The Confluence Collaborative for Community Engagement supports faculty across the WashU ecosystem and community members and organizations in developing strong partnerships to co-design research projects and academic courses focused on addressing the St. Louis region’s most critical needs.
St. Louis community
Your expertise and community knowledge are the foundation of our work.
WashU scholars
Your work elevates the programs that support the community we call home.
2025 Community-Engaged Research Symposium
The Confluence Collaborative hosted its inaugural research symposium, bringing together WashU scholars and St. Louis community partners.
Upcoming events
Latest news
Cultivating solutions: FARM’s grants target food security from early childhood to older age
Cultivate is the first funding initiative of the school’s Food and Agriculture Research Mission (FARM), which invests in practical, scalable solutions that connect agriculture, nutrition and public health to build healthier, more resilient communities. The initiative invests in projects with near-term potential to change practice and policy. Track 1 awards up to $40,000 for one year to help early-career investigators test promising ideas. Track 2 provides up to $250,000 over two to three years for established interdisciplinary teams advancing pilot studies that can scale.
Ways to Prioritize You: Q&A with Coach Melody McClellan, AADP
After nearly two decades in pharmaceutical sales, Coach Melody McClellan, a member of the Confluence Collaborative’s Community Collaborative, pivoted to a career as an entrepreneur and now Wellness Expert/Strategist. McClellan founded Unwrap You, a wellness consulting practice that offers corporate programs, motivational speaking, youth programming, and a 90-day course. We spoke with McClellan about her […]
Promoting Literacy Through Representation: A Q&A with Aja La’Starr Owens
A Q&A with Aja La’Starr Owens about her journey as an author, the importance of diverse representation in children’s literature, and her mission to help families develop a love for literacy together.
The Collaborative’s work
We create partnerships between our region and WashU. We help community leaders by providing outreach, connections, and resources to meet the needs of St. Louis.
Connect with us
Whether you’re new to the field or have a specific project you’re ready to embark on, we’re here to support your work.
We’re working toward taking WashU’s significant knowledge and expertise and making sure that the questions we’re asking, the problems we’re trying to tackle, are those that are going to make a difference in the lives of the people who are giving their time (and) sharing their resources to help us generate this new knowledge.
Vetta Sanders-Thompson, PhD, Brown School