Peter Herschend – Education
Mr. Herschend served a total of 33 years on the Missouri State Board of Education, an unprecedented tenure, and one unlikely to be repeated. He served during the administrations of eight governors and alongside four state commissioners of education.
During his State Board service, Mr. Herschend worked to strengthen public K-12 schools, championing early childhood education and strongly supporting missions of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to help students learn, thrive and prepare for lives of success and service. This includes academic accountability for schools, a mission Mr. Herschend nurtured through development of the Missouri School Improvement Program.
Mr. Herschend served 12 years on the Branson School Board, after which he was first appointed to the State Board of Education in 1991 by Gov. John Ashcroft. He served three terms through 2017, including eight years as State Board President. In 2018, after a brief break from State Board service, Mr. Herschend asked, at age 83, to serve another four-year term. He served a final four-year term, retiring from State Board service in 2022 – and between the Branson School Board and the State Board, Mr. Herschend devoted some 45 years to elected or appointed roles responsible for the education of countless numbers of Missouri kids.
The commitment of Mr. Herschend to public education is only part of his positive, far-reaching legacy in Missouri. Mr. Herschend is a co-founder, and co-owner, of Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation, including Silver Dollar City and other beloved family entertainment destinations. He has been a major booster of Missouri tourism, economic development and infrastructure, and a strong, enduring supporter of community, church and charitable causes.
Sandra A. Moore – Law
Ms. Moore served as Missouri Director of Labor and Industrial Relations during the administration of Gov. Mel Carnahan, but her dedicated service in the Carnahan Cabinet is but one landmark in a life of service. Ms. Moore has countless achievements in growing jobs, business and enterprises in historically underserved communities.
In her current role as Chief Impact Officer and Managing Director at a leading impact investing firm, Advantage Capital, Ms. Moore oversees the firm’s impact investment strategy, focusing on supporting job-generating small businesses, financing affordable homes and expanding renewable energy solutions. Her career includes 20 years as the president and CEO of notable national and local non-profits, as well as several years as a federal administrative judge with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Before joining Advantage Capital, Ms. Moore served as president of Urban Strategies, leading a team of professionals working in cities across the United States to help transform distressed urban core communities into vibrant, safe residential neighborhoods with new housing, good schools and an array of community strengthening services and amenities.
Ms. Moore is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. She received her J.D. from the School of Law in 1979 and a bachelor’s degree in urban studies in 1976. She believes in giving back, and mentorship has been a been a major priority in Sandra’s career since the very beginning. As an undergraduate student at Washington University, she started a mentoring program that allowed members of the Association of Black Students to volunteer at the St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center.
In her service to Missouri, Ms. Moore epitomizes the philosophy that, in this life, you must give more than you take.
Gerard Grimaldi – Public Service
Gerard Grimaldi is so familiar in successfully navigating the corridors of power, from Washington, D.C., to Jefferson City, that he might be considered Missouri’s “extra Congressman.” His impact has been immeasurable in improving the lives and health of millions of people.
Mr. Grimaldi graduated from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, and he received his journalism degree from the University of Missouri. His reportorial ability to discern both detail and the big picture served him well as a journalist for the Kansas City Labor Beacon. And those gifts were successfully brought to public service, when he joined the staff of Missouri’s U.S. Senator Thomas Eagleton in 1980. Mr. Grimaldi served for more than a decade as a key player in federal-state relations, as district director for Kansas City’s Members of Congress Alan Wheat and Karen McCarthy.
His intense specialization in health care began in 1995 when he joined Kaiser Permanent in Kansas City, where he rose to become vice president for Strategy and Human Resources. In 2001, he joined University Health/Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, where he is chief of Health Policy and Government Relations. In this role, Mr. Grimaldi develops policy and leads advocacy to assure University Health meets its mission of providing accessible, state-of-the-art, quality healthcare to the Kansas City community, regardless of one’s ability to pay.
An expert in safety-net hospital financing and Medicaid, Mr. Grimaldi is an experienced advocate in the decades-long efforts to broaden healthcare coverage, especially through the Affordable Care Act and Missouri Medicaid expansion. And he was a key player in the organization’s indispensable response to monumental community and patient needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a Kansas City civic leader, Mr. Grimaldi’s record includes chairing the Jackson County Community Mental Health Levy Board of Trustees; serving on the Bannister Federal Complex Community Advisory Panel formed to ensure transparency in the Complex’s environmental cleanup and redevelopment efforts; and serving on the Government Relations Committee of the National Association of Public Hospitals. He also serves on Kansas City’s Downtown Council Board of Directors and is a NAACP Lifetime Member.
Corrine Beakley – Public Service
The life of Corrine Beakley was the epitome of energetic commitment to helping children and families in Missouri. As the saying goes, Corrine was a workhorse, not a showhorse, pulling the ever-grinding gears of government in the right direction, even when others found the work impossible and the challenges insurmountable. Staying away from the spotlight, but always in the arena, Mrs. Beakley rolled up her sleeves and did the hard work to get real progress across the finish line. In the words of a colleague, she was client-focused and citizen-focused.
A native of Jefferson City, Mrs. Beakley received her degree in marketing from Missouri State University. She was always a champion for women’s rights. Early in her career she was involved in the campaign to put the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Corrine worked on the campaign of Lt. Governor Harriett Woods, the first woman in Missouri to be elected to statewide office.
When Gov. Carnahan was elected, she took her passion for improving the lives of vulnerable children and families to Missouri’s Division of Family Services. Her initial work there was in constituent services, again demonstrating her commitment to Missouri citizens. She worked tirelessly to sort out constituent matters that were often forwarded from the Governor’s Office, legislators, and other elected officials. She was thorough and detailed in this role.
Corrine went on to serve as the Department of Social Services’ Director of Emergency Management. She served on many committees related to disaster recovery and preparedness, including the Executive Committee of the Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Service Partnership for Disaster Recovery. Following retirement, she began working part-time for the Department of Public Safety’s State Emergency Management Agency, and later as a contractor at SEMA helping with Disaster Grant Management.
Corrine died on March 14, 2024, after serving the people of Missouri in many capacities over the past four decades. She is survived by her husband, John Beakley, who served as a key adviser to both Gov. Carnahan and U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan.