Tulane_September-2017

TUlane
THE MAGAZINE OF TULANE UNIVERSITY
SEPTEMBER 2017
LOSS OF A
LEADER
Remembering
President Emeritus
Eamon Kelly
SLIPPING INTO
THE SEA
A community
preserves its
culture
LAB TO LIFE
PhD bioinnovators
change the
world through
invention
IN THE HUNT
FOR A LASSA
FEVER CURE
Researchers solve
a medical puzzle
The Plight
of Isle de
Jean Charles

PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO

CONVERSATION PIECE
A NOLA sign, created
by students as part of
a social innovation and
design thinking course,
is temporarily installed
on the uptown campus
this spring. The sign in
front of Donna and Paul
Flower Hall for Research
and Innovation was
designed to generate
feedback and was a
prototype for a larger,
permanent NOLA sign
that has since been
erected near the
Merryl and Sam Israel Jr.
Environmental Sciences
Building. The installation
of the signs gave
students the opportunity
to apply their
knowledge and skills to
the planning, development
and execution of a
community-based project.
The Way Home
Front cover: A walkway
on Isle de Jean Charles
in August. (Photo by
Paul Morse)
Back cover: Spider-
Man, aka Omar Zaki,
extends his limbs on
the Newcomb Quad. A
performer in a traveling
Marvel Universe Live
show, Zaki stopped
by campus in June.
(Photo by Paula
Burch-Celentano)
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
1

P R E S I D E N T ’ S L E T T E R
Remembering Eamon
by Mike Fitts
COURTESY TULANE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
In June, I wrote to you in a “View from Gibson” email with the news
that former Tulane President Eamon Michael Kelly passed away. This
summer, Tulane has remembered and mourned our energetic and
inspiring leader.
I personally knew Eamon to be an excellent scholar with a facile
and dynamic mind, with a brilliance that enabled him to advance this
university by leaps and bounds during his 17-year tenure as president
(1981–98). Eamon was also a wonderful person with a giant heart who
inspired deep fondness and affection in everyone fortunate enough to
meet him.
His importance to the continued success of Tulane cannot be overstated.
Eamon’s vision, and his deep abiding passion for education and
research, helped transform Tulane. He believed, over anything else,
that no one could impact and change the world like a university. Eamon
turned Tulane from a regional university into a national powerhouse of
research and scholarship. He put the university on a sound and secure
financial path forward. And Eamon passionately pursued diversity in
AN ENERGETIC LEADER
President Emeritus
Eamon Kelly believed in
the power of universities
to change the world
and lived that belief
at Tulane.
our faculty and student body, opening our
ranks to all of the best and brightest.
I know that Eamon would be most proud of
how Tulane continues to flourish, particularly
the fact that our incoming first-year class is the
most competitive, diverse and academically
qualified we’ve ever admitted.
After “retiring” as president, Eamon went
back to his work transforming the world. This
issue of Tulane magazine focuses on the kind
of profound research that follows in Eamon’s
footsteps. From deciphering the origins of
human culture to curing diseases that threaten
us, our faculty and students prove every day
why Tulane matters. Read Bill Bertrand’s
remembrance of Eamon Kelly and his tireless
work at Tulane on page 14.
2 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

TUlane
C O N T E N T S
Resilience
On Isle de Jean Charles,
a sign on a building by
the water indicates the
wariness of residents
toward intruders. (See,
“Slipping Into the Sea,”
on page 16.)
2 PRESIDENT’S
LETTER
Eulogy for President
Eamon Kelly
PAUL MORSE
14 Loss of a Leader
President Emeritus Eamon Kelly, who died in June, leaves a legacy of thought and action
matched by few in higher education. By Bill Bertrand
16 Slipping Into the Sea
Isle de Jean Charles along the coast of Louisiana has lost 98 percent of its land since the 1950s. Its
residents—members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe of Native Americans—find a way to
survive as they forge a model for other coastal communities facing similar existential threats.
By Danny Heitman
22 Lab to Life
From improved breast reconstruction for cancer survivors to “bladeless” biopsies and faster
virus detection in cattle, Tulane doctoral students are taking their inventions from the
laboratory to the marketplace. By Leslie Cardé
26 In the Hunt for a
Lassa Fever Cure
Tulane researchers Robert Garry and James Robinson won’t give up until they unravel the
mystery of the Lassa virus, saving lives from a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever that
infects more than 300,000 people annually and is wrecking West African communities.
By Katy Reckdahl
6 NEWS
Diversity of new class
• Head of ByWater
Institute • Blood pressure
studies • Karen
Oser Edmunds • Sex of
cells • Prostate cancer
study • Katrina recovery
book • Tricentennial
• Newcomb pottery •
Computational science
art show • Provost
Robin Forman
13 SPORTS
Green Wave cornerback
Parry Nickerson • New
women’s tennis coach
30 TULANIANS
Kinika Young • Cuba
travel • Dan Grandal •
Joelle Mertzel • David
Dockery
31 WHERE Y'AT!
Class notes
37 FAREWELL
Tribute: Andrew Lackner
38 WAVEMAKERS
Energy Law • Zemurray
Foundation gift • TRIP
40 NEW ORLEANS
Triumph in 1970
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
3

APPRECIATION Bill Dearman (A&S ’49) of Peekskill, New York, writes, “I
thought this last issue [June 2017] was the best college magazine I had ever
seen. The writing, topics, pictures were all excellent.”
Y E A H , Y O U W R I T E
SOCIAL WORK GRAD
Thank you for the inspiring
article “Heart of Gold”
(June 2017) about Dr. Peter
Gold’s founding of Strong
City and its partnership with
Youth Empowerment Project,
an exciting and innovative
community-based program
with an excellent track record
for empowering underserved
New Orleans youth. Omitted
from the list of Tulane alums
listed in the article, but pictured
as a YEP staff member, is
Darrin McCall, LCSW, Director
of Programs at YEP. Mr. McCall
began his work at YEP as a
graduate student intern and
graduated from Tulane School
of Social Work in 2011. Among
many other responsibilities,
he now mentors social work
interns aspiring to practice
social work with youth in the
community. We at TSSW are
very proud of him!
Judith S. Lewis, PhD, LCSW
Emeritus faculty, Tulane
School of Social Work
CELEBRATION
Once I read the June 2017
Tulane magazine, I realized
it was loaded with important
stuff, from beginning to
end. So I kept going back
and rereading each separate
presentation. There was not a
wasted inch of printing in the
entire magazine.
“This is not a magazine,” I
said to myself. “This is a celebration
of everything that is
now happening in the university,
the City of New Orleans
and for students. …
Tulane University … has
become the pacesetter for
others to emulate. …
Oh, the poetry! “Deep, deep,
deep into the Oxford afternoon.”
Followed by, “Hang
’em, bang ’em. Hang ’em, bang
’em.” [“Call Home,” page 13.]
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO
(Left to right) Darrin McCall is a 2011 School of Social Work graduate and a
Youth Empowerment staff member. He’s pictured with Nick Curran (B ’12, ’13),
a Strong City board member, and YEP staff members Alberta Wright and Tevin
Clark at the YEP offices in New Orleans.
(Poetry needs no explanation.
We do offer insight on
“Hang ’em, bang ’em.” Pitchers
do not intend to let one of
their pitches “hang” for even
a split second as it crosses
home plate. An experienced
hitter, during that moment
of unintended “hang” time,
instinctively launches his bat
to “bang” that ball as hard as
he can “deep, deep, into the
Oxford afternoon.” Understanding
this, one can practice
delivering the repeated words
and phrases, with as much
emphasis and pauses as
they deserve.)
“We’re counting on you.
We’re counting on you to be
our Generation Empathy, our
Generation Cares, our Generation
Gamechangers.” [“Helen
Mirren Wows,” page 15.] …
Richard M. Janopaul, L ’60
Oklahoma City
DALLAS FAMILY
Awesome, lead story, truly.
[“Re: Defining NOLA,” Tulane,
June 2017]
I read that story in the
print edition but seeing it
on my computer was, well,
more vivid.
We have a colony of ex–
New Orleans residents here
in Dallas. … The men meet
every Thursday for a spirited
lunch, and the women every
other. We call our men’s group
NOMADS (New Orleans Men At
Dallas). … I intend to discuss
this article at our next lunch
meeting. Tulane should be
very proud. I will forward to all
in our group to call attention
and for our discussion. Many
are Tulane Family.
Roll, Wave, Roll. I think
a spark has been lit, finally.
Joe Bernstein, L ’57
Dallas
DIFFERENCES
I was fascinated, yet disappointed,
to read the tribute to
Christina Vella on page 35 of the
June issue of Tulane magazine.
The author, Lawrence N.
Powell, first describes her
physical size (diminutive,
sparrow-like, frail), then her
voice (soft, honeyed). Not until
the third paragraph does he
begin to describe her qualities
as a writer.
Contrast that with the profile
of Dean Altiero on page 38
that makes no mention whatsoever
of his appearance.
Both articles are accompanied
by photos.
Emphasizing Ms. Vella’s
physical attributes perpetuates
the notion that women’s
appearance is equal to, or more
important than, their skills and
talents. The tribute would have
been excellent without these
unnecessary observations.
Joanne P. Watson, MD, E ’90
Memphis, Tennessee
CORRECTION
11 graduates in May 2017
earned a Bachelor of
Science in Management
with a concentration in
entrepreneurship.
(The number was
incorrectly stated in the
June Tulane on page 7 in In
That Number, “Dedicated
to Entrepreneurship,”
about the Albert Lepage
Center for Entrepreneurship
and Innovation.)
DROP US A LINE
Email us at:
tulanemag@tulane.edu
or U.S. mail:
Tulane University
Office of Editorial &
Creative Services
200 Broadway, Suite 226
New Orleans, LA 70118
4 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

Letter From the Editor
TUlane
EDITOR
Mary Ann Travis
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Melinda Whatley Viles
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Faith Dawson
M A G A Z I N E
The Tulane uptown campus and the surrounding neighborhood glow at night from an aerial
perspective. The vista stretches from St. Charles Avenue to Claiborne Avenue, from Gibson Hall
to Turchin Stadium.
STRIVING FOR A BETTER WORLD THROUGH RESEARCH
In this issue of Tulane, President
A diverse and high-performing group
Mike Fitts and professor Bill Bertrand of doctoral students in the bioinnovation
and biomedical engineering pro-
salute one of Tulane’s great leaders—
the late President Emeritus Eamon grams at Tulane is doing top-notch basic
Kelly. Kelly led Tulane from 1981–98. science—and they are finding ways to
As Fitts writes, Kelly “turned Tulane bring their discoveries from the laboratory
into the marketplace. See “Lab to
from a regional university into a
national powerhouse of research
Life” on page 22 to find out about some
and scholarship.”
of their awesome inventions.
The research efforts of Tulane
Like any other good detectives,
continue to expand and grow, making researchers Robert Garry and James
amazing impacts locally and globally. Robinson relish the hunt for clues
Research is more than unraveling and savor their “Eureka!” moments.
intriguing puzzles of science and history,
sociology and math—and all the understanding the Lassa virus and its
Read about their dogged pursuit of
other disciplines that are explored at antibodies in “In the Hunt for a Lassa
the university. The way that research Fever Cure” on page 26. The pair
is conducted at Tulane, lives are made helped to develop crucial anti-viral
better in real ways.
drugs and early diagnosis HIV tests in
Research, approached ethically the late 1980s, and they will be saving
and sensitively, can benefit local
the lives of people affected by Lassa
residents of Isle de Jean Charles, fever in the near future.
Louisiana, where the land is literally We hope you enjoy reading these
disappearing underneath their feet stories. They showcase a sampling
and homes, contends professor Amy of the exciting research happening
Lesen of the Tulane ByWater Institute at Tulane, all done in the quest for a
in “Slipping Into the Sea” on page 16. better world.—MARY ANN TRAVIS
LORENZO SERAFINI AND RICHARD CAMPANELLA, MARCH 2017
CONTRIBUTORS
Marianna Barry
Keith Brannon
Barri Bronston
Mary Cross, SLA ’10
Alicia Jasmin
Angus Lind, A&S ’66
Ryan Rivet, UC ’02
Mary Sparacello
Mike Strecker, G ’03
SENIOR UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER
Paula Burch-Celentano, SW ’17
SENIOR PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Sharon Freeman
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Marian Herbert-Bruno
Kimberly D. Rainey
IPAD AND ANDROID VERSIONS OF
TULANE ARE AVAILABLE.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY
Michael A. Fitts
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR STRATEGIC
INITIATIVES AND INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Richard Matasar
VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Deborah L. Grant, PHTM ’86
Tulane (ISSN 21619255) is a quarterly magazine published by the Tulane
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New Orleans, LA 70118-5624. Periodical postage at New Orleans, LA 70113
and additional mailing offices. Send editorial correspondence to the
above address or email tulanemag@tulane.edu.
Opinions expressed in Tulane are not necessarily those of Tulane
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Material may be reprinted only with permission.
Tulane University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
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SEPTEMBER 2017/VOL. 89, NO. 1
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
5

LOVELY CAMPUS TIME in May 2017 identified Tulane as the most beautiful
campus in Louisiana. Tulane is “a spot worth visiting even for the nonmatriculated.
Majestic Gibson Hall faces Audubon Park just across
St. Charles Avenue, and behind it lies acres of lovely campus.”
N E W S
SALLY ASHER
Best & Brightest
Tulane University’s incoming first-year class in fall 2017 is 22 percent
students of color. Satyajit Dattagupta, vice president for enrollment
management and dean of undergraduate admission, said this is a
significant increase since just three years ago, when the class was 16
percent students of color.
The class also includes 96 international students.
The admissions team that helped recruit the class specifically
looked for students who were committed to academic rigor, regardless
of race or demographic.
“From the start, our messaging focused on three things,” Dattagupta
said. “The academic quality of the institution, the world-class faculty
and the unparalleled research.”
In fact, many in the incoming class have already expressed interest
in research opportunities as part of their college experience.
“Our admissions team has moved energetically to build a more
diverse student body, one which better reflects the depth and breadth
of our 21st-century society,” said Tulane President Mike Fitts.
Students can find academic and research opportunities through
the new Center for Academic Equity, which offers workshops, study
halls, speaker series, and summer research grants and fellowships to
underserved undergraduate students, said Paula Nicole Booke, senior
program coordinator. The center was launched earlier this year with
Rebecca Mark, professor of English, as the director.
Dattagupta said the increase in diversity marks the start of an exciting
chapter for Tulane.
President Fitts agreed. “Despite the real progress we are making
in this area, we know there is still more work to be done. There are
still people missing from the table. We need to ensure that Tulane attracts
the best and the brightest from every segment of our society.”
—Faith Dawson
Weighty Subject
Students in a Statics
class participate in
a "truss-busting"
competitition in Maker
Space to see who can
design the lowest
weight structure that
bears the most weight.
WATER EXPERT
Mark Davis is the
new director of the
ByWater Institute.
ByWater
Leader
Mark Davis, founding director of the Tulane
Institute on Water Resources and Law Policy,
has been appointed as the new director of the
ByWater Institute at Tulane.
Davis is a widely consulted authority on
water management and a senior research fellow
at Tulane Law School. He previously spent
14 years as executive director of the Coalition
to Restore Coastal Louisiana, where he helped
shape programs and policies to improve
the stewardship of the wetlands and waters
of coastal Louisiana. Davis will continue to
direct the Institute on Water Resources and
Law Policy.
“There is a lot of commonality between the
two [institutes],” Davis said. “It’s really a question
of expanding the reach and collaborative
power of the university. We’ve always relied
on the support and partnership of people from
engineering, science, the arts and architecture,
and this is an opportunity to take that
collaboration to the next level.”
Opened in August 2016, the ByWater
Institute brings scholars together to find solutions
to a major challenge facing Louisiana
and vulnerable communities worldwide—
how to manage threats of rising water from
coastal erosion, natural disasters and a
changing environment.
The Tulane River and Coastal Center, a
5,800-square-foot facility on the Mississippi
River, is a core asset of the ByWater Institute.
—Barri Bronston
CHERYL GERBER
6 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

In That Number Lower Blood Pressure Target
Dr. Jiang He is the Joseph S. Copes Chair and Professor in the
Department of Epidemiology at the Tulane University School of
Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He is an expert in the study
of hypertension, diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease and
chronic kidney disease and has conducted research in seven
countries and published more than 400 research papers related
to hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Below are some
numbers related to Dr. He’s latest findings on the effects of blood
pressure on cardiovascular disease.
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO
1
Heart disease is the no. 1
cause of death in America.
92.1MILLION
There are 92.1 million adults affected by heart disease in America.
85.7
MILLION
There are 85.7 million U.S. adults with
hypertension (high blood pressure).

Who Dat? Karen Oser Edmunds and Healing Art
COURTESY NEWCOMB COLLEGE ARCHIVES
While in Paris during their Junior Year Abroad in 1966, Karen Oser Edmunds (NC ’67) (left) and the late Gray Dugas (A&S ’67) recite lines from a Georges Feydeau
play, Occupe-toi d’Amelie, during a speech class to learn proper pronunciation of French.
MOTIVATION KAREN OSER EDMUNDS
(NC ’67) encourages people to make art—
even if it’s bad art. Art is a way to get over
sadness, depression and angst. The reason
to do art of any kind—singing, painting,
sculpting, playing music or writing—is that
it’s healthy to have an outlet to deal with
upheaval, she said.
“Understanding that art can overcome
obstacles began for me while JYA,”
said Edmunds. She spent her Junior Year
Abroad in Paris in 1966–67.
A psychology major, she studied European
and American child developmental
psychologists and became interested in art
therapy as a way to help children.
A New Orleanian, Edmunds earned a
Master of Fine Arts from the University of
Vermont in 2005. She’s had studio space
at Studio Inferno, now located in Arabi,
Louisiana, since the early 1990s. The
gallery and glass art studio are owned by
Mitchell Gaudet (G ’90).
She and her husband, Dr. J. Ollie
Edmunds Jr., an emeritus professor of
orthopaedics at Tulane School of Medicine,
have four children.
Throughout her life, Edmunds said that
she’s been lucky, but she and her family
have experienced illness and some heartbreak
as anyone does.
Art Responds to a Diagnosis: A Body
of Work in Progress is conceptual artwork
that Edmunds designed around her
diagnosis of breast cancer in 2012. Breast
cancer is a disease that affects one in every
eight women—and wherever Edmunds
has presented the large art installation, or
parts of it, viewers have responded on an
emotional, gratifying level, she said.
As a sculptural piece, Art Responds to a
Diagnosis was exhibited in Prospect.3, the
international art show in New Orleans in
2014, as well as at the Contemporary Arts
Center. It includes cast glass made from
plaster casts of Edmunds’ own breasts,
medical X-rays and an X-ray light box.
Edmunds also wrote and illustrated
a book that includes revealing photographs
and a diary chronicling her progression
from surrender to acceptance and
finally healing.
Creating the piece was “a way for me to
have something positive to think about,”
said Edmunds. “All of a sudden, I had a
project that became positive and took the
edge off the other stuff.”
What has been good for her is good for
other people, too. Edmunds’ inspiration is
taking trauma and working it out.
“That, in a nutshell, is where I’m going
with my art,” she said.
—MARY ANN TRAVIS
8 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

LOCAL CULTURE Tulane has partnered with NolaVie Magazine to create ViaNolaVie, a new
archival website with content provided by journalists, Tulane students and community
partners. The new project emerged from a redesign of MediaNOLA, a website that Tulane
professor of communication Vicki Mayer founded in 2009 to record local cultural heritage.
SHUTTERSTOCK
Sex Cells
Over the last decade, many drugs that have been pulled from the market
due to toxicity were withdrawn because they affected women more
than men. It turns out the studies that brought the drugs to market were
designed using only male cells and animal models, a common flaw a
Tulane endocrinologist is working to help correct.
“We need to study both sexes,” said Dr. Franck Mauvais-Jarvis, a
leading voice in the debate to bring sex parity to preclinical research.
“The focus on a single sex threatens to limit the impact of research findings
as results may be relevant to only half of the population.”
Mauvais-Jarvis, a professor of endocrinology at Tulane University
School of Medicine, is the lead author of an article in the journal Cell
Metabolism to help scientists who study obesity, diabetes or other metabolic
diseases better account for inherent sex differences in research.
While the National Institutes of Health recently mandated researchers
consider sex as a biological variable by including both sexes
in preclinical research, there is little guidance in designing studies to
fully consider sex differences in underlying biological mechanisms.
The article outlines the causes of sex differences in research models
and the methods for investigators to account for these factors.
Mauvais-Jarvis’ goal is to help investigators better understand that
sex differences are not simply a superficial aspect of research that only
account for different sets of hormones. He maintains that male and
female are two different biological systems.
“Sex differences are at the core of the mechanism for biological
traits and disease,” Mauvais-Jarvis said. “We believe that the incorporation
of appropriately designed studies on sex differences in metabolism
and other fields will accelerate discovery and enhance our ability
to treat disease. This is the fundamental basis of precision medicine.”
—Keith Brannon
Sex Matters
in Research
Y and X chromosomes
indicate the sex of cells.
BLACK MEN AND
PROSTATE CANCER
TREATMENT
Dr. Oliver Sartor
led a new study that
shows good results for
immunotherapy for
African-American men
with prostate cancer.
N E W S
Encouraging
Results
New study results released by Tulane oncologist
Dr. Oliver Sartor hold promising news
for African-American men fighting advanced
prostate cancer. Sartor is the C.E. and Bernadine
Laborde Professor for Cancer Research at
the School of Medicine.
African-American men treated with the
drug sipuleucel-T had a median nine-month
overall survival advantage compared to Caucasian
men with the disease, according to an
analysis of 1,900 patients who received the
treatment between 2011 and 2013.
“This is the first time that I have seen a
prostate cancer treatment seemingly work
better in African-Americans,” said Sartor.
“These findings are encouraging given that
African-American men with prostate cancer
have a mortality rate more than twice as high
as Caucasian men.”
Sipuleucel-T is a cancer treatment that
boosts the immune system to help it attack
prostate cancer cells. It is used for advanced
prostate cancer that no longer responds to
hormone therapy.
African-American patients in the study
had a median overall survival of 37.3 months
compared to 28 months for Caucasian patients.
Among the group of patients with
the lowest median prostate specific antigen
levels at the time of treatment, African-
American patients demonstrated over 16
months improved survival compared with
Caucasian patients (54.3 months vs. 37.4
months, respectively).—Keith Brannon
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
9

POTTERY & JAZZ The story of Newcomb Pottery is linked to the evolution of jazz
in a traveling exhibit, “The Most Natural Expression of Locality: Jazz, Newcomb
Pottery and the Creative Impulse in Turn-of-the-Century New Orleans.”
N E W S
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO
Post-K Vietnamese
In his new book Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery Among Vietnamese
Americans, Mark VanLandingham chronicles the Vietnamese-
American community’s post-storm comeback.
VanLandingham is the Thomas C. Keller Professor in Global
Community Health and Behavioral Sciences at the Tulane School of
Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
He became interested in studying New Orleans’ Vietnamese population,
which began settling in the city after the collapse of the South
Vietnamese government in 1975, after reading Growing Up American,
a book co-authored by Tulane sociology professor Carl L. Bankston III.
Soon after arriving at Tulane two decades ago, VanLandingham and
a team of Vietnamese graduate students and colleagues began a crossnational
study comparing local Vietnamese residents with their counterparts
living in Vietnam in terms of economic growth, mental and
physical health, and social connections.
“Just as I was finishing the data collection for the eastern New
Orleans community sample, Hurricane Katrina hit,” he said.
Post-storm interviews that VanLandingham conducted throughout
2006, 2007 and 2010 laid the groundwork for the book.
Covering factors like health, housing and economic stability, Van-
Landingham’s interviews and longitudinal survey data formed the
basis of his conclusion that the group fared much better than other
devastated local communities during their rebuilding process. In the
second part of the book, he tackles the more difficult question: why?
VanLandingham found that the Vietnamese had a wide range of
attributes that became advantageous during their recovery process.
Sharing a history of starting over in New Orleans after fleeing South
Vietnam, the group developed a culture that emphasized insularity,
collective perseverance and progress.
“They’re a remarkable people and are an outstanding example of
how immigrants provide vitality and inspiration to the rest of us in
America,” said VanLandingham.—Mary Cross
How Did You Do
in the Storm?
Weathering Katrina
by Tulane public
health professor Mark
VanLandingham
explores how the
Vietnamese community
in New Orleans
recovered after
Hurricane Katrina.
TRICENTENNIAL SCENE
A boat on the Mississippi
River completes the New
Orleans skyline.
300 Years
& Counting
As New Orleans prepares to commemorate its
300th anniversary in 2018, Tulane University
is celebrating its relationship with the city and
gearing up for the next 300 years of partnership
to come.
Established as a medical college in 1834,
Tulane has remained a part of the fabric
of New Orleans for more than half the
city’s existence.
Richard Matasar, senior vice president for
strategic initiatives and institutional effectiveness,
said, “There is no Tulane without New
Orleans, and there’s a very different New
Orleans without Tulane.”
Matasar noted that Tulane doctors were
at the forefront of battles against tropical
illnesses that once plagued the city.
Today, the university remains on the front
line against recent outbreaks such as the Zika
and Ebola viruses.
Also exciting, Matasar said, is anticipating
how new contributions by Tulane researchers
and scholars help ensure the city’s prosperity
and success in the future. “Our scholarship
puts us in a position to improve the human
condition,” said Matasar.
“Through exploration of environmental
sustainability, diversity and inclusion, gulf
regional industries like oil and gas, and better
understanding of the arts, music and food
of our region, we can continue to make a real
impact for the next 300 years.”—Alicia Jasmin
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO
10 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

Gallery Science Meets Art
This image depicts a
dam-break wave at a
vertical wall as computed
using the moving particle
semi-implicit method.
It was on display at the
Center for Computational
Science art show in
fall 2016.
HIDEKI FUJIOKA
COMPUTATIONAL IMAGERY In fall 2008,
the Center for Computational Science at
Tulane University began a tradition that
brought together minds well versed in
numbers and those with an eye for art. The
tradition lives on in an annual showing of
computational art during which researchers
use algorithms and computers to visually
present their findings.
“The Center for Computational Science
had an administrative assistant who was
not a scientist but used to say that some of
the figures we generated were nice to look
at even without understanding the science
behind them,” said Ricardo Cortez, director
of the Center for Computational Science.
The assistant’s idea led to the framing of
computations and their eventual display in
an art show and open house.
Cortez said the process is an opportunity
for the researchers to step out of
their comfort zones. Participants in the
show, held the week after Thanksgiving,
include undergraduate and graduate
students as well as researchers and
faculty who have an active role in the
center’s research projects.
“Some students and postdoctoral researchers
are reluctant to contribute to the
event because they are not sure that their
images are ‘artistic’ enough,” said Cortez.
“After all, most of us are not trained in
art. But everyone eventually gets excited
about participating.”
In order to foster creativity, researchers—or
artists in this case—are allowed
to relax the accuracy of their scientific
computations and focus on the images as
art rather than meticulous research.
“Our goal is to promote the existence of
the Center for Computational Science and its
collaborative scientific projects,” said Cortez.
“The art show is a way for scientists and
nonscientists to enjoy a common event.”
—ALICIA JASMIN
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
11

In Your Own Words Crossing Boundaries
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO
IN YOUR OWN WORDS Robin Forman is
senior vice president for academic affairs
and provost at Tulane.
As I near the first anniversary of my arrival
at Tulane, I look back on a joyful year in
which I had the opportunity to immerse
myself in one of the world’s great research
universities. I have learned that much of
the remarkable work taking place on this
campus reflects Tulane’s distinctive ability to
support an environment in which students
and faculty can easily cross boundaries.
More so than any other university of
our sort, we cross the boundary between
the campus and the community. We are
the only research university that requires
multiple service-learning experiences for
each undergraduate, and the Tulane Law
School was the first in the country to require
its students to participate in pro bono work.
The city of New Orleans is well known for its
extraordinary cultural vibrancy, but it also
faces issues common to all major urban
areas, related to education, crime and
health care, and it is on the front lines of
growing ecological challenges. Our faculty
and students are exploring these issues
locally and learning lessons that are of global
significance. With the support of the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, we have introduced
a program in which graduate students in the
humanities will have the opportunity to carry
out community-engaged research.
Our work also crosses disciplinary
boundaries. For example, our programs
in Latin American studies, environmental
studies and neuroscience involve faculty
from multiple departments and schools.
With the creation of our ByWater Institute
on the banks of the Mississippi River, we
bring together faculty who study river and
gulf ecology, coastal preservation and restoration,
the role of water in human health,
and the laws and policies governing water,
creating one of the nation’s most powerful
university programs focused on water and
coastal issues.
Our undergraduates regularly design
their own boundary crossings. With all
our undergraduate students registered
in Newcomb-Tulane College, they study
in disciplines across the university, easily
creating their own double majors such as
engineering and architecture, business and
theater, public health and neuroscience.
Finally, we cross the boundaries between
basic research, applied research
and implementation. From the university’s
origins as the Medical College of Louisiana
to today, Tulane faculty have demonstrated
the ability to ask big questions, discover
big answers and then transform those
answers into actions that improve the lives
of those around us.
Tulane is an extraordinary intellectual
community, one in which our faculty and
students are carrying out work that is
changing the way we understand the world
and what is possible. And we are doing
work that others cannot, because we are
crossing boundaries.—ROBIN FORMAN
12 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

SAIL ON Tulane is taking club sailing to greater depths. Beginning with the 2018–19
academic year, sailing will move to varsity status, thanks to generous support from
Elizabeth “Libby” Connolly Alexander (NC ’84) and Robert Alexander along with
Community Sailing New Orleans.
S P O R T S
RICK OLIVIER
To the
Next Level
Between assistant coaching stints at Auburn
University–Montgomery and Clemson University,
Maria “Maru” Brito spent three years
with the Tennis Academy at Franco’s Athletic
Club in Mande ville, Louisiana. She often
would head to New Orleans to watch Caroline
Magnusson—who had transferred from Clemson
to Tulane—compete in matches.
“I loved it at Tulane,” said Brito, a native
of Mexico City who also played for Clemson.
“I always thought this would be an amazing
place to work. So when the opportunity came
up, I went for it.”
With four years of coaching experience at
Clemson—where she helped lead the Tigers to
64 wins including a 22-7 campaign in her first
year in 2014 and a regular season ACC Championship—she
applied for the vacant position
of head women’s tennis coach at Tulane.
Tulane Athletic Director Troy Dannen
knew he had found the ideal candidate.
“Her experience as both a player and coach
at the highest level, and her demonstrated
commitment to all aspects of an outstanding
student-athlete, are tremendous assets for
our program,” Dannen said.
Brito joins a program that in the 2016-17
season recorded one of the best turnarounds in
all of NCAA Division I, jumping from 8-14 the
previous year to a 22-7 record. She described
the team as “hungry” to take women’s tennis
at Tulane to the next level. —Barri Bronston
In the Best
Position
Parry Nickerson,
cornerback for the
Green Wave, expects
a stellar defensive
season for Tulane
football this year as
he prepares for a
career in the NFL.
NEW TENNIS COACH
Maria “Maru” Brito, the
Green Wave women’s
tennis coach, says
that her philosophy of
coaching is: “If you take
care of the little things,
big things will come.”
Senior Play
Almost every year, Tulane sends a handful of players to the NFL, most
recently Tanzel Smart to the Los Angeles Rams, Lorenzo Doss to the
Denver Broncos and Ryan Grant to the Washington Redskins.
When the 2018 draft rolls around, cornerback Parry Nickerson hopes
to hear his name. But such talk, says Nickerson, is premature, and the
only thing on his mind is helping the Green Wave have a winning season.
“I want to see us grow,” Nickerson said. “Offensively, I think we’re
headed in the right direction. Defensively, we want to be No. 1 in our
conference.”
With Nickerson, a fifth-year senior, on the team, there is no reason
to think that a winning season is a fantasy. His career statistics include
133 total tackles, three forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries (including
one for a touchdown), one blocked field goal, 22 pass breakups and
10 interceptions (including one returned for a touchdown).
Earlier this year, he garnered first-team honors from Athlon Sports
on its preseason All-American Athletic Conference teams, and he was a
second-team selection by the conference’s coaches and the Louisiana
Sportswriters Association.
Nickerson considered forgoing his senior year and trying his luck
in the 2017 NFL Draft but thought he could improve his stock—and
experience a winning season—by playing in college one more year.
“It’s basically putting yourself in the best position possible,” he
said. “It’s about getting better physically, mentally and spiritually.”
—Barri Bronston
PARKER WATERS
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
13

President Emeritus Eamon Kelly
COURTESY OF TULANE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Loss of a Leader
PRESIDENT EMERITUS EAMON KELLY, WHO DIED
IN JUNE, LEAVES A LEGACY OF THOUGHT AND
ACTION MATCHED BY FEW IN HIGHER EDUCATION.
By Bill Bertrand
On June 28, 2017, my good friend, mentor and companion in many of life’s adventures, Eamon
Kelly, passed away from complications related to major surgery. He was, of course, the president
emeritus of Tulane and the Margaret W. and Eamon M. Kelly Distinguished Chair in International
Development—and so much more. Eamon’s loyalty and dedication to Tulane and the
broader New Orleans community were absolute, exceeded only by his enviable relationship to
his wife and family, so eloquently detailed by his son Paul at the funeral Mass.
Eamon first came to Tulane in 1981 as vice president and took over at a time when the university
was in poor condition. He was the university’s first Catholic president, and this informed his
absolute dedication to humanitarian and democratic principles that put the university on a new
course of courageous engagement with contemporary problems. During his tenure, he brought
14 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

Tulane Leader
(Clockwise) President Kelly DJ's for
WTUL in 1988. He presents a check
to a robot for a robotics lab in 1985.
He congratulates his wife, Margaret,
when she graduates from Newcomb
College in 1985. Kelly never stopped
teaching at Tulane.
the university from near financial ruin to a healthy endowment, a solid
financial base and its highest national ranking ever. He expanded the
Board from a primarily New Orleans–based group to one with broader
national and international ties. Every component of the Tulane community
prospered during his tenure as president.
Starting in 1983, Eamon traveled widely with me to Africa, Asia and
Latin America in pursuit of a highly successful effort to make Tulane
an international institution and an active partner in improving conditions
around the globe. Currently active programs in China, Vietnam,
Cuba, Central and South America, and multiple countries in Africa all
began during his presidential period. His belief that participating in
the global community was vital to the future of the United States, and
acquiring international sophistication was an important objective for
Tulane’s academic community. Today Tulane students have numerous
international opportunities due in large part to Eamon’s vision and
his actions to achieve it.
Eamon’s immediate family were first-generation Irish-Americans, a
matter of great pride to him. He understood intuitively at all levels the
value of open doors and an equally open heart to the suffering of others.
Although raised a New Yorker, he and his family integrated into the
Big Easy while at the same time remaining faithful to their New York
and Irish roots. He had a host of what he presented as Irish sayings that
he would call out in times of doubt. “It’s a good life if you don’t weaken”
was one repeated many times.
His support of all aspects of the human condition led to a conflict
that he shared with me one evening. He had been awarded honors by
both the Tulane gay community and the NAACP State Conference.
Unfortunately, both fetes were on the same night. He managed to
attend both.
Eamon’s loyalty to his family and friends was matched only by his
loyalty to Tulane. He did not enjoy asking for money but understood,
as an economist, that finances enabled action and change. As a result
he became one of the most successful fundraisers in university history.
Often when I asked him for an analysis of a particular problem,
he would reply, “Follow the cash, and it will become clear.” He recently
noted that current national politics could be largely explained with
this simple dictum.
In the early days his close circle of friends became accustomed to the
fact that Eamon rarely disagreed with their suggestions. Yvette Jones,
Ron Mason, Tony Lorino, Bryant George and Jim Kilroy—among many
of those who stayed close to him over the years—learned, however, that
when Eamon said, “Let me pray over that,” it was time to raise a large
question mark.
As part of his push to make Tulane into a truly international institution,
he was fearless in his travels. He visited our international projects
in war-torn Colombia, Guatemala and Zaire while president. Under his
guidance we started our first academic programs in Cuba. He also recognized
the need to understand and be involved with what was happening
in China, resulting in a strong Tulane presence there today.
Eamon’s wise and level counsel was recognized by many national
and international organizations of note. He was chairman of the
boards of the American Association of Universities and the National
Science Foundation (where he was the first social scientist to serve in
that position), as well as a member of numerous other boards. He was
sitting chair of the Digital Promise Foundation, which has offered its
own tribute to his vision and leadership.
As a mentor and a teacher, he supported those whom he felt had
potential. He sponsored many university senior administrators as
they moved on from Tulane to become presidents of other universities.
He leaves a legacy of thought and action matched by few in
higher education.
Eamon was fond of closing meetings such as the University Senate
meetings by saying: “It’s time the Lord spoke to Moses.” I feel certain
that he is now serving as a wise adviser to both of them. I spoke with
him the day before he entered that fateful surgery, and he expressed to
me a premonition that this was not going to end well. As usual, Eamon
was right.
Tulane and all the people and communities that Eamon touched
have lost a great leader. The vision and principles that drove his personal
and professional life are still relevant to the Tulane community
and merit our continued support for a better world.
Bill Bertrand is a professor in the Tulane School of Public Health and
Tropical Medicine. He has worked at Tulane in multiple areas of
public health and development since 1967, pioneering the use of information
technology in public health research and education. His recent
projects include certifying and measuring child labor in West Africa
and supporting institutional development and learning systems at the
American University of Nigeria. He currently serves as a consultant
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Latin America on
Zika and the U.S. Navy on intervention strategies for resistant malaria
in Vietnam.
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
15

ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES ALONG THE COAST OF LOUISIANA HAS LOST 98
PERCENT OF ITS LAND SINCE THE 1950S. ITS RESIDENTS—MEMBERS OF
THE BILOXI-CHITIMACHA-CHOCTAW TRIBE OF NATIVE AMERICANS—
FIND A WAY TO SURVIVE AS THEY FORGE A MODEL FOR OTHER COASTAL
COMMUNITIES FACING SIMILAR EXISTENTIAL THREATS.
By Danny Heitman
Slipping In
16 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

to the Sea
PAUL MORSE
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
17

PAUL MORSE
Vanishing Land
(Previous pages) Water
encroaches on houses
on Isle de Jean Charles,
a narrow ridge located
in Terrebonne Parish,
Louisiana.
(This page, left) Albert
Naquin, chief of the Isle
de Jean Charles tribe,
surveys his island’s
embattled ecology.
(Right) The island’s
homes are built on stilts
to protect them from
rising water.
Perched along the lip of Louisiana, an island off the coast of Terrebonne
Parish has been home to members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw
tribe of Native Americans for generations.
But now, Isle de Jean Charles is slipping into the sea, meaning a
perilous future for those who call it home.
Albert Naquin, chief of the Isle de Jean Charles tribe, is a Vietnam
veteran and retired oil field inspector for the federal government. He is
well aware that his island’s embattled ecology is part of a larger pattern
of peril that extends far beyond Louisiana.
He visited the United Nations on behalf of his tribe in 2010, and he’s
also traveled to Alaska to gain insights from coastal residents who dealt
with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
“We don’t have time,” Naquin told National Geographic last year.
“The longer we wait, the more hurricane season we have to go through.
We hate to let the island go, but we have to. It is like losing a family
member. We know we are going to lose it. We just don’t know when.”
GHOST TREES BUT HOME
Chantel Comardelle, secretary of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe,
began her life on Isle de Jean Charles but left in 1985 when she was 4
years old. “Our trailer was flooded twice—after Hurricane Danny, then
18 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

PAUL MORSE
Hurricane Juan after that,” Comardelle recalled. Subsequent mold
problems in her family home made her chronically ill, prompting
the family to relocate. She now lives in Houma, where she works as a
purchasing agent for the Terrebonne Parish government.
Comardelle’s roots on Isle de Jean Charles run deep. Her grandparents
still live on the island, which is named after one of her 19thcentury
ancestors.
In the decades since Comardelle moved away, much of the landscape
of her childhood has vanished.
“The land is not there anymore,” she said. “The trees and vegetation
have drastically changed. Where there were trees and wooded areas,
now there’s marsh.”
Islanders call stumps from the ruined woodland “ghost trees,”
which points to the way that the natural history of the island continues
to resonate with residents even when touchstones of the local
geography have disappeared.
The memories of that home ground, along with what still remains
of Isle de Jean Charles, exert a powerful pull on the people with ties to
the island.
“It’s where my heart is,” said Comardelle. “I would live there now if
I could. The trees seem to come alive as you drive into the island. You
can sit on the porch there and be at peace with the rest of the world. I
call it home.”
As many residents like Comardelle have gradually moved to
safer ground, maintaining tribal traditions has become more difficult.
“We are documenting our oral history,” she said. “We are documenting
our way of making bas9/kets, our ways of making other
things. We have different medicines that we’ve always made from
the plants here. We’d like to be able to propagate those plants in a
different location.”
ASTONISHING LOSS OF LAND
Since the early 1950s, Isle de Jean Charles has lost 98 percent of its land,
a coastal calamity caused by culprits Louisiana knows all too well.
Girdled by levees, the Mississippi River can no longer sweep the
land as it once did, carrying its cargo of rich sediments to the coast
and replenishing the marshes. Without that lifeblood, coastland has
disappeared. Damage done by oil and gas exploration also weakened
the coast, and rising sea levels from climate change, along with land
subsidence, are wreaking havoc, too.
In the 1950s, Isle de Jean Charles spanned 33,000 acres. Now, only
320 acres remain.
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
19

RYAN RIVET
PAUL MORSE
“Around the globe, governments are confronting the reality that
as human-caused climate change warms the planet, rising sea levels,
stronger storms, increased flooding, harsher droughts and dwindling
freshwater supplies could drive the world’s most vulnerable people
from their homes,” New York Times writers Coral Davenport and Campbell
Robertson noted. “Between 50 million and 200 million people—
mainly subsistence farmers and fishermen—could be displaced by
2050 because of climate change.”
Isle de Jean Charles is at ground zero of the crisis.
The tribe and its partners have developed a resettlement plan to
move families to less environmentally vulnerable land. Last year, the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $48 million
to the state of Louisiana to support the resettlement. The funding,
part of $1 billion HUD distributed to assist communities in answering
climate change, sparked national headlines.
The biggest challenge is advancing a resettlement plan to move residents
to safer ground. A related goal is preserving the island’s legacy.
TULANE AND TRIBAL LEADERS
A Tulane faculty member, Amy Lesen, is collaborating with tribal
leaders as they develop solutions to the profound challenges facing
the community.
Lesen is a research associate professor with the Tulane ByWater
Institute, which engages scholars in studying coastal and urban environmental
issues in the New Orleans area and the Lower Mississippi
Delta Region.
“I wanted to see what I could do to be helpful,” she said. “In this
project, we’ll develop a model for bringing together a sustainable crossboundary
collaboration of scientists, community members, practitioners
and other professionals to combine community knowledge with
scientific knowledge to address the challenges facing the Isle de Jean
Charles community. This collaborative team will help the tribe envision
a science center, a seed bank, a plant-cutting library and other elements
that could be incorporated into their resettlement.”
The work is being supported by a $200,000 grant from the National
Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program.
The project lead is the Lowlander Center, a Terrebonne Parish
nonprofit that’s working with coastal residents to adapt to land loss and
the changing coastline.
Lesen is working with Isle de Jean Charles tribal leaders to develop a
more sustained and integrated model for scholars, scientists and community
members to work together. Their insights could eventually help
other communities facing similar struggles.
“It’s a beautiful place with a deep history,” she said. “The environment
and the place are part of the community. The conundrum of
being in a place where your community lives and that may no longer
be viable and safe is very poignant. It’s a place that embodies a lot of
the challenges many coastal communities are facing.
“I love talking to Chief Albert about the island and all the plants and
animals he’s encountered,” Lesen added. “It’s moving to me to talk to
the people of the community about what the island means to them.”
For Lesen, as for many others, Hurricane Katrina dramatized the
vulnerability of coastal areas to the forces of nature. A graduate of the
University of Massachusetts–Amherst with a Bachelor of Science in
marine fisheries biology, the New York City native earned a PhD from
the University of California–Berkeley in integrative biology.
For her first seven years in New Orleans, Lesen was on the faculty
at Dillard University, where she developed Scientists, Experts and Civic
Engagement, a 2015 book in which contributors explore the ways that
scientists and other academic specialists could connect in a more equitable
way with communities that might benefit from their expertise.
The book grew out of a 2010 New Orleans symposium on the subject that
Lesen organized with the collaboration of Richard Campanella, a geographer
with the Tulane School of Architecture, and Julie Hernandez,
20 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

Way of Life
(Facing page, left)
Research professor
Amy Lesen regularly
communicates with Isle
de Jean Charles
community leaders
about the challenges of
the changing coastline.
(Middle) Chris Brunet
uses an elevator to
access his home’s living
quarters. (This page)
Wenceslaus Billiot Sr.,
who grew up on the
island, lives in the
home that he raised
after repeated flooding.
PAUL MORSE
a research assistant professor at Tulane University Law School’s Payson
Graduate Program in Global Development.
In the wake of Katrina, “New Orleans and the southeastern coast of
Louisiana were now extremely popular places for scholars, researchers
and students from all over the world to study,” Lesen recalled in
the preface to her book. “But the scores of academics flocking to New
Orleans—all doing important work—also made me think about the dilemmas
this situation poses. What are the ethical implications when
scholars come into a location—particularly one where people are in
distress—study the situation, and then leave to go home and write an
article or book for an academic audience? Isn’t there a way this can
be done where the research plan and the benefits of the work can be
formulated with the intention of also benefitting the local residents?”
Lesen’s team of scholars and practitioners who are working with
Isle de Jean Charles’ tribal leaders includes not only natural and social
scientists like her, but planners and landscape designers.
“We’ve brought together a number of different types of expertise,
including the expertise of the Isle de Jean Charles community,” she
said, “and we do have partners from elsewhere in the United States.
Hopefully, we’re building a model that can be useful for other coastal
communities—not only in the United States, but the rest of the world.
It’s generally not part of the training of people in the sciences to do
this kind of cross-boundary work. But it’s becoming clearer that these
kinds of partnerships are necessary in coastal cities and in coastal
communities facing environmental change.”
GLOBAL COASTAL CRISIS
“We as a tribe know that we’re not the only community dealing with
this,” Comardelle said.
That fact was underscored in 2015, when President Barack Obama
visited the Inupiat Eskimo community of Kivalina in coastal Alaska.
Residents there have no more than a decade left before coastal erosion
will force many of them from their homes, Millie Hawley, president of
Kivalina’s tribal council, told the Associated Press.
Around the world, coastal villagers are confronting similar
problems. But Louisiana residents don’t have to look very far to find
parallels with the plight of Isle de Jean Charles. “We’re the first wave
of challenges,” Comardelle said of the island. “The next will be the
inland areas.”
As if to prove Comardelle’s point, New Orleans Mayor Mitch
Landrieu recently designated climate change as an “existential threat”
to Tulane’s home city.
Comardelle said the island could conceivably exist in some form for
decades, though life on Isle de Jean Charles is becoming increasingly
tenuous. “The general feel of the island has changed,” she noted, echoing
Naquin’s warning that future storms could radically accelerate the
island’s demise.
As the community draws on collaboration and expertise from many
sources in deciding its future, voices from the distant past might offer
insights on adaptability, too.
In the 19th century, the island became home to tribal members displaced
by federal policies, part of a series of forced relocations of Native
Americans that came to be known as “The Trail of Tears.”
“Our ancestors once lived east of the Mississippi,” Comardelle said.
As they were forced to move, some members turned south to coastal
Louisiana, she added.
“It’s a matter of resilience,” Comardelle said. “We’re family, and
we’re going to stick together and survive.”
Danny Heitman, a columnist for The Advocate newspaper, is the author
of A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House. He frequently
writes for The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor,
Humanities magazine, and other national publications. He wrote
“Louisiana Bird Calls” in the December 2016 Tulane.
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
21

KIM RAINEY
22 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

FROM IMPROVED BREAST RECONSTRUCTION
FOR CANCER SURVIVORS TO “BLADELESS”
BIOPSIES AND FASTER VIRUS DETECTION
IN CATTLE, TULANE DOCTORAL STUDENTS
ARE TAKING THEIR INVENTIONS FROM
THE LABORATORY TO THE MARKETPLACE.
By Leslie Cardé
The world of bioinnovation is the science that
propels mere mortals known as scientists into
visionaries who solve the most complicated
medical conundrums today. In the relatively
new field that constantly strives to solve the
perplexing puzzles at the nexus of mechanics
and biology, Tulane University is producing
dynamic solutions to some very complex problems.
If curing lung disease and cystic fibrosis,
for instance, seems like it could be decades
away, there is one researcher who has a decidedly
different notion of that timetable.
“Think organogenesis,” said Bruce Bunnell,
director of Tulane’s Center for Stem Cell
Research and Regenerative Medicine and professor
in the Department of Pharmacology in
the School of Medicine. “The days of having
to sign up organ donors, probably in the next
decade, will come to an end, in theory. We’ll be
able to grow the organs in laboratories.”
This medical breakthrough is particularly
important when it comes to replacing human
lungs. A matching donor can give up a kidney
and still survive, and liver cells regenerate, so
whatever tissue is donated grows back, but living
people cannot donate a whole lung. That’s
why Bunnell is working so diligently to produce
lungs in the lab.
One of Bunnell’s PhD students, who has
been working with him on the stem cell research
to generate new lungs, recently came to
him with an idea straight out of the box.
SCAFFOLDING OF SKIN
“It was 2014, and I had one of my sleepless
nights,” said Nick Pashos, a doctoral student
in bioinnovation.
“I was watching a documentary on
Netflix called ‘Becoming Chaz,’ about
Sonny and Cher Bono’s daughter Chastity
transitioning to male Chaz Bono. Chaz was
sitting with his girlfriend in the pre-op area,
talking to the breast surgeon who was telling
him that post-operatively he might not
have nipples any longer. I remember thinking,
wow … is this an issue? I hadn’t realized that
having a mastectomy meant removing the
nipple and areola [the darker surrounding
tissue]. Or, that if you keep it, you stand the
chance of it becoming necrotic [cell death due
to a lack of blood supply], which would mandate
that it has to be removed. I stayed up the
rest of the night researching this.”
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
23

Pashos walked into Bunnell’s office the next day and presented him
with his newfound thoughts on breast reconstruction.
“I said I had an idea,” said Pashos. “I told him it was basically the
same concept as the lungs, but I wanted to transfer those procedures
over to the nipple and areolar area. His initial response was,
‘Come again?’”
But Bunnell was aware of one important factor, which encouraged
him about the musings of Pashos.
“One of the problems we were running into with lungs was that
they’re very complex organs with different cell types. They have to
function in different ways, and getting the appropriate cell ratios in
there at the right time and in the right position to function properly can
be difficult. But skin is a much simpler organ. … It’s just a couple of layers.
I thought Nick’s ideas made sense.”
Bunnell required that Pashos do some fieldwork, to check the viability
of his idea with those who would actually be intimately involved with
his innovation— surgeons and patients.
“We met with two plastic surgeons. First, we discussed the intricacies
of the procedure with Dr. Abigail Chaffin [assistant professor of
surgery at Tulane]. Next, we took it to Dr. Scott Sullivan [physician and
co-founder of the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery in New Orleans.
Sullivan earned a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering from
Tulane in 1987]. Both surgeons thought it was an idea whose time had
come,” said Pashos.
THE RACE IS ON
With the eventual knowledge that both doctors and patients were
interested in this new biotechnology, Pashos began to put the pieces
into place.
Since one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer, and
many require mastectomies or opt for preventive ones either to prevent
the cancer’s spread or to avoid the possibility of cancer altogether,
the race for Pashos was on to make reconstruction more complete.
“I spent time with Dr. Sullivan at his Breast Restorative Center in
New Orleans,” said Pashos, “and learned the intricacies of breast reconstruction.
After observing multiple surgeries, I knew I needed to
tweak my original idea. With a National Science Foundation grant,
and winnings from a number of competitions, I set out to build a graft
that would not only be cosmetically pleasing but functional as well.”
Current procedures to reconstruct the nipple/areolar complex
involve everything from tattooing nipples and areolas on to the patient’s
chest to fashioning a raised nipple out of the patient’s own
underarm or thigh tissue. But tattoos fade, and raised nipples eventually
lose the structure that supports the protrusion, making the
procedure impermanent.
“This is why we construct a scaffold,” said Pashos. “It’s a personalized
transplant model, if you will, made from human tissue or from
prophylactic mastectomy tissue. Then we remove all of the cells and
the donor’s DNA from it, and what you’re left with is a collagen structure,
which I call scaffolding. Think of it as the two-by-fours, which
hold something together, but instead of filling it in with brick and mortar,
in this case it’s cells.”
Pashos now leads his own company, BioAesthetics. A biotech accelerator
program—IndieBio in San Francisco—has now picked up his
project. Representatives from that group came to New Orleans earlier
this year, met with Pashos for one hour, and explained that they would
give him $250,000 if he would agree to come to the Bay Area for four
months, where they would give him the tools he would need to get his
product to the marketplace. Once through FDA registration and ready
for clinical use, Pashos and his mentor Bunnell (now an adviser to
the company) hope that the project Pashos has been working on for
years will be more than his PhD dissertation, but will bring a positive
change to those undergoing breast reconstruction.
“If everything works perfectly the first time,” said Bunnell, “we
could see this being done on humans in the next two to three years. We
may not need clinical trials, just human application, since there are
already a lot of de-cellularized human skin products that have been
transplanted in humans.”
Ultimately, the FDA regulators will make that call. In the meantime,
it’s been a whirlwind from the very inception of this idea.
“Compared to academia, the world of technology runs at lightning
speed, “said Bunnell.
“When Nick met with IndieBio, and they expressed an interest,
they told him the class started in nine days, and they wanted him in
San Francisco. He had nine days to change his entire life … and he’s
done it.”
BIOPSY AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT
In another arena, Tulane doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering
and bioinnovator Mei Wang is solving a different problem related
to cancer, with her colleagues from Instapath.
The Instapath team’s work with improving biopsy evaluations won
this year’s grand prize in the International Business Model Competition
in Mountain View, California, in April. (They also earlier this
spring won the Tulane Novel Tech Challenge sponsored by the Office
of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Development.
Pashos also won the Novel Tech Challenge, sponsored by the Burton
D. Morgan Foundation, in a previous year.)
Apart from Wang, members of the Instapath team are Tulane students
Sam Luethy, Peter Lawson and David Tulman and faculty adviser
Quincy Brown, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
Their work with structured illumination microscopy to examine
fresh tissue is being heralded as the wave of the future in rapid
biopsy evaluation.
“Right now, 20 percent of biopsy analyses are inadequate,” said
Wang. “This is because you’re only looking at some of the cells falling
off the biopsy, and that’s not enough for a complete evaluation. To
have biopsy procedures redone is painful, and there’s a waiting period
of six weeks for a repeat procedure. So, if the surgeon determines there
are red flags everywhere, the patient is put on some form of treatment,
but predicting the exact targeted treatment required has to wait.”
Clinical studies for Instapath using real tissues are running over
90 percent accurate, and new evaluation methods will give physicians
the tools to make a better, quicker diagnosis, where time is of the
essence in many aggressive cancers.
“In our current procedure, the whole biopsy is stained with fluorescent
stain,” said Wang, “and using a special light, we take a picture
from the structured illumination. So, there’s no need for actual cutting
in this technique. … It’s cutting with light. When all is said and
done, a box will be next to the patient’s bedside or in the O.R. [operating
room], the biopsy will go into a computer system, and a pathologist
from anywhere in the world can read this remotely, and respond over
the internet or with a phone call.”
Patents have been filed, FDA approval will be needed, and
industrial-consulting firms will take the Instapath invention from
prototype to the final design. Ultimately, quick and accurate diagnosis
of biopsy tissue, in order to expedite treatment, can be the difference
between life and death for the patient dealing with cancer.
24
SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

RICK OLIVIER
Boosted By The National Science Foundation
Nick Pashos, Mei Wang and Jason Ryans are recipients of National Science
Foundation Innovation-Corps grants. They, along with other Tulane doctoral
students and faculty mentors, were awarded $50,000 grants during the past
few years to look into the marketability and viability of their “bench science”
as they develop new products to improve lives.
CHANGING LIVES
Bioinnovation is not only applicable for the human species, but
often crosses over into the animal kingdom. For Jason Ryans, who
will receive his doctorate from Tulane this fall, a serendipitous
class on microdevices changed the trajectory of his lifetime focus.
In the biomedical engineering program, he has worked extensively
in lung and fluid mechanics. But in a bioinnovation class, Ryans
was required to come up with a new technology, and apply to the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which contributes to making
lives better in developing countries.
“In this case it was working with mosquito borne viruses,” said
Ryans. “We came up with a device that would change color when a
drop of blood was put on it, if the patient was positive for malaria. My
partner Ashwin Sivakumar [also a biomedical engineering graduate
student] and I came up with a prototype. We ended up winning the
New Day Challenge, the Spark Award and a business competition at
Johns Hopkins.” (They also received supported from the Tulane Novel
Tech Challenge.)
But venture capitalists saw no opportunity to get their investment
back for malaria testing in developing countries, although they
lauded the Tulane partners for their work. It was at this point that
the two doctoral students looked to solve a problem in the lucrative
cattle industry.
“We discovered there was a bovine diarrheal virus, which has a
large impact on cattle production,” said Ryans. “Profit margins in the
cattle world are based on the weight of the animal and how well it
reproduces, but this virus was interfering with that. Worse yet, the
virus was being passed from mother to calf, and the viral shedding
at feedlots was spreading the disease like wildfire. This can affect
roughly 15 to 20 percent of cattle.”
Conventional testing for the virus has been cumbersome, and not
user-friendly for farmers, who have been required to get blood samples
from their livestock. This new innovation in viral detection of BDV
can glean results from saliva or nasal swabbing, and the sample needs
no refrigeration.
“This virus is not transmitted to humans, and therefore
does not need the go-ahead from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration),
but rather needs regulatory approval from the USDA
(U.S. Department of Agriculture), which is a much faster process,”
said Ryans.
And what started out as a side project for Ryans has taken on a life
of its own.
“You know, initially I wanted to be in academia and research, and
now I’m interested in the entrepreneurial side, combining business
and science. I might want to do consulting, or go to work for the
FDA to get some experience in the regulatory industry, and maybe
eventually a private company.”
So for Nick Pashos who began college wanting to become a
dentist, or Mei Wang who dreamed of being a physician, and Jason
Ryans who saw himself spending his life in a lab, the prospect of
changing the world through bioinnovation has changed their lives,
and ultimately all of our lives, for the better.
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017 25

Guinea
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
Liberia
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MARIAN BRUNO, MAP COURTESY THINKSTOCK, RIGHT IMAGE COURTESY CHRISTINA CORBACI, TSRI
Mapped Out
Lassa fever is endemic
in West Africa and has
been reported from
Sierra Leone, Guinea,
Liberia and Nigeria.
The inset image ( facing
page) shows an antibody
anchoring to the base of
the Lassa virus surface
protein, locking it in
position to prevent the
virus from infecting
new cells.
26 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

In the Hunt for
a Lassa Fever
CURE
TULANE RESEARCHERS ROBERT GARRY
AND JAMES ROBINSON WON’T GIVE UP
UNTIL THEY UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY OF
THE LASSA VIRUS, SAVING LIVES FROM A
SEVERE AND OFTEN FATAL HEMORRHAGIC
FEVER THAT INFECTS MORE THAN 300,000
PEOPLE ANNUALLY AND IS WRECKING
WEST AFRICAN COMMUNITIES.
By Katy Reckdahl
Twelve years ago, Robert Garry first suggested that his team at Tulane
University School of Medicine could unlock the secrets of the mysterious
Lassa virus.
Some researchers were skeptical. “They thought it was too difficult,”
Garry said.
For starters, the trip from the closest airport to Tulane’s partners at
the Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone took 13 hours, driving
over treacherously bumpy dirt roads. Tulane would have to draw
blood samples from Lassa survivors at a lab in southern Nigeria and
the hospital in Kenema, freeze the samples, then keep them frozen for
another long bumpy ride and a trans-Atlantic flight to New Orleans.
Once those practical concerns were overcome, Tulane researchers
were faced with a virus that science knew very little about in 2005.
“This virus was an enigma,” said Garry’s longtime colleague, Dr.
James Robinson, a professor of pediatrics. “We knew it occurred and
that people either died or got better.”
“Before we started, no one knew what the proteins of Lassa virus
looked like,” said Garry, a professor of microbiology and immunology.
“We knew little about how the immune system responded to the virus.
And we didn’t know if our tests would work.”
A few years ago, the Tulane team grieved and suffered setbacks after
Kenema’s hospital became ground zero for an explosive outbreak of
Ebola virus, a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever whose initial symptoms
look similar to Lassa in patients. Despite protective gear, 11 of the
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
27

PAULA BRUCH-CELENTANO
“If we get a positive,
we shout, ‘Eureka!’”
— James Robinson, professor
of pediatrics in the School
of Medicine
“We’re at the
exciting part.”
— Robert Garry, professor of
microbiology and immunology
in the School of Medicine
Viral Detectives
James Robinson (left)
and Robert Garry have
tracked the Lassa virus
for more than a decade.
hospital’s staff were infected; several died, including the chief nurse
and the doctor in charge of the Lassa fever program.
During the project’s hardest times, even Garry, the project leader
for the proposal, wondered if it was possible to get past all the practical
hurdles in order to develop anti-viral drugs and vaccines for Lassa.
“Could we pull this off?” he thought.
But Garry knew that he had the institutional support of Tulane, because
of its long-standing commitment to combating tropical illness.
Garry himself had also spent much of his career unpuzzling viruses that
others found difficult, most notably HIV. He and Robinson had worked
with the virus since 1987, tracking it from strains taken from AIDS victims
as far back as 1969 and helping to develop crucial anti-viral drugs
and early-diagnosis HIV tests.
So, in many ways, Garry felt that he and his team were ready to
tackle the Lassa virus. Plus, a pot of money had emerged to finance
such work. In 2001, after the attacks of 9/11 and the deadly anthrax
mailings that followed shortly after, national authorities began creating
a list of diseases that terrorists could easily “weaponize” and use in
biological warfare. Lassa virus was on that list.
In subsequent years, the National Institutes of Health announced
grants for researchers focused on certain diseases, including Lassa. So,
in late 2004, to address the U.S. government’s concerns about biological
weapons and to further Tulane’s longtime commitment to public
health, Garry started to write grant proposals for a dream team of partners.
In addition to those who work with the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
Consortium out of Sierra Leone and Nigeria, Garry’s team now includes
researchers from Tulane working alongside scientists from Scripps
Research Institute, Harvard University, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, Zalgen Labs, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery
Institute, and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston,
which conducts animal studies for the project.
Through Tulane colleagues with experience in West Africa, Garry
was well aware of the social toll taken by Lassa virus, which causes a
28 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

deadly hemorrhagic fever. Spread by human contact through the droppings,
urine or blood of a large forest mouse, Lassa is a constant threat
in countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Guinea, and infects
roughly 300,000 people each year.
For many, the virus is fatal, a reality made clear early on to Garry,
who wrote the NIH proposal with Dr. Aniru Conteh, a Kenema doctor
who contracted Lassa and died in 2004. Even now, doctors in the
Kenema hospital’s Lassa-fever ward see an 80 percent mortality rate in
Lassa patients, most of whom are severely ill by the time they arrive
from rural villages, Garry said. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable;
about 90 percent die, and miscarriage is all but certain.
Lassa virus is also disruptive within West African communities,
Garry said, describing how villages often push out infected families and
burn down their houses to prevent further infection. “If enough people
die, an entire village will be shut down,” he said.
But now, after 12 years of research, Garry’s team has developed lowtech
diagnostic tests—similar to disposable pregnancy tests—that can,
with a finger-prick of blood, provide early identification of Lassa fever.
With widespread use of the tests and strategic implementation of the
vaccines and drugs that his project is also working on, Garry believes
that Lassa can be eliminated entirely. “We’re going to stamp this thing
out,” he said.
LASSA THE CIPHER
As Garry pondered work with Lassa, his first move was to the office
next door.
In order for the Lassa project to succeed, Garry needed the expertise
of the man in that office, James Robinson, a specialist in pediatric
infections and a whiz in the lab with Memory B cells.
For his work, Robinson used packages that arrived by air freight: big
metal containers, frozen in dry ice, that look like giant thermoses that
had been packed carefully with vials of white blood cells from healthy
Lassa survivors.
Each of the survivors who donated blood was able to fight off Lassa
fever because they’d developed antibodies to it. Those antibodies are
archived in certain kinds of white blood cells called Memory B cells,
which have proteins that act like keyrings, holding specific keys—
antibodies—that fit perfectly onto each past invader. Each person’s
Memory B cells have hundreds of thousands of antibodies, for everything
from a common cold to influenza to antibodies for measles made
from immunizations.
To find the Lassa antibodies, Robinson added white blood cells to
trays containing 96 culture wells, with a few cells in each well. Then he
went through a detailed process to screen the wells and discover which
wells of B-cell cultures made Lassa antibodies.
When the antibody was present, the well changed color, to blue.
Wells where the color was more intense had a higher concentration
of antibodies; he measured the color precisely by putting the tray into
a spectrophotometer, which gave each well a digital score. The most
intensely colored wells received higher scores and were deemed to
contain a higher concentration of Lassa antibodies.
“If we get a positive, we shout, ‘Eureka!’” Robinson said, noting that
there were spans of time where no one shouted in glee.
Some weeks, Robinson’s lab might have processed 20 or 40 plates
that yielded only one blue well. Or none at all. “It is a type of fishing,
though you have to know how to fish,” said Robinson, an inveterate angler
who often journeys to the Arkansas River basin with his brothers
in search of bass. He sees clear parallels in his work. “You have to be
able to accept failure—it doesn’t keep you down as long as you make
progress,” he said.
After doing further analysis on a group of roughly 120 identified
Lassa antibodies, Robinson deemed 16 of them “pretty amazing” because
they were able to prevent an infection of cells by a Lassa pseudovirus,
a mimic of Lassa virus that his team could use safely in the lab.
Those 16 are the antibodies that he put forward for further experiments,
to see whether they could control the virus and be used in immunotherapeutic
drugs that can treat infected patients.
The top antibodies are now being tested to see how they combat
the four different strains of Lassa that the team found in West Africa.
A genetic study that traced the evolution of the virus found that, while
strains of it have existed in Sierra Leone for roughly 150 years, it has
existed in Nigeria for about 1,000 years.
MOVING TOWARD A VACCINE
Before the Tulane team could use the Lassa antibodies to develop a
vaccine, they needed to understand how the antibodies interacted
with the virus.
All antibodies are proteins made by B cells that play a molecular
Twister game each time they meet an invader. They must make contact
in exactly the right way so that the invader can no longer connect to the
body’s host cells and infect them.
“They come together like praying hands,” said Robinson, showing
how the finger pads of each hand came together, similar to the way
that an antibody needs to bond to an available surface to neutralize the
Lassa virus, he said. To understand how the antibodies could neutralize
Lassa, they needed to know how the virus made those connections.
With Lassa, the Tulane team zeroed in on a molecule on the surface
of the virus called the Lassa glycoprotein precursor complex, which
binds with a neutralizing antibody. Three pairs of proteins called a trimer
form a tripod-like structure. Antibodies target that tripod, locking
the pieces of it together, neutralizing it. At that point, the body becomes
immune.
Based upon that work, Garry’s group received a grant from National
Institutes of Health to develop a Lassa vaccine. And in July, the NIH
announced new grants worth more than $12 million to Garry. They
include two five-year grants for preclinical research—a $5.72 million
grant to evaluate a potent Lassa fever antibody drug cocktail and a
$6.32 million grant to design a vaccine based on a recently discovered
key antibody target on the surface of the virus.
Already, the University of Texas facility is having great success in its
tests of the immunotherapeutic drugs designed for use with infected
patients. First, the scientists there tested some of Robinson’s top antibodies
in guinea pigs that had been infected with Lassa. “We found that
some antibodies were worthless, some pretty good, and some great,” he
said. That narrowed the number to three antibodies that are now being
tested in therapeutic cocktails that are given to infected monkeys.
Typically, creatures begin to die after the ninth or 10th day, Garry
said. So first, the scientists gave the antibodies to the infected monkeys
three days after they showed symptoms of Lassa fever. Every single
monkey recovered.
In the next round of tests, the scientists waited six days before giving
a dose of the antibodies. Again, all recovered. Most recently, they
waited eight days. “By that time, they were very sick animals, sitting in
the corner of their cages,” Garry said. Again, the antibodies worked in
all the animals.
In January, Garry was heartened by an announcement from the
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, a well-funded group
supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome
Trust. The coalition announced that it is focusing on the development
of vaccines for Lassa and two other diseases that could pose epidemic
threats.
“We’re at the exciting part,” Garry said, predicting that, in less than
five years, he and his partners will have developed good candidates for
both a vaccine and a therapeutic treatment.
Success seems so close—and yet so far, said Garry, who feels a renewed
sense of urgency every time he visits the Kenema hospital’s
Lassa-fever ward. “Each time I visit, I see how we are losing patients
that we will be able to save in a few years,” he said.
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
29

ON BOARD Mandy Simpson (UC ’01, SW ’09) founded NOLA
BOARDS, a company that creates locally inspired handmade
cutting boards, countertops and custom furniture, in 2014.
Simpson opened the company’s second retail store in July,
at 519 Wilkinson St. in the French Quarter.
T U L
A N I A N S
ALEX KENT
Children First
Kinika Young (L ’06) knows that communities benefit when children
have access to quality health care. Steering her career in a new direction,
the alumna now campaigns to protect healthcare programs that provide
for the success of future generations.
Dedicating her time to public service while she was a law student,
Young, from Montgomery, Alabama, worked as a student attorney in
the Domestic Violence Clinic and as a volunteer with Common Ground,
an organization that assisted locals in navigating legal issues stemming
from Hurricane Katrina.
The storm hit New Orleans during Young’s second year of law school,
and she relocated for a semester to Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
Tennessee. After graduating, she joined the corporate law firm Bass, Berry
& Sims, in Nashville, where she worked on managed care for five years
and was promoted to partner in 2015.
After the 2016 presidential election, the country’s political climate ignited
a spark in Young, leading her to reevaluate her career goals.
“Attorneys can effect change in ways other than through traditional
legal practice,” she said. “I was looking for a way to devote more time to
working on issues that I felt strongly about, and I always had an interest
in healthcare policy.”
Young had previously worked on pro bono cases for the Tennessee
Justice Center, a public interest law firm that ensures access to state
health care, and she expressed interest in joining the nonprofit’s team.
In April 2017, she was named as its director of children’s health, a
new position funded through a grant from the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation. Young is currently spearheading the center’s efforts to protect
and improve the health insurance programs that are vital for youth.
“I’m responsible for educating different stakeholders in the healthcare
field on how the Medicaid program and other programs that benefit
children are at risk,” she said.—Mary Cross
Serving Youth
Kinika Young uses her
legal expertise as an
advocate for children’s
health care.
OLD HAVANA
Tulane Alumni Travel
offers trips to
Cuba, with Havana
as a highlight.
Cuba
Calling
Cuba quickly became a top destination for
Americans when the United States eased travel
restrictions to the island last year. As excitement
bubbled nationwide, the Tulane Alumni
Travel Program immediately organized a trip to
the island in February 2017.
“Our first trip was a resounding success,”
said James E. Stofan, vice president of Tulane
Alumni Relations, who served as the Tulane liaison
and hosted 11 Tulanians on the trip. “Our
group enjoyed seeing a Cuba that you used to
only be able to see through pictures.”
In response to high demand, the association
has planned two more trips to Cuba. The
first, Cuban Discovery, is a seven-night land
trip that explores Havana and Trinidad from
Oct. 12–19, 2017. For the seaworthy, Cuba by
Land and by Sea offers travelers the chance to
explore the island via a small sailing ship, as
well as three nights on land in Havana. The
latter trip sets sail Feb. 3–12, 2018, with a 10-day
itinerary that overlaps with Mardi Gras break.
Nicknamed the “Paris of the Caribbean,”
Havana is a highlight of both trips, providing
plenty of opportunities to visit museums,
engage in people-to-people exchanges with
residents and explore the city’s famous
colorful neighborhoods.
“We’re particularly excited to be able to offer
two different ways to explore Cuba,” said
Ashley Perkins, director of Tulane Alumni
Travel. “The island is such a unique destination,
with so many interesting sights, tastes
and sounds—there’s a little bit of something
for everybody.”
More information on the travel packages
can be found at http://alumni.tulane.edu/
travel.—Marianna Barry
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
30 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

Dispatch Dan Grandal
W H E R E Y ’ A T !
1940s
ROBERT LONGMIRE (E ’49) celebrated his 90th
birthday on June 28, 2017, by playing golf with his
three sons in Fort Collins, Colorado. Longmire
retired in 1987 from Exxon after a 37-year career.
His last position was in Tokyo, where he was
president of Esso Sekiyu KK. He and his wife,
GAYLE LONGMIRE (NC ’49), have lived in Houston
since retirement.
1960s
“The Man Who Wasn’t Missed,” a short mystery
story by BRENDA SEABROOKE (NC ’63), was published
in an anthology called Busted! Arresting
Stories From the Beat by Level Best Books.
A Roller Coaster Ride Is Short, a book by CARLA
STERNE LINN (NC ’65), is available on Amazon.
KAY GROSSMAN ROSEN (NC ’65) was awarded a
John Simon Guggenheim fellowship in fine art
for 2017–18.
JOSEPH A. WALLACE (L ’65) has been appointed
to the West Virginia Board of Education by Gov.
Jim Justice for a seven-year term. Wallace was
previously awarded The Distinguished West
Virginian, the state’s highest award, as well
as Volunteer of the Year by the West Virginia
Economic Development Council, and Volunteer
of the Year by the Southern Industrial Development
Council. He continues to practice law
with his son, John J. Wallace IV, Esq.
Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson LLP announce
that ALAN H. GOODMAN (A&S ’67) and PAUL M.
HEBERT JR. (A&S ’67) were named as Super Lawyers
in the 2017 edition of Louisiana
Super Lawyers.
NORMAN SILBER (A&S ’67, L ’69) was elected to
the New Hampshire House of Representatives
from Belknap County District 2, representing
the towns of Gilford and Meredith. He was also
elected as the chair of the Gilford Budget Committee
and serves as a voting member of the
Gilford Planning Board.
1970s
TED P. TINDELL (A&S ’70) received a master of arts
degree from the Department of History at the
University of New Orleans on May 13, 2017. His
thesis was “The Cultural and Collective Memory
of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.”
STEPHEN ABSHIRE (M ’72) is actively practicing
gastroenterology in Lafayette, Louisiana.
When not working with patients, he enjoys
family, hunting, fishing and a cattle ranch in
southwest Louisiana.
F.J. WITT III (A&S ’72) is vice president for human
resources at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
STEVEN CAVALIER (A&S ’73, M ’77) practiced neurology
with a specialty in multiple sclerosis for
23 years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He currently
leads the MS Global Scientific Communications
team for Sanofi Genzyme. His wife, Debbie, is
Dan Grandal, a 1993 Tulane engineering graduate, surveys the work at the 17th Street Canal Pumping Station
at the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. Grandal is the lead designer for the Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps
project for the 17th Street and Orleans and London Avenue canals pumping stations.
SUPER PUMPS A. Baldwin Wood, an 1899 Tulane graduate, is a legend for his invention
of the Wood Screw Pump, which has been used for more than a hundred years to drain
rainwater from the canals that crisscross New Orleans.
Now Dan Grandal (E ’93), is about to make his own engineering mark for work on
the $690 million Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps (PCCP) project.
The PCCP project includes pump stations at the edge of Lake Pontchartrain in three
locations—17th Street, Orleans Avenue and London Avenue. (The 17th Street and London
Avenue canals were sites of catastrophic levee failures during Hurricane Katrina.)
“The PCCP project helps reduce flooding risk to our New Orleans community” from
tropical storm surge, Grandal said. “This project is key to resiliency and part of the
larger effort to save Louisiana’s coast.”
The three pumping stations combined are “one of the largest storm water pumping
systems in the world,” Grandal said. He is design director for Stantec Consulting Services,
a private firm contracted to design the project, which includes pumps, bypass
floodgates, floodwalls, electric generators, a fuel facility and a hurricane-safe house
for operators.
“We are doing the same thing that Wood started, keeping floodwater out of the city
with giant pumps,” said Grandal.
The pumps are indeed gigantic—five stories tall. When working at their peak
capacity, the pumps can drain enough water to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in 4
seconds and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in 89 minutes.
PCCP is the last phase of the $14.6 billion U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hurricane
Storm Damage and Risk Reduction System. It’s being built under the auspices of the
Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Once fully functional (it’s
almost complete and currently in the testing phase), the project will be turned over to
its owner/operator, the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board. —MARY ANN TRAVIS
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
31

Dispatch Joelle Mertzel
a pathologist practicing full-time at Woman’s
Hospital in Baton Rouge.
BARNES CARR (UC ’74) published the nonfiction
book Operation Whisper: The Capture of Soviet
Spies Morris and Lona Cohen through the University
Press of New England (UPNE). Much of the
research for the book was done in the Howard-
Tilton Memorial Library. His next work, The
Lenin Plot: America’s War Against Russia, will
be published next year by UPNE in conjunction
with the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day.
The Government Lawyer Section of the Florida
Bar presented RICHARD WEISS (A&S ’74, L
’77) with the 2017 Claude Pepper Outstanding
Government Lawyer Award. Weiss has spent 39
years representing, counseling and advocating
for numerous governmental entities. His
practice, Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman,
focuses on governmental and municipal law
and provides guidance to numerous governmental
agencies.
ROB KARP (A&S ’76) authored an opera about
Napoleon and his family.
GEOFFREY RAGATZ
HOLD THE COLD Sit down and hold onto your toast: Joelle Feinstock Mertzel (NC ’95)
of Los Angeles wants you to know that butter does not need to be refrigerated. Mertzel,
inventor of the Butterie countertop butter dish, was once like many Americans: resigned to
using cold, rocky, bread-tearing butter straight out of the refrigerator (First World problem,
right?), until she realized, quite by accident, that it’s OK to store it at room temperature, at
least for a while.
“To learn that you can actually keep butter on the counter and always have it be soft
and spreadable—it’s life-changing,” Mertzel said with a wink. In fact, it was life-changing
in more ways than one. Eager to “spread” the word, Mertzel ended up inventing, designing
and marketing her own dish: the Butterie, a nifty gadget that neatly stores room-temperature
butter. Butterie has a one-piece, flip-top design, so you can’t drop and break the
lid, and it has a wall to scrape the excess butter off the knife. She couldn’t believe such a
product didn’t already exist.
“It seemed so obvious to me. You have the idea and it comes to you so naturally, but
then when it doesn’t exist, you’re like, ‘Hmph! OK, now what?’ ” Putting her Newcomb College
communication degree to work, she set out to educate the public that when stored
properly, butter does not require refrigeration. She hired a food safety lab to test salted
butter stored at room temperature; the results showed no spoilage for three weeks.
Mertzel had never invented anything before, never tended a product from hatchling
idea to successful launch. She had owned a public relations firm before, though, and still
felt the call of an entrepreneur’s life. But she said she enjoyed the process of developing
a product and meeting each what-to-do-next challenge. Without any manufacturing
contacts, she cold-called suppliers herself, undaunted. “I had to learn so many different
elements”—like the patent process, food safety testing and market research—“it’s been
an exciting journey.”
Butterie launched last year and is now available online and at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Mertzel’s company, Kitchen Concepts Unlimited LLC, has plans to make other products.
In the meantime, the soft-butter keeper improves Mertzel’s family life by a dab. “Now I
make awesome grilled-cheese sandwiches,” she said.—FAITH DAWSON
ELLEN SEIDEMAN (NC ’77) writes the best-selling
Cajun Country Mystery series under the name
Ellen Byron. Body on the Bayou, the second
book in the series, won the Lefty Award for Best
Humorous Mystery and was nominated for a
Best Contemporary Novel Agatha Award. A
Cajun Christmas Killing, the third Cajun Country
Mystery, launches on Oct. 10, 2017. The series was
inspired by the years she grew to know and love
south Louisiana as a Tulane student.
PETER TRAPOLIN (A ’77) and REB HAIZLIP (A ’79)
were elected to the American Institute of Architects
College of Fellows.
New Orleans attorney STANLEY COHN (A&S ’78, L
’81) is president of the Sugar Bowl Committee for
a yearlong term.
1980s
ERIN O’SULLIVAN FLEMING (M ’82) is retired from
anesthesiology and lives in a suburb of New
Orleans across from two classmates: CECILE (M
’82) and RICHARD DEICHMANN (A&S ’80, M ’82).
She has two sons. One is a recent Louisiana State
University graduate, and the other is a sophomore
at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana.
Her husband is a mechanical engineer from the
New Orleans area.
JEFFREY W. MANKOFF (A&S ’83) was selected to
serve on the Zeta Beta Tau Foundation Board
of Directors.
WAYNE TROYER (A ’83) was elected to the American
Institute of Architects College of Fellows.
AMANDA W. BARNETT (NC ’85) is general counsel
and corporate secretary for Red River Bank and
Red River Bancshares, with corporate offices in
Alexandria, Louisiana. Prior to joining the bank,
Barnett was with Gold, Weems, Sues, Bruser &
32 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

Dispatch David Dockery
W H E R E Y ’ A T !
Rundell, where her practice focused on general
corporate law and commercial litigation.
ALEA MORELOCK COT (NC ’85, G ’87) has served
as the assistant provost for international education
at the University of New Orleans since 2008.
In her 28-year career, she has served in local,
statewide and national leadership positions in
the field of international education. She credits
much of her success to her year in Spain on
the Tulane Junior Year Abroad (JYA) program,
where she attained fluency in Spanish and met
fellow Tulane JYA student JOSE COT (A&S ’85,
L ’88). They were married in 1990 and have one
daughter, Isabella, who is currently a sophomore
at Ben Franklin High School.
GREGORY GROSS (A&S ’86) was named chief
creative officer at Greater Than One, a pharmaceutical
advertising agency in New York City.
Gross joined Greater Than One in 2013 as
executive creative director.
A lecturer in Latin American and Caribbean
Studies, LAURA HOBSON HERLIHY (UC
’86) teaches the language of the indigenous
Miskitu people of Nicaragua. She wrote a Miskitu
operetta, “Green Man, Blue Woman,” which
drew 5,000 people to a performance. The story
is based on Herlihy’s real-life working relationship
with Brooklyn Rivera, the political leader of
the Nicaraguan Miskitu, and involves themes of
politics, romance and voodoo.
Two novels by KAREN SCONIERS WHITE (B ’86)
published this year by Penguin Random House
landed at No. 10 and No. 15, respectively, on
the New York Times hardcover best-seller list.
White’s next novel, Dreams of Falling, will be
published in April 2018.
CECILIA ANSPACH (M ’87) married WILLIAM
ANSPACH III (M ’86) on April 11, 1987. They
settled in Stuart, Florida, after completing
their residencies in North Carolina and raised
their twins, Mark and ALLISON ANSPACH (SLA
’14), who are now 24 years old. Cecilia retired
from obstetrics and gynecology in 2005 and
now owns a small home furnishings store. Her
husband recently retired from private practice
in orthopedic surgery.
Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson LLP announced that
THOMAS M. BENJAMIN (L ’87) was named as a
Super Lawyer in the 2017 edition of Louisiana
Super Lawyers.
HELENE SHEENA (NC ’87, M ’91) was appointed to
the board of Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council
in Texas. Sheena is a pediatrician at Kelsey-
Seybold’s Tanglewood Clinic and a fellow of the
American Academy of Pediatrics. She teaches
community pediatrics to medical students at
Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M Medical
School. She is also the recipient of Girl Scouts’
highest honor, the Gold Award.
Commercial litigator THOMAS FLANAGAN (L ’89),
an attorney at Flanagan Partners LLP in New
ON THE ROCKS
Photographs taken
of David T. Dockery
III (G ’91) at 5 years
old picking up stray
rocks and collecting
them in a bucket
could have predicted
his career as an acclaimed
geologist.
Dockery filled his
childhood days exploring
his Jackson,
Mississippi, neighborhood
with kids
from his community.
“We started
looking at fossils
and trying to identify
our stuff. It was like
traveling into deep
time, when there
used to be a beach
with shells on it at
Jackson,” he said.
It was during those
formative years that
Dockery made the
bargain of a lifetime.
While out collecting
specimens, he
bought a uniquelooking
shell for 50
cents from a friend
who had found it
while digging in a
state park.
Decades later,
Dockery would identify
that fossilized seashell as a new species, naming it Transovula producta in his 1977
book Mollusca of the Moodys Branch Formation, Mississippi. He wrote the book while
working as a summer intern for the Mississippi Geological Survey.
Dockery, who earned his PhD from Tulane in paleontology, served as Mississippi Department
of Environmental Quality’s director of the Surface Geology Division until June
2017, when he was selected to head the Office of Geology. He is now the state geologist.
Michael Bograd, who previously held the position, encouraged Dockery to compose
an encyclopedic work on Mississippi’s local geology during their time working together.
“Well, he didn’t count on it being that big,” said Dockery, noting that the 8-pound book
was the largest work ever published by University Press of Mississippi.
Written over 12 years as time permitted, The Geology of Mississippi was co-authored
with David E. Thompson and released in April 2016.
Featuring over a thousand images and site-specific surface geologic maps, the
mammoth text displays how the state’s geologic formations act as earthen fingerprints,
providing clues that help scientists understand global events, like the extinction
of dinosaurs.—MARY CROSS
Orleans, was profiled in Chambers USA 2017, an
annual guide to lawyers practicing in the United
States. Flanagan handles matters such as unfair
trade practice cases and contract disputes in
state and federal courts.
1990s
PayPal Gives awarded a grant to the Children’s
Cancer Therapy Development Institute, a
nonprofit research institute based in Beaverton,
Oregon. Founded in 2014 by pediatrician
CHARLES KELLER (E ’90), the institute focuses on
rare and often fatal childhood cancers, such as
the muscle cancer ARMS and the brain cancer
diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.
DONA KAY RENEGAR (L ’92), a member of the
Lafayette, Louisiana, law firm of Veazey, Felder
RON BLAYLOCK
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
33

WORK OF ART Ed Hall (A&S ’83) co-edited the summer 2017 issue
of ART PAPERS, an Atlanta-based international arts journal.
The issue includes a special section on visionary author Philip
K. Dick, whose works include Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep? and The Man in the High Castle.
W H E R E Y ’ A T !
& Renegar LLC, was welcomed on June 8, 2017, as
the 77th president of the Louisiana State Bar
Association during its annual meeting in
Destin, Florida.
PETER M. SPIRO (A&S ’92) married Deanna
Howes at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the
Apostle in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2017.
Spiro works on Capitol Hill as the chief of staff to
California Rep. Ro Khanna.
PATTY HEYDA (A ’95) published the book Rebuilding
the American City with co-author David
Gamble. The book presents a behind-the-scenes
view of how cities redevelop amidst ongoing
challenges. Heyda is an associate professor of
architecture and urban design at the Sam Fox
School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington
University in St. Louis. Both Heyda and Gamble
were featured speakers at the American Institute
of Architects national convention in Orlando,
Florida, in April 2017.
RYAN E. DAVIS (TC ’96), an attorney at the law
firm of Winderweedle, Haines, Ward &
Woodman, was recently selected as a 2017
Florida Super Lawyer. Super Lawyers recognizes
attorneys who have distinguished themselves
in their legal practice.
JOHN MCCHESNEY (B ’96) has been named division
president at Dorf Ketal Chemicals LLC,
where he oversees the catalyst, chain extender
and lubricant additives businesses. He began his
career at Dorf Ketal in 2009 after working for the
Albemarle Corp. for 27 years.
KRISTIN VAN HOOK MOORE (NC ’96) will serve
as nominating committee chair on the 2017–18
Junior League of New Orleans board of directors.
She is a graduate of the LSU School of Medicine.
She currently serves as a staff pediatric
pulmonologist at Ochsner Medical Center in New
Orleans. She and her husband, Brian, are the
parents of 6-year-old twins, Finnegan and Liam.
GEOFF NAGLE (SW ’96, PHTM ’97, G ’02) is the
CEO of Erikson Institute, the nation’s premier
independent institution in the early childhood
training field.
Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson LLP announced that
SCOTT N. HENSGENS (L ’97) was named as a
Super Lawyer in the 2017 edition of Louisiana
Super Lawyers.
HUGO V. ALVAREZ (L ’98) joined Becker &
Poliakoff as a shareholder in the firm’s expanding
business litigation practice. Alvarez is the
founder and managing partner of the Miami firm
Alvarez Barbara LLP, a practice that concentrates
on business disputes, real estate and insurancerelated
claims.
CHRISTOPHER K. RALSTON (L ’99) is a litigation
partner and litigation group coordinator at
Phelps Dunbar LLP. His practice is focused on
business disputes, including litigation of
real estate, intellectual property, tax and
licensing disputes.
2000s
ALEXIS MATHIS-TUNELL (NC ’00) was recently
announced as the operations executive for Orchid
Advisors in Round Rock, Texas.
VALERIE BRIGGS BARGAS (L ’01) was installed as
the 2017–18 president of the Louisiana Bar Foundation.
Bargas is a founding member of Kinchen,
Walker, Bienvenu, Bargas, Reed & Helm LLC.
Her practice is focused on insurance defense and
general casualty defense.
TALIA GOLDSTEIN (NC ’02) is the CEO and founder
of Three Day Rule, a tech-enabled personal
matchmaking startup backed by Match.com.
Three Day Rule has expanded and has matchmakers
available in nine cities.
In her book The Paradox of Paternalism: Women
and the Politics of Authoritarianism in the Dominican
Republic, ELIZABETH S. MANLEY (G ’02,
SLA ’08) examines women’s participation in
Dominican politics over decades.
PATRICK REILLY (B ’02) was named partner at
the accounting firm Lane Gorman Trubitt LLC
(LGT). LGT is a mid-market Dallas accounting
firm that specializes in dealership services, construction
and real estate. Reilly lives in Dallas
with his wife and two children.
After earning a doctorate degree in English from
the City University of New York Graduate Center
in 2013, JAMES ARNETT (TC ’03) became an assistant
professor of English at the University of Tennessee–Chattanooga
in 2014. For the academic
year 2017–18, he was named a Fulbright Core
Teaching/Research Scholar to Zimbabwe. He will
be conducting research on literary culture and
institutions in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and teaching
writing at the National University of Science
and Technology.
TRAVIS COUNTS (L ’03) is senior vice president,
general counsel and corporate secretary of
Concho Resources. Travis and SOPHIE COUNTS
(L ’03) reside in Midland, Texas, with their
daughter, Evelyn.
LEAH SPIVEY (NC ’04) has joined the firm of
Gasparian Immigration LLC in New Orleans.
Spivey has practiced immigration law since
2009, furthering interests inspired by her studies
at the Stone Center for Latin American Studies.
JONATHAN RUDOLPH KOMINEK STROUD
(E ’04) was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court
Bar on May 9, 2017. He resides in Washington,
D.C., where he is chief patent officer for
United Patents.
IRIS TRAVIS WELCH (NC ’04) and her husband,
Michael Welch, announce the birth of Kieran
Travis on Feb. 20, 2017. Kieran joins his big sister,
Adeline Rose, 4. The family lives in Madison,
Wisconsin, where Iris Welch, who earned a MSW
from Loyola University Chicago in 2008, is a
social worker for the VA Hospital.
TRACEY HENRY (G ’05), assistant professor of
medicine and assistant health director at Emory
University School of Medicine, was selected as a
Presidential Leadership Scholar.
SARAH EDGAR KEEPERS (B ’05, ’05) and her husband,
Robert Keepers, welcomed their second
child, Campbell Ivo, on Nov. 8, 2016. The family
lives in Dallas.
Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson LLP announced
that JOSEPH R. HUGG (L ’07) was named as a
Rising Star in the 2017 edition of Louisiana
Super Lawyers.
2010s
ZACHARY ENGEL (B ’10), chef de cuisine at Shaya
restaurant in New Orleans, won the James
Beard Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year.
The award honors American chefs under 30.
Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson LLP announced
that RACHAEL JEANFREAU (L ’11) was named as
a Rising Star in the 2017 edition of Louisiana
Super Lawyers.
LAUREN PYLE (SLA ’11) graduated in 2016 from
The George Washington Law School in Washington,
D.C. She began her legal career working as
an attorney for CDW Corp. in Chicago.
The Louisiana Forestry Association selected
HANNA GAMBLE (B ’12) as the Outstanding Tree
Farmer of the Year in Louisiana for 2017.
The Washington Redskins signed NICO MARLEY
(B ’17) as an undrafted free agent. Marley is the
grandson of reggae musician Bob Marley.
KEY TO SCHOOLS
SLA (School of Liberal Arts)
SSE (School of Science and Engineering)
A (School of Architecture)
B (A. B. Freeman School of Business)
L (Law School)
M (School of Medicine)
SW (School of Social Work)
PHTM (School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine)
SCS (School of Continuing Studies)
A&S (College of Arts and Sciences, the men’s liberal arts
and sciences college that existed until 1994)
TC (Tulane College, the men’s liberal arts and
sciences college that existed from 1994 until 2006)
NC (Newcomb College, the women’s liberal arts and
sciences college that existed until 2006)
E (School of Engineering)
G (Graduate School)
UC (University College, the school for part-time adult
learners. The college’s name was changed to the
School of Continuing Studies in 2006.)
34 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

Tribute Andrew Lackner
F A R E W E L L
Emile F. Fuhrmann Jr. (A ’34) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on May 20, 2017.
Dorothy Barker (NC ’37, G ’42) of Colleyville,
Texas, on May 31, 2017.
Marian Mayer Berkett (L ’37) of New Orleans on
June 4, 2017.
Dorothy Pugh Deloteus (NC ’38, L ’40) of
Louisville, Kentucky, on April 27, 2017.
Darrah Chauvin Bagley (NC ’40) of Sarasota,
Florida, on Dec. 30, 2016.
Elaine Solomon Goldman (NC ’40) of Atlanta on
April 8, 2017.
Leonard R. Bertolino Sr. (A&S ’41) of Gretna,
Louisiana, on June 22, 2017.
Arthur W. Goodwin (E ’42) of Chesterton,
Indiana, on May 22, 2017.
Gloria Hill Hopkins (NC ’43) of Covington,
Louisiana, on April 27, 2017.
Phyllis Eckert Huhner (NC ’43) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on March 15, 2017.
LaVerne Morris Welch (NC ’43) of New Orleans
on June 7, 2017.
Benjamin S. Brupbacher Jr. (E ’44) of New
Orleans on March 26, 2017.
C.J. Grayson Jr. (B ’44) of Houston on
May 4, 2017.
Norris Murphy Sartin (NC ’44) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on April 9, 2017.
Eugene C. St. Martin (M ’44) of Shreveport,
Louisiana, on April 13, 2017.
August H. Eberle Sr. (B ’45) of Fredericksburg,
Texas, on May 18, 2017.
Elsie Landry Lapham (NC ’45) of Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, on April 23, 2017.
Henry P. Luckett (E ’46) of Tyler, Texas, on
May 18, 2017.
William J. White (A&S ’46) of Los Angeles on
Oct. 2, 2016.
Howard B. Ginsberg (A&S ’47, G ’50) of Flushing,
New York, on May 8, 2017.
Daniel D. Guice Sr. (L ’47) of Biloxi, Mississippi,
on April 13, 2017.
Stanhope F. Hopkins (A&S ’47) of Pass Christian,
Mississippi, on April 17, 2017.
James B. Moss Jr. (A&S ’47, M ’51) of Clovis, New
Mexico, on Nov. 2, 2016.
Lydia Caffery O’Reily (NC ’47) of Houston on
April 8, 2017.
Andrew A. Lackner, director and chief academic officer of the Tulane National Primate
Research Center, died on April 2, 2017. Andrew earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
from Colorado State University and his PhD in pathology from the University of California–Davis.
Before moving to Tulane in 2001, he served in leadership positions at the
New Mexico Primate Center Laboratory and later at Harvard Medical School and New
England Regional Primate Research Center.
At Tulane, Andrew developed and implemented an ambitious strategic plan that
resulted in recruitment and retention of an extraordinarily talented group of scientists.
Under Andrew’s leadership, they successfully competed for a broad array of peerreviewed
grants from the National Institutes of Health, including about $100 million
for new construction and renovation projects at the center. The centerpiece was a $40
million, state-of-the-art BSL3 biosafety laboratory, one of only a handful in the nation.
During Andrew’s directorship, grant support grew from approximately $10 million per
year to a peak of about $40 million per year, supporting research projects for more than
400 investigators and appropriately leading to a renaming of the center as the Tulane
National Primate Research Center.
Andrew was an outstanding scientist who had the capacity to address and solve
research questions that positively impacted the lives of millions, especially those with
HIV. He took great delight in formulating and answering difficult research questions.
Even when faced with a major scientific challenge, he maintained his composure and
was able to take advantage of the situation to create important new knowledge. Andrew
was not only a marvelous scientist and gifted administrator, but also an outstanding
mentor and friend to many. He cared about others and worked hard to help them
achieve their goals. He was proud of the accomplishments of the center’s faculty and
staff. He greeted people by name and treated them with respect. It was easy to see why
everyone admired him, respected him and loved him.
After Hurricane Katrina, the center was the only major Tulane unit that continued to
function without interruption. With ingenious solutions to daunting problems, Andrew
and his colleagues maintained a business-as-usual ambiance at the center and concurrently
accommodated the needs of displaced faculty and staff from the rest of the university.
More than that, Andrew and his wife, Cathy, opened their home to many of us.
I will always treasure my time with Andrew. I enjoyed visiting the center and having
the opportunity, after we finished our business, to sit in his office and talk. We had
good times together, and I can envision him now, leaning back in his chair with that
special smile and great sense of humor. He was a lovely person who died far too young.
His death is a great loss to Tulane, to primate research and to the nation, and an even
greater loss for those of us fortunate enough to have him as our friend.
—PAUL WHELTON is the Show Chwan Professor of Global Public Health at the Tulane
University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
COURTESY OF TULANE NATIONAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
35

F A R E W E L L
James T. Badeaux Jr. (A&S ’48) of New Orleans
on June 10, 2017.
Jack H. Folk Sr. (L ’48) of Tallulah, Louisiana,
on April 6, 2017.
John B. Arlt Jr. (B ’49) of Fort Mill, South
Carolina, on May 19, 2017.
E.T. Morris Jr. (A&S ’49) of Peterborough, New
Hampshire, on March 24, 2017.
Lucile Bernard Trueblood (NC ’49) of Highlands
Ranch, Colorado, on June 1, 2017.
Marie Ellen Marcotte Waldmann (SW ’49) of New
Orleans on May 22, 2017.
Jesse R. Young (B ’49) of Scottsdale, Arizona, on
June 1, 2017.
Sylvia Solomon Enelow (NC ’50) of Washington,
D.C., on May 28, 2017.
Warren H. Hunt III (A&S ’50, M ’53) of Longview,
Texas, on May 10, 2017.
Douglas R. Ingram (A&S ’50) of Southaven,
Mississippi, on April 26, 2017.
Wallace E. Mathes Jr. (A&S ’50) of Amelia
Island, Florida, on May 26, 2017.
Edgar N. Quillin (A&S ’50, L ’53) of Chalmette,
Louisiana, on April 29, 2017.
Stanley Sard (A&S ’50) of Aventura, Florida, on
May 14, 2017.
James N. Pezant Sr. (A&S ’51) of Slidell,
Louisiana, on May 2, 2017.
Tatsuo Asari (L ’52) of Kapaa, Hawaii, on
April 26, 2017.
Bert P. Bannister (A&S ’52) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on May 29, 2017.
Francis R. Cox (A ’52) of New York on
May 5, 2016.
Peter G. Drake (A&S ’52, M ’58) of Osterville,
Massachusetts, on March 13, 2017.
Helen Byrn Wauson (SW ’52) of Houston on
May 14, 2017.
John B. Holland (M ’53) of New Orleans on
May 5, 2017.
Harold A. Mouzon Jr. (L ’53) of Arlington,
Virginia, on Dec. 15, 2015.
Jared B. Palmer Sr. (B ’53) of New Orleans on
June 13, 2017.
Anthony G. Pitalo Jr. (A&S ’53) of Bay St. Louis,
Mississippi, on March 22, 2017.
Frederick R. Skrainka (B ’53) of Chesterfield,
Missouri, on May 27, 2017.
Patrick W. Browne Jr. (A&S ’54, L ’56) of New
Orleans on April 20, 2017.
Paula Beaver Chipman (NC ’54) of Bloomfield,
Connecticut, on May 28, 2017.
Edward T. Cullom Jr. (A&S ’54) of St. Louis on
June 15, 2017.
Patty Scarborough Duarte (M ’54) of Decatur,
Georgia, on April 10, 2017.
William P. Hayman Jr. (PHTM ’54) of Winter
Park, Florida, on May 27, 2017.
Emilie Gaudet Hinton (NC ’54, G ’70) of Slidell,
Louisiana, on April 8, 2017.
James L. Kelly (E ’54) of Keswick, Virginia, on
June 9, 2017.
Sam B. Laine (E ’54) of Collierville, Tennessee,
on Feb. 17, 2017.
Oswin I. O’Brien (A&S ’54) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on May 19, 2017.
Douglas S. Watters Jr. (A&S ’54) of Somerville,
Tennessee, on Aug. 20, 2016.
Clay L. Bartlett (B ’55) of Jackson, Mississippi,
on March 26, 2017.
William K. Catching Jr. (B ’55) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on March 14, 2017.
James A. Montgomery (A&S ’55, M ’58) of
Jacksonville, Florida, on March 4, 2017.
Francis I. Tanaka (M ’55) of Bonita, California,
on April 29, 2017.
Martha Sparks Tisdale (NC ’55) of Tulsa,
Oklahoma, on May 19, 2017.
Dean A. Tyner (A&S ’55) of Port Orange, Florida,
on May 21, 2017.
H.B. Burch (M ’56) of Lafayette, Louisiana, on
March 16, 2017.
Adrian B. Cairns Jr. (A&S ’56, M ’59) of
Covington, Louisiana, on June 5, 2017.
Mary Kendall Garraway (NC ’56) of Jackson,
Mississippi, on April 9, 2017.
St. Clair L. Hultsman (A&S ’56) of New Orleans
on Jan. 22, 2017.
Waite S. Kirkconnell (A&S ’56, M ’59) of Cayman
Islands, B.W.I., on April 2, 2017.
Harold L. Lutenbacher Sr. (B ’56, ’58) of
Goodlettsville, Tennessee, on April 13, 2017.
David A. Moynan Jr. (E ’56) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on May 22, 2017.
Louis P. Di Giovanni Sr. (UC ’57) of Houston on
April 14, 2017.
Audrey Virgets LaPlante (UC ’57, G ’59) of
Asheville, North Carolina, on March 13, 2017.
Robert E. Rood (E ’57) of Freehold, New Jersey,
on April 3, 2017.
Barbara Gray Bartholomew (G ’58, ’62) of
Houston on March 26, 2017.
Harold P. Cervini Jr. (A&S ’58) of Gretna,
Louisiana, on June 20, 2017.
Victor P. Chisesi Jr. (A&S ’58, M ’62) of New
Orleans on May 21, 2017.
William C. Burks (A ’59) of Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, on May 8, 2017.
Robert E. Cole (B ’59) of Houma, Louisiana, on
April 29, 2017.
Gary P. Cooper (G ’59, ’63) of Lewisburg, West
Virginia, on March 10, 2017.
Henry W. Hooker (L ’59) of Nashville,
Tennessee, on April 24, 2017.
Donald E. Miller (B ’59) of San Antonio on
May 2, 2017.
James W. Parker (B ’59) of Lafayette, Louisiana,
on May 20, 2017.
Norvell O. Scott Jr. (A&S ’59) of Virginia Beach,
Virginia, on May 29, 2017.
Cornelia Carrier (NC ’60) of Charleston, South
Carolina, on April 8, 2017.
Joe Fette (A&S ’60) of Orange Park, Florida, on
Feb. 8, 2017.
Walter E. Lundin III (B ’60, L ’63) of New Orleans
on May 18, 2017.
Julian C. Henderson (M ’61) of Jackson,
Mississippi, on June 9, 2017.
Nelson J. Becker (B ’62, L ’64) of Logansport,
Indiana, on April 7, 2017.
Maxwell H. Bloomfield III (G ’62) of Galveston,
Texas, on April 21, 2017.
Richard T. Corrado (G ’62) of Orlando, Florida,
on Sept. 25, 2016.
Beverly Cross (SW ’62) of Little Rock, Arkansas,
on Oct. 8, 2016.
Frank D. Flores Jr. (A&S ’62) of Kenner,
Louisiana, on April 4, 2017.
Otis L. Hubbard (A&S ’62, L ’65) of Los Angeles
on April 9, 2017.
Barbara Williams Woodward (NC ’62) of
Lakeville, Connecticut, on June 12, 2017.
James F. Cole (SW ’63) of Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, on June 24, 2017.
36 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

CALL OF DUTY Erwin R. Johnson (E ’52) died at home in Wynantskill, New
York, on Aug. 17, 2016, on the 71st anniversary of his release from a Japanese
prisoner-of-war camp in Manchuria. Johnson wrote a book called By the Grace
of God about his experience.
Richard A. Mottram (G ’63, ’75) of Houston on
Aug. 5, 2016.
Thomas S. Pardue (A ’63) of Atlanta on
April 30, 2017.
Jane Cheney Redmon (NC ’63) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on June 3, 2017.
Anthony J. Cerasaro (A&S ’64) of Endicott, New
York, on April 24, 2017.
Benjamin F. Hatchett Jr. (M ’64) of Florence,
Alabama, on May 27, 2017.
Janice Mickelson (SW ’64) of Petaluma,
California, on May 24, 2017.
Rebecca Officer (SW ’64) of Livingston,
Tennessee, on Jan. 21, 2017.
Helen Chandler (SW ’65) of Montgomery,
Alabama, on May 11, 2017.
C.A. Dietz (E ’65) of Heber Springs, Arkansas,
on April 7, 2017.
Gibson M. Jones Sr. (A&S ’65) of Marrero,
Louisiana, on March 19, 2017.
Ann Yerger Simpson (NC ’65) of Ridgeland,
Mississippi, on May 24, 2017.
Priscilla Robinette Clement (NC ’66) of
Whitesboro, Texas, on Sept. 22, 2016.
David A. Depp (A&S ’66, M ’67) of Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, on May 11, 2017.
Mary Henshaw Jernigan (NC ’66, G ’71) of
Evergreen, Colorado, on May 27, 2017.
Daniel B. Killeen Sr. (E ’66) of Pass Christian,
Mississippi, on April 28, 2017.
John D. Wilder (G ’66) of Richardson, Texas, on
June 9, 2017.
Carolyn Ellis Staton (NC ’67) of Oxford,
Mississippi, on May 19, 2017.
Caroline Dickey Young (NC ’67) of Pinehurst,
North Carolina, on Feb. 24, 2017.
William J. Fox (A ’68) of Columbus, Indiana, on
April 18, 2017.
John T. Kinst (L ’68) of Batavia, Illinois, on
July 15, 2016.
Sergio A. Leiseca Jr. (A&S ’68, L ’71) of Luling,
Texas, on Aug. 24, 2016.
Louis Pichulik (A&S ’68) of Atlanta on
April 16, 2017.
J.M. Bentley Jr. (G ’69) of Downingtown,
Pennsylvania, on May 19, 2017.
William O. Geny (A&S ’69) of Portland, Oregon,
on June 1, 2017.
Robert R. Hildebrandt (SW ’69, SW ’78) of
Metairie, Louisiana, on May 22, 2017.
James L. Wheeler (A&S ’69, L ’71) of Metairie,
Louisiana, on April 10, 2017.
Frederick J. King Jr. (L ’70) of New Orleans on
May 4, 2017.
DeAnne Hines Rogers (NC ’70) of Chicago on
June 13, 2017.
Arthur E. D’Angelo (A&S ’71) of Grand Prairie,
Texas, on March 26, 2017.
Erasmus E. Feltus Sr. (A&S ’71, G ’78) of
Southfield, Michigan, on May 11, 2017.
Frank C. Whitesell (G ’71) of Hattiesburg,
Mississippi, on March 22, 2017.
Karen Heller Greenstone (NC ’72, G ’74) of New
Orleans on June 15, 2017.
William A. Kendrick (A ’73) of Orinda,
California, on May 13, 2017.
Steven M. Benzuly (A&S ’74) of Dallas on
May 26, 2017.
Robert B. Keaty (L ’74) of Nashville, Tennessee,
on March 1, 2017.
Margaret Restucher (NC ’74, L ’77) of New
Orleans on March 16, 2017.
Mary Turner (NC ’74) of New Orleans on
April 20, 2017.
Connie Walker (NC ’74, G ’75) of New Orleans on
April 29, 2017.
Nancy Meyers Marsiglia (NC ’75) of New Orleans
on May 30, 2017.
Peter J. O’Malley III (A&S ’75) of New Orleans on
June 11, 2017.
Michael M. Harpold (G ’76) of Tucson, Arizona,
on March 15, 2017.
Julie Wepfer Robinson (A ’76) of New Orleans on
April 19, 2017.
Margaret Bauer Lampton (NC ’77) of Houston on
June 25, 2017.
Richard D. McDowell (G ’77) of Slidell,
Louisiana, on March 8, 2017.
Angela Rigney (SW ’77) of Gretna, Louisiana, on
April 17, 2017.
Jeanette Allday Thomas (NC ’77) of Richmond,
Virginia, on June 15, 2017.
Lydia Weber Blache (G ’78) of New Orleans on
May 24, 2017.
Charlotte Bynum (L ’79) of Gretna, Louisiana,
on June 20, 2017.
Cleveland J. Guillot Jr. (B ’79) of New Orleans on
April 4, 2017.
Douglas K. Wise (E ’80) of Spartanburg, South
Carolina, on March 28, 2017.
Nancy Bernstein (NC ’82) of Los Angeles on
Sept. 18, 2015.
Andrew H. Feinman (B ’84) of Menands, New
York, on May 11, 2017.
James M. Mayonado Jr. (E ’84) of Leonardtown,
Maryland, on April 24, 2017.
Bruce E. Baumgardner (A&S ’85) of Hilton Head
Island, South Carolina, on May 31, 2017.
Michael S. Kendrick (A ’85) of Dallas, Georgia,
on March 31, 2017.
Lisa Dyer (M ’86, PHTM ’86) of Burlingame,
California, on March 25, 2017.
Frances Gonzalez Labadie (SW ’86) of Gretna,
Louisiana, on May 26, 2017.
Eric M. Roy (E ’86) of Lake Charles, Louisiana,
on May 4, 2017.
Ross A. Gallo (M ’87) of New Orleans on
May 29, 2017.
Maxine Pijeaux (B ’89) of Birmingham,
Alabama, on March 20, 2017.
Ronald S. Blum II (E ’91, L ’06) of Hollywood,
Florida, on Aug. 12, 2014.
Glenn A. Miller (PHTM ’96) of Walker,
Louisiana, on April 10, 2016.
Andrea Scheele (G ’97, SW ’98) of New Orleans
on May 21, 2017.
Charles V. Wright Jr. (PHTM ’98) of Amarillo,
Texas, on April 17, 2017.
Stephen L. Hendry II (M ’01) of New Orleans on
April 17, 2017.
Scott C. Stevens (L ’03) of New Orleans on
June 14, 2017.
Jason D. Smith (M ’04, PHTM ’06) of Bend,
Oregon, on March 1, 2017.
Gary M. DuGan (PHTM ’08) of Du Bois,
Pennsylvania, on April 10, 2017.
Ramona Lyons (SCS ’09) of Ocean Springs,
Mississippi, on March 2, 2017.
Dustin C. Draughon (M ’14) of Birmingham,
Alabama, on May 13, 2017.
Laura Goedeke (SSE ’15) of Forest Lake,
Minnesota, on April 15, 2017.
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
37

A NEW HOME The Newcomb Art Museum will display Newcomb pottery in display
cases in the Woldenberg Art Center. Benefactors have sponsored three “vitrines,”
or museum-quality glass cases, in Woodward Way. “The vitrines are a superb
opportunity to share this important artwork and expose a wider audience to its
beauty,” said museum director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut.
W A V E M A K E R S
Remote Work
COURTESY MARCELLO CANUTO, DIRECTOR OF MARI
The Tulane Remote Internship Program allows
students to intern remotely during the school
year. TRIP wrapped up its fourth successful
semester in spring 2017 with over 25 national
companies and 40 undergraduate participants.
The generosity of Nisa Geller and
Jeffrey Tannenbaum (A&S ’84) makes the
program possible.
“We support the Tulane Remote Internship
Program because it offers undergraduates a
unique opportunity to further their career prospects
by using a forward-thinking, tech-driven
strategy that connects students on campus to
employers across the country,” said Geller and
Tannenbaum. “TRIP is a meaningful experience
that makes Tulanians more competitive
for full-time employment. We have used TRIP
interns, and they are great.”
Internships are available in a range of
fields, such as science, engineering, finance
and entertainment, with companies based
in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and
other cities.
TRIP features an all-expenses paid
trip to the student’s selected company to
meet with supervisers and get a feel for the
company’s culture.
“TRIP gives students exposure to industries
of interest without requiring a full-time
commitment, and at the same time makes
them more competitive for future career opportunities
by growing their resumes during
the academic semesters,” said Byron Kantrow,
director of Career Wave programming for
Newcomb-Tulane College.
For more information on TRIP, contact
Byron Kantrow at bkantrow@tulane.edu.
—Mary Sparacello
Gift Strengthens
Stone Center
The Zemurray Foundation has given $2 million to establish two
endowments at the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American
Studies, a continuation of its efforts to strengthen Latin American studies
at Tulane University.
“These gifts are part of a long and successful partnership between
the Zemurray Foundation and the Stone Center,” said Thomas Reese,
executive director of the Stone Center and holder of the Thomas F. and
Carol Reese Distinguished Chair in Latin American Studies. “These endowments
will continue to enhance Latin American studies as an area of
excellence in interdisciplinary scholarship at Tulane.”
One $1 million gift will complete the endowment of the Samuel Z.
Stone CIPR Support Trust for the Center for Inter-American Policy and
Research (CIPR), founded in 2007, which is the social sciences arm of the
Stone Center. Its endowment supports CIPR’s academic research on critical
policy issues facing the Americas and facilitates exchanges between
scholars and policymakers in Latin America. The donation honors the
late Samuel Zemurray Stone, a political scientist, author, historian and
longtime Tulane supporter.
The other $1 million gift endows the Doris Zemurray Stone Post-Doctoral
Fellowship at the Stone Center. The fellowship will be awarded to
scholars of archaeology, anthropology and linguistics, areas in which the
late Doris Stone excelled. The fellowship will strengthen programs at the
Stone Center and the Middle American Research Institute (MARI), where
Doris Stone was a noted archaeologist and ethnographer, Reese said.
The foundation’s generosity is coming full circle—in one of his first
donations to Tulane, Samuel Zemurray, Doris Stone’s father, enabled
the establishment of MARI in 1924. The long-standing and generous
support of the Zemurray Foundation has been a fundamental asset in establishing
a position of national prominence for Tulane’s Latin American
studies programs.—Mary Sparacello
Classic Maya
Discoveries from the
Classic Period Maya
continue at the
Middle American
Research Institute.
TRIP BENEFACTORS
Nisa Geller and
Jeffrey Tannenbaum
(A&S ’84) support the
Tulane Remote Internship
Program (TRIP).
38 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

UNIVERSITY GIFTS Tulane had a record-breaking fundraising year, receiving $126.1 million
during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017. The impact of these gifts reaches across
the university, touching countless lives. It was a team effort by Tulane’s Advancement and
University Relations teams, deans, academic leaders, board and councils, and all of our
20,492 inspiring and generous donors. Thank you!
W A V E M A K E R S
Energy Law Center
and Chair Established
RYAN RIVET
Tulane Law School has named energy law
scholar Kim Talus as inaugural holder of the
James McCulloch Chair in Energy Law. Talus
will also become founding director of the
new Tulane Center for Energy Law when he
joins the faculty in January 2018.
The chair was launched with a $2 million
endowment gift from Tulane graduate Jim
McCulloch (A&S ’74, L ’77), executive vice
president and general counsel for Houstonbased
Forum Energy Technologies, and his
wife, Susan. Through the center, the law
school aims to leverage its strengths in the
related fields of maritime, environmental
and international law to build a world-leading
program in energy law.
Talus currently holds a dual appointment
as professor of energy law at the University of
Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland
(UEF), where he is a founding co-director
of the Center for Climate Change, Energy
and Environmental Law. He also has taught at
University College London and the universities
of Bonn, Houston, Malta and Sydney.
Talus has published seven books and
more than 100 articles and chapters dealing
with all sectors of the energy field. He also
is editor-in-chief of the Oil, Gas and Energy
Law journal.
“Energy law and policy is inherently and
increasingly international and has never been
more important,” said David Meyer, dean of
Tulane Law School. “Tulane Law is uniquely
Kim Talus
positioned to lead in this area, given its location
in the heart of America’s energy corridor
and its long leadership in the closely allied
Weinmann Hall
Tulane Law School
is located in the heart
of America’s
energy corridor.
fields of environmental, international and
maritime law.”
Sirja-Leena Penttinen, a lecturer at UEF
and frequent Talus collaborator, will serve
as assistant director of the Tulane Center for
Energy Law. Penttinen has authored or coauthored
four books and more than a dozen
articles on energy and competition law in
Europe and elsewhere. She also has played
“Tulane Law School is
uniquely positioned to
lead in this area.”
—David Meyer, dean
an integral role at UEF’s Center for Climate
Change, Energy and Environmental Law.
—Barri Bronston
TULANE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2017
39

ANGUS LIND A 1966 graduate of Tulane, Angus Lind spent more
than three decades as a columnist for The Times-Picayune.
N E W O R L E A N S
Triumph in 1970
by Angus Lind
A gallon of gas cost 36 cents. The Concorde made its first supersonic flight.
The Beatles disbanded. John Wayne won the Academy Award for True
Grit. A back-to-college typewriter cost under 30 bucks. The year was 1970.
On the night of Nov. 28, some Tulane football players were already
at Fat Harry’s on St. Charles Avenue, drowning their sorrows over what
they felt was a missed opportunity to beat LSU at old Tulane Stadium
on Willow Street. The year that Tulane sports information director Bill
Curl had promoted on billboards citywide as “The Year of the Green” had
turned blue—and not Tulane blue.
In an apartment near the stadium, a crowd of disappointed
Tulane fans who had been to the game was gathered around
a radio listening to the postgame wrap-up of the Tigers’ 26-14
win over the Green Wave. Behind the mike was the deep voice of
Tulane football, “Bronco” Bruce Miller—at his funereal best—
moaning and groaning, lamenting what could have been. Then
from out of the gloom and despair, the football gods intervened.
“Hold the phone!” shouted Miller. “I’ve just been handed this:
Tulane has been invited to play in the Liberty Bowl! Holy cow!”
Not long after that, a smiling Tulane linebacker and tricaptain
Rick Kingrea walked into Fat Harry’s and gave his teammates
the news that would keep them out all night. For Tulane
fans, in seconds despair had turned to delirium. Tulane would
face Colorado and immediately was made a 16-point underdog.
“What you have to understand is that there were only 11 bowl
games back then,” said wide receiver Steve Barrios, the leading receiver on
that team and the longtime color commentator for Tulane football. “Now
there are 41. So this was a big deal.” Tulane, an independent, hadn’t been to
a bowl game since 1939. “The year before, Colorado had defeated Alabama
in the Liberty Bowl. Colorado was a force. They were averaging over 400
yards a game in total offense.”
The Buffaloes’ wide receiver, Cliff Branch, would go on to be an All-Pro
and win three Super Bowls in his 14 years in the NFL. But in the Liberty
Bowl, “Bullet” Joe Bullard and fellow defensive backs Paul Ellis and
David Hebert—aka “Bullard’s Bandits”—held Branch to zero catches.
Coach Jim Pittman’s team had a 28 interceptions that year, a school
record that still stands. The Buffaloes had never faced a defense like
Tulane’s, who held them to 175 total yards in the Green Wave 17-3 victory.
The Wave finished sixth in the nation in total defense. Barrios, for the
season, averaged 25.3 yards a catch, another record that still stands.
On the weekend of Oct. 6–7, 2017, the entire 1970 Tulane football team
with its 8-4 record will be enshrined in the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame,
47 years later, joining those already in the Hall: Kingrea, Barrios, Bullard,
Ellis, David Abercrombie, Glenn Harder and the late Ray Hester.
Tulane center Jim Thompson recalled the week in Memphis: “A group
of us went to The Rendezvous, a barbecue and beer place. Some big SOBs
from Colorado came in and sat near us. They were really cocky. One of
them turned our way and said, ‘So when is your football team going to
show up?’ That really got us stoked up.”
Things escalated when an enormous crowd of fans arrived from New
Orleans, many by train. The team headquarters was the famed Peabody
LIBERTY BOWL
PARAPHERNALIA
Play money and a
decal commemorate
the Green Wave
football team’s berth
at the Liberty Bowl
in Memphis in 1970.
Tulane won the game,
beating the Colorado
Buffaloes, 17-3. The
entire 1970 Green
Wave football team
will be immortalized
in the Tulane Athletics
Hall of Fame in
October 2017.
Hotel, known for its fountain with ducks in it
and only a few blocks from Beale Street.
“The fans were terrific, unbelievable,”
said Bullard. “They were a great
support to us all year but they took it to
another level in Memphis. Nobody from
Colorado had ever seen anything like
that before.”
The Greenies were definitely flying under
the radar. But on the way to their eventual 8-4
record, they had beaten Georgia, Miami and
North Carolina, and played LSU tough.
A week before the game, coach Jim
Pittman put in a pro-style offense, splitting
the offensive linemen 2–3 yards apart because
the Buffs had a huge defensive line. The blocks
would have to be held much less time to get
slashing runners like David Abercrombie and
Bob Marshall through the holes. “I think they
were in shock,” said Bullard. “It was a grindit-out-offense
we had that day.” Abercrombie
scored twice and was named the game’s
MVP. Kingrea was voted outstanding player
on defense after making nine tackles and
intercepting a pass.
“I can’t keep this ball,” said Kingrea after
accepting the award. “It belongs to Tulane.
Not to just one or two or even three players. It
belongs to all 55 of us who dressed out.” Today
he says, “We worked for the same goals, the
epitome of teamwork. It’s amazing how many
of us are still close friends.”
A crowd of 44,640 saw the game, played in
near freezing weather. But by the end, even
neutral fans were cheering for the Wave. No
doubt everybody loves underdogs, but the
Memphis Commercial Appeal headline on
Sunday nailed it: “Those Little Green Men
Were Out of This World.”
40 SEPTEMBER 2017 TULANE MAGAZINE

®
— TULANE UNIVERSITY —
WAVE ’17
HOMECOMING • REUNION • FAMILY WEEKEND
November 2 – 5 • 2017
The President’s
Town Hall
friday, November 3
10:30 A.m.
dixon hall
Celebrating
Undergraduate Class
Reunion Years
1972 • 1977 • 1982 • 1987
1992 • 1997 • 2002 • 2007 • 2012
& Young Alumni (’13-’17)
The Green Wave
take on the Bearcats
vs.
Saturday, November 4
tailgating on quad before game
“Back to the Classroom”
Enjoy an afternoon of academic programming with some of Tulane’s star professors!
Rediscover your favorite curricula or take the opportunity to explore new disciplines.
• Patrick Bordnick, PhD
Dean, Tulane School of Social Work
• Richard Campanella
Geographer, Senior Professor of Practice
• Stacy Drury, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences
• gene koss
Glass Professor
• Candace Jens
Assistant Professor of Finance
• Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH
Professor and Chair, Freeport McMoRan Chair
of Environmental Policy
• Mark Powers
Adjunct Professor, Former CFO of JetBlue
• Peter Ricchiuti
Clinical Professor of Business Administration
Visit homecoming.tulane.edu for more info and travel options

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M A G A Z I N E
Wish you were here. ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’
PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO