Jacqueline N. and W. Randolph Baker
Robert S. Brookings Award
Jackie and Randy Baker are prominent St. Louis civic leaders with a strong legacy of generosity toward clinical practice and medical discovery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Randy was an executive at what is now Anheuser-Busch InBev for nearly four decades. At various stages, he served as CEO of Busch Entertainment, encompassing the theme-park operations Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Sesame Place; Busch Properties, a real-estate development and management subsidiary; and Busch Creative Services, a communications, marketing, and event subsidiary. He also served as vice president of corporate planning. In 1996, he was named vice president and chief financial officer of the company. He occupied that role until his retirement in 2008.
Jackie is a community volunteer who has held leadership roles in a variety of St. Louis charitable organizations. As former president of the Friends Board of St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the John Burroughs School Parents Association, she also has served as a member of the Humane Society of Missouri Friends Council and the Saint Louis Zoo ZOOFARI planning committee. Her relationship with WashU began professionally, working as an executive assistant to the chair of what is now the Department of Cell Biology & Physiology at WashU Medicine. After giving birth to the couple’s twin daughters, Jennifer and Janice, Jackie became a full-time mother and homemaker.
Together, the Bakers have catalyzed research and patient care at WashU Medicine through a variety of transformational investments, frequently inspired by their own experiences. For example, having benefited as a family from the intensive neonatal care unit at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after the premature birth of their daughters, Jackie and Randy established a neonatal neurology fellowship in 2015. They went on to create an endowed fund in honor of each of their five grandchildren to support neonatal therapy programming at the hospital.
The couple also has given generously to WashU’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery after receiving orthopedic care from WashU Medicine Physicians for arthritis and hip-replacement surgeries. In 2016, they invested in the Curing Hip Disease Fund led by John Clohisy, MD, designed to investigate the most challenging aspects of hip surgery. To further advance this work, they established the Dr. Clohisy Research Fellowship program in 2017, followed by the Jacqueline N. Baker Fellowship Fund in Orthopaedic Surgery in 2019, which helps provide trainees with a mentored research experience in musculoskeletal clinical research focused on hip preservation and total joint replacement. Most recently, the couple created the Jacqueline N. Baker and W. Randolph Baker Professorship, enabling the medical school to recruit Lindley Wall, MD, as the inaugural holder of the position. Wall is a national leader in hand and upper extremity surgeries for pediatric patients, and her hiring helps ensure WashU Medicine’s continued preeminence as a world-class provider of pediatric orthopedic services.
The Bakers also support orthopedic care and research through less traditional philanthropic avenues. In 2017, they contributed foundational funding to establish WashU Medicine’s Living Well Center, which applies a preventative, lifestyle-medicine approach to chronic issues underlying musculoskeletal health. In addition to preparing candidates for musculoskeletal surgery, the center treats people with long COVID-19, cancer survivors, and patients who want to optimize their overall well-being. Over the years, Jackie and Randy have augmented their philanthropy toward the center, including a major investment in 2021 in the center’s long COVID-19 program.
Notwithstanding this profound impact, the couple continues to expand their philanthropic interests in medicine, directing their latest support toward WashU Medicine’s psychiatry and cardiology departments. In 2025, they created a spendable fund for a new Collaborative Network for Overcoming Emotional Challenges, Crisis, and Trauma (CONNECT), an adolescent psychiatric program that serves as a comprehensive, one-stop shop for clinical services, addressing the growing mental health crisis among young people in the St. Louis community and beyond. The Bakers also recently established a spendable research fund for the study of cardiac amyloidosis, a debilitating condition that occurs when proteins accumulate in the heart muscle.
In addition to their generosity toward WashU, Jackie and Randy dedicate considerable time and energy to civic service in St. Louis. Randy’s leadership includes volunteering at local cultural institutions such as the Saint Louis Art Museum, where he has served on the board of commissioners as well as on the finance and audit committees. He also is a former board member of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Meanwhile, he is actively involved in church life: He previously was an elder and finance committee chair at Bonhomme Presbyterian Church and now is on the finance committee at The Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church.
Randy holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The couple and their daughters, Jennifer and Janice, and their grandchildren, all live in St. Louis.
Special thanks to:
Chancellor Andrew D. Martin
Regis O’Keefe, MD, PhD
Chair and Fred C. Reynolds Professor
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
WashU Medicine
Distinguished Trustee
Andrew M. Bursky, AB ’78, BS ’78, MS ’78, and Jane M. Bursky, AB ’78
Robert S. Brookings Award
Andrew Bursky and his wife, Jane Bursky, are visionary philanthropists whose generosity to Washington University in St. Louis is transforming the advancement of human health alongside access to a WashU education.
The couple met at WashU while undergraduates. A Langsdorf Fellow, Andrew Bursky graduated in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Arts & Sciences and a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science, both in chemical engineering, from what is now the McKelvey School of Engineering. Jane Bursky earned her degree the same year — a Bachelor of Arts in French and education from Arts & Sciences.
Andrew went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University in 1980 and has focused his career on rehabilitating struggling industrial companies and transforming them into category leaders. Today, he is managing partner of Atlas Holdings, a Connecticut-based industrial holding company he co-founded in 2002. Atlas and its affiliates own and operate 30 companies that employ more than 75,000 associates across 1,200 facilities worldwide. Atlas operates in a variety of industrial sectors, and its companies together generate $26 billion in revenue annually.
Jane and Andrew faithfully have supported WashU since their time on campus. With their recent pledge through the Bursky Family Foundation to name the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health, the couple made the largest gift in university history. This transformational commitment is a continuation of the Burskys’ long-term partnership with WashU and underscores their dedication to improving the health of communities across the region and world. The Bursky School of Public Health is designed to help the nation meet current and future public health challenges by rethinking how public health is taught, studied and applied with a goal of building a public health that is more responsive, more trusted and more compassionate. The Bursky Family Foundation’s investment will propel Bursky Public Health to the forefront of research, education, and operational implementation in the field.
As longtime champions and ardent supporters of the university, the Burskys also have made significant contributions to undergraduate students through scholarships. This includes the establishment of the Spirit of Washington University Scholarship, which provides a lifeline for students facing unexpected financial emergencies that threaten to curtail their education. Additionally, they provided leadership support for both the James E. McLeod Scholarship and the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Danforth Scholarship — signature efforts of the university to ensure access to the most promising undergraduates.
Beyond academic access, the Burskys have championed innovative health initiatives, including their $10 million commitment to the WashU School of Medicine to name the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs. The center advances pioneering research and accelerates progress in understanding the immune system’s role in combatting a wide array of diseases while expediting the translation of scientific discoveries into improved patient outcomes. Subsequently, the Burskys provided a gift to establish the Center for Vaccines & Immunity to Microbial Pathogens at WashU, whose mission is to amplify and accelerate the translational impact of the cutting-edge research performed at WashU Medicine that dissects the interplay between our immune system and microbial pathogens. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the Burskys provided emergency funding to support WashU research, accelerating critical and rapid response efforts.
Alongside their generous financial support, Andrew and Jane give to WashU through time and volunteer leadership. Andrew has served on Washington University’s Board of Trustees as a member of the executive committee since 2002 and recently concluded a four-year tenure as board chair. He also currently is a member of the Greater New York Regional Cabinet; the Washington University Investment Management Company board; and co-chair of With You: The WashU Campaign. Jane Bursky is an active partner in the family’s philanthropic efforts and recently joined the Student Success National Council. Each serve on the board of the Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs.
The Burskys also generously support a variety of other causes through philanthropy and service. As chairman of the Atlas Foundation, Andrew helps further the health of communities around the world where Atlas Holdings companies operate. He also co-founded and serves as Chairman of a bipartisan organization called No Labels, which seeks to strengthen the commonsense center in Congress and promote bipartisan congressional action on key issues facing the United States.
Andrew and Jane have two children, Stephen Bursky and Jennifer Brauntuch, AB ’06, and six granddaughters.
Special thanks to:
Chancellor Andrew D. Martin
Robert D. Schreiber
Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Distinguished Professor, Pathology & Immunology
Director, Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology & Immunotherapy Programs
Co-Leader, Tumor Immunology Program
WashU Medicine
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Margaret C. Ryan Dean
Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health
Bursky School of Public Health
Vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at WashU
Trustee Jared Della Valle,
MArch ’96, MS ’96
CEO and co-founder
Alloy Development
Distinguished Alumni Award
Jared Della Valle is an industry-leading architect and real-estate professional who has dedicated his 30-year career to making the Brooklyn borough of New York City more beautiful, sustainable, and equitable. As both a designer and developer, he has managed the acquisition and predevelopment of more than 3 million square feet in New York. He is currently collaborating with the city of New York on the development of over 1,500 homes, a public school, a cultural institution, a community center, and much-needed affordable housing.
Della Valle’s achievements combine entrepreneurship with social impact in distinctive ways. He launched his career alongside fellow WashU alumnus Andrew Bernheimer, MArch ’94, together co-founding and operating the firm Della Valle Bernheimer Design for over a decade. In 2007, Della Valle founded the design-focused real-estate company Alloy Development. As CEO of that enterprise, he has overseen more than $3.1 billion in completed or in-development projects since 2006. One career-defining endeavor is the growth and enrichment of the Alloy Block, a Brooklyn-borough development that integrates residential, office, retail, educational, and cultural space and encompasses the first all-electric skyscraper. It also contains the first passive-house public schools in New York City and the world’s tallest passive-house building.
Over the years, Della Valle has taught architecture and design at a variety of prestigious U.S. universities, including Washington University in St. Louis. Indeed, he is a loyal and generous alumnus, establishing an annual scholarship in 2017 that he has continued to augment. He serves as an Eliot Society member at the Danforth Circle level and has been a member of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts National Council since 2021. He was the graduation ceremony speaker for the Sam Fox School in 2024. He also is actively involved in WashU’s Real Estate Network in New York. In July 2026, Della Valle joined Washington University’s Board of Trustees.
Beyond WashU, Della Valle is an influential leader within U.S. architecture and real-estate development circles. Having served on the board of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership since 2017, a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating the borough as a world-class destination for business, culture, and education, he transitioned to chair of that organization in 2024. He also has been a board member of the Architectural League of New York since 2017. And he is a long-standing member of the Van Alen Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering more equitable cities through inclusive, community-driven design. He has served as both chair and vice chair of that board.
Della Valle’s vision and leadership have been widely recognized at WashU and beyond. His projects are frequently covered in major national media outlets, and in 2019, he was elevated to the College of Fellows, the highest membership honor of the American Institute of Architects. He is the recipient of both a Distinguished Alumni Award and a Young Alumni Award from the Sam Fox School.
Della Valle earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Lehigh University, followed by dual master’s degrees from WashU in architecture and construct management. He and his wife, Carolina, who is an artist, designer, and printmaker, are parents to Evia and Isanna “Isa” Della Valle. Evia currently is a senior at WashU studying biology and anthropology with a specialization in global health and the environment.
Special thanks to:
Carmon Colangelo
Dean emeritus
E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Nellie Anderson-Hutt, AB ’75, JD ’78
Federal administrative appeals judge, retired
Social Security Administration, Office of Hearings and Appeals
Honorary Emeritus Trustee
Louis G. Hutt Jr., BSBA ’76
Managing member and CEO
The Hutt Company
Distinguished Alumni Award
Through their many professional achievements, generous service to Washington University in St. Louis, and deep commitment to opening doors for others, Nellie and Lou Hutt reflect a long-standing devotion to helping people and strengthening community.
Nellie built a distinguished 40-year career in law, public service, and community leadership. After supporting Lou’s academic and professional path following college, including sponsoring him to attend law school full time for two years, she served as a trial attorney for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and as an attorney with the General Counsel’s Office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She went on to become a federal administrative appeals judge for the SSA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals, retiring from the bench in 2020. She continues to chair the police accountability board for Howard County, Maryland.
Since starting his career at Ernst & Young in 1976, Lou has established a reputation for trusted financial counsel in tax strategy, entrepreneurship, and wealth building. He founded The Hutt Company in 1982, providing accounting, tax, legal, and consulting services to small businesses and individuals, many of them minority owned, and he continues to serve as its CEO and managing member. As a nationally recognized expert on income-tax planning and entrepreneurial success, he hosts The Lou Hutt Show on SiriusXM and is the author of The Road to MEGA Success: Simple Strategies for Enriching the Bottom Line.
Together, the Hutts’ impact on WashU has benefited generations of students. They are founding members of the Black Alumni Council, helping to build and sustain an alumni network that has supported Black students and graduates since 1983. The Hutts also helped organize the first WashU student recruiting event in the Baltimore, MD area, where 50 potential students were expected to attend, and 450 people came. That event led the Hutts to create the Howard County Admissions Initiative, which connected high school students in this county in Maryland with Black alumni who mentored and recruited those students to WashU, expanding collegiate access to underrepresented young people for more than 25 years.
The Hutts also are generous, longtime donors to Olin Business School. In addition to being lifetime members of the Eliot Society, they are dedicated supporters of the John B. Ervin Scholarship. Nellie served as an inaugural delegate on WashU’s council-city executive committee, and Lou was a member of Washington University’s Board of Trustees from 1994-2025. He continues to serve today as an honorary emeritus trustee. Since 1995, he has been a member of the Olin Business School National Council, and he is a former member of the Alumni Board of Governors and past chair of his class reunion committee. Lou received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Olin in 1998.
Nellie earned a bachelor’s degree from Arts & Sciences and juris doctor from WashU Law, and Lou earned a bachelor’s degree from Olin, followed by a juris doctor from University of Maryland. The Hutts’ have three children: Mahoganey; Louis III, BSBA ’06; and Eboney, AB ’13. Mahoganey and Louis III work with their father at The Hutt Company.
Special thanks to:
Ronné Turner
Vice provost for enrollment management
WashU
Emeritus Trustee Robert L. Virgil Jr., MBA ’60, DBA ’67
Dean emeritus, Olin Business School
Honorary co-chair, With You: The WashU Campaign
President, William H. Danforth Leadership Society
WashU
Sanjai Kohli, MS ’81
Founder and chief technology officer
CspeedIO Inc.
Distinguished Alumni Award
Sanjai Kohli has improved the day-to-day lives of commuters, travelers, and adventurers around the world through the development of cutting-edge GPS technology. Internationally recognized as “the father of mass-market GPS,” his work has enabled the expansion of GPS capabilities into consumer products such as cell phones, personal navigation devices, and cars. The technology now serves more than one billion users.
Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, he founded numerous wireless and digital technology companies, including WirelessHome, TrueSpan, and Inovi. From 1995-2008, he launched and served as CEO and chief technology officer of SiRF Technology, where he oversaw the creation of new signal processing architecture that became widely used in GPS and 3G cellular systems, enabling the commercialization of GPS technology. With Kohli’s leadership and technical expertise, SiRF captured more than 70% of the global GPS semiconductor and software market by 2007. In 2023, he was named CEO of CspeedIO Inc., an optical semiconductor startup. There, he is spearheading leading-edge work on data center connectivity and improved cooling systems, which has the potential to transform an entire sector of the economy and how consumers access data.
Kohli has been widely recognized for his leadership in the field. He was named Inventor of the Year by the European Union in April 2010, joining a distinguished group of innovators. He received the engineering school’s Alumni Achievement Award in 2011 and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) in 2012. A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, he holds 29 patents and has authored several published papers.
He and his wife, Sonia Gaur, are generous supporters of the McKelvey School of Engineering. They provide support for graduate students and are members of the Eliot Society at the Danforth Circle level.
Kohli earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from IIT Bombay and a master’s degree in systems science and mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis. His daughter, Ria Kohli, is currently a sophomore in McKelvey Engineering.
Special thanks to:
Aaron Bobick
Dean and James M. McKelvey Professor
McKelvey School of Engineering
James A. Schlie, MSW ’67
Colonel, U.S. Army, retired
Nonprofit consultant, retired
Distinguished Alumni Award
Jim Schlie has influenced social services and public policy around the world through three distinct careers that span more than five decades. From the military as a social worker and large systems program and policy development leader, he went on to serve as a nonprofit executive director and consultant. His achievements demonstrate a deep knowledge of the importance of organizational and community-based services and a passion for bringing those services to those who need them most.
After graduating with his master’s degree in social work from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served for 26 years as an officer, retiring as a colonel in 1994. His military career began as a social worker. He then served as director of organizational development for the Army’s Health Services Command’s 50 hospitals. Assigned to VII Corps in Germany he was director for human resources and later deputy for personnel for 75,000 soldiers. In the Pentagon, he was deputy for family support in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, focusing on policy and program development for all four military departments. Schlie then transferred to the secretary of the army’s office where he served as an advisor on non-appropriated fund programs. He regularly met with the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services Committee leadership regarding military and family personnel support programs. For these efforts, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, House Armed Services Committee, and other federal departments recognized him for his contributions.
After retiring from the military, Schlie served as executive director of the Lutheran Family Association for 6,000 parishes. He then became the director of OASIS, a program of Lutheran Services in America (LSA) that provides organizational assessments, planning, and crisis intervention for 300 national LSA member organizations. His efforts helped stabilize LSA and grow its members into the vast network it is today. As an extension of his work with LSA, Schlie was instrumental in building Lutheran Disaster Response’s (LDR) ability to respond to natural disasters across the country, enhancing organizational capacity and consolidating organizations in various regions. In 2010, he transitioned into his final career as a nonprofit consultant and strategic planner working with numerous nonprofit entities, until his retirement in 2025.
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Schlie is a dedicated champion of WashU and the Brown School. He and his wife, Bette, AB ’68, are longtime members of the Eliot Society. They also have supported Brown School scholarships since 2018. From 2012-2018, Schlie served on the Brown School campaign committee as part of Leading Together: The Campaign for Washington University, raising funds for the school and offering his expertise in social work practice, public policy, and organizational leadership. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Brown School Distinguished Alumni Award committee. A current 12-year member of the Brown School National Council, he also served on the Brown School’s Alumni Board of Governors from 2001-2007. In recognition of his leadership and service, Schlie received the Brown School’s 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award.
In addition to his Master of Social Work from the Brown School, Schlie earned a bachelor’s degree from Concordia College, Fort Wayne IN; a master’s degree in theology from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; and is certified in health care administration, organizational development, and command/general staff leadership through the military. He has received the Defense Superior Service Award, the second highest military non-combat award and was recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award from Concordia University, St. Paul.
Special thanks to:
Dorian Traube
Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean and professor
Brown School
Joseph A. O’Sullivan
Samuel C. Sachs Professor of Electrical Engineering
Professor and dean, UMSL/WashU Joint Undergraduate Engineering Program
McKelvey School of Engineering
Distinguished Faculty Award
For four decades, Joseph “Jody” O’Sullivan has shaped Washington University in St. Louis and the larger St. Louis engineering community through his dedication to teaching, mentorship, research, and collaboration.
Upon completing his doctorate in 1986, O’Sullivan joined what is now the McKelvey School of Engineering faculty as visiting assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He was appointed the Samuel C. Sachs Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2004 and holds affiliate appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering; the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at WashU Medicine; and earth, environmental, and planetary science in Arts & Sciences. He was named dean of the UMSL/WashU Joint Undergraduate Engineering Program in 2008. In this role, he helps provide accessible pathways to engineering careers for a diverse set of students across the St. Louis community — the majority of whom have matriculated since he became dean and 36% of whom are Pell Grant-eligible. Under his leadership, the program expanded considerably while also increasing student success rates and partnering with local industry leaders to provide scholarships, mentorships, internships, and jobs.
O’Sullivan was secretary of the Faculty Senate from 1995 to 1998 and chair of the Faculty Senate from 2002 to 2004. In those capacities, he also served as faculty representative on the WashU Board of Trustees. He was a member and chair of the Faculty Senate Council Gender Pay Equity Committee from 1997 to 2002, and again a member from 2009 to 2010.
In graduate education, O’Sullivan is co-director of the interdisciplinary doctoral program in imaging science, one of only two such programs in the U.S., where he developed and teaches three core courses. Over the years, O’Sullivan has overseen 36 doctoral students and 17 master’s degree students in his lab, where his research spans imaging science, information theory, and recognition systems. With a broad set of collaborators, he has developed imaging algorithms for a wide variety of problems including dual energy x-ray CT for cancer imaging, PET imaging system design, hyperspectral imaging of Mars, airport security screening technology, and laser Doppler vibrometry. O’Sullivan has been a leader in three impactful research centers including the Electronic Systems and Signals Research Laboratory, the Army Research Office Center for Imaging Science, and the Center for Security Technologies.
O’Sullivan is a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), former chair of the IEEE St. Louis Section, and a recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. He holds five patents and has co-authored hundreds of journal publications, conference papers, and presentations. A St. Louis native, he attended Saint Louis Priory School before earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Notre Dame.
O’Sullivan has five sons, all of whom are engineers educated at either WashU or Notre Dame: Joseph, BS ’16; Andrew, BS ’18; George; Anthony; and Michael, BS ’24. He is married to Beth Hertzig, MBA ’85, a senior development officer for WashU Advancement. The couple met at the Green Hall dedication dinner in 2011.
Special thanks to:
Joseph Culver
Director, Biophotonics Research Center
Sherwood Moore Professor of Radiology
Director, imaging sciences pathway
Co-director, imaging sciences doctoral program
WashU
Paul J. Scheel Jr., MD
Vice chancellor for clinical affairs,
WashU Medicine
CEO, WashU Medicine Physicians
President, WashU Medicine/BJC HealthCare Physician Provider Organization
Professor of medicine, Division of Nephrology
Distinguished Faculty Award
Paul Scheel is an internationally recognized expert in nephrology and a thought leader at the intersection of clinical excellence, academic medicine, and health system leadership. As CEO of WashU Medicine Physicians, he oversees one of the nation’s largest academic group practices, working closely with leaders across the medical school and BJC HealthCare to align physicians in delivering patient-focused, world-class care.
Scheel plays a critical role in the 45-year affiliation agreement between Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and BJC HealthCare. He oversees the operations, strategy, and growth of over 3,800 clinical providers across more than 200 clinic locations and health facilities, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Since joining the university in 2017, he has presided over tremendous growth in WashU Medicine and BJC HealthCare’s total number of patients, faculty, and care sites as well as their joint annual clinical services revenue.
In less than a decade with Scheel at the helm, WashU Medicine Physicians increased the total number of patients seen annually by more than 372,500, with total faculty also growing by nearly 850 individuals. Meanwhile, joint clinical services revenue increased by over $1.78 billion, while the St. Louis region gained more than 80 new locations for clinical care, including the Gary C. Werths Building at Siteman Cancer Center, the Plaza West Tower at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and a variety of new satellite clinics.
Such achievements are a testament to Scheel’s close and effective collaboration with stakeholders across the university, including department heads, deans, BJC HealthCare leadership, and the business operations teams of both the medical school and the university at large. As he has advanced recruitment, expanded services, improved the patient and provider experience, and enhanced quality and safety, WashU also has gained stature as the fastest growing research institution in the country as measured by funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Scheel was recruited to WashU from Johns Hopkins Medicine, where he served as vice president of the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians, leading multidisciplinary teams to improve quality, efficiency, and the patient experience across that university health system. At the same time, he directed the school’s Division of Nephrology as the Ronald Peterson Professor of Medicine. Additionally, he led the Baltimore-based Integrated Renal Solutions of Johns Hopkins Healthcare as that entity’s medical director. During his time at Hopkins, Scheel developed a novel medical therapy for patients with a rare kidney disorder called retroperitoneal fibrosis. Now used by physicians worldwide, the treatment eliminates the need for surgery and the insertion of ureteral stents. He also has contributed to consensus guidelines for managing other complex kidney conditions.
The author of numerous peer-reviewed publications, Scheel is active in several national medical professional associations and is board certified in both internal medicine and nephrology. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Lynchburg College in Virginia and his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine. Additionally, he earned a master’s degree in business administration from Johns Hopkins, where he completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in nephrology.
Special thanks to:
David H. Perlmutter, MD
Director, Phil and Sima Needleman Center for Autophagy Therapeutics and Research
Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor
WashU Medicine
Anjan V. Thakor
John E. Simon Professor of Finance
Director, Wells Fargo Advisors Center for Finance and Accounting Research
Olin Business School
Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award
Anjan Thakor is an internationally recognized leader in financial economics research, and his compassionate approach has made him a respected teacher, adviser, and collaborator at Washington University in St. Louis and around the world. With areas of expertise ranging from banking and financial intermediation to governance and the economics of organizational higher purpose, his research, executive education, and consulting work is providing transformational insights that are changing corporate culture, growth strategy, and governance practices at organizations across the finance industry.
He joined Olin Business School in 2003, where he leads the Wells Fargo Advisors Center for Finance and Accounting Research (WFA-CFAR) and continues to explore the concept of organizational higher purpose that he first developed with his colleague Robert Quinn at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, where Thakor served as the Edward J. Frey Professor of Banking and Finance and chair of the finance area. His innovative research finds that employees of companies that have an authentic higher-purpose report higher levels of employee satisfaction and engagement, and that these companies also enjoy higher levels of customer satisfaction and improved forward-looking measures of performance, such as stock price. Thakor’s current banking research is focused on how banks create money and how this interacts with fiat money created by the government, and how central bank monetary policy affects bank credit policies and risk.
In addition to his work with WFA-CFAR, Thakor was senior associate dean of Olin from 2005 to 2010 and interim dean of the school from July 2022 to September 2023, providing leadership during a critical transition and supporting a successful dean search. He also led Olin’s doctoral program from 2010 to 2022, helping recruit, mentor, and develop the next generation of finance scholars.
Thakor received an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg’s School of Business, Economics, and Law in 2024, and continues to strengthen cooperation and research exchange between the university and WashU Olin Business, including helping to organize international banking conferences, teaching and participating in doctoral courses, and hosting doctoral students from Gothenburg at WashU.
Outside of WashU, Thakor has advised organizations across a variety of industries, including Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan, Whirlpool, and what is now Anheuser-Busch InBev, among many others.
With Quinn, Thakor co-authored the 2019 book The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization. The pair also collaborated on a 2018 cover story about the topic for the Harvard Business Review. The fifth edition of his world-renowned MBA banking textbook, Contemporary Financial Intermediation, written with Arnoud Boot and Stuart Greenbaum, was published this year. He also has authored or co-authored numerous research publications in leading journals that include the Journal of Finance, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and Journal of Financial Economics.
Thakor was an officer for the Financial Intermediation Research Society and is a member of many global conference program committees. Among his numerous accolades, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Financial Intermediation Research Society in 2021. He earned his doctorate from Northwestern University.
Special thanks to:
Michael Mazzeo
Judy and Jerry Kent Dean
Knight Family Professor
Olin Business School
Timothy M. Miller, MD/PhD ’98
David Clayson Professor of Neurology
Co-director, ALS Center
Vice chair of research in neurology
WashU Medicine
Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award
Timothy Miller is one of the nation’s foremost researchers on neurodegenerative diseases. A pioneer in developing new strategies to prevent, treat, and one day cure ALS, his creative scholarship provides proof that with the right genetic targeting, the progression of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases can be stopped — giving hope to countless patients and clinicians seeking to combat these devastating neurological conditions.
Miller joined Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 2007 following postdoctoral training at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), where he studied disease models of ALS as part of UCSD’s Clinical Scientist Training Program. At WashU Medicine, as the David Clayson Professor of Neurology, the co-director of the ALS Center, and vice chair of research in neurology, he provides expert clinical care, leads a translational research program, and directs promising clinical trials to test new therapeutic approaches.
For decades, the standard treatment for ALS was managing symptoms — not changing the course of the disease. Miller fundamentally shifted that paradigm by pioneering a sophisticated approach to silencing the genes responsible for certain genetic forms of the illness. His team’s groundbreaking research led to the development of tofersen: an innovative drug designed to target and lower the levels of a toxic protein that causes nerve-cell death in patients with a specific genetic subtype of ALS. This approach — using genetic medicines to target the root cause of neurodegeneration — provides a vital roadmap that Miller and other researchers are now applying to explore treatments for other complex and devastating illnesses, including non-genetic ALS, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and others.
Miller has received numerous awards and honors for his trailblazing scholarship. In 2025, he was recognized with the Potamkin Prize and in 2023, he was awarded the Rainwater Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Also in 2023, Miller was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine in the United States. Other awards include the 2018 Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research and the inaugural 2020 Healey Center International Prize for Innovation in ALS.
Miller is a member of the Network of Excellence for ALS, serving on the executive committee and as co-chair of the scientific advisory board, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, the Society for Neuroscience, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.
A St. Louis native, he earned his medical degree and doctorate at WashU Medicine, followed by a residency at the University of California San Francisco, where he served as chief resident in his final year and completed a neuromuscular fellowship under the mentorship of an ALS expert.
Special thanks to:
Jim Rable
Founder and board president
Lyle Rakers Charitable Foundation
Lyle Rakers
Patient of Dr. Timothy Miller