"VOLUNTEERISM and CITIZEN SERVICE must lead Louisiana's recovery effort." -Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu The Louisiana Serve Commission is pleased to announce Volunteer Louisiana, a website and call center that matches volunteers with service opportunities throughout the state. Visit www.volunteerlouisiana.gov or call 866-286-3835 or 225-342-3070 to find out how you can begin a summer of service.

Louisiana State Parks Grow and Renew The Louisiana Office of State Parks has spent nearly $80 million in major construction projects since 2004, providing two brand-new parks and a new historic site, adding cabins and campsites to existing parks and building visitor center at one park, the preservation area and three historic sites. Learn More >>

September 17, 2008

CONTACT:
Seth Harvey
(225) 342-8153
sharvey@crt.state.la.us

"The Louisiana State Museum is well-positioned to become a premier institution that attracts visitors from across the globe and creates jobs here in Louisiana," Lt. Governor Landrieu said. "I look forward to working with the newly appointed board of directors to make historic landmarks, like the Cabildo, the Presbytere, and the Old U.S. Mint, hubs of cultural activity."

In the 2008 Regular Session, SB 724 (Act 908) passed, which transfers appointing authority for the LA State Museum Board of Directors to the lieutenant governor. This law also gives the Natchitoches Sports Hall of Fame and the Civil Rights Museum a seat on the Board of Directors.

Lt. Governor Landrieu appointed the following members:

Robert W. Brown (At Large)

Bob Brown is the Managing Director, Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region. Brown was appointed to his position at the Business Council after a long career at the University of New Orleans. Brown served Vice Chancellor for Governmental, Community and Diversity Affairs from August 2003 until October 2007. Brown serves on numerous boards, including, the Legacy Donor Foundation, the Preservation Resource Center, the Bureau of Governmental Research--where he chairs the BGR Breakfast Briefing series, and is a trustee of the Greater New Orleans YMCA. He has been honored with a Role Model award from the Young Leadership Council, and was selected as a Community Hero/Olympic Torch Bearer for the 1996 Olympics. In 2007 Brown was awarded the Times Picayune Loving Cup Award. This award, est. in 1901, has been given to men and women who have worked unselfishly for their community without expectation of public recognition or material reward. Brown is married to the former Brenda Ball of Lake Charles, LA, and is the father of one daughter, Deborah, and one son, Kevin.

Rosemary Ewing (At Large)

Rosemary serves on: the Old State Capitol Advisory Board, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Board, the Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services Inc, the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, Shreveport Advisory Board, and the United Methodist Foundation for Evangelism. She is a member of the Friends of the Cabildo and she served on the New Orleans Museum of Art Advisory Board from 1996 to 2002. She was the Vice Chairmen of the Board of Directors for the Louisiana State Museum from 1996 to 2004. Ms. Ewing was President of the Louisiana Legislative Wives Auxiliary from 1996 to 1998. She is married to Former Senate President Randy Ewing and has 2 children Ashley Ewing Manning and Jefferson Brandon Ewing.

Susan Brunner (At Large)

Susan Brunner is the Owner of the Covington-based Brunner Gallery. She serves as the Vice-Chair of the Louisiana State Arts Council. She also serves as a board member on the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce Board, Louisiana Partnership for the Arts Executive Committee, Tulane National Primate Research Center, and the Community Focus Board. She formerly served on the Kohler Foundation Folk Life Museum board and the Covington Downtown Development board. Ms. Brunner has served as a panelist for multiple events as well as performing lectures on several subjects centered on art and cultural economy. In 2007 Ms Brunner was awarded the St. Tammany Parish President's Award, named Art Patron of the Year as well as the West St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce Board Member of the Year.

Diane K. Zink (At Large)

A native of South Bend, IN, Diane K. Zink graduated, cum laude, in 1977 from H. Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, after completing a double major in Economic and Political Science. Thereafter, in 1980, she was awarded a Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Tulane University School of Law. Licensed to practice law in Louisiana since 1980, Ms. Zink currently is a self-employed attorney engaged in complex mass tort and personal injury litigation. Ms. Zink is an active member of the Laussat Society of the Historic New Orleans Collection, a New Orleans Museum of Art Fellow, the Audubon Institute and the Preservation Society of Newport County. Currently, she is a member of the Trips Committee for Sentimental Journeys, the fundraising arm of Longue Vue House & Gardens.

Sandra Thompson Herman (At Large)

Sandra T. Herman is the Executive Director of the Atchafalaya Basin Program for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. During her professional career Mrs. Herman has served on several government boards and commissions. She served as Cabinet-level Secretary for the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism from 1976 to 1978. She is a former member of the Atchafalaya Basin Advisory Committee, the Louisiana State Parks and Recreation Board and President Clinton's Energy Team. She is the current President of the Capital Area Network and she serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. Mrs. Herman has received several awards for her success in business. In 1993 she was awarded the Louisiana Women in Business Advocate of the Year by U.S. Small Business Administration. She was also named a Trailblazer for Women by Louisiana Women in 1990. Ms. Herman received her MBA from Louisiana State University in 2003. She is married to Russ Herman and has a daughter and son.

Anne Redd (At Large)

Anne Flower Redd is a native of New Orleans. She attended the University of Virginia, receiving a BA in 1990. She is a cum laude graduate of Tulane Law School. Following law school, she worked for the law firm of O'Neil, Eichin, Miller and Breckinridge. Mrs. Redd married Edmund England Redd in April of 1994 and has two daughters, Elizabeth, age 12, and Fleming, age 11. Since her children's birth, Anne Redd has become very active in her community. She currently sits on the Boards of the Archbishop's Community Appeal, the Louisiana Museum Foundation, Meals on Wheels, the Legacy Donor Foundation, the Preservation Resource Center, Ochsner's Women Center, the LSU Department of Psychiatry Advisory Council and Longue Vue House and Gardens. She is a past Board member of the Metairie Park Country Day Alumni Association and the Junior League of New Orleans. She is a member of Citizens For One Greater New Orleans and is a Woman of The Storm, the non-partisan group of women who traveled to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress for funding for New Orleans post-Katrina. She was honored by the Young Leadership Council and the YWCA as Role Models in 2007 and 2003, as well as was named the first ever St. Charles Avenue Magazine Community Activist of the Year in 2004. She was also recognized as an Outstanding Community Activist from St. Elizabeth's Guild in 2006. She was presented with the title of Outstanding Woman in District A in 2005 by the City Council.

Elna Dease (At Large)

Elna Dease is the owner of Correct Care Inc., which currently staffs the emergency departments of 38 hospitals across Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas. Elna is a graduate of The University of Louisiana at Monroe (previously Northeast Louisiana University) where she was awarded a doctorate in pharmacy. Prior to owning Correct Care, she worked throughout Louisiana as a consultant pharmacist in long-term care facilities, as a pharmacy manager for Eckerd Drug Company, and as a staff pharmacist for Ocshner Foundation Hospital. Raised in Baton Rouge, Elna is the wife of Dr. Eddie Dease and the mother of four beautiful children. Elna and her family live in Covington, Louisiana, where she is active in many civic and cultural activities. Elna recently was honored to coordinate the Inaugural Prayer Service for Governor and Mrs. Bobby Jindal.

Janet Haedicke (At Large)

Dr. Janet V. Haedicke is Professor of English at University of Louisiana at Monroe, where she served for four years as Director of the University Performing Arts Series and two years as President of the Faculty Senate. Editor of the Tennessee Williams Literary Journal, she has published articles on modern and contemporary American drama in numerous critical anthologies, reference volumes, and major journals, including Modern Drama and American Drama, where her contributions were recognized as distinguished. Presenting regularly at national conferences, Dr. Haedicke has served on the Boards of Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans, the American Theatre and Drama Society, as President of the David Mamet Society, and as Performance Review editor of the David Mamet Newsletter. She is currently on the Executive Board of the Pirates Alley Faulkner Society in New Orleans. Her community service includes the Center for Children and Families, for which she serves as President; the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council, for which she serves as Community Affairs Vice President; the City of Monroe Infrastructure Commission; and on the board of the Louisiana Governor's Mansion Foundation. Previously, a graduate of Leadership Louisiana, Dr. Haedicke has served on the Governor-Elect's Advisory Council for Youth Development and on the boards of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the Twin City Art Foundation, and New Orleans Save Our Cemeteries, Inc.

Donna Winters (At Large)

Donna B. Winters is a native of Lepanto, Arkansas, and has lived in Lake Providence, Louisiana, for the past 58 years. Donna is a life long volunteer in her church and community. She has served in numerous capacities with the Lake Providence Junior Auxiliary and the First United Methodist Church. Donna was involved with the establishment of the Louisiana State Cotton Museum and has served as its President, Exhibits Coordinator, and still serves on its Regional Board. In 2001 Donna was the recipient of the Lois Bannon Wyatt "Heart and Soul" Volunteer Service Award, presented by the Louisiana Association of Museums, for her service to this museum.

Donna has also been very active in the US cotton industry, serving as President of Louisiana Cotton Producer's Association; appointed by US Secretary of Agriculture as an Alternate on the Cotton Board; Producer Delegate to the National Cotton Council; and currently serves as a Director on Cotton, Incorporated, where she chairs the Planning Committee. Donna was the recipient of the 1997 Ceres Award, an award honoring the cotton industry's female leaders presented by "Fiber Magazine" and was 2000 Outstanding Agricultural Woman of the year presented by Northeast Louisiana Agri-Business Council. Donna served as Health Care Coordinator for the Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana and was Chairman of the Region 8 Health Care Consortium. Donna currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana, and is currently a Member of the Board of Commissioners for the East Carroll Parish Hospital where she has served for 9 years. Donna is proud to be an alumni of Leadership Louisiana, as a member of the Class of 1995.

William Greiner (At Large)

William Greiner, a New Orleans native has lived his life behind a camera. As a noted photographer his work has been seen in several publications. Greiner has also won several awards for his photographs that have been seen in galleries across the United States. Mr. Greiner graduated with his MBA from Suffolk University in Boston in 1985 after receiving his BFA in Photography from Tufts University.

Dr. Ralph Lupin (At Large)

Dr. Ralph Lupin of New Orleans is a physician for The Women's Medical Centers. He also acts as a consultant for National Medical Enterprises, Inc. Dr. Lupin has been an active member in public service since 1976. He is an elected member of Orleans Parish Democratic Executive committee and Vice Chairmen of the Vieux Carre Commission. Dr. Lupin has been an active member of the Louisiana State Museum Board since 1979 and has served of Chairman. He has served on the Board of Directors of the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Audubon Institute. Dr. Lupin was the Chief Deputy Coroner of Orleans Parish from 1974 to 1986. Dr. Lupin served in the United States Air force from 1952 to 1960. He also served in the Louisiana National Guard from 1986 to 1997 where he was ranked as Colonel, State Surgeon and Brigadier General.

Michael M. Davis (Friends of the Cabildo)

Michael M. Davis of Metairie is a retired history/political science educator. He is the former president of the St. Alphonsus Art & Cultural Center. He presently sits as a board member for the St. Alphonsus Art & Cultural Center as well as the Friends of the Cabildo. He has graduate degrees from Loyola University New Orleans and Webster University, St. Louis; and has completed doctoral course work at Vanderbilt University. He has traveled extensively in Eastern Europe, including teaching in Lithuania and Romania. He has memberships in many professional and historical organizations and has served on various boards and commissions, including vice-chairman of the Louisiana Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution.

Dr. William Perret (LA Historical Society)

Dr. William Perret is a retired physician. He is a former president of the Louisiana Dermatological Society and the Orleans Parish Medical Society. Dr. Perret is a long time volunteer at the Louisiana State Museum, and is an expert on the museum's collection. He is also the current representative to the museum of the Louisiana Historical Society. Dr. Perret has put in hundreds of hours into serving the museum and is a member of The Friends of the Cabildo. He also volunteers weekly at St. Louis Cathedral, where he gives tours of the church's architecture, history, art and furnishings. Dr. Perret also volunteers at the National World War II Museum and gives cemetery tours for Save Our Cemeteries.

Lawrence Powell (LA Historical Association)

Lawrence N. Powell teaches southern history, race relations, and Holocaust studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1976. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he has published books and articles on Reconstruction history and Louisiana politics. He wrote a biography of a New Orleans Holocaust survivor, titled Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke's Louisiana, published by UNC Press in May, 2000. Mr. Powell was vice-chair of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, which he helped found, and a board member of the Amistad Research Center. At present he is the executive committee chairperson of the Southern Institute for Education and Research. He was the chairman of the Amistad Center's 1989 National Civil Rights Conference, "A Continuing American Dilemma" and of the 1996 Plessy Centennial Conference "When the Future Was the Past." Currently, he is the executive director of the Tulane-Xavier National Center for the Urban Community, whose mission is to improve the living conditions and life chances of public housing residents in New Orleans. It also administers the city's major competitive Welfare-to-Work grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. In 1998 he received the "George Washington Lucas Community Service Award" from the New Orleans branch of the NAACP. In 1999 he was named "Louisiana Humanist of the Year" by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Darryl Gissel (The Foundation for Historical Louisiana)

Darryl Gissel is a licensed real estate broker and the owner of Baton Rouge's Oak Real Estate which specializes in historic and inner city properties. He has served on the Baton Rouge Board of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the East Baton Rouge Parish Gaming Commission, and Baton Rouge Foundation's Neighborhood Initiatives Committee and as a board member. He now serves as Immediate Past Chairman of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana.

Jerry Adams (Wedell-Williams Memorial Foundation)

Jerry Adams is a longtime resident of Patterson, Louisiana. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Tulane in 1976. Mr. Adams has served on several boards and commissions including the Atchafalaya Golf Course Commission and the Wedell-Williams Memorial Foundation. He is a member of the National Association of Life Underwriters, the Lafourche Association of Life Underwriters, the National Rifle Association, and Ducks Unlimited.

Philip Woollam (LA Museum Foundation)

Philip Martin Woollam arrived in New Orleans in 1975 having grown up in England and lived five years in Rome. Woollam is a graduate of the University of Exiter in the United Kingdom. He founded and still owns a New Orleans based wine wholesale company called Purveyor of Fine Wines, Ltd. His background has made him especially sensitive to the importance of the cultural and architectural treasures that are found in our cities. Woollam is a former President of the Preservation Resource Center and board member of other preservation groups. He has worked hard to maintain the integrity of the city whilst, as a businessman, showing that business and preservation are natural companions, not adversaries.

David Plater (The Friends of Edward Douglass White Historic Site)

David Plater was born in Nashville Tennessee but has resided in Louisiana since 1940. Mr. Plater is retired but is currently undertaking research and writing in antebellum Southern history. From 1973 to 2004, Mr. Plater was an agriculture and property manager at Acadia Plantation. His past civic and charitable positions include: Children's House Montessori School, New Orleans; Friends of the Cabildo, New Orleans; Lafourche Heritage Society, Lafourche Parish; Lafourche American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; Governing Board of E.D. White Historic Site; Friends of E.D. White Historic Site.

Wayne McCullen (LA Sports Hall of Fame)

Wayne McCullen is the current Mayor of the City of Natchitoches. He was elected mayor after serving as a Natchitoches City Council Member from 1980-2000. Mayor McCullen served as the Director of Anesthesia at Natchitoches Regional Medical Center from 1974 to 2000. He is currently serving as a member of the Executive Board of Directors for Northwest Louisiana Coordinating Development. Mayor McCullen is a member of Friends of the Old Courthouse State Museum, the Natchitoches Historic Foundation, the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches, and the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission.

Madlyn Bagneris (LA Civil Rights Museum)

Madlyn B. Bagneris is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She earned her B.S. degree in Secondary Education from Southern University in New Orleans and her M.S.W. in Management, Community Organization, Planning and Administration from Tulane University. Mrs. Bagneris began her career at Entergy in 1992, and is presently Manager, Supplier Diversity. In January 1996, Mrs. Bagneris was appointed by the Governor of Louisiana, Mike Foster, to serve as Secretary of the Department of Social Services and served in this position for a period of three and half years. Ms. Bagneris is the current Chair of the Women's Business Council Gulf South, Vice Chair of the Louisiana Minority Business Council, immediate past President of, Kingsley House Family Services Center, and Trustee of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. She also serves on the Board of the Edison Electric Institute's Supplier Diversity Executive Committee as Co-Leader, on the Industry Trends Committee. Ms. Bagneris is the former first Vice President of the Girl Scouts of Southeast Louisiana, the former President of the St. Mark Community Center Board of Directors, a founding board member of UNITY for the Homeless, former board member of Louisiana Council on Child Abuse, former board member of the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, Trustee of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and a founding member of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps Board of Directors.

Pam Breaux (Ex-Officio Secretary of DCRT)

Pam Breaux was appointed Secretary of the Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism July 1, 2008. From January 2004 until 2008, she served as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Cultural Development, in DCRT, under the commission of the Office of Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu. As assistant secretary, she oversaw Louisiana's arts, historic preservation, archaeology, and cultural economy programs. A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Breaux graduated from McNeese State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Later she graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a Master of Arts degree in English and folklore. Breaux managed Southwest Louisiana's Decentralized Arts Funding Program from its inception through its seventh year. Further, she spent six years as executive director of the Arts & Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana. During her tenure there, she worked to create and develop the Central School Arts & Humanities Center as well as the Southwest Louisiana Cultural Tourism Coalition. She also led the Louisiana Division of the Arts as its executive director from 2001 until 2004. Breaux currently serves as Secretary of the Board for the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, as a board member for the Southern Arts Federation, and a member of the Advisory Board for the Louisiana Creole Heritage Center. She is active with the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts and was chairman of the group from 1997-1999. She has also served on the board of directors and was vice president for NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts/Riverfront. ###