Emily Sawyer Greer (’84)

Emily Sawyer Greer is fully committed to paying it forward. Only eight years after her graduation from CBU with Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Management, she joined the team at ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the largest healthcare-related charity in the United States. Her 30 years in roles of leadership, retiring recently from the position of Chief Administration Officer, were spent as a champion of the hospital’s patients and their families, and for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and in the larger community.

Emily has also served on a number of nonprofit community boards in Memphis, including the Greater Memphis Chamber, the Memphis Medical District Collaborative, and Ronald McDonald House of Memphis. But she has a very special — and very Lasallian — interest in education, which has led her to service on the boards of LeMoyne-Owen College and her alma mater, Christian Brothers University — where she has worked to support and advance the Lasallian mission since 2012 and currently holds the office of Vice Chair.

Emily has stated that nothing is more important for our future than to ensure that all children are prepared to lead productive lives and be given the chance to solve the challenges of the future. This personal mission also drove her to become a founding member of the board of Compass Community Schools, an organization charged with creating public charter schools from six of the Jubilee Catholic Schools that were closed in 2019. This act of service preserved the opportunities these schools provide for students in urban, low-income neighborhoods as they foster diversity in all forms: cognitive, cultural, ethnicity, gender, racial, residency status, and socioeconomic.

Emily’s efforts have also brought her an array of distinctions from the community, including the Influential Black Women in Business Award from The Network Journal; the Workforce Diversity Executive Leadership Award from the National Organization for Workforce Diversity; the Top 25 Women in Business from the Memphis Business Journal; and 50 Women of Excellence from the Tri-State Defender.

Emily Greer has been a true exemplar of our Lasallian values, which include being committed to quality education and to the service of the underserved, being sensitive to social and community needs, and putting faith into action.