CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
(in Alphabetical Order)
Johnny Anderson is the chairman of the board at Southern University’s Board of Supervisors and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco’s Office. He will lend his valuable insight to the issues of higher education.
Eugene Cornelius is the Louisianastate director of Small Business Administration and is located in New Orleans. He will address issues concerning both Disaster Loans and Minority Contracting.
Jim Dean is the current Chair of Democracy for America (DFA). He is committed to strengthening the movement started by his brother, Governor Howard Dean. He uses his position and time to strengthen grassroots participation in the political process, to recruit and to elect fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates to local, state, and federal office. Prior to assuming his position as DFA’s Chair, Jim Dean worked on Howard Dean’s gubernational and presidential campaigns and before that worked in the field of marketing research.
Carmelita Freeman serves as the Region VI Civil Rights Representative of the U. S. Department of Justice.
Lauree Hayden is the Political Director of SEIU Local 21 LA, the union for public service workers in Louisiana. She began organizing around environmental justice issues before becoming active in Democratic electoral politics in Massachusetts helping to elect candidates on the municipal and state level. She served as an Associate at the public relations and political consulting firm of Hattaway Communications whose clients included Al Gore and Tom Daschle. She left Hattaway to serve as a Partner in Progressive Organizing Strategies, specializing in grassroots mobilization and GOTV. She served as Howard Dean's Congressional District Director in New Hampshire and on the national staff at America Coming Together (ACT) during the Kerry Campaign. She came to LA because believes that building union density in the south and southwest is critical to building real and last change for working people in America.
Ernest L. Johnson, Esq. is the president of the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP and has held this position for the last decade. His work in the field of civil rights includes a position as a United States Public Delegate to the 2001 United Nations General Assembly. Professionally, he has been a practicing Attorney for more than 29 years and currently is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Southern University Law Center, his Alma Mata. He is also an ordained ministered. For his service to his field and community, he has received numerous professional and academic awards and honors.
Karen Livers is a staff member of Project HEAL (Helping Employ Artists Locally)at the Acadiana Arts Council. Project HEAL was created to assist artists and musicians impacted by the recent hurricanes in Louisiana. It offers artists working in a wide range of disciplines including dance, design arts, folklife, literature, media, music, theatre and the visual arts employment opportunities in traditional and non-traditional locations such as schools, libraries and shelters. Ms. Livers, a displaced New Orleans resident, has over 20 years of experience as an actor and arts administrator and is employed in her fields through Project HEAL.
Darryl Malek-Wileyis currently Delta Chapter Sierra Club’sAssociate Representative & Grass roots organizer for Environmental Justice. He has been a veteran of the environmental justice movement, having worked for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, Louisiana Environmental Action Network and the Gulf Coast Tenant Organization. He has served as the Chair of the New Orleans Group of the Sierra Club, the President of the Mississippi River Basin Alliance, a member of the Sierra Club's Ethnic Diversity Task Force and a member of the Sierra Club's Hazardous Material Committee. As a Katrina evacuee, Malek-Wiley worries about his home city, especially concerning "issues revolving around toxics, around human health, around environmental justice."
Congressman Charlie Melanconis currently serving his first term in Congress representing the 3rd District of Louisiana, which covers much of Coastal Louisiana. Charlie’s top priorities are creating more jobs and economic opportunities in the 3rd District and across rural America, lowering the costs of healthcare, and giving our children the education they need to succeed. Before coming to Congress, he spent 11 years as the President and General Manger of the American Sugar Cane League where he worked to protect and grow Louisiana’s sugar industry and the 27,000 jobs and the $2 billion in economic impact it provides. From 1987 to 1993 he served as a State Representative in the Louisiana Legislature. He is a graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Charlie and his wife Peachy, the former Ms. Clark, have been married for 32 years. They have two children, Charles Joseph (Seph), and Claire. Their daughter-in-law is Cheraine Blanchard Melancon.
Leonard L Moore is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the African and African American Studies Program at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. His teaching and research interests include African-American Urban History, Civil Rights, Black Nationalism, Hip-Hop and American Culture. Moore also advises a number of student organizations including The Black Graduate and Professional Student Association and the LSU NAACP. He spends a great deal of time mentoring African-American student athletes. He also runs community program for middle-school boys.
John Pierre, Esq. is a full professor at Southern University Law Center. He is the lead attorney in a class action lawsuit filed against FEMA by evacuees. The suit alleges FEMA violated its statutory obligations to provide aid and to provide due process to all. Among its many causes of action, the complaint addresses FEMA’s failures to provide temporary housing assistance, adequate notice for rental assistance, notice of trailer assistance; challenges the “shared household rule” and the SBA loan requirement, and the delays in providing temporary housing assistance.
Representative Cedric Richmond is the Chairman of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus.
Musheer Robinson currently is the Chairman & CEO ofCourey-Le
Genesis a leading construction technology, supply and engineering company. Robinson has extensive experience in the disciplines of strategy consulting, investment banking, risk management, public health and construction. His professional and civic work has included serving as CEO of the global strategy and solutions boutique, Applied Business Strategies, Inc, as well as senior positions at Marsh & McLennan/Mercer Management and Smith Barney and as the head of the New Jersey Institue on Occupational & Public Health at Rutgers University. He serves on a number of boards including the Society of Jesus' (Jesuits) Sacred Heart Broadcast Ministry, The Noah Hurricane & Mold Institute at Florida A&M University, and is active in the leadership of the Gulf Coast Faith & Community Collaborative etc. Mr. Robinson did his undergraduate studies at Brown University and medical studies at Oxford University in the UK.
Anne Rolfes is the Founder and Executive Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is an environmental health and justice organization that works in communities that neighbor oil refineries and chemical plants to assist residents in their fight to reduce pollution. They protect public health by providing simple, community friendly testing tools. Since Katrina, the Bucket Brigade has worked tirelessly to uncover the environmental hazards present in St. Bernard Parish. Rolfes began her community organizing twelve years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa and continued in Nigeria where she worked on oil production issues. Since 1999, she has worked tirelessly to halt destructive refining practices in her home state of Louisiana.
Bert Santos is an organizer for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT). In the aftermath of Katrina, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades has created The Finishing Industries Disaster Relief Fundin which members of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades make small donations of five dollars in support of their union brothers and sisters, as all donations go directly to IUPAT members. Prior to Katrina, Bert Santos was based out of IUPAT’s District Council 80 in Kenner, Louisiana. He now is working out of IUPAT’s Local 728 office in Baton Rouge helping to disperse the Finishing Industries Disaster Relief Fund.
Shana Sasson, a resident of New Orleans for the past five years, is a local waitress, organizer and the former national chairperson for the League of Young
Voters. For the past two years the mission of the League has been to engage pissed off 17-35 year olds in the democratic process to build a progressive governing majority. In response to Katrina and its aftermath, the New Orleans League has launched the New Orleans Network, a searchable database and directory of community groups, service providers, projects, and people that are rebuilding and reconnecting New Orleans communities.
Senator Charles Steele is the President and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He is a national know figure in the civil rights movement and comes to us from Atlanta, Georgia.
Beverly Trahan has been employed with Entergy/Gulf States Utilities for twenty-nine years. She has worked in transmission and distribution, marketing and customer service. She previously held the position of Customer Service Manager and handling customer issues as well as community and economic development for communities served by Entergy in East Baton Rouge Parish, Pointe Coupee and St. Landry Parishes. She currently serves as External Affairs Manager for Entergy Louisiana. She is married and the mother of three. She is proud to be an individual active in community activities that help children.
Jeffery Thomas is an environmental attorney in New Orleans, focusing on Brownfields development, sustainable building, wetland conservation, and pollution prevention strategies.
Jeffrey also has international and domestic policy experience in Community “Right-to-Know” and “Access to Justice” issues. His work in this arena has been incorporated into United Nations implementation guides to the UN Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. In addition, Jeffrey advises numerous civic organizations on policy and political strategies, including the Sierra Club, in which he is a member of the Club’s national political committee. Presently, Jeffrey is serving on New Orleans Mayor Nagin’s “Bring Back New Orleans” Commission as a member of the City Planning Committee.
Dr. Marshall Truehill, Jr., a native of New Orleans, has a long record of working to improve the quality of life in housing projects through the application of biblical principles. His ministerial positions include the founder and Executive Director of Faith In Action Evangelistic Team, Inc., the Pastor of First United Baptist Church, Chairman of the Board of Multi-Family Missions Ministry of Louisiana and a consultant to the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Additionally, Dr. Truehill served as the Assistant Director of the Institute for Resident Initiatives at Tulane University, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the New Orleans Jobs Initiative, and a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Desire-Florida Public Benefits Corporation, the Metro Vision, a member the Ritz Carlton Workforce Development Task Forces, and the Chairman of the New Orleans City Planning Commission.
Aaron Viles is the Fisheries Campaign Director for the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN). The GRN is a network of environmental, social justice, and citizens' groups and all individuals committed to restoring the Gulf of Mexico to an ecologically and biologically sustainable condition. The GRN plans to redouble its efforts in the wake of Katrina as its core issues have been thrust into the spotlight. Coastal wetlands protection and restoration, the prioritization and effectiveness of the Army Corps of Engineers projects, such as the New Orleans levees; and clean and healthful waters will be the continued focus of the GRN. Viles is also the secretary of Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club. Prior to joining GRN, Viles was the Gulf States Field Director for US PIRG.
Dave Zimmerman is the President of Common Cause of Louisiana . For the last thirty years, Common Cause has successfully worked to make government more open and accountable to the people. Common Cause has led successful efforts for campaign finance reforms, ethics in government, and has joined with coalitions fighting for civil rights legislation, ending wasteful weapons programs and working for reforms to our nation’s system of voting. In the wake of Katrina and Rita, Common Cause of Louisiana is participating in a number of different initiatives and coalitions supporting the rebuilding of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
