Building WashU’s first new school in 100 years — the School of Public Health — presented an opportunity to design a truly interdisciplinary, collaborative, innovative, data-driven, and digitally supported model for research and education equipped to meet 21st century and future challenges.
Marquee accomplishments through 2025
Launched the school
- Recruited Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, as the school’s inaugural dean.
- Established an endowed deanship and professorship to support the dean’s recruitment and tenure. Dr. Galea is the Margaret C. Ryan Dean, and the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health.
- Launched WashU School of Public Health in January 2025 as the university’s first new school in 100 years.
- Dean Galea was named Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives, to help spur interdisciplinary collaborations at all corners of WashU.
- By fall 2025, had 43 primary faculty, more than 70 secondary faculty, and 111 staff members.
Key early steps
- Fueled the launch of the Food and Agriculture Research Mission (FARM) through transformative gift funding.
- Established school’s interdisciplinary Innovation Research Networks, the heart of the new school’s research enterprise. Inaugural IRNs: FARM, Dissemination and Implementation Science, Global Health Futures, Policy and Structural Solutions, Planetary Health, and Health Communication Collaborative.
- By mid-January 2025, launched a school website and a widely disseminated weekly newsletter to report on the school’s progress and growth.
- By mid-year, had two locations for the school — one at Hillman Hall; and a second, primarily for research faculty and staff, in the Cortex Innovation District.
FARM inaugural director
Noted agricultural scientist Morven McLean, PhD, serves as executive director of Networks & Innovation, professor of practice, and inaugural director of FARM, leading the discovery of sustainable solutions to nourish humanity and protect our planet.
4×4 Plan
Before his first day as dean, Galea outlined his 4×4 Plan, summarizing the vision for four new directions for public health and four strategies to achieve those goals. Everything the school does aligns with these four strategies:
Engage world-class faculty and staff
The school has successfully recruited — and continues to recruit — innovative, intellectually curious, and heterodox thinkers who are animated by the call of science and scholarship.
46
Primary faculty appointments
$120M+
Total size of active grant portfolios led by WashU’s primary faculty
$869K
Estimated yearly funding per faculty member
Nurture outstanding teachers and students
Within six months, all Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) milestones were met toward the aim of becoming a fully accredited School of Public Health by spring 2026. In August 2025, the school launched a strategic vision that included a wholesale redesign of the educational program. And in fall 2025, the school welcomed its first class, a year ahead of schedule.
Build Public Health Plus
WashU Public Health’s core vision is to build an interdisciplinary school that engages faculty members from across the university. Two central structures are taking shape in support of that vision: an extensive network of secondary faculty and the IRNs, which are intended to become field-leading catalysts.
Prioritize local and global impact
The school’s associate dean of practice will help build multifaceted community engagement of significant value to our students’ education and training, and to our community members in their daily lives. The school also presents frequent, outward-facing, public health-focused convenings intended to engage the WashU community and well beyond. Further, the dean is actively engaged in the world — for example, as editor-in-chief of JAMA Health Forum, and via well-read weekly writings for school and external audiences.