Theresa Dardar is a powerful advocate for both the unique ecosystems along the Gulf of Mexico as well as the tribal communities who call coastal Louisiana home.

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As a tribal member of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, Theresa Dardar is a powerful voice for her community, serving as a representative and spokesperson for her tribe at local, state, national and international forums, such as the United Nations' Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples Conference. She has participated in the Intertribal Agricultural Council and has represented the Gulf Coast in various capacities. Theresa works as the Diocesan American Indian liaison at the Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and serves as President of St. Charles the Roch, Kateri Circle, which is a branch of the Tekakwitha Conference. She was a Board Member of South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center and Go Fish, a multi-parish alliance of fisher families. Theresa is a member of First Peoples’ Conservation Council. She is a member of The Grail, a movement supporting the human rights of women. Theresa has been a participant/leader in Church Women United, an ecumenical women’s movement that fights against racial prejudice. She spends most of her time traveling between political, professional, academic and organizational realms to voice justice concerns for her tribe and for the greater native community. When she does find herself at home, Theresa enjoys cooking special local bayou dishes and being out on the water and shrimping with her husband, Donald.

A lifetime resident of coastal Louisiana, and an Elder of the Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha Tribe, Ms. Rosina Philippe believes that collaboration is the most powerful tool we have to work for environmental sustainability of coastal, traditional, and historied Louisiana communities.

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Her work is focused on partnering with leaders from other communities, and various organizations/groups, to work for environmental sustainability of coastal, traditional and historied communities. These alliances are forged to address issues of: Climate Change, Economic Instability, Environmental Justice, Gentrification and Coastal Restoration/Preservation; issues that are familiar to most of our communities and have plagued its peoples for generations. As a guest lecturer, she speaks on recognizing accountability, and identifying contributing factors and entities in relation to these issues. Ms. Philippe is a firm believer that people facing similar problems, through informed education and information sharing, have the power to affect positive long-term changes; and through collaboration, take charge of their own destinies, building toward a more resilient and sustainable life.

Dr. Michèle Companion is a sociologist working to understand the relationships between indigenous communities, food sovereignty, climate change, and cultural survival.

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She is currently a Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs. Her work has focused on Native American reservation nutritional dynamics, including impacts of low income diets on overall health and on reservation food security issues. She has been documenting tribal participation in the food sovereignty movement to reclaim cultural aspects of traditional foods. More recently, she has been focusing on food security and long-term health implications of food access for urban Indian populations by examining cultural barriers to healthy eating among low-income urban Indian populations. She is currently interested in examining the impacts of climate change on indigenous communities and their long term cultural survival.

Dr. Companion works as a food and livelihood security consultant to international humanitarian aid organizations. She has worked extensively across Africa in countries including Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Somalia and in Japan. Her current work focuses on the expansion of food security indicators to increase local sensitivity to food crisis triggers, especially in local markets and urban areas, and on population displacement, migration, and resettlement. She has numerous publications. She edited the volume Disaster’s Impact on Livelihood and Cultural Survival: Losses, Opportunities, and Mitigation (CRC Press, 2015), which includes contributions from a number of Lowlander Center team members, and co-edited Responses to Disasters and Climate Change: Understanding Vulnerability and Fostering Resilience with Miriam S. Chaiken (CRC Press, 2017) and Street Food: Culture, Economy, Health, and Governance with Ryzia de Cassia Vieira Cardoso and Stefano Marras (Earthscan from Routledge, 2017).

May Nguyen is inspired by grassroots environmental campaigns that are grounded in regenerative cultural practices, and has successfully created and led such campaigns in the wake of different disasters.

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After Hurricane Katrina, Nguyen created culturally competent small business assistance programs and organized partnerships among diverse stakeholders to attract over $4 million in grants and low-interest loans to rebuild neighborhood businesses in New Orleans east. Her work was detailed in “Coming Home to New Orleans,” published in 2013 by Oxford University Press. In 2013, Nguyen received the Rishwain Social Justice Entrepreneur Award for designing and implementing a novel “impact claims” campaign strategy to demand recognition and calculate damages for lost subsistence use due to the BP oil drilling disaster. She currently serves as the Development Director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. Previously, she was the Community Outreach Director at Tulane Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic.

Jacqueline Barnett Cummings is a firm believer that you are “blessed to be a blessing.” She is passionate about serving people.

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She is a 22-year employee of the State of Louisiana and in her current role, works in Financial Management and Operations for Medicaid at the Louisiana Department of Health. She serves as the Treasurer for the Presbytery of South Louisiana. She is the founder of the JCB Memorial Foundation, a Louisiana based non-profit that promotes community service. She is an active volunteer with the Baton Rouge/New Orleans branch of PCHAS (Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services). She is a member of the Synod of the Sun Foundation Board of Trustees and the Texas Presbyterian Foundation Board of Trustees.

Dr. Shirley Laska is fully committed to supporting Louisiana coastal and bayou communities through applied research and meaningful collaboration.

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She completed 35 years of academic work, principally as a research manager at the University of New Orleans, before retiring in 2009 and transitioning her efforts to full-time applied research in the Lowlander Center. She is a community/environmental/disaster recovery sociologist with significant time spent on interdisciplinary teaching, research and service on advisory committees both regionally and nationally—including the National Academy of Sciences.

Shirley co-founded the Lowlander Center with Kristina Peterson in 2009. Their goal was (and is) to commit their time fully to the support of coastal and bayou communities of Louisiana through service to community goals and applied research similarly to support their successful sustainability. The challenge of supporting communities so threatened by land loss and powerful riverine flooding, coastal storm inundation and oil spills is that sustainability adjustments may in the end be inadequate for these communities to remain in place. The Lowlander Center philosophy is that the sustainability skills developed in their effort to remain in place can be used to resettle inland, if conditions warrant, i.e. “between now and then.”

Shirley was educated at Boston University, Tulane University and was a Post-doc with the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Cali, Colombia. She taught at Dillard University, an HCBU, and the University of New Orleans where she created two research centers - one directed toward environmental sociology and the other applied disaster mitigation and served as Vice President of Research for eight of the 35 years. She is (almost) a lifelong resident of coastal Louisiana.

Lina is a skilled problem solver and innovative leader with an extensive background in management, entrepreneurship, and community economic development.

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Her focus is on generating meaningful results using my analytical and interpersonal skills, and her goal is to contribute to the enhancement of our community’s well being through technology innovation, economic inclusivity, and environmental resilience.

Dr. Gene Turner is a LSU Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University. His research focuses on biological oceanography, conservation, environmental management, restoration, and wetlands.

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He has been a lead on projects focused on, for example, hypoxia and water quality issues of the Mississippi River and adjacent wetlands, measuring effects of stressors on coastal wetlands, and the impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on the Louisiana coastal environments. He has been working with FPCC to restore the dredged canals surrounding their communities, mitigate present and future climate hazards, and protect their sacred sites.

Julie Maldonado, PhD is Associate Director and co-founder of the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN), a non-profit, link-tank for policy-relevant research toward post-carbon livelihoods and communities.

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In this capacity, Julie serves as co-director of The Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences, which facilitates intercultural, relational-based approaches for understanding and adapting to extreme weather and climate change. Her disciplinary background is in public anthropology, focusing on collaborations with communities experiencing and responding to repeat disasters and climate chaos, including with Tribes in coastal Louisiana to restore marsh ecosystems, reduce land loss and flood risk, and protect sacred sites; and co-initiating a network for justice-driven disaster recovery. She is driven to connect with those focused on a commitment to service, collaboration, and community-centered action to address the climate crisis.

Dr. Tim Reinhold is a Wind Engineering and Natural Hazards Consultant. He recently retired from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) after 13.5 years leading their engineering and research functions as Sr. VP for Research and Chief Engineer.

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Tim brings his heart and knowledge to the passion of having safe and sustainable housing to our post disaster region. Tim has been instrumental in creating resources for Rebuilding the Boot, the demonstration sites for resilient rebuild and for the training of volunteer groups working post Laura and Ida. His professional career includes twelve years on the faculty of the Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University where he rose to the rank of professor, ten years as a consulting engineer with firms in the US, Canada and Denmark and five years as a research structural engineer at the National Institute for Standards and Technology. He earned BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech in 1973, 1975 and 1978, respectively.

Rebecca Lovingood is a retired Physical Oceanographer. She is sharing her past experience working with both brown and blue water oceanography and regulatory agencies to assist in mitigation of coastal erosion and restoring the dredged canals.

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She is assisting the FPCC as research coordinator and administrator. She is also the Team leader for the Presbytery of South Louisiana Disaster Preparation Team.

Jack is an active researcher and lecturer on a broad range of environmentally sustainable systems.

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Besides teaching at several universities, including Appalachian State University, and the North Carolina Clean Energy Center, over several decades, he has consulted with businesses in the area of sustainable technology: mentoring, kickstarting small businesses, judging student competitions and designing new ideas, and projects around the world; Peace Corps/Nepal, UN/India, USAID/Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central, and South America. He is a certified DOE/Solar Instructor on the design, installation, commissioning, and performance testing of renewable energy systems. He is the Founder and President of the Triad Electric Vehicle Association. Organic Transit, Green Cycle Design, Light Electric Vehicle Association Tech Training and OutriderUSA are just a few of his successful collaborations. A keen supporter and advocate for solar energy and transportation, Jack helped organize and took part as an official in the Tour de Sol, EVChallenge, Solar Bike Rayce, SunRayce, American Solar Challenge, World Solar Challenge, Shell Eco-Marathon, STEM Cycle Challenge, the Solar Decathlon and the EPA P3 competitions. From proposals written and collaborations, he sparked the generation of millions of dollars in the form of grants. Jack has developed an extensive network in the renewable energy and transportation industry interviewing experts as Producer/Co-host of the ‘Home Power Hour’, radio/TV show.

Mona Porter is inspired by grassroots collective action and believes that creativity, collaboration, joy, and participatory decision-making grounded in lived experience are essential to address our shared histories and work toward a fuller, more just future.

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Mona is an artist who works in multiple mediums including jewelry, woodworking, painting, and writing. She enjoys crafting pieces for friends and family.

In addition to assisting with web design for the Lowlander Center, some of Mona’s past work has included developing curriculum and teaching courses at the Iowa Women’s Correctional Facility through the Grinnell Liberal Arts in College Program and maintaining a community garden and orchard and creating a neighborhood cookbook/oral history using recipes and stories obtained through interviews with neighborhood residents in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans through the Jericho Road Housing Initiative.

Mona has a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Grinnell College.

Lee Beckwith believes in the power of local organizations to solve big problems.

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They are currently a teacher at Miss Porter's School in Connecticut working towards their Master's in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. They studied environmental justice and computer science at the Claremont Colleges. Before volunteering with the Lowlander Center, they worked with The Food Project to improve food systems in Massachusetts, as well as with the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice as an outreach intern.