At the 28th Annual What’s Right with the Region Awards Celebration on May 15, FOCUS St. Louis will honor Leon Sharpe, Founder and Principal of The Praxis Group, with its 2025 Legacy Alumni Award. Leon is a 2000 graduate of Leadership St. Louis and a long-time consultant and co-facilitator for the program.

“Leon is a familiar face to anyone who has been through our Leadership St. Louis program in the past 18 years,” says Dr. Yemi Akande-Bartsch, President & CEO of FOCUS St. Louis. “It’s our honor and privilege to recognize him not only for his contributions to FOCUS but for the many ways he has worked to educate, inspire and develop leaders, in our region and beyond.”

As a consultant, Leon has successfully designed and implemented training, development, and systemic change initiatives for a vast array of universities, school districts, government agencies, corporations, foundations, social service providers, and community-based groups, specializing in building organizational capacity, coaching effective leaders, training high-performance teams, leveraging workforce diversity, and managing institutional transformation.

As a former adjunct professor in the School of Communications at Webster University, he taught courses that critically examined the influence of film and other media in upholding patterns of systemic power and inequity. He is co-author of the textbook, Media Messages: What Film, Television, and Popular Music Teach Us About Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation and is currently working on the third edition, Media Messages: What Popular Entertainment Teaches Us About Sex, Color, and Class, scheduled for publication in 2026.

Prior to establishing his independent practice, Leon spent several years as a public-school administrator and as an executive with the American Youth Foundation. He holds a master’s degree in Management and Organizational Development and a bachelor’s in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, both from Washington University in St. Louis. He also completed a fellowship in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. He has served on the boards of a variety of civic organizations and has been recognized for his efforts toward advancing racial equity, promoting social justice, and enhancing intercultural understanding.

All are invited to join us to recognize this outstanding FOCUS alum, along with all of our What’s Right with the Region honorees, on May 15. Tickets are on sale now!

28th Annual FOCUS St. Louis What’s Right with the Region Awards Celebration
Thursday, May 15, 2025 · 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis