When Akberet Boykin Farr walks into work on a hard day, she doesn’t reach first for a spreadsheet or a strategic plan. She thinks about children — students she has met in St. Louis classrooms, about literacy programs and after-school spaces that can change the arc of a young person’s life. She asks herself the same question again and again: What gives them the opportunity to live up to their highest potential?
For Boykin Farr, that question guides her work as vice president of diversity and social responsibility at Emerson, where she oversees corporate responsibility efforts focused largely on education and community investment across the St. Louis region.
“A lot of what Emerson does surrounds literacy programs, math programs and after-school activities,” she said. “Those are at the top of what reminds me why this work is important.”
That focus — along with a career spanning more than two decades in human resources and organizational leadership — has earned Boykin Farr recognition as the St. Louis Foundation’s 2026 Salute to Excellence in Business Corporate Executive of the Year.
He and other honorees, will be recognized during the 24th annual Salute to Excellence in Business Awards and Networking Luncheon on Thursday, Feb. 19, at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis.
In her current role, she said one of her most meaningful accomplishments has been strengthening Emerson’s community partnerships and deepening its impact on education. Along the way, she has learned that creating lasting change requires balancing community needs with available resources, careful prioritization and collaboration.
Earlier in her career at Emerson, Boykin Farr played a key role in advancing the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, work she said helped shape a more inclusive culture while teaching her the importance of listening to and elevating diverse voices across an organization.
Before moving into corporate responsibility, she served as Emerson’s director of human resources, building expertise in organizational development, recruitment and retention, benefits administration and compliance.
In St. Louis, where corporate, nonprofit and education sectors often overlap, Boykin Farr has become known for pairing strategy with presence.
That presence stands out to those who serve alongside her.
Michael P. McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, said Boykin Farr was a natural choice to lead the organization’s board, citing her preparation and thoughtful leadership.
“Her commitment to excellence is widely known,” McMillan said. “She spends a considerable amount of time researching each and every subject that comes before the board.”
At City Academy, a St. Louis charter school where she also serves on the board, founder Don Danforth said her leadership extends beyond meetings and into daily engagement with students and families.
Shortly after joining the board, Boykin Farr began opening meetings with quotes from books students were reading — a practice Danforth said helped connect governance decisions to the children they serve.
Her approach to leadership was tested after the May 16 tornado devastated parts of St. Louis.
Unsure what the right response should be, Boykin Farr drove through the hardest-hit neighborhoods, grappling with how best to help.
“What can I do?” she kept asking herself. “How am I going to show up?”
As a private-sector leader, she said she felt the weight of responsibility without the comfort of precedent.
At the Urban League, that uncertainty quickly turned into action, where she attended every major community distribution for 15 consecutive weekends.
“She showed up when people needed it the most,” McMillan said.
He described her as a vital bridge between business, philanthropy and community institutions — a role that strengthens long-standing missions rooted in equity and opportunity.
“That kind of voice is critical,” McMillan said, “because it reflects the very principles the Urban League was founded on 108 years ago.”
Those values were shaped long before boardrooms and executive titles.
Boykin Farr was adopted and raised by a woman in St. Louis, along with her adopted mother’s sister, who together created a close-knit household. Her mother taught for the U.S. Air Force, and her aunt worked as a nurse — professional paths that were far from guaranteed for women at that time.
“They were the best parts of both worlds,” Boykin Farr said.
Her mother was soft-spoken and visionary. Her aunt was practical and resourceful. Together, they modeled resilience and integrity. Being adopted, she said, gave her an early sense that opportunity carried responsibility.
In the final decade of her mother’s life, Boykin Farr became her caretaker. Her mother died in 2018.
“In a sense, it was a blessing — my mother would say I was her blessing,” she said. “I really hope I lived up to that.”
Education further expanded her sense of possibility. Boykin Farr earned her undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees from Saint Louis University while working on campus, gradually growing into leadership roles rather than pursuing them outright.
Because her mother taught education for the U.S. military, she spent much of her childhood living abroad — visiting the pyramids at age 10 and living in Taiwan at 8 — experiences that helped her grow comfortable navigating difference and complexity.
Even now, confidence is something she practices daily.
“Every day,” she said, when asked whether she ever questions if she belongs in the room.
She tends to listen before speaking, weighing perspectives carefully before offering her own.
When asked about legacy, Boykin Farr returns to the children who have shaped her work.
“If the kids my work impacts are on a better path,” she said, “I don’t even have to know who they are or what happens. That’s enough.”