News Roundup

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Loyola University New Orleans College of Music and Media was named among Billboard magazine’s “Top Music Business Schools” for 2020 for success in training the next generation of music industry leaders. As Loyola University New Orleans celebrates 100 years of cultural and educational leadership in New Orleans, more than one-third of undergraduates are students in the College of Music and Media, where three professional schools serve as the educational anchor for New Orleans’ vibrant cultural economy.

At Loyola New Orleans, professional instrumentalists, vocalists, industry executives, recording engineers and producers are trained in a rich academic environment where students can roam the halls and learn from industry professionals, Grammy Award winners, and internationally renowned musicians. Loyola faculty, staff, students, and alumni play in 50- plus acts at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival each year.

Brett Simpson ’96, M.B.A. ’03 The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics has named Loyola University's Brett Simpson the NAIA athletic director of the year. Simpson played baseball as an undergraduate at Loyola and has worked in the Wolf Pack Athletics department for almost 20 years. Since he became director of athletics in 2014, Loyola University has captured 15 conference championships and been named a Champions of Character school every year. In 2018 – 19 seven different teams qualified for their respective NAIA National Championship tournaments, a school record. Under his leadership, Wolf Pack Athletics has added four new intercollegiate sports to its program and grown the number of Loyola student athletes by nearly 70%.

was awarded an independent research Fulbright to Brazil. Graves graduated with an impressive double major in Latin American Studies and Strategic Communications/Public Relations. Her winning proposal lays out a study of women's networking in the Baixada Fluminense region as they participate in solidarity economies.

Political Science graduate Rana Thabata ’20, who last year received a coveted Truman Fellowship, plans to use the Fulbright to pursue a master's degree in Policy Studies in Education at the Institute of Education at University College London. Only one of these awards is offered annually.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers research, study and teaching opportunities in over 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students.

Simone Rambotti, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology, and Tavell L. Kindall, APRN, FNP-BC, DNP, adjunct nursing professor, will represent Loyola on the task force, which includes leaders from other universities and research institutions across the state. The task force will explore how health inequities affect communities that are most impacted by the coronavirus.

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Loyola University New Orleans College of Law has joined United Way of Southeast Louisiana to launch an assistance program to help child-care providers navigate new public funding and support rolled out in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

United for Early Care and Education, in partnership with Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and Agenda for Children, provides technical and legal support to child-care centers, beginning with a focus on the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), to help them access the loans, maintain proper eligibility for loan forgiveness, and complete the loan forgiveness process.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues in Southeast Louisiana, the need to help child-care providers access funding and support will increase as they struggle to stay in operation or reopen once more restrictive safety measures are lifted and families return to work. The College of Law will provide ongoing legal assistance to protect and support centers throughout the program’s first year as the community transitions to long-term recovery and provide support accessing the region’s leading banking and financial institutions to expedite the PPP application process.

Lily Cummings ’20 is the first-ever Loyola student to win a Hearst Award. The elite competition pulls from the nation’s top journalism and communication schools. Cummings won by submitting two broadcast news packages, including one about the October 2019 collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans. She returns this summer to her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be a reporter for KTUL-TV, Tulsa’s ABC affiliate. One hundred and four universities with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.

The Hearst Award capped off a truly newsworthy academic year for the journalism students from Loyola’s storied School of Communication and Design, who picked up a slew of honors and awards at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 12 Conference and the LouisianaMississippi Associated Press Broadcasters and Media Editors competition.

Loyola is proud that one of our own will be the next provincial superior of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province. A native of New Orleans, Fr. Thomas Greene, S.J., ’86, J.D. ’89 earned both his BBA in Finance and his Juris Doctorate at Loyola University New Orleans and served as a Loyola staff member from 2007 to 2010. Greene helped to found Loyola’s Jesuit Social Research Institute in 2007.

Upon being named, Fr. Greene shared the following with the Jesuits USA UCS Province, ‘“I am humbled to be asked to serve as provincial of the U.S. Central and Southern Province, especially in light of the fine Jesuits who have led our province over the years,” Fr. Greene said. “I look forward to working with my Jesuit brothers and lay colleagues to advance the mission of the Society.”

The Tom Benson Jesuit Center is advancing as a university committee, led by Fr. Justin Daffron, S.J., shepherds the redesign and construction of the project. The committee, composed of Loyola faculty, staff, students, and alumni, will help inform a design that will create an environmentally sensitive and sustainable sacred space of enduring beauty that will become a new spiritual home for the Loyola Community. Through a competitive selection process, the committee recently chose Trahan Architects to lead the project. Trahan is a global architecture firm rooted in New Orleans with extensive experience designing sacred spaces.

The committee envisions the Tom Benson Jesuit Center as a bold witness to the University’s Jesuit Catholic identity—giving life through the

Sacraments, religious services, and celebrations for all members of the campus community.

Gayle Benson, H ’19, and her late husband, Tom Benson, H ’87, donated the lead gift for this project during the recently completed Faith in the Future Campaign. At the time of their donation, Mr. Benson said, “The philosophy of the Loyola community and the Jesuit tradition is one grounded in providing a well-rounded education. The university takes pride in ‘educating the whole person’ and it is my hope that the Tom Benson Jesuit Center will continue that focus and provide our students a first-class facility in which they can reach their goals.”

Design of the Benson Jesuit Center will occur over the summer. Alumni will be invited to participate in a special workshop as part of the design process.