Julia Warren

Throughout her three years as an M.D./Ph.D. student at Washington University in St. Louis, Julia Warren has dedicated herself to a number of organizations that further health education and access, especially for women and populations that are under-served. Before beginning her first year at the School of Medicine, Julia attended the Washington University Medical Plunge (WUMP), a class about public health issues in the St Louis community. She then helped organize WUMP for the following cohort of students. Julia also helped restart and run the SHARE program, which trains medical students to teach middle school students about health awareness, sexually transmitted diseases, and maintaining healthy and respectful relationships.

In addition to her responsibilities as a student, Julia volunteers at Community Health in Partnership (CHIPS), a community clinic serving uninsured St Louis residents. Julia does health screenings and also helps organize the CHIPS volunteer training sessions so other medical students can volunteer. Finally, Julia helped organized the WUSTL community service branch of the American Medical Women’s Association to help other medical students get involved in serving the St. Louis community. This group has organized fundraisers for the St. Louis Regional Sexual Assault Center and sent volunteers to the St. Louis Crisis Nursery, the Karen House homeless shelter and St. Louis Effort for AIDS.

Julia is also a sexual assault response team volunteer, representing another commitment unrelated to her career as a medical scientist. She was a rape crisis advocate while living in Chicago, but went through extensive retraining to become a volunteer with the St. Louis Regional Sexual Assault Center. Despite a heavy course load, Julia routinely gives up nights and weekends to sit with women in the emergency room, to be an advocate and source of support, and to connect them with resources to deal with their trauma.

In her three years in St. Louis, Julia has been heavily involved in serving St. Louis residents. The students who nominated Julia stated, “She has shown herself to be a supportive and generous friend, an insightful and knowledgeable student, and an engaged and inquisitive scientist” and nominated Julia “because of her tireless service to so many organizations, and her ability to inspire similar service in others.”