We know it’s more than restaurants and kid-friendly attractions that make the St. Louis region great. We also have to give a well-deserved nod to the ambitious thought leaders and visionaries who continually push our region to do better.
Leslie Gill + Ali Hogan
Rung for Women
When the career accelerator Rung for Women, founded by Hogan, launched during the pandemic, it was a lifeline for women who had been pushed out of the workforce to supervise their kids’ learning while schools closed down to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Now, Rung and Gill, its president, are focusing on training women for geospatial and tech jobs. (A recent webinar, for instance, focused on using transferable skills to pivot to tech.) With Next NGA West’s impending opening, it’s an important opportunity to grow the number of women working in the field.
Emily Lohse-Busch
39 North AgTech
Seven regional organizations united to form the 39 North AgTech Innovation District to level up St. Louis’ work in ag tech, and they turned to one woman to lead it: Lohse-Busch, the former director of Arch Grants. 39 North will focus on bringing together the talent and resources to grow St. Louis’ ag tech economy and the region’s reputation in the field.
Moji Sidiqi
International Institute of St. Louis
In 2021, St. Louis welcomed many refugees from Afghanistan. Now, the International Institute is supporting new residents with a community center in Tower Grove South, led by Afghan Community Development Program Manager Sidiqi, where the resettled Afghans can learn English, take drivers’ ed, and access mental health programs.
Kristen Sorth
St. Louis County Library
As director and CEO of St. Louis County Library, Sorth introduced social workers at branches, a popular GrandPad program, and a Small Business Launchpad for formerly incarcerated people—and those are only some of the system’s most recent initiatives.
Mike England
St. Mary’s Southside Catholic High School
After the Archdiocese of St. Louis announced that it intended to close the all-boys high school, current students and parents, generations of graduates, and residents of the Dutchtown neighborhood, where the school is located, rallied around England, its president. England had an ambitious plan to raise the money necessary to keep the school open independently. Less than a year later, the school signed a lease with the archdiocese to stay in its current building and operate independently as St. Mary’s Southside Catholic High School.
Lesley S. Hoffarth
Forest Park Forever
Big changes are coming to Forest Park with the addition of basketball courts and a reimagined all-seasons Steinberg Pavilion and Rink. Lesley Hoffarth, Forest Park Forever’s president and executive director, says making the new Steinberg a welcoming place for everyone will be crucial, especially because it was one of the first racially integrated public spaces in the city. “This should be a space that is open and accessible to everyone in the community,” Hoffarth says.
Richard Liekweg + Orvin Kimbrough
BJC HealthCare + Midwest BankCentre
One of the most innovative partnerships we’ve seen recently targeting the unfair disparities among white and Black St. Louisans: BJC HealthCare CEO Liekweg joined forces with Midwest BankCentre chairman and CEO Kimbrough. BJC deposited money in branches of the bank tied to 20-plus ZIP codes where low-to-moderate-income customers live. The banks can do more lending to these clients, who are traditionally viewed as “riskier” borrowers, for things like home loans and business loans. “If you think about how you create wealth, it’s homeownership, and it’s having money to start or scale a small business,” Kimbrough told SLM.
Gabe Angieri
Arch Grants
Emily Lohse-Busch’s successor at Arch Grants wants to double down on the organization’s work in helping startups owned by people of color take their businesses to the next level. Since 2012, Arch Grants has funded more than 200 companies, 70 percent of which are co-owned by a POC, woman, immigrant, or veteran.
Susan Trautman
Great Rivers Greenway
As CEO of Great Rivers Greenway, Trautman leads one of the boldest initiatives in St. Louis: to connect our car-obsessed communities via a series of greenways—and to encourage St. Louisans to get out and use them. Now you can visit two recently opened greenway projects, Brickline Greenway at CityPark and Katherine Ward Burg Garden, part of the Mississippi Greenway on Laclede’s Landing.
Yemi Akande-Bartsch
Focus St. Louis
In a city like St. Louis, where so much is (thankfully) changing, Akande-Bartsch, president and CEO of FOCUS St. Louis, helps train future leaders and educates them on civic issues. After going through FOCUS programs, graduates report feeling a greater responsibility for the success of the city.
