Sheila Greenbaum is this year’s recipient of the 2023 Hannah G. Solomon Founder’s Award, given by National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis. She will receive the award Wednesday, April 19, in the Berges Theatre at COCA, beginning at 6 p.m.

This is the highest honor awarded by NCJWSTL and is presented to an individual who has changed the lives of others through his or her leadership efforts and service. 

Other section and community honorees include Michelle Brooks, Leadership; Jennifer Deutsch, Volunteer Service; Dianna Fine and Wendy Flusser, Fritzi Lainoff Advocacy; Alison Fox, Emerging Leader; and Sarah Beth Matt, Community Impact.

Shelia Greenbaum

Greenbaum was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1974. After many years in the public sector, she joined Capes, Sokol, Goodman & Sarachan, P.C. in January 2004, handling, state and federal appellate matters, complex civil litigation, and employment law.

Graduating from Case Western Reserve University, Greenbaum would receive her J.D. with Distinction from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Immediately following law school, Sheila served as staff counsel for the ACLU affiliate in Western Missouri and was of counsel to The Law Offices of Arthur A. Benson.

She worked in a variety of capacities with the federal government, including Chief Regional Attorney-Region VII, U.S. Department of Education; Assistant Regional Attorney and Chief Regional Civil Rights Attorney, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Presiding Official/Attorney-Examiner, U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Located in St. Louis, Sheila became Senior Staff Attorney, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sheila served as Director of the Legal Research and Writing Program at St. Louis University School of Law and Democratic Director of the St. Louis City Board of Elections.

Over the years, Sheila has served on a number of boards which she found interesting and that offered behind the scenes looks at various enterprises such as Focus St. Louis, The New Theatre, and Partners In Education – Career Shadowing Program.  But the boards and institutions which grabbed her passions and belief systems have been three in number.  After graduating from law school, Sheila worked as counsel for the ACLU located in Western Missouri and covering most of Kansas as well.  It was heady stuff for a new and idealistic attorney.  Years later, Sheila chaired the Board of the Missouri Affiliate of the ACLU and went on to serve on the ACLU’s National Board for some years.  The ACLU embodied Sheila’s penchant for constitutional law and combined a desire for systemic change through righting the more immediate abuses of individuals’ constitutional and human rights.

Greenbaum affiliated herself with the Jewish Federation when she first moved to St. Louis.  Over a number of years, she held positions involving raising money, allocating money, planning for the local community as well as for endeavors in Israel, and remnant communities internationally.  Sheila went on to chair the Board of the Jewish Federation-St. Louis.

Women’s rights and reproductive choice repeatedly energized Sheila.  She served on the Affiliate Board for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri over the course of several years and previously served as its Board Chair.  This past January, she once again became Chair of the Board of now, Planned Parenthood-Great Rivers.