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Vashon wins the Missouri Class 4 state championship
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2015 Newspaper of the Year!
St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited MARCH 24 – 30, 2016
Vol. 86 No. 51 COMPLIMENTARY
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From farming to medicine Angela L. Brown, MD (center), runs the Hypertension Clinic at Washington University. Brown helps Karen Carriker (right) and other patients control high blood pressure. She also provides training for health-care professionals, such as cardiology fellow Nishtha Sodhi, MD (left), in how to care for patients with hypertension.
Angela L. Brown, MD, is 2016 Stellar Performer in Health Care By Julia Evangelou Strait For The St. Louis American Angela L. Brown, MD, grew up on her family’s farm in southern Arkansas. At the farm’s peak, the family and its crew cultivated 1,500 acres of cotton, rice and soybeans and managed more than 120 head of cattle. Watching her grandparents persevere through the demands of farm life, and her parents balance their careers – her mother was a high school business teacher, and her father worked in construction –
Photo courtesy of Washington University School of Medicine
Brown learned the values of hard work and an “anything is possible” mindset. The farm operation began in the 1920s, when her maternal grandfather inherited 20 acres of farmland. Growing up on the farm, and because Brown and her mother were both only children, Brown’s maternal grandparents played a large role in shaping the person she has become. “My grandfather and I were very close,” Brown said. “My parents and grandparents were
See BROWN, A7
Local rappers denounce violence Better Family Life organizing ‘Move’ to bring safety to streets By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Lawrence Bryant
On Saturday, March 19, more than 600 people wore all black to silently march through North St. Louis city as a tribute to families in mourning. The march was part of the Move, a grass-roots response to crime and violence.
Local hip-hop artist Rallo, 23, never thought he would play in a basketball game of rappers versus rappers as a way to get people to end violence. When he and a handful of artists first approached Better Family Life’s James Clark with the idea of speaking out against crime, he thought maybe he’d perform at some rap events – not silently march with hundreds of community members. “James always has the bigger picture than us, and he opened my mind a lot,” said Rallo, See VIOLENCE, A7
SLPS goes ‘green’ District implements pilot conservation program By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American
n “If you can get them excited about math and science, they will be okay.”
In a plastic bin, kindergartner teacher Lori Gardner pushes around some cut-up pieces of newspaper and soil to find her class’ hardworking worms. “There’s a baby!” said Ameyah Westbrook, kindergartner at Mann Elementary, as she leaned over the bin with a contagious smile. “We’ll put it next to the bigger one, and they can be a family.” The students at Mann Elementary, 4047 Juniata St., are not just playing house with the worms. The critters in the class compost bin have a much bigger job. “They eat our trash,” said kindergartner Bryan Nguyen, meaning that worms help turn the students’
– Lisa Williams, SLPS energy manager
food scraps into rich soil. Gardner is now leading Mann’s schoolwide conservation efforts, after she recently became the school’s liaison for the Saint Louis Public School See SLPS, A6
Photo by Wiley Price
Kindergartners Tashawn Starks, Ameyah Westbrook and Bryan Nguyen learned about composting and the importance of worms with their teacher Lori Gardner at Mann Elementary School in the Saint Louis Public School District.