Washington People

After 24-plus years of serving the university in Public Affairs and the chancellor’s office as associate vice chancellor and chief of staff to Mark Wrighton, Steve Givens is retiring. Here’s a look back, and a look forward to his next stage of life.

Denise DeCou brings her own lived experiences to the table as the university’s manager of diversity and community outreach. Through training and learning opportunities, she encourages the campus community to grow in acceptance of one another.

Robert W. Gereau, the Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine, is working to discover the genetic and molecular roots of pain, with a goal of reversing the processes that cause pain and make it so disabling.

Erik Herzog, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, studies the molecules, cells and circuits of mammalian circadian timing. He also supports and encourages younger neuroscience researchers, from elementary school all the way through doctoral programs.

Douglas Char, MD, professor of emergency medicine, helps people when they are at their most distressed. Char treats patients in the emergency rooms at St. Louis Children’s and Barnes-Jewish hospitals, but also helps out in major disasters as a member of a federal disaster medical assistance team.

Tracy Spitznagle, professor at the School of Medicine, is a physical therapist who has evolved during her career into an advocate for women who have had difficult births, both in the U.S. and in Africa.

Jennifer Silva, MD, a pediatric electrophysiologist at the School of Medicine, treats children with abnormal heart rhythms. She has co-founded a startup that is developing technology to help doctors see real-time 3D holograms of the heart during procedures to fix erratic heart rhythms.

During an 8-mile journey from the Columbia Bottom conservation area over the Chain of Rocks in a canoe, Bob Criss in Arts & Sciences talks about Lewis and Clark, navigation and the relevance of rivers today.

Softball player-turned-coach Michelle Venturella achieved Olympic gold in 2000. Today, she provides her athletes with encouragement to succeed on and off the field.

Marcus Raichle, MD, is a central figure in the history and science of brain imaging. He is noted for developing positron emission tomography (PET) techniques, explaining principles underlying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and capturing some of the first snapshots of the brain at work.