The Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis scholar program currently includes faculty at all seven schools of the university. The Institute works to support, connect and amplify faculty work in public health.
“Our goal is to provide value-added benefits to our scholars’ academic career pursuits related to public health.”
The faculty scholar program provides a supportive infrastructure for meaningful physical and virtual collaborative exchanges. A critical part of the program’s success is not relying on a one-size-fits-all approach. We are committed to a portfolio of strategies to suit scholars from across the university in various disciplines, at different stages in their careers, and with distinctive pathways toward success. We want to work with scholars to spark productive collaborations, remove barriers to collaboration and make it easier for scholars to broaden their networks for their public health research, practice, advocacy and teaching activities.
Responding to the needs and interests of current scholars and faculty working in public health, the Institute for Public Health aims to provide them rich opportunities and convenient tools to connect with each other, learn about their colleagues’ work and foster collaborations to ultimately further their public health pursuits.
What is a faculty scholar?
We identify an Institute for Public Health ‘faculty scholar’ as a faculty member at Washington University engaged in research, practice, advocacy, education (i.e., teaching) or another scholarly activity that is relevant to the aims of public health. Faculty scholars should be interested in collaborating with other disciplines to help to expand their own areas, refine research questions, enhance development of interventions, improve practice delivery, enrich teaching, etc.
Some faculty may consider themselves fully immersed and engaged in public health work with an ongoing portfolio of related projects and activities. Meanwhile, other faculty may not consider themselves as working in the area of public health solely, but may have an occasional project or activity that is relevant to public health. Even further, another group of faculty may be interested in public health and are seeking to explore work in the area.
Faculty scholar program objectives
To encourage cross-disciplinary connections related to public health between faculty across university schools and departments and connect scholars to public health spheres beyond the university including, but not limited to:
- Broad high-priority public health impact agendas (e.g., global, national, state & local levels)
- Expanded research and practice settings and community agencies
- Experts that can complement a scholar’s individual work
- Populations that might be positively impacted by ongoing public health work
Benefits of being a faculty scholar
- Help connecting to one another, or to useful resources and networks, to solve public health challenges
- Assistance planning and implementing unique scholar-driven activities related to public health practice, research, education and advocacy
- Eligibility for special funding opportunities or awards
- Priority for any wait-listed events, forums or activities that are designed for scholars
- Support from the Institute’s communication infrastructure to disseminate news about scholars’ public health work through multiple channels including website, email newsletter, social media or other tailored approaches
- Comprehensive communications about public health events and opportunities
Learn more about how to become a faculty scholar and begin the application process.