What a year to be a Bear!
Two national championships, four individual national champions, one national player of the year… And now, for the first time in university history, WashU Athletics has captured the prestigious Learfield Directors’ Cup, awarded to the nation’s top NCAA Division III athletic program.
Celebrate this extraordinary achievement with a gift to the W Club, the Annual Fund for Athletics. Together, we can ensure our scholar-champions have every opportunity to excel as they train, compete, and lead.
Go Bears!
What a year to be a Bear!
Two national championships, four individual national champions, one national player of the year… And now, for the first time in university history, WashU Athletics has captured the prestigious Learfield Directors’ Cup, awarded to the nation’s top NCAA Division III athletic program.
Celebrate this extraordinary achievement with a gift to the W Club, the Annual Fund for Athletics. Together, we can ensure our scholar-champions have every opportunity to excel as they train, compete, and lead.
Go Bears!Learfield Director’s Cup Champions (2025-2026)
Be part of the winning tradition
Brown School
Join the Brown School community in celebration and recognition of the distinguished career of retiring faculty Mary McKay. Your support in honor of this esteemed colleague and friend recognizes the legacy of leadership in research and teaching she leaves at the Brown School.
Honor their legacy
Mary McKay
Make a gift in recognition of the faculty members whose teaching, research, and leadership have made a lasting impact on the Brown School.
Brown School
Join the Brown School community in celebration and recognition of the distinguished career of retiring faculty Nancy Morrow-Howell. Your support in honor of this esteemed colleague and friend recognizes the legacy of leadership in research and teaching she leaves at the Brown School.
Honor their legacy
Nancy Morrow-Howell
Make a gift in recognition of the faculty members whose teaching, research, and leadership have made a lasting impact on the Brown School.
Brown School
Join the Brown School community in celebration and recognition of the distinguished career of retiring faculty Barry Rosenberg. Your support in honor of this esteemed colleague and friend recognizes the legacy of leadership in research and teaching he leaves at the Brown School.
Honor their legacy
Barry Rosenberg
Make a gift in recognition of the faculty members whose teaching, research, and leadership have made a lasting impact on the Brown School.
Remembering Nancy Firestone
NNancy Firestone, AB ’73, was a proud alumna of WashU and frequently credited the breadth of the educational opportunities, the lifetime personal connections to other alums, and the support she received while a student as the foundation for her extraordinary life. After graduating from WashU, Nancy earned her juris doctor with honors from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 1977.
Nancy served as associate deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 1989 to 1992, as a judge on the EPA’s appeals board from 1992 to 1995, and as deputy assistant attorney general in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice from 1995 to 1998. In 1998 Nancy was appointed as a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., where she served until 2022.
Throughout her career, Nancy embraced her connection to WashU, inviting scores of interns to serve in her court, providing valuable insight into the legal system and the judiciary.
Nancy believed there was no greater calling than teaching. She was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center for more than 35 years, and brought her love for inspiring and piquing curiosity to both the classroom and all other interactions. She was conversant in everything from quarks to religion to Broadway hits, and loved engaging, guiding, and debating inquisitive minds on complex topics ranging from politics to the U.S. Constitution to the Bible to scientific development.
The Honorable Nancy B. Firestone Practicum Award was established to celebrate Nancy’s lifetime commitment to excellence and education.
Honorable Nancy B. Firestone Practicum Award
This memorial practicum award was established by daughter Amanda Firestone and spouse Patricia Payne.
Contributions will sponsor a Master of Social Work student at the Brown School each year, providing a stipend for their participation in required field education activities. This funding addresses the systemic issue of unpaid labor in our field, enabling students regardless of their financial means to obtain a world-class social work education.
Join the Eliot Society with an Annual Fund gift of $1,000 or more. Your continued support provides flexible funding that empowers WashU to respond to emerging opportunities, advance groundbreaking research, and create exceptional experiences for students. Make your gift below to become an Eliot Society member.
The Eliot Society
Lead with your annual gift
Membership in the Eliot Society recognizes alumni and friends whose annual generosity helps sustain the university’s highest priorities.
It’s the first day of classes! As a graduate, you know firsthand the excitement of a new academic year at WashU. Now, you can make a difference for the students who follow in your footsteps.
First Day
Help make it a great year at WashU
You can ensure that today’s students have access to the same life-changing collegiate experience that you had. When you support the Annual Fund, you make WashU possible for students facing financial barriers. You enable world-class faculty to expand students’ world views. And you help them have vibrant experiences that mold them into future leaders.
Participate in Giving Tuesday!
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Participate in Giving Tuesday!
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Faculty and staff
Giving Tuesday starts with us
Faculty and staff
Giving Tuesday starts with us
Make a gift
Advancing what’s possible
Every gift, large or small, plays an essential role in supporting our mission of teaching, research, and service to society. From student scholarships and groundbreaking research to innovative academic programs and world-renowned faculty, choose an area that inspires your support and help expand our local and global impact.Make a gift
Advancing what’s possible
Every gift, large or small, helps accelerate discoveries, improve patient care, and educate the next generation of physicians and scientists. Choose an area that inspires your support and help transform the future of medicine.
DIAN-TU
Advancing what’s possible
The DIAN Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) platform implements interventional therapeutic trials for at-risk families with DIAD, focusing on drugs that can potentially change the course of the disease.
Pushing the frontiers of discovery in Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia later in life, affecting more than 7 million people in the United States, with the number expected to double by 2060. Alzheimer’s and other dementias cost the nation nearly $400 billion each year and exert an unfathomable personal toll on patients and families. Although scientists in recent years have made meaningful progress in understanding the disease, much is still unknown.
A future where Alzheimer’s can be prevented isn’t just possible – it’s probable.
For over 50 years, WashU Medicine has led Alzheimer’s research on a global scale, from uncovering its biological roots to developing the diagnostic tools and treatments now defining the field — and now we’re leading the shift from treating Alzheimer’s to stopping it before it starts.
Key achievement
Simple blood test
Predicting Alzheimer’s before symptoms
Research led by Dr. Suzanne Schindler led to a method that predicts when someone is likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease symptoms using a simple blood test.
Key achievement
Biological breakthroughs
Uncovering the causes of Alzheimer’s
Investigators at WashU Medicine identified biological and genetic causes of Alzheimer’s and created imaging and biomarker tools that can detect the disease years before symptoms appear.
Key achievement
First FDA-approved treatment
Slowing Alzheimer’s progression
Clinical trials for the first FDA-approved treatment shown to slow progression in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease were led by investigators at WashU Medicine.
Key achievement
From discovery
to diagnosis
Turning WashU discoveries into a blood test
The world’s first accurate Alzheimer’s blood test came from a company founded by Dr. David Holtzman and Dr. Randy Bateman, called C2N Diagnostics, based on biomarkers they discovered at WashU Medicine.
In Our Lifetime — Part 1: A Piece of Me
For Jake Heinrichs and others with Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s is not just a research subject — it is family history written in their DNA.
In Our Lifetime — Part 2: The World is Watching
Randall J. Bateman, MD, and Eric McDade, DO, have dedicated their careers to researching Alzheimer’s disease in search of ways to detect it sooner and even prevent it one day. See how close we are to finding a cure and what is at risk if we stop the research now.
DIAN-TU
Advancing what’s possible
The DIAN Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) platform implements interventional therapeutic trials for at-risk families with DIAD, focusing on drugs that can potentially change the course of the disease.
Katherine Parker Ponder
Honor a legacy.
This tribute gift celebrates Katherine’s life, accomplishments, and lasting impact.
Remembering Kennedy Reed
Kennedy Reed, a fourth-year PhD candidate in molecular microbiology and microbial pathogenesis at Washington University School of Medicine, passed away on August 4, 2026, following a car accident. She was 26.
A native of Hinds County, Mississippi, Kennedy came to WashU Medicine in 2023 to pursue her doctorate under the mentorship of Dr. Felipe Ribeiro. Her innovative thesis research investigated how certain bacteria contribute to skin cancer progression and metastatic disease, revealing critical connections between environmental factors and cancer development.
Beyond her scientific contributions, Kennedy was known throughout the WashU Medicine community for her warmth, thoughtfulness, and commitment to supporting her peers. She played an active leadership role in Next Generation Science Scholars and the Association of Black Biomedical Graduate Students, helping to organize the 2025 Interdisciplinary Conference for Networking, Supporting and Promoting Inclusive Research Endeavors. Faculty and colleagues remembered her as someone who naturally inspired others and brought genuine care to everything she undertook.
Kennedy earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry from Alcorn State University and completed postbaccalaureate research at Vanderbilt University before coming to WashU Medicine.
A celebration of life will be held August 13, 2026, at Friendly Temple Church in St. Louis.
Kennedy Reed Scholarship
Kennedy Reed Memorial Summer Program Scholarship
This memorial scholarship honors Kennedy’s commitment to education and scientific excellence by supporting an ongoing partnership with her alma mater, Alcorn State University.
Contributions will sponsor two Alcorn State undergraduate students annually to participate in a summer research experience in Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences (DBBS) laboratories at WashU.
Remembering Gerald Cohen
As we honor and reflect on the life of Gerald Cohen, we also celebrate the remarkable love he shared with his wife, Fran, a love that began when they were children and continued throughout 58 years of marriage. Fran was Gerald’s best friend and companion, and after her passing, he found a meaningful way to ensure that her passion for life, service to others, and devotion to occupational therapy would never be forgotten.
Gerald established the Fran Cohen Endowed Student Award Fund in Occupational Therapy as an enduring expression of that love. The fund meant so much to him because it allowed Fran’s legacy to live on through students who embody the qualities he cherished most in her, leadership, creativity, compassion, and a commitment to helping others.
Honoring Gerald Cohen
In remembering Gerald, a gift to the Fran Cohen Endowed Student Award Fund offers a special way to honor his life and the love that inspired its creation.
Through each student supported by the fund, Gerald and Fran’s story continues; a lasting legacy of love, generosity, and service that will touch lives for generations to come.
Renowned scenic designer and educator leaves profound legacy
John Davis Ezell, Saint Louis native, and internationally recognized scenic designer, educator, artist, mentor, and longtime champion of the American theatre, died on September 24, 2026, at age 94.
During a career spanning six decades and innumerable realized productions, Ezell brought to the stage an extraordinary combination of visual imagination, historical scholarship, theatrical invention, and deep respect for the playwright. His designs appeared on Broadway, at other New York City theatres, and at dozens of major American regional theatres, including sixty designs at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and numerous opera and ballet companies, as well as stages in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Just as important, generations of his protégés carry his ethics, standards, and methods into professional theatres and classrooms throughout the United States.
The entire body of Ezell’s works—renderings, sketches, design drafting, models, research files, and architectural maquettes—is preserved, and accessible, through the Dowd Illustration Research Archive at WashU Libraries. This collection constitutes a transposition from two-dimensional art forms to three-dimensional forms, as expressed through theatrical process and performance.
Special Collections
Gifts Fund
Those who wish to honor John Ezell’s legacy of artistry, excellence, and education are invited to donate to the John Ezell Collection at Washington University in St. Louis. This is a fitting and appreciated tribute to a designer whose work and teaching will continue to inspire students, instructors, and artists for generations to come.
Pushing the frontiers of discovery in Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia later in life, affecting more than 7 million people in the United States, with the number expected to double by 2060. Alzheimer’s and other dementias cost the nation nearly $400 billion each year and exert an unfathomable personal toll on patients and families. Although scientists in recent years have made meaningful progress in understanding the disease, much is still unknown.
A future where Alzheimer’s can be prevented isn’t just possible – it’s probable.
For over 50 years, WashU Medicine has led Alzheimer’s research on a global scale, from uncovering its biological roots to developing the diagnostic tools and treatments now defining the field — and now we’re leading the shift from treating Alzheimer’s to stopping it before it starts.
Key achievement
Simple blood test
Predicting Alzheimer’s before symptoms
Research led by Dr. Suzanne Schindler led to a method that predicts when someone is likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease symptoms using a simple blood test.
Key achievement
Biological breakthroughs
Uncovering the causes of Alzheimer’s
Investigators at WashU Medicine identified biological and genetic causes of Alzheimer’s and created imaging and biomarker tools that can detect the disease years before symptoms appear.
Key achievement
First FDA-approved treatment
Slowing Alzheimer’s progression
Clinical trials for the first FDA-approved treatment shown to slow progression in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease were led by investigators at WashU Medicine.
Key achievement
From discovery
to diagnosis
Turning WashU discoveries into a blood test
The world’s first accurate Alzheimer’s blood test came from a company founded by Dr. David Holtzman and Dr. Randy Bateman, called C2N Diagnostics, based on biomarkers they discovered at WashU Medicine.
In Our Lifetime — Part 1: A Piece of Me
For Jake Heinrichs and others with Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s is not just a research subject — it is family history written in their DNA.
In Our Lifetime — Part 2: The World is Watching
Randall J. Bateman, MD, and Eric McDade, DO, have dedicated their careers to researching Alzheimer’s disease in search of ways to detect it sooner and even prevent it one day. See how close we are to finding a cure and what is at risk if we stop the research now.
Faye and Ganesh’s gift is in memory of [name to be provided]
Supporting the next generation of brilliant minds
The Alzheimer’s Research Innovation Fund supports the most promising high-risk, high-reward research ideas. The fund allows us to accelerate scientific progress by directing support toward individual projects or core facilities and technologies that keep WashU at the cutting-edge. This pooled fund also will be used to fill gaps in research programs that have been created by inconsistencies in federal funding to ensure this critical work can continue amidst uncertainty. Gifts of all sizes make a major impact. Your support will help young investigators launch their own labs, purchase equipment, pursue professional development opportunities, and cover the research expenses necessary to explore new lines of inquiry that may lead to novel treatments and improved diagnostics for Alzheimer’s disease.To make an international wire transfer use SWIFT code: BOFAUS3N.
Contact us
Medical Advancement
Washington University
MSC 1082-414-2555
1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
Contact us
Emily Wind
Director of Advancement
Medical Advancement | Neurosciences
