Eight miles from Ferguson, MO, the Brown School and its MPH program at Washington University in St. Louis finds itself confronting and responding to many of the challenges the crisis poses, including many that relate directly to public health. The civil unrest followed the shooting death of Mr. Michael Brown, 18, by police and has put the small suburb and its problems in the national spotlight.

[Photo: Dean Edward F. Lawlor]

“The events in Ferguson raise fundamental issues for us as a school and for the profession of public health,” said Dean Edward F. Lawlor.  “The specifics of our response are guided by an understanding of our role as a school, our respect for the community and the ways we can bring our expertise and resources to bear.”

To date, the Brown School has responded at several levels:

• Contributing to a coordinated community response on the ground in Ferguson, especially in the areas of mental health (Dr. Vetta Sanders Thompson) and youth services (Dr. Jason Purnell).
• Providing support for our community partner agencies in the Ferguson area with whom faculty and students work on projects and practicums.
• Integrating the issues at play in a thoughtful way into our orientation for new public health students this week, academic programing for fall semester and, longer term, into our School’s strategic priorities.
• Helping shape a long-term regional response to health disparities, social and economic determinants of health, residential and income segregation, race relations, bias and discrimination, employment and business, and other underlying issues in the community.
• Altering or delaying the protocols of active research projects involving Ferguson residents to focus instead on their safety and help them address more immediate needs.

[Photo: Dr. Vetta Sanders Thompson (left) and Dr. Jason Purnell]

Among the challenges the school has faced:

• Responding to the orientation needs of new students and the intensity of student interest.
• Balancing the desire to immediately help with the realization that the community already has been inundated with outsiders.
• Keeping the issues of health disparities and public health in the public discussion, not losing sight of the underlying causes and keeping perspective.

The Brown School hopes to act as a neutral convener with other St. Louis partners to bring together the diverse perspectives and interests of the community to arrive at both short- and long-term solutions to the community problems that have been exposed.

We invite our colleagues in the public health community to offer suggestions.  Please contact:  Dean Lawlor, elawlor@wustl.edu ; and Dr. Matthew W. Kreuter, associate dean for public health, mkreuter@wustl.edu