Trailblazer Award
2025 Trailblazer: Kristen Sorth
Kristen Sorth
Director and CEO of St. Louis County Library
Kristen Sorth became St. Louis County Library’s first female Director and CEO in November 2013. Ms. Sorth has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Missouri–Columbia and a Master’s in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has been with the Library since 1998, and before she was appointed Director, she served as Assistant Director of Administration.
As Library Director, Kristen Sorth has focused on building community partnerships to provide innovative programming and increased community involvement. This effort has resulted in several successful and award-winning partnerships with local organizations, including Operation Food Search, St. Louis Area Diaper Bank and Eye Thrive. Programs include offering meals and other basic needs at library locations, hosting full-time social workers at the library, addressing digital access for students, families and older adults by providing technology, and hosting weekly legal clinics for the justice involved. Sorth guided the library's building and expansion program, Your Library Renewed over the last eleven years. The building plan, which involved renovating or replacing 21 facilities, was unprecedented in the library's 78-year history.
In 2025, Kristen Sorth received the Community Builders Network Award for Excellence in Public Sector Leadership. She received the Community Changemaker Award from Focus St. Louis for What's Right with the Region in 2024. St. Louis Magazine awarded her the 2024 A-List Visionary Award for her efforts in changing how local libraries serve their communities. She is the recipient of the 2023 Titan Business Award, which acknowledges the achievements of both entrepreneurs and organizations worldwide. She is the 2019 winner of ALA’s Ernest A. DiMattia Award for Innovation and Service to Community and Profession. Ms. Sorth was among 10 chosen from a wide array of St. Louis' most accomplished women to join the YWCA Academy of Leaders. The St. Louis Business Journal named Kristen Sorth one of 2015’s Most Influential Business Women. She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum, a network of the most accomplished women in the world.
The Library District has received many accolades under Sorth’s leadership. In 2025, the Library was honored with the Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize, a national award recognizing libraries for their active collaboration with local governments and communities. The Library received the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries in 2022, the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The Missouri Library Association named SLCL the 2022 and 2014 Missouri Library of the Year. SLCL has been named a Top Place to Work by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for eleven years. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2024, awarded Ms. Sorth the Top Place to Work Large Business Leadership Award. Other local awards include What’s Right with the Region in 2016 for early literacy programming; the National Philanthropy Day Changemakers Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals St. Louis Regional Chapter in 2020; and the Outstanding Local Government Achievement Award from the East-West Gateway Council of Governments in 2017 and 2021.
Ms. Sorth is the Chair of the Advisory Council for the Regional Response Team, Chair of the YWCA Academy of Leaders Selection Committee, Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Friends of Kathy J. Weinman Shelter, and co-chair of the Investor Council for Greater St. Louis, Inc. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri.
Click Here to Register for the May 2nd Celebration Lunch!
The Trailblazer Award was created in 1994 to recognize a woman who is/was an influential community leader, is/was “the first” in her field, or made/is making a significant contribution toward elevating the image of women in business.
This is a wonderful opportunity to honor outstanding women who not only represent great accomplishments in their fields but further the reputation of St. Louis Forum as a remarkable organization.
Pictured left to right: Zundra Bryant (St. Louis Forum President), Laurna Godwin (2024 Traiblazer), Maxine Clark (2024 Traiblazer), Toni Kutchan, PhD (2024 Traiblazer), and Sheila Burkett (2024 Trailblazer Commitee Chair).
Past Recipients of the Trailblazer Award
| 1994 | Carolyn Losos | 2011 | The Founding Members |
| 1994 | Ruth Krause Jacobson | 2012 | Brenda Newberry |
| 1994 | Patricia Rich | 2013 | Margaret Donnelly |
| 1994 | Martha Rounds | 2013 | Paula Gianino |
| 1994 | Janet McAfee Weakley | 2013 | Gayle Jackson |
| 1995 | Susan Uchitelle | 2014 | Lesley Hoffarth |
| 1996 | Blanche Touhill | 2015 | Linda Goldstein |
| 1997 | Sue Clancy | 2016 | Patricia Rice Hellmuth |
| 1998 | Theresa Loveless | 2017 | Susan E. Block |
| 1999 | Jean C. Hamilton | 2018 | Lyda Krewson |
| 2000 | Dora B. Schriro, Ed.D | 2019 | Marie Casey |
| 2002 | Jo Ann Arnold (Harmon) | 2019 | Betsy Cohen |
| 2003 | Ellen Sherberg | 2019 | Martha Uhlhorn |
| 2004 | Marylen Mann | 2020 | Anna Crosslin |
| 2005 | Juliann Niemann | 2021 | Nicole Adewale |
| 2006 | Vivian Eveloff | 2022 | Frances Levine, PhD |
| 2006 | Marcia Mellitz | 2023 | Mary Alice Ryan |
| 2006 | Betty Van Uum | 2024 | Maxine Clark |
| 2007 | Judy Meador | 2024 | Laurna Godwin |
| 2008 | Karen Levin Coburn | 2024 | Toni Kutchan, PhD |
| 2009 | Pat Whitaker | 2025 | Kristen Sorth |
| 2010 | Joan Briccetti |
* Our Founding Members are Schuyler Gott Andrews, Joan Briccetti, Sue Clancy, Vivian Eveloff, Dee Joyner, Rosalyn Lowerhaupt, Judy Meador, Joan Newman, Pat Rich, and Ellen Sherberg.