Homer G. Phillips Hospital. He served as chief of oral surgery at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and was the first African-American to serve as an associate clinical professor at St. Louis University Dental School.
Active in the civil rights movement in the 60s and 70s, he served as chairman of the Poor People’s March-On-Washington in 1968. Later, he became founder and chairman of the African Continuum, organized to bring serious non-commercial African-American artistic endeavors to St. Louis.
He was a long-time president of the Alexander-Suggs Gallery of African Art based in St. Louis and New York City (1970-89). He is a founding member of the Center for African Art, (now the Museum of African Art in New York City) and a former member of the board of directors of the Studio Museum in New York.
Suggs currently serves on the St. Louis Art Museum Board of Commissioners and its Collections Committee. He was the first African-American to serve as president of the Convention and Visitors Bureau of St. Louis.
Suggs has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Washington University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Harris-Stowe State University and Saint Louis University.
He is publisher and executive editor of the St. Louis American Newspaper, Missouri’s largest weekly newspaper.
Special dedication of Nash Way:
At the heart of the Central West End there is a street called Children’s Place, but part of that street at the center of the Washington University in St. Louis Medical campus will soon be named Nash Way. The change will honor a family whose legacy continues to define pediatric care in St. Louis. As two St. Louis pediatricians, we celebrate this well-deserved tribute as we mourn the loss of Dr. Homer Nash Jr., a consummate educator and renowned clinician whose name is synonymous with compassionate care.
The medical careers of two of his children, Helen and Homer, brought them to St. Louis and forever changed this city for the better. Dr. Helen Nash did her residency at Homer G. Phillips Hospital and was made supervisor of pediatrics the minute she finished her training. She transformed care at that hospital and in 1949 became the first African American woman to join the attending staff at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where she helped develop one of the first specialized wards for premature infants.
She fought to get the best care for her patients — and for basic recognition of their humanity. Helen was also one of the first four African American physicians on the clinical faculty of Washington University School of Medicine and later served as acting dean of minority affairs for three years after her retirement from practice. She paved the way for others to follow her, creating a scholarship for St. Louis kids looking to pursue careers in medicine.
Dr. Homer E. Nash Jr. served in the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II and received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. When he returned, he went to medical school in Nashville and then moved to St. Louis to train under his sister at Homer G. Phillips.
The Nash family has shown us what it means to take seriously the health and specific needs of all members of our community. Nash Way will honor this extraordinary family and serve as a permanent testimonial of their service.
In February, the city approved a measure renaming Children’s Place – between Euclid Avenue on the west to Taylor Avenue on the east — as Nash Way, to celebrate the accomplishments and cultural impact of Dr. Helen Nash on the St. Louis region.
Free validated parking is available in the Euclid Garage, across the street from the Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM) building or the Metro garage.
Please reach out to Liz Riggs at eriggs@wustl.edu if you have any questions.
Rogers selected as scholar in emerging leadership program
Cynthia E. Rogers, MD, the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
As a crucial part of NAM’s Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Program, Rogers and nine other scholars will collaborate, over a three-year term, with NAM and its members to address persistent challenges in health and medicine. The honor was announced Sept. 1.
Individuals chosen for the program are early- to mid-career professionals from a range of health-related fields, including epidemiology, psychiatry, medical ethics and engineering. Scholars meet with NAM leadership and members in Washington; plan an annual Emerging Leaders Forum; and attend the organization’s annual meeting each October, among other activities.