“We must encourage our health care professionals who want to work with our community to better our health,” said Consuelo Wilkins, MD, when introducing the 11th Annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care awards luncheon hosted Friday by the St. Louis American Foundation.
More than 400 health care professionals and community members came to the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis to recognize and praise the contributions of 2011 Lifetime Achiever Jonathan R. Reed, MD; 2011 Stellar Performer Teri A. Murray, PhD, RN: 2011 Excellence in Public Health Awardee Vetta Sanders Thompson, PhD; and 2011 Health Care Advocacy Organization of the Year the BESt Pharmacy Summer Institute.
Acknowledging the performance of Anisha Morrell-Charles, a last-minute replacement for scheduled emcee Carol Daniel, and the overall importance of younger professionals, Donald M. Suggs, president of the St. Louis American Foundation, said, “We must recognize and encourage our young talent.”
“We lift up the caregivers in our community,” the Rev. Antonio Settles (Reed’s pastor) said in his invocation.
Reed himself – a retired Ob/Gy specialist who practiced for 42 years – was greeted with a standing ovation.
“I’ve had a very challenging and rewarding career, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” Reed said, then joked, “but I’m so glad to finally turn in that beeper.”
In a video produced and edited by Rebecca S. Rivas of The St. Louis American, Reed fondly recalled his early days at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in North St. Louis. “I still cherish those years,” he said in the video.
Murray – dean and associate professor of the Saint Louis University School of Nursing – sounded a key note for the event when she said, “We must recognize that diversity is critical for health care.”
In Rivas’ video, Murray described her efforts to diversify the student body at SLU School of Nursing, which had dropped to a low of 2 percent African-American enrollment in 2006 and now is at 16-18 percent. “We need to be able to have a workforce that is representative of our community,” Murray said in the video.
Thompson – associate professor at the Brown School of Social Work and Institute for Public Health at Washington University – said her honor “represents the hard work we’ve done with so, so many colleagues.”
In Rivas’ video, Thompson recalled getting her initial education in Birmingham, Ala. when it was first tentatively integrating its public schools. As she awakened to “socioeconomic disparities,” she said on the video, “you just wanted to see that change” – and that remains her driving force as a health care professional.
Steven Player, PharmD, MBA, pharmacy manager at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, accepted the award on behalf of the BESt program, which is a collaboration between BJH, Express Scripts and the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Player said it is unprecedented to bring “three top players in the health care field together” on such an initiative. “It’s unduplicated anywhere else,” he said.
Rivas’ BESt video is framed around an African-American freshman at St. Louis College of Pharmacy, Rebakkah Johnson, who was recruited to the school after twice attending the BESt Pharmacy Summer Institute. “I was ready for a challenge after two summers of strenuous work,” Johnson said on the video.
All of the summer program’s graduates have gone onto college, and like Johnson 90 percent of them have pursued a health care profession, according to Isaac Butler, PharmD, MBA, clinical program manager at Express Scripts.
The 2011 Salute also recognized eight Excellence in Health Care honorees: Christal L. Adams, RN, BSN; Portialyn Y. Peterson, MSW, LCSW; Clara Scott, MSW; Darlene Smith; Katina McLeod-Stewart, MHA; Mary J. Trice, RN, BSN, MHS; Debbie Wade-Wilson, RN, BSN; and Deidre “Dee” Washington, RN.
As the Rev. Settles said in his invocation, “Their hands help the weak and generate love for the hurt.”Â
