All Press Releases for April 19, 2010

JoAnn Adams-Smith, RN Honored for Lifetime of Community Outreach

JoAnn Adams-Smith, RN started writing about history because she realized much of history is kept secret.



    Saint Louis, MO, April 19, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- JoAnn Adams-Smith, RN, has been recognized by Cambridge Who's Who for demonstrating a lifetime of dedication, leadership and excellence in community outreach and nursing.

A registered nurse, JoAnn Adams-Smith is currently writing a novel and authored the book 'Neighbors and Neighborhoods of North St. Louis' in 1988. The book was an outgrowth of a black history bus tour (Tour & Taste Black St. Louis) that she founded and ran for charity from 1980-1993. She is a former member of the Social Science Institute at Washington University, which in 1977 published books about four Saint Louis neighborhoods: The Ville; The Hill; Soulard and Carondelet. In 2008, she led a Civil Rights in St. Louis bus tour for the Missouri History Museum. Between 1972 and 1975, she was the prime mover behind the establishment of Visitation Park Historic District in the City of Saint Louis and started the effort which eventually resulted in The Ville being declared an historic district. Included in the several funded proposals she wrote and saw through to fruition are: the extension of Visitation Park Historic District; public works improvements to the corner of Union Avenue and Windermere Place; and grants from the Saint Louis Arts and Humanities Commission and the Gannett Foundation.

Ms. Adams-Smith served as the first African American member of the Saint Louis Zoo Commission from 1972-1976 and she was the second African American admitted into the St. Louis Junior League of St. Louis (1972-73). She served nine years as a member of the former Junior Kindergarten Board; was a board member of the original Joint Community Health Services Board which established the Elizabeth Courtney Health Center; served on the Program Committee for the Girl Scouts; and co-chaired a banquet for the United Negro College Fund in 1980, as well as co-chairing several banquets for the former Northside Preservation Commission.

When unsupervised neighborhood youth seemed headed for trouble, she applied for and received funding from Manpower, Inc. to establish and staff a neighborhood, Urban 4-H Club. Today, through her volunteer organizations, Ms. Adams-Smith enjoys helping young women set goals, orienting them to community resources as well as helping them identify and understand their points of choice in achieving those goals and the need to give back once success is achieved.

JoAnn Adams-Smith has some postgraduate credits for courses in conflict management at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, received a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Nursing from Webster University in 1977 and attended St. Elizabeth Hospital School of Nursing (Boston), where in 1962 she received her Registered Nurse degree. She is a member of the St. Louis Chapter of the Links Inc.; the St. Louis Chapter of Girlfriends and the Booklovers - St. Louis. She is a co-founding member of the Urban League's Vaughn Cultural Center; the original board which founded Washington Community Schools as well as the original Neighborhood Marketing Services Board. She also formerly sat on the Board of Stewards of Genesis House.

Awards and honors with which she has been recognized for her work include: the Spirit of Philanthropy Award from the National Society of Fund Raising Executives (1989); Historic Preservation Awards from the Northside Preservation Commission; a Community Service Award from Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc. (1989); the R. Joyce Whitley Award from Northside Preservation; the Distinguished Service Award from the United Negro College Fund (1981); an award from Iota Phi Lambda, Sorority, Inc. (1980); and an award from the Developmental Disabilities Office (1994-1995). Attributing her success to hard work, dedication and faith in God, she plans to complete her novel and establish another bus tour.

About Cambridge Who's Who
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