The 40th annual Brown School Awards of Distinction were presented April 13 at City Foundry STL. The event honored eight extraordinary changemakers who work to create positive change for people around the globe.
The honorees were recognized for their tireless commitment, innovation and strong leadership in working to improve society’s most urgent issues.
Hear Their Stories
Kersha Deibel, MSW/MPH ’11
President & CEO, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region
Kersha Deibel, is the President & CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region. Prior to joining the Southwest Ohio team, Deibel spent over eight years leading and organizing with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund in Washington, D.C. There, she led the team to run winning electoral campaigns that centered the lived experiences of BIPOC communities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, young people, and patient advocates at the local, state, and federal levels. She has served, in the past, as the President of the DC Abortion Fund. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors for the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and Community Shares.
Steven Hayworth, MPH ’17
Director of Population Health, University of Utah Health
Steven Hayworth is the Director of Population Health at University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. While pursuing his Masters in Public Health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, Hayworth interned at BJC HealthCare’s Center for Clinical Excellence. There he discovered his passion for health system science, community impact, and healthcare innovation – leveraging public health principles in healthcare industry. After graduating in 2017, Hayworth joined the University of Utah Medical Group as the inaugural Administrative Fellow. During his fellowship, he learned from and worked alongside executive and senior leadership teams to develop health system initiatives like the Destination Care Programs, Telehealth & Remote Patient Monitoring Integration Evaluation, and a Population Health System Strategy.
Zhen Zhang, MSW ’16
General Secretary, Rici Foundation
Zhen Zhang is the secretary general of the Rici Foundation. She earned a Master of Social Work from the Brown School in 2016 before returning to China to support mental health initiatives. She has over seven years of experience in the field of mental health support for rural children, and has launched several of Rici’s brand programs; Ignite Project in 2016 and Flourishing Magic School in 2017. Through these programs, Rici has been able to engage over 10,000 volunteers and local teachers to deliver social-emotional learning courses to nearly 540,000 rural children around China. The success of these projects has been recognized by many organizations.
Margaret Clancy, MSW ’97
Policy Director, Center for Social Development, Brown School, Washington University
Margaret M. Clancy is the Policy Director and College Savings Initiative Director at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Clancy is responsible for the design and leadership of large-scale policy demonstrations, including SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK), a rigorous test of Child Development Accounts (CDAs), and one of the longest-running social experiments in the country. She is a primary architect of the policy structure tested in the SEED OK experiment, the results of which have informed CDA policy in U.S. states, cities, and in several other countries. As a direct result of the work that she has led for more than two decades; millions of children in the United States have a CDA for postsecondary education.
Mingguo Deng, MSW ’08
President, Chongqing City Management College
Before starting his MSW, Mingguo Deng worked as a child welfare worker for more than 10 years. After graduating from Brown School in 2008, he returned to China to serve as the president of the Chongqing Psychiatric Hospital. He continually strove to better the lives of patients, trying his best to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of patients and improve their living conditions. He presided over the drafting of the National Mental Health Social Welfare Organization Fundamental Norms, which promoted the sustained and healthy development of the mental health and social work profession. Deng took the lead in exploring social work services in the field of mental health, promoting the establishment of the first social work agency with professional services in Chongqing, and establishing the first foundation dedicated to helping people with mental disorders through integrating medical institutions, social organizations, and community resources.
Anneliese Stoever, MSW ’03
Director, St Louis Area Agency of Aging
Anneliese Stoever is the Director of the St Louis Area Agency on Aging and supervises staff, develops programs, writes grants, monitors services, and leads several community project initiatives. Stoever started working at the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging in 2005 as the Information and Assistance Coordinator and participated in organizing the VillAGE of Many Colors, helped gather 800+ older adults annually to celebrate Older Americans Month at the Spring Jubilee, and gave presentations to thousands of older adults to talk with them about services. Under the mentorship of David Sykora, Stoever then transitioned to the Community Programs Manager where she helped monitor services and write grants to fund programs provided by the group of non-profit agencies that serve older adults living in the City of St. Louis. Stoever has supervised over 50 MSW students and points to their energy, creativity, and hard work ethic as a highlight in her career.
Paul, BSBA ’90 JD ’94, and Nancy Parker Tice, AB ’90 MBA ‘ 98
Paul Tice BSBA ’90 JD ’94
Paul Tice has volunteered for a wide range of nonprofits in St. Louis over the past 30 years. Currently, Tice is Vice Chair of Lutheran Senior Services, volunteers for the St. Louis County Board of Elections as an election judge and is a member of the National Council for the Brown School at Washington University. Previously, he was on the board of Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri, board member and longtime volunteer of Promise Community Homes, board chair and member of St. Louis County’s Productive Living Board, board member of Confluence Preparatory Academy, youth basketball director at Immacolata and executive committee member of Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis.
Tice is the founder and Managing Partner of Argos Capital Partners, LLC (ACAP). In his role, he leads a team of twelve investment professionals to service the needs of Argos’ ultra-high net worth families including investment management of over one billion in investment assets. ACAP is a Registered Investment Advisor and invests in a wide range of assets including marketable securities, private equity and real estate. Prior to starting Argos, Tice worked in a single-family office setting working on real estate developments. He also practiced law at Rosenblum, Goldenhersh, and worked at PWC as a tax associate.
Nancy Parker Tice AB ’90 MBA ’94
Nancy Parker Tice has spent her life making communities and organizations stronger. She has a demonstrated history of success in the non-profit sector including financial management, operations, human resources, and fund development. She is a public policy professional skilled in policy development, analysis, and policymaking. Since April 2019 she has served as Alderwoman of Ward 1 in the City of Brentwood. She serves on the Ways and Means and the Public Works Committees of the Board. She pushed the board to enact new ordinances for water run-off during new construction, led the push for park expansion in Ward 1, and is a diligent voice monitoring budget for the Brentwood Bound project.
After college, Tice worked in Washington, D.C. for former Majority Leader Richard Gephardt where she worked with coalitions to negotiate legislation, solved constituent legislative problems, and developed a passion for working to make the community a better place for all. She brought that passion to St. Louis where she was in charge of governmental relations for Washington University School of Medicine for over a decade. In that role, she worked to expand access to health care for children, oversaw the successful passage of physician licensure and Medicaid rate increases at the state level, advocated issues such as expanding medical research funding and Medicare payment policy at the federal level, and coordinated lobbying efforts for the School of Medicine.
She has served on the board of NCCJ since 2004, and in 2022 was the co-chair of SLUH’s Cashbah auction, which raised a record $1.5 million for scholarships allowing the school to conduct need-blind admissions.
Learn more about the Awards of Distinction and past recipients.