News & Announcements

Sarah Gehlert to deliver keynote address for Integrative Behavioral Health Clinic anniversary


Aug. 14, 2024


In honor of the 10th anniversary of the Integrative Behavioral Health Clinic (IBHC), the University of Missouri School of Social Work is pleased to bring an alumna and distinguished scholar, Sarah Gehlert, PhD, MSW, to campus for a keynote address.

  • Who: Dr. Sarah Gehlert, renowned social work scholar and Mizzou alumna
  • What: “Why Behavioral Health? Celebrating 10 Years of Mizzou’s Integrative Behavioral Health Cinic”
  • When: 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25
  • Where: 104 Clark Hall, 700 S. Providence, Columbia, MO 65211

Dr. Gehlert’s address will be preceded by a reception in the Clark Hall lobby. Register to attend.

About Dr. Gehlert

Dr. Sarah Gehlert

Sarah Gehlert is E. Desmond Lee Professor of Racial and Ethnic Diversity Emerita at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). She retired as Dean of the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and Ernest P. Larson Professor of Health, Ethnicity, and Poverty at the University of Southern California in September of 2022. From 2003 to 2009, she was Principal Investigator of the University of Chicago’s NIH-funded Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research, one of the first transdisciplinary initiatives from the National Institutes of Health in Washington DC. While at the University of Chicago, she helped found the Washington Park Free Clinic in 1997, which continues to operate on Chicago’s South Side.

After moving to Washington University, Dr. Gehlert co-chaired the Prevention and Control Program of the Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center and served as Associate Director of the Transdisciplinary Research of Cancer (TREC). She served for six years as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Gehlert currently is a member of the Council for Extramural Grants at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, the Steering Committee of the California Breast Cancer Research Program, the Professional Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Alliance of America, and recently retired from the White House Health Equity Professional Leaders Roundtable. Her research is focused on cross-disciplinary approaches to eliminating health disparities. Current National Cancer Institute-funded research examines the effect of federal smoking policy on the health outcomes of public housing residents in Norfolk, Virginia.  

Dr. Gehlert’s service to Social Work includes serving as President of the Society for Social Work and Research and the American Academy of Social Work at Social Welfare. She has won a number of awards, including the University-Wide Alumni Award from the University of Missouri, the Richard Lodge Prize from Adelphi University, the Insley-Evans Award from the American Public Health Association, the Nicolescu Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering Award from the Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning and Advanced Studies, the Distinguished Faculty Award from Washington University, and the You’ve Made a Difference Award from Youth Unshackled Ministries in Chicago. She has 178 publications in journals, as well as book chapters and books.