Louisville Urban League president Reynolds named Healthy Ky. Policy Champion for working to reduce racial inequities in health

Sadiqa Reynolds

Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, has been named a Healthy Kentucky Policy Champion for working to reduce racial inequities in health and other inequities in Louisville's African American community.

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky gives the award to recognize Kentucky individuals and organizations engaged in improving the health of people in their communities and/or the state through policy change.

"Reynolds is an active, engaged, knowledgeable and respected voice," said Robert Slaton, a former member of the foundation's Community Advisory Council and former state health commissioner, who nominated Reynolds for the award. "She is regularly sought by media, health and academic organizations, and policy makers to speak about the policy changes that are needed to reverse the racism that is built into systems of justice, health care, housing, banking, education and other social determinants of health."

Slaton said Reynolds' spearheading of the Norton Sports Health and Learning Complex is an example of her ability to draw investment to an area with the city's worst social determinants of health.

"One of the things we respect most about Ms. Reynolds is her willingness to use her 'insider' status to credibly and clearly articulate the ways policymakers have failed and are failing to protect the health and lives of Black Kentuckians," wrote Rich Seckel and Ben Carter, director and senior counsel, respectively, of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center, in a letter supporting her nomination for the award. "Insiders are often reluctant to imperil their insider status with hard words for people in power. . . . By speaking up, Ms. Reynolds has provided Louisville with a model of what true leadership looks like during a time of multiple acute crises."

The first woman to head the Louisville Urban League, Reynolds served as chief of community building for Mayor Greg Fischer. She serves on several major boards and is a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. She was a district judge and the first African American woman to clerk for the state Supreme Court when she was chief law clerk then-Chief Justice Robert Stephens. She earned a psychology degree from the University of Louisville and a law degree from the University of Kentucky.

The award makes Reynolds eligible for the Gil Friedell Health Policy Champion award, which comes with a $5,000 grant from the foundation to be given to a Kentucky-based nonprofit of the winner's choice. The winner will be announced later this month. Nominations for the Healthy Kentucky Policy Champion Award are accepted at any time. See details on the foundation's website.