Bernard Becker Medical Library unveils a temporary exhibit entitled “In Their Own Words: Stories of Desegregation at Washington University Medical Center.” Drawing on oral histories, photographs, architectural plans and other documents, the exhibit features stories from doctors, nurses, students and administrators who experienced segregation and advocated for change. The full collection of oral histories is […]
Category: Washington University
2024: WUSM receives NADOHE Institutional Excellence Award
The School of Medicine receives the 2024 NADOHE Institutional Excellence Award: Professional Degree Granting Institution for demonstrating measurable progress in promoting and sustaining innovative diversity efforts within the campus community. NADOHE is the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. Image: David Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, George and Carol Bauer […]
“It is our duty to identify and rectify these systemic inequities. We commit to a culture of trying, because change is hard, and conflicts will arise.”
— Excerpt from the School of Medicine’s Commitment to Anti-Racism, 2021
“Where you live in St. Louis has a powerful impact on your health. Residents of ZIP codes separated by only a few miles have up to an 18-year difference in life expectancy.”
— “For the Sake of All” report, 2014
2013: Washington University hires DEI education staff
Washington University hires Daniel Blash, PhD, and Denise DeCou to provide diversity and inclusion education to staff across Washington University.
“By speaking out, we improve health care, and we uplift humanity.”
— Will Ross, MD, MPH
“It does hurt when good friends who are intelligent make inadvertent remarks which demonstrate that deep down they have an undercoating of ingrained prejudice.”
— Julian Mosley, MD, 1977
“I had to keep at this. Whenever I turned my back, segregation was restored.”
— Bernard Becker, MD
“I remember going into [0400] with the surgery chairman Carl Moyer and seeing only Black men. I was shocked by that and, actually, I’ve never forgiven myself because I didn’t make an issue of it. Of course, I was a poor kid from Brooklyn, and I couldn’t run the risk of being kicked out of medical school, but I should have said something: that this is not right.”
— Steven Teitelbaum, MD
2022: WUSM street re-christened “Nash Way”
A street on the Medical Campus is re-christened “Nash Way” in honor of distinguished Black sister-and-brother pediatricians, Helen E. Nash, MD, and Homer E. Nash Jr., MD. Image: A plaque on the south wall of the Eric P. Newman Education Center commemorates the naming of Nash Way.