The “In St. Louis, For St. Louis” – Practice of Service series highlights the ways many of our faculty are giving back while moving medicine forward. At the heart of our culture is a belief that fulfilling our leadership potential as WashU Medicine means actively engaging with our community. Every day, our faculty bring this commitment to life — showing up, empowering our partners and striving to make a meaningful impact.
Eva Aagaard, MD | Vice Dean for Education, Vice Chancellor for Medical Education, Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Medical Education
Dr. Eva Aagaard’s involvement in community engagement has evolved over the course of her 25-year medical career. Early in her career, volunteerism was entered on direct service, including serving the unhoused population at various shelters, providing care through mobile and free clinics, and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. These experiences allowed her to work directly alongside and learn from individuals and communities facing significant barriers to the healthcare system such as transportation, cost, and food insecurity.
As her career progressed, her involvement expanded to include leadership and advocacy at the systems level. When she arrived in St. Louis in 2017, Aagaard wanted to better understand how the St. Louis healthcare system serves its most vulnerable populations. With the help and support of Dr Will Ross, she connected with leaders across federally qualified health centers and local community organizations, eventually joining the board of the Integrated Health Network (IHN), which works across healthcare systems, federally qualified health centers, and medical schools to address the social and structural factors that contribute to health inequities. Her partnership with IHN also has been critical to WashU Medicine’s curriculum development, including the Health Equity and Justice thread within the Gateway Curriculum and our partnership with Affinia for Ambulatory Immersion, helping prepare future physicians to better understand and address the systemic challenges facing their patients and communities.
Today, Dean Aagaard continues to engage with the St. Louis community from direct patient care to advocating for resources, strengthening healthcare systems, and partnering with community organizations to address broader health inequities. As she reflects on what has driven this evolution, she says, “As a physician, I have been blessed to be let into the lives of many of my patients in their darkest moments.” This privilege has led her to ask how she can improve not only the lives of individual patients, but also the systems and communities in which they live.