Brown School honors alumni, supporters with 2026 Awards of Distinction

Kaleigh Lawrence is a nonprofit and education leader with 15 years of experience advancing educational equity and opportunity for young people across the St. Louis region. She currently serves as chief philanthropy officer at College Bound, where she leads fundraising and engagement efforts and has helped build a strong, values-driven culture of giving.

She is especially proud of fostering meaningful connections among supporters, partners, students, and alumni, and of creating innovative engagement opportunities that center the dignity of College Bound’s students and families.

Alice Emasu is a social justice advocate and maternal health leader whose work has impacted thousands of women and girls in Uganda. Alice has championed the cause for maternal health in Uganda for over two decades as the Founder and Executive Director of The Association for Rehabilitation and Reorientation of Women for Development (TERREWODE). 

In 2019, her efforts led to the establishment of Terrewode Women’s Community Hospital, the first and only specialized obstetric fistula hospital in Uganda.

Catina O’Leary joined Health Literacy Media (HLM) in 2012 as president and CEO. In this role, she oversees the organization’s core activities and sets and sustains its strategic vision to improve public health across the world through clear, effective, and engaging health communication. By translating complex science into clear, actionable, and accessible information for diverse audiences, HLM serves as a critical driver of health equity. 

Prior to HLM, O’Leary was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and the Program in Occupational Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Erdene-Chimeg “Chimeg” Tserendorj began her career after earning a degree in electronic engineering from St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Russia, but Mongolia’s early 1990s economic transition and gender-based barriers redirected her path toward social development. She joined the National Poverty Alleviation Program as a national U.N. volunteer specialist, helping manage community organization, women’s development, and capacity-building initiatives for nonprofit humanitarian organizations. 

Through scholarship support from the Open Society Foundations, Tserendorj completed a master’s degree in social work at the Brown School, becoming one of Mongolia’s first professionally trained social workers. 

Mary Curtis Horowitz is a distinguished leader in social-science publishing and a dedicated advocate for global social policy research. As a 1968 graduate of WashU, Horowitz demonstrates a lifelong commitment to the field of social policy through her expansive philanthropy and nearly 50-year career in the publishing industry. 

Horowitz served as president and chair of the board of Transaction Publishers — a premier outlet for social-science scholarship — until its sale to Routledge Taylor & Francis Group in 2017.