UMSL assistant teaching professor Sheila Grigsby was recently honored at The St. Louis American Foundation’s 12th Annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awards Luncheon for her community activism.

Sheila Grigsby works with churches and congregations in the St. Louis metropolitan area to educate young people about their sexual health and HIV and AIDS.

And for that work she was recently honored at The St. Louis American Foundation’s 12th Annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awards Luncheon. Grigsby is an assistant teaching professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

As the founder and executive director of Faith Communities United, Grigsby works with churches and congregations in the metropolitan area to foster ongoing education and discussion and response to HIV and AIDS.

“I have 18 churches I’m in covenant with,” Grigsby said in a story published May 3 in The St. Louis American. “It’s taken us a long time to get to the point that we are, but now it’s really starting to come full circle, because churches understand that they need to say something – that they need to do something.”

The St. Louis American Foundation also honored UMSL alumna Cheryl Boone, who graduated in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She currently serves as the interim director of Surgical Services at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center.

She told The St. Louis American for a May 3 article that she does whatever it takes to get the job done and do right by patients.

“If I need to role my sleeves up and get right in there with them – I will,” she said.