21st Annual, Center for Spirituality and Sustainability Leadership Awards
The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is hosting its 21st annual Leadership Awards on Saturday, September 21st, at 5:30 p.m. in the Fuller Dome on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL. This year the Fuller Dome is proud to be honoring the leadership of Rabbi Susan Talve and Lorenzo D. Savage, Sr. whose combined careers embody the unity, cooperation and service that these awards were designed to recognize. The doors will open at 5:00 with hors d’oeuvres, live music and a cash bar. Each year the Center bestows two awards, one for Spirituality Leadership and one for Leadership in Sustainability. These dual awards reflect the Center’s mission to “promote humanity’s sacred connection to the Earth and each other.” The Center for Spirituality and Sustainability is a multifaith home for spirituality and sustainability efforts housed in the Buckminster Fuller designed, miniature-earth, dome on the SIUE campus. This is an important annual fundraiser for our organization. It is open to the public and tickets are $75 each. Registration is required for this event, please register by 9/13/24. Click the link below or call (618) 650-3246 today to register.
2024 Spirituality Leadership Awardee: Rabbi Susan Talve
Founding Rabbi, Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis, Missouri
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ashrei Foundation
2024 Sustainability Leadership Awardee: Lorenzo D. Savage, Sr.
Architectural Designer and Executive Director of I Am EStL The Foundation
President of the Board of Directors, Katherine Dunham Center for the Arts and Humanities
Rabbi Susan was ordained by Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1981, where she earned a master’s degree in Hebrew Letters and a Doctor of Divinity. She was honored with the college's Stephen Levinson Award for Community Service after founding the Jewish Early Learning Cooperative, Ohio's first licensed infant childcare program in the workplace. She was the first non-Christian to receive an honorary Doctorate from Eden Theological Seminary in 2011 for a career of visionary and bold leadership and supporting interfaith relations in the St. Louis community. She was awarded honorary degrees from Washington University, St Lawrence University and has received many awards for her efforts on behalf of the Jewish and non-Jewish community.
Rabbi Susan Talve is the founding rabbi of Central Reform Congregation, the only Jewish Congregation located within the city limits of St. Louis. When other congregations were leaving the city for the suburbs, Rabbi Susan joined with a small group to keep a vibrant presence in the city and to be on the front line of fighting the racism and poverty plaguing the urban center.
Rabbi Susan has led her congregation in promoting radical inclusivity by developing ongoing relationships with African American and Muslim congregations, and by fostering civil liberties for the LGBTQ community. Today CRC serves as a home to generations of LGBTQ families and to many Jews of color of all ages. She has performed same gender marriages since she arrived in St. Louis in 1981 and was on the first Marriage Equality bus to Iowa where she married her first legal couple and has since had the privilege of marrying more LGBTQ couples than she can count. The core value of radical hospitality has made CRC a safe home for many individuals and groups that have been marginalized, including the opportunity to serve as a site for and support the ordination of Roman Catholic Women Priests in 2007. As part of a committed pro-choice congregation, Rabbi Susan continues to stand on the front line of abortion and reproductive rights issues.
Access to quality affordable health care has always been a passion for Rabbi Talve. In 2007 she became a founding member and president of Missouri Health Care for All, a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that built a strong coalition for groups and individuals working to bring health care access to all Missourians. Rabbi Susan attributes her success to the relationships she has built by showing up; from street corners where, violent crime has taken lives to rallies for worker's rights, gun control and access to health care to the bedside of the suffering regardless of religion or membership in her community.
In 2022 Rabbi Susan founded the Ashrei Foundation, a non-profit created to empower and activate the St. Louis community and partners throughout the state of Missouri to promote economic justice, to relieve suffering, and interrupt cycles of poverty.
Lorenzo D. Savage, Sr. was born and raised in East St. Louis, Illinois. He is a product of school district 189 and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1985.
Lorenzo completed his Bachelor of Architecture degree at Hampton University, graduating with honors in 1999.
Lorenzo has had the opportunity to work for several Architecture and Design firms around the country, and complete many interesting projects in San Diego, Chicago, Seattle and Las Vegas. Lorenzo is currently working for the prestigious Architectural firm Lawrence Group, downtown St. Louis.
Lorenzo is currently Board member and Interim Executive Director of non-profit organization I Am EStL The Foundation, which was founded in 2016 by Lorenzo and his late wife of 30 years, Charmaine Savage.
Lorenzo took over as Executive Director of I Am EStL The Foundation in early 2019, after his wife Charmaine passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. He has continued producing the magazine as well as creating public art project, “Charmaine’s dream” park Downtown EStL, which includes park with Mural on the side of the Historic Majestic Theater.
Lorenzo enjoys volunteering his time for worthy organizations. He is a past board member for the East St. Louis Housing Authority. The ESLHA has completed the planning grant process for replacing approx. 250 Gompers homes with 500 new mixed income residences, which has to include existing Gompers residents.
Lorenzo is currently serving as President of the Board of Directors, Katherine Dunham Center for the Arts and Humanities (KDCAH). Under his brief leadership KDCAH has secured the return of Miss Dunham’s East St. Louis residence, along with two additional Victorian era homes used by Miss Dunham for visiting academics, dancers, artists. Plans are for Miss Dunham’s residence to become offices and resource center for the Community, while additional two homes will be developed to become bed and breakfast for visitors, creating revenue for the Museum and workshop’s continued survival.
Lorenzo is currently residing in East St. Louis, IL and also a member of the East St. Louis Planning Commission.