CBN Leader, Linda Nguyen, Recognized as a Person Shaping The Region
Linda Nguyen
Nguyen was an outsider when she moved here from San Francisco in 2013 to pursue a master’s degree in social work at WashU, but now she’s all about St. Louis. As executive director of the Community Builders Network, she works to boost the capabilities of neighborhood organizations that are leading change at the very local level. While Nguyen believes these entities have immense power to shape the city, she also sees the big picture and recognizes that it could take years—if not decades—for her work to bear fruit.
Also recognized,
Meridith McAvoy Perkins
In McAvoy Perkins’ six years at the helm of Forest ReLeaf, the nonprofit has become a force in the regional ecosystem. Its mission—planting and nurturing trees across the metro area, with a focus on under-resourced neighborhoods—took on new urgency after the May 16 tornado. Thanks to its work, even neighborhoods decimated by the cyclone weren’t starting from scratch. The saplings they’d planted in recent years withstood gale-force winds even as older trees did not, jumpstarting the next tree generation.
