To help improve health and well-being across the Show-Me State, $1.5 million is being awarded to 12 Missourians.
The Missouri Foundation for Health has named six winners of its 2026 Spark Prize, which recognizes innovative community leaders. Each will receive $200,000, and six additional leaders will receive $50,000 apiece.
Charli Cooksey, founder and CEO of the advocacy group WEPOWER, is among the winners. Her organization is working to expand access to child care and close the racial wealth gap. With the November elections approaching, Cooksey said one of their biggest priorities is a city proposal on the ballot.
"We are working really, really hard right now to win a childcare fund and create a permanent childcare tax in St. Louis City that would make childcare more affordable for working families and also make sure that early childhood educators are paid living wages with benefits," Cooksey explained.
Cooksey added the Spark Prize will also allow her to invest in herself as a community leader while continuing WEPOWER's mission.
Heather Lyons-Burney, clinical associate professor and assistant director of experiential learning at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy, is another prize winner, helping Missourians get prescription medications they might otherwise go without. She helped develop the state's first designated charitable pharmacy. She said rural communities often have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses.
"What we need to ensure is that where someone lives does not determine their access to healthcare, and it can be a kind of cool, creative form. Doesn't have to look the same as a metropolitan community," Lyons-Burney emphasized.
Lyons-Burney hopes to expand the charitable pharmacy model across Missouri and create more rural training opportunities for pharmacy students.
Missouri News Service, a partner with KRCU Public Radio, originally published this story.
