Newcomb Connections

A Message from the Newcomb Alumnae Association President

My dearest fellow alumnae,

It is amazing that my two years as President of the NAA are coming to an end. Serving you in this role during a once-in-one-hundred-year pandemic has been monumental. After a single meeting together in The Commons in January 2020, the NAA board pivoted to conduct business and program remotely for the next 22 months. COVID elasticity of time (that eerie sensation of week-long days morphing into months without end) often made us feel as if we were slogging through mud, especially during the early months when there was, literally, no end in sight. Take it from me, though, this is the exact type of scenario where Newcomb women thrive. The dedicated board of directors, twenty-five individuals who encountered identical pandemicdriven challenges as you, worked hard to keep you in focus as our North star. Though many student-facing programs were put on hold due to the pandemic and later by, Hurricane Ida, we seized upon the opportunity to strengthen alumnae bonds by continuing and deepening other programs. NAA book clubs looked different, with meetings hosted via Zoom. We innovated and launched our inaugural “New Orleans and Beyond” club, in addition to city-based meetings. The NAA continued financial support of Newcomb Institute students engaged in experiential learning. Alumnae awards were presented during the fall after the cancellation of Under the Oaks two years in a row. Though the pandemic challenged our momentum, we kept moving. About a year ago, Tulane hired its first Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Anneliese Singh (NC ’91). How proud we are of our fellow alumna! In 2021, the NAA board established the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) committee with her support. Dr. Singh facilitated a racial healing workshop for us, a key part of our January 2021 meeting. I invited members of the Director’s Advisory Council (DAC) to join us for what evolved into an emotional bonding experience. With this work done, the ED&I committee was formally established. Over fifty alumnae expressed interest in three slots reserved for non-board alums. The committee soon presented a town hall with Dr. Singh, which complemented the challenge of building its mission statement. In the fall, the ED&I committee hosted a viewing of The Veil, a documentary by Raven Ancar (LA ’22) about racism at Tulane. 2021 has been a busy year for the NAA. I am grateful to past NAA presidents, Carter Flemming, Catherine Hagaman Edwards, Meredith Beers, and Andrea Mahady Price, for their steadfast support. Each gracefully accepted my phone calls, responded to emails, and more, as we navigated an unprecedented journey to keep the NAA robust and significant. I appreciate each of you with all my heart. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me with your compliments and grievances. I am grateful for your friendship and support. I hope you feel I have served you well.

Be well and stay safe,

Lisa D. T. Rice (NC ’83, Parent ’15)

Newcomb Alumnae offer support to students following Hurricane Ida

By Beth Chauvin

In the days following Hurricane Ida, nearly 1,200 Tulane students evacuated to Houston, where they were temporarily housed at the Hyatt Hotel as they made arrangements to return home while our uptown campus was being repaired. The short notice evacuation, compounded by the shock of experiencing such a powerful storm, meant that students were unprepared to be gone from their residences for so long. Luckily, Houston Tulane Alumni Association officer Heather Yanak (NC ’97) was present to lead the charge to support them. Heather secured the hotel’s hospitality suite to host the team of Newcomb and Tulane volunteers that organized and distributed donated supplies from the local community in Houston. The volunteers included our own Newcomb Alumnae Association President-Elect, Helene Sheena (NC ’87), along with her husband, Ronnie (A&S ’85, M *90), and their daughter, Brittney Sheena (SSE ’18). Thanks to generous alumni, students had opportunities to go to an Astros baseball game, art museums, and even take in some concerts during their time in Houston. They also had several evening social events at the Hyatt, including one involving bubble tea and other treats. Newcomb Institute extends heartfelt gratitude to all the alumnae who offered their support to students during this challenging semester.

Students wait to board buses to Houston on Tulane University's Uptown Campus

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives at Newcomb Institute

By Julie Henriquez Aldana, Ph.D., Gabe Christian-Solá, and Andi Richardson (NC ’99)

In these decidedly difficult times, Tulane has mobilized to further its diversity and equity initiatives throughout the institution. At Newcomb Institute, we have strived to understand student needs and focus on organizational changes through our Newcomb Inclusivity and Diversity Excellence (NIDE) Committee. The Newcomb Inclusivity and Diversity Excellence Committee began in 2016 as a collective of Newcomb staff and faculty looking to understand diversity, inclusion, and equity practices at the Institute. Since then, the committee’s goals have shifted according to the needs of our students. In our search for transparency, we created a standing feedback form for students to share their experiences with us. Thanks to this survey, NIDE has utilized the responses to curate our initiatives. As a result, we added three student members to NIDE, and created individual action plans for each staff member to support our goals. As a committee, we focus on leading diversity education efforts for the Institute, including all-staff retreats and once-monthly team conversations around wide-ranging topics from the mental health of our students to equitable classroom practices; we are currently working on the Strategy for Tomorrow, a university-wide strategic planning process to guide our equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and anti-racism initiatives for the next five

years. In these heavy days of action, calls to justice, and re-examining our position within oppressive systems, we are moved more than ever towards action. In Emergent Strategy, adrienne marie brown states that in movement, “there is always enough time for the right work.” NIDE is here to do the right work and continually grow our commitment to equity and justice. The Newcomb Alumnae Association (NAA) has also launched an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee as a standing committee of the board to further the association’s commitment to collective learning and liberation through anti-racist practices. Newcomb College was a transformative institution as the firstdegree granting coordinate women’s college in the United States and empowered women to be educated and economically independent. The NAA continues to evolve as a forward-leaning institution to develop practices and programs to welcome and support all people regardless of race, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, religious belief, socio-economic background, age, ability, body type, and national origin. In June 2021, the ED&I committee hosted its inaugural event, a virtual town hall to discuss Tulane’s strategic vision and initiatives with Dr. Anneliese Singh (NC ’91), Tulane’s first Chief Diversity Officer. In October, the committee presented and moderated an interactive Q+A about The Veil, a documentary exploring W.E.B. DuBois' concept of "the veil" and the Black experience at Tulane, directed by Raven Ancar (LA ’22).

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Scientific Trailblazers

By Camille E. Boechler (LA *21)

From left to right, Lucille Godelfer’s portrait as Secretary-Treasurer of Newcomb French Circle from the 1924 issue of Jambalaya, the official yearbook for Tulane University and Newcomb College. Mary Rollins as a chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (image credit: NIST). May H. Lesser’s senior graduation portrait from the 1947 issue of Jambalaya.

Lucille Godelfer (Class of 1924) Lucille Amanda Godelfer (1903-2006) was born on February 2, 1903 to Estelle Genin and George Godelfer. Godelfer obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Newcomb College in 1924. She also attended Loyola University, Louisiana State University Medical School, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In her career as a medical technologist, Godelfer served on the Louisiana State Board of Health and as the Head of the Bureau of Laboratories. The Lucille Godelfer papers (Collection NA-356) can be found in the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection Finding Aid. Mary Rollins (Class of 1930) Mary Rollins graduated from Newcomb College with the class of 1930. She was a chemist, and was involved in Study Club, a gathering of women who studied together and met several times a year in Gulfport, Mississippi. Rollins worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from 19291938, specializing in the identification of papers and fabrics and their conformance to industry standards. She spent the remainder of her career at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she became an international authority on using electron microscopy for textile research. The Mary Rollins papers (Collection NA-075) can be found in the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection Finding Aid.

May Hyman Lesser (Class of 1947) May H. Lesser graduated from Newcomb College with honors in drawing. As an artist, she had the rare experience of being on the inside of medical centers at University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and Tulane University, as many in her family were physicians. Lesser spent the last three decades of her life “immersed in the field of medicine and creating a body of artwork chronicling the study and practice of medicine” (Newcomb Archives Digital Repository). Through her work, Lesser wove together the human side of medical education with the clinical environment of medicine. The May Hyman Lesser papers (Collection NA-096) can be found in the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection Finding Aid. An oral history of Lesser can be found in the Newcomb Archives Digital Repository (NADR).