College Roundup

DR. ALLYN SCHOEFFLER, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Earl and Gertrude Vicknair Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, received $89,000 from the Louisiana Board of Regents’ Research Competitiveness Subprogram that will support undergraduate research in biochemistry for three years. Her project, “Molecular Determinants of Specialization in Bacterial Topoisomerases from Extreme Environments,” will study adaptations in enzymes controlling DNA topology. Students will have opportunities to engage in wet-lab biochemical experiments and online bioinformatic analyses to investigate how these molecular machines function in hot and cold environments.

Sociology professor and department chair DR. MARCUS KONDKAR has been awarded $100,000 from the Vital Projects Fund for research to improve our criminal justice system. Kondkar’s teaching and research interests include criminology, sociology of law, and sociological theory. The Vital Projects Fund, Inc. (VPF) is a charitable foundation with an interest in human rights and criminal justice reform.

Loyola’s 30TH ANNUAL BIOLOGICAL

was held virtually in April and included nearly 20 research projects on topics ranging from nanoparticle exposure on voltage-gated ion channels to mud crab feeding preferences. Student/faculty research is a hallmark of the Loyola experience and is made possible through contributions to funds such as the Rev. John H. Mullahy, S.J., Ph.D. Undergraduate Research Endowment, the Drs. Stephen and Rachel Kent Endowment for Research in the Physical Sciences, and the newly created deKernion Fund, which supports juniors and seniors in the Life Sciences. Philanthropic support like this often comes from alumni who recognize how their own student research inspired, transformed, and well-prepared them in their careers.

MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP endowment is typically used each year to send Arts & Sciences students to their Study Abroad destinations. This year, because of COVID-19 and restrictions on international travel, funds will be used to support senior students whose lives have been disrupted by the pandemic, to pay for summer course tuition to ensure that they are able to graduate. “We are committed to being good stewards of these funds and to supporting students who are in greatest need,” says College of Arts & Sciences Interim Dean Uriel Quesada, Ph.D. LaNasa Scholarship funds will support seniors who lost jobs; who are taking care of afflicted family members, or who faced other related disruption. Approximately 25 students will benefit from the fund, named for the late Jack LaNasa and his mother, Rosaria Sarah LaNasa. Mr. LaNasa owned LaNasa's hardware store in the French Quarter in the early 1900s. The store had most of the business in its sector, focusing on ship supplies and items for the fishing and shrimping industries.

GUSTAVO BARBOZA will join the College of Business in the fall as the Reynolds Chair in International Business. Originally from Costa Rica, he will also serve as Director of the Center for International Business with a key goal of fostering relationships in Central and South America. Dr. Barboza received his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University.

After serving as an adjunct professor the past two semesters, IRIS MACK will join the faculty full time this fall. She will teach Introduction to Business, which is the first class taken by business freshmen. Dr. Mack is a New Orleanian and has an impressive industry background in finance as well as master’s degrees from the University of California Berkeley and the London Business School and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

The Loyola University New Orleans College of Law's WORKPLACE JUSTICE PROJECT (WJP) is helping area residents to cope with workforce impacts caused by COVID-19. Founded in late 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to meet the legal services needs of mostly immigrant low-wage workers, the WJP as its mission seeks to build resources and enforce workers’ rights, cultivating legal and economic opportunities to uphold and respect the dignity of all workers. Though the College of Law has transitioned to delivering all courses online, the WJP remains open and active, accessible to eligible clients through its intake telephone line and through a new bilingual Google intake form.

The WJP is posting critical information related to employment issues, including a listing of employers with coronavirus-related openings on its website and Facebook page as it becomes available. The WJP is also currently coordinating resource-related information with the Music & Culture Coalition of New Orleans and Step Up Louisiana by creating an easy-to-understand flowchart for the benefit

of workers and working families. This chart will be available in digital and textable form and will be distributed to those without digital access through food delivery sites, posting at grocery stores, and personal relationships.

With the help of unions and worker advocates in the hospitality, tourism and service industries, and cultural community, the Workplace Justice Project is developing strategies to secure paid leave and relief funds from the public money generated by workers in those industries.

Lawyers in the WJP are also monitoring rapidlychanging policy initiatives on unemployment and paid leave benefits at the state and federal levels, digesting their impact on workers, and planning for the future. They have become part of a policy team working with Rep. Matthew Willard to draft legislation that would require employers in the state to provide paid sick leave to their workers; if passed, more than 70 percent of employees in the state would have access to this benefit.

Journalism professor LISA COLLINS has been named interim director of the School of Communication and Design heading into the 2020 – 2021 academic year. Collins has taught at Loyola for seven years and worked on programs in the School of Communication and Design such as the Gray Producer Incubator Pilot Program and the school’s capstone journalism course. She has also served as the director of online education for the School of Communication. In that role, Collins advised all online students and planned when professors would teach online courses.

A Loyola University New Orleans strategic communications major won big in the first round of the AMERICAN ADVERTISING

ADVERTISING COMPETITION. Nick Chopivsky '20, who received the AAF New Orleans chapter’s “Advertising Person of the Year” award in February, won “Best Presenter” in the virtual competition among District 7 peers held online in April due to COVID-19. His team placed fourth overall for their team presentation and received a perfect score from one of the judges. Led by communications professors Alvaro Bootello and Michelle Clarke Payne, the Loyola Ad team included students Nick Chopivsky, Mia Fenice, Ariel Landry, Will Perkins, Brooke Larkins, Miller Ezell, Mary Ann Florey, Ellen Harper, Sabrina Whatley, Sydney Burns, Olivia Molloy, Anish Balaji and Will McFadden. Loyola’s Ad Team competes each spring in the AAF contest, the premier college advertising competition that provides more than 2,000 college students the real-world experience of creating a strategic advertising/marketing/ media campaign for a corporate client. Students develop a marketing plan and pitch their work to advertising professionals at the district, semi-final, and national levels.

DR. TRACEY LAMONT has been chosen as one of only 14 professors to participate in the 2020 – 2021 Teaching and Learning Workshop for Early Career Theological School Faculty run by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The focus of the workshop is imagining and cultivating adaptive pedagogies for teaching and learning in the twenty-first century.

Loyola's INSTITUTE FOR MINISTRY (LIM) has been awarded a $325,000 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Catholic Sisters Initiative. The grant funds the project “Living Charisms for Sustainable Human Development,” which supports sustainable human development and Catholic Social Teaching (CST) initiatives for Catholic sisters in Eastern Africa.

AND EDUCATION (LCCE) provides needed mental health resources to the Greater New Orleans area. Launched just over a year ago, the LCCE has served more than 150 clients with over 1,500 counseling sessions. The LCCE accepts clients who do not have insurance, and no one is turned away for lack of funds.

Experience the best of three prestigious international business schools, starting with an immersive experience right here at Loyola University New Orleans. Earn your MBA, with the option to add two additional master’s degrees from our top-ranked partner universities: Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany and Skema Business School in Paris, France.