Brown School launches substance use disorder clinic

The Brown School has partnered with Preferred Family Healthcare in St. Louis to launch the Community Academic Partnership on Addiction (CAPA), a teaching, learning and research clinic aimed at combating the opioid epidemic and treating other substance use disorders. “Our aim is to develop a system of shared resources for attacking this issue, in St. […]

Brown School Authors Encourage Native Land Acknowledgment

“On an autumn day in 1808, elders of the Osage Nation gathered at Fort Clark, a new outpost overlooking the Missouri River near what is now Sibley, Missouri. The council assembled to consider a treaty with the young American republic, a treaty requiring them to give up over 52 million acres of Osage land east […]

Red Dress Installation Highlights Violence Against Native Women

During Native American Heritage Month, visitors to Hillman Hall can interact with the Red Dress Project commemorative installation. The piece displays 21 red garments— from dresses and infant onesies to jumpsuits and a shawl— suspended from the ceiling on black hangers. The contrast of the red dresses hanging against the white walls is visually striking. […]

RCC College and Career Fair attracts Native youth as part of Native American week

November is Native American Heritage month. As such Tribal communities come together to converse on what they’re most thankful for. For some attaining a higher education is on top of their priority list. According to Native Partnership statistics more than 60 percent of U.S. high school students go on to college, while only 17 percent […]

Better Therapist-Patient Matching Could Improve Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Outcomes

Therapist-patient profile matching for more effective treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs) is especially important to address the current opioid crisis, according to the author of a recent study on the issue from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “The results from this study have important application to performance-based practice,” said the […]

Honoring children: Treating trauma and adverse childhood experiences in American Indian and Alaska Native communities

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are, unfortunately, familiar in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities, where factors such as poverty, unemployment, chronic stress and intergenerational trauma contribute to ACEs and their resulting detrimental effects (Warne et al., 2017). Recognizing that AI/AN populations are disproportionately impacted by trauma requires translating research into appropriate interventions. The Indian […]

David Patterson Silver Wolf Named to Opioid Use Disorder Committee

David Patterson Silver Wolf, associate professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder. Read Article

Columbus statue is based on a false-hero narrative

On Oct. 20, 2017, I received an email from the Tower Grove Park Board of Commissioners asking for input on the Christopher Columbus statue at the entrance of Tower Grove Park. I was asked my thoughts as a St. Louis local, as a Washington University researcher, and as a Native American. I’ve always loved spending […]

Indigenous Peoples’ Day to honor Native American women

One in three Native American women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. They also go missing and are murdered at an alarmingly high rate. Adria Brown, a graduate student at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, hopes to address the crisis in both […]

The ‘new social work’ is performance-based practice, researcher suggests

Rather than social work practice being based solely on a therapist’s intuition and assumptions, social workers should consider a system of evaluation and measurement based on hard data, suggests a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. “Not only do current professional social work therapists not know their past performance stats, they […]

Could Tower Grove Park’s Christopher Columbus statue meet the same fate as the city’s Confederate monument?

October 8 looms. In South Dakota, it’s Native American Day. In 2016, Vermont’s governor proclaimed it Indigenous People’s Day. Oregon avoided Columbus Day altogether until last year, when it made Indigenous People’s Day official. A long list of cities have done the same. Here in St. Louis, the bronze Christopher Columbus in Tower Grove Park […]

The National Center Announces 2018 Native American 40 Under 40 Award Recipients

The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (the National Center) is pleased to announced its 2018 class of “Native American 40 Under 40” award recipients. Nominated by members of their communities, this prestigious award is bestowed to individuals under the age of 40 who have demonstrated leadership, initiative, and dedication and have made significant […]

The ‘New Social Work’ is Performance-Based Practice

Rather than social work practice being based solely on a therapist’s intuition and assumptions, social workers should consider a system of evaluation and measurement based on hard data, suggests a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. “Not only do current professional social work therapists not know their past performance stats, they […]

CSWE Receives $7M Behavioral Health Grant for Doctoral and Master’s Students

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has received a 5-year, $7.1 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to continue the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP). The grant includes more than $95,000 in additional funding annually compared to grants in the two previous cycles. This will enable the MFP to […]

Who Defines the “Good” in “Common Good”?

If a “good” is held to be common, then surely that decision must come from community. Too often the community’s role is unexamined in this regard, but the intentionality of one Native culture in defining and protecting the common good might serve as an example to us all. In my Alutiiq language, the word for […]

PECaD’s Manshack Appointed to New ACS Board of Directors

Lindsey Manshack, MPH, a member of Siteman Cancer Center’s Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD), has been appointed to the American Cancer Society (ACS) Missouri Area Board of Directors. In this newly created position, Manshack will work with four other ACS board members to reduce cancer disparities in the Missouri region through creating awareness, fundraising and […]

Research Without Walls at the Brown School

Research Without Walls is a signature event that showcases the breadth of student-driven research at the Brown School. During this annual symposium, the halls of the School are lined with student research posters, and students present their findings to faculty, peers and community members. View Research Without Walls Event

American Indian Elders: Living Libraries

There is a saying in indigenous culture that “when an elder dies, a library burns.” American Indian elders in many respects are living libraries.¹ Storytellers that transmit culture and traditional knowledge from one generation to the next. Read Article

Where Therapeutic Intuition Meets Technology

When people are treated for medical conditions, their physician usually monitors the treatment and recovery process based on some type of performance metrics, informed by hard data. However, in clinical programs treating substance use disorders or psychiatric disorders, the treatment and recovery process is monitored exclusively on therapist’s intuition. A new suite of technology tools […]

Apryl Joe named MSW Commencement Marshal

The Brown School is recognizing the outstanding graduating students who have been chosen to represent the graduating scholars during Commencement.  Apryl Joe (Navajo) has been chosen to as the MSW marshal. MSW marshal Apryl Joe is honored to be the first American Indian/Alaska Native student chosen as a Brown School marshal. Following graduation, Apryl will move to […]

Supreme Court Case Tests Weight of Old Native American Treaties in 21st Century

On April 18, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Washington v. United States, which pits the state of Washington against the United States and 21 Indian tribes. The main question in the case is narrow – whether the state must quickly replace hundreds of culverts that allow the flow of water under […]

Pow Wow 2018: ‘Balancing Two Worlds’

The theme of this year’s Pow Wow at Washington University in St. Louis is “Balancing Two Worlds: Indigenous Teachings, Traditions and Truths.” The 28th annual event, a celebration of American Indian cultures, will be held Saturday, April 21, in the Washington University Field House on the Danforth Campus. Hosted by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian […]

Buder Charitable Foundation receives Brown School Award

The G.A., Jr. and Kathryn M. Buder Charitable Foundation received the Bettie Bofinger and George Warren Brown Award at the 35th annual Brown School Awards of Distinction on April 10, 2018. Buder Foundation Video Learn more about the 2018 Awards of Distinction

The Brown School Awards of Distinction honors the Buder Foundation

The 35th annual Brown School Awards of Distinction were presented April 10, honoring nine awardees for their work to advance the fields of social work, public health and social policy. The G.A., Jr. and Kathryn M. Buder Charitable Foundation was honored with the Bettie Bofinger and George Warren Brown Award. Learn more about the 2018 […]

Krystian Sisson Awarded Udall Foundation Congressional Internship

Graduate student Krystian Sisson, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from Henryetta, Okla., has been awarded an Udall Foundation and Native Nations Institute congressional internship for this summer. Sisson is pursuing a master’s of social work, with a concentration in policy, at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Sisson is one […]

Perspectives Dialogue Circle: Culture Through Food

Krystian Sisson (Muscogee/Creek) presented on American Indian ancestral foods.  She was joined by Campus Executive Chef Patrick McElroy who spoke about how Washington University began including some of these foods in campus dining menus and the collaborations that the University has with Native chefs.  

Summer Research Training Institute for American Indian and Alaska Native Health Professionals

Registration for the 2018 Summer Research Training Institute for American Indian and Alaska Native Health Professionals is now open. The curriculum is designed to meet the needs of professionals who work in diverse areas of American Indian and Alaska Native health. Almost anyone who works in Indian health can take advantage of this skill-building opportunity—from […]

Working Together for a Stronger Future Conference

The 2018 TCC Annual Convention and Full Board of Directors Meeting is taking place March 12 – 15, 2018 at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks, Alaska.  The theme of the Convention is Working Together for a Stronger Future. Additional Information

Buder Center 8 Ways Brochure Series

This past fall, PECaD dedicated resources to creating and updating the 8 Ways to Reduce Cancer brochure series for the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Studies. PECaD’s partnership with the Buder Center has grown tremendously within the past few years. In feedback PECaD received from community members was a lack of educational information for […]