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A New Orleans native, I am a wife, mother of five, and grandmother of four. I am a lifelong learner and international traveler who enjoys planning family adventures and then writing about those experiences.

After transferring from the Parsons Paris-based Global Executive Management program, in 2018, I completed graduate studies in Strategic Design and Management at the New York City campus of Parsons The New School.

Over the past 20+ years I have directed the nongovernmental organization that I founded in 2001, The Renaissance Project, to improve quality of life in low-income, predominantly African American communities in New Orleans. We suspended operations in 2019 and under Covid I have continued to work as an independent consultant to foundations and nonprofit organizations.

Recently, I have designed a fund for foundation representatives to support black and indigenous people of color in leadership roles; I have provided fund, operations and board development consulting for a US-based advocacy organization for rare diseases. I have also provided program evaluation services to a local quasi-governmental agency for an executive education program for small business expansion. As program evaluator, I assessed the effectiveness of the 6-month executive education program through the lens of the primary audience and stakeholders: the business owner/participants. Over the past year I provided strategic planning and fund development consulting to Leona Tate Foundation for Change, the legacy organization of one of the three girls who integrated an elementary school in the Lower Ninth Ward community in 1960.

I have worked previously in the offices of academic affairs at two universities: The University of New Orleans and Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. At the University of New Orleans I initially reported to the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Diversity Programs and subsequently to the Provost. As leader of the Campus Diversity Committee, I was actively involved in the design of campus diversity programming over 25 years ago, prior to more contemporary interest in diversity, equity and inclusion issues, themes and programs. I also researched and designed service learning programming under the Vice Chancellor’s supervision which led to incorporation of a program at the University prior to service learning mandates for undergraduate students at universities across the nation.

In New York City, at Medgar Evers College, I reported to the Associate Provost and worked primarily as liaison between the Provost’s office and faculty of academic departments. I provided grant writing support and drafted the monthly newsletter from the Office of Academic Affairs.

My supervision of students comes through several years management of a student employment program under the auspices of the NGO that I founded. In this context I was responsible for troubleshooting and managing crises as they arose during student placement in internships. I served as liaison between administrators and business owners of host institutions. Inside the organization, we also hosted university service learning internship cohorts over the years.

I have lived as a student in Paris and commuted across the city as well as between New Orleans and Paris for subsequent classes, I have first hand experience of the challenge of locating housing in the city. My family was in Paris for extended stays in 2016, 2019 and most recently December 2020-February 2021. I have also lived and worked in New York City. (My eldest son is also a New School Graduate from the Jazz and Contemporary Music program.)

I also have experience working through consular offices in the United States as it was necessary to apply for laissez passer under Covid in order for our family of 5 to travel and stay in France for 3 months December 2020-March 2021.

I have international travel and cultural exchange proficiencies and I have advocated for marginalized populations and underserved communities, including students and individuals with disabilities, both locally and abroad. A team player, active listener, facilitative leader and project coordinator, I have successfully managed complex systems, and social dynamics across multiple constituencies public and private.

Photos on this site courtesy of Black Spade Creative, LLC.