Delores Henderson has been an educator for nearly 50 years, and could have retired long ago. But the St. Paul principal continues to do award-winning work for students and families in her district.

This week, she was honored by the St. Paul Foundation for her efforts to end racial disparities and improve educational opportunities for all students.

Henderson, 75, is principal of Hazel Park Preparatory Academy on the city's East Side, and is known for bringing the community into the classroom. At Hazel Park, she has forged partnerships with the 3M Co., Woodland Hills Church and the St. Paul Black Ministerial Alliance.

In November, Henderson helped convene a town hall meeting at New Hope Baptist Church geared to inspire black adults to go to the city's schools to help students build skills -- and behave, as well. She said then that she planned to take that message from church to church.

"We will remember who we are -- and whose we are," she said.

The St. Paul Foundation recognized Henderson's work as part of its annual Facing Race Ambassador Awards. The program, created in 2007, honors anti-racism leaders and seeks to promote productive community-wide conversations about race, the foundation said in a news release.

Henderson was one of four people to win an honorable-mention award allowing her to designate a $1,000 foundation grant to an organization of her choice.

This year's top honors went to Lucila Dominguez, an organizer with Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, and Nekima Levy-Pounds, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas and director of the Community Justice Project. They won the right to designate $10,000 grants to organizations that work to end racial disparities.