Women Making Waves Speaker Bios

Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Speaker Bios
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Florence Andre
Florence Andre’ has
over 35 years experience in non-profit
management and fundraising. Her fundraising
career began at Tulane
where she served as the
university’s director of
corporate and foundation relations and established relationships
with national, regional
and local grant-making
organizations, companies and executives. She later formed Andre’ Associates
consulting firm with a diversified client list that included
the Buckminster Fuller Institute, the School for Arts and
Enterprise in Pomona, CA as well as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, NOCCA, Louisiana Nature Center,
Louisiana Children’s Museum among others.
Florence designed and managed the first-ever $100 million capital campaign for the University of New Orleans
that exceeded its goal at $125 million. During that period
she conceived and produced the CASE award-winning
“Satchmo to Marsallis” concert raising over $500,000 to
help endow the UNO Jazz program. In the early 2000s
she became President and CEO of the LSU Health Sciences Center Foundation, a former client. After Katrina,
under her leadership the DVD “Coming Home” was conceived, created and distributed to all alumni around the
nation. It received the Gold Award at the AAMC.
Florience recently retired as Executive Director of the Touro Infirmary Foundation and is volunteering as Chair of
the Foundation for New Orleans Science and Math High
School, a school she helped establish by raising $500,000
twenty years ago. She continues to serve as a consultant
to non-profit organizations locally and nationally.
Florence received the 1999 Fundraising Executive of the
Year Award from the New Orleans Association of Fundraising Professionals and a CityBusiness Woman of the
Year Award in 2006. She has served on the national board
of directors of Girl Scouts of the USA in New York City and
is currently honorary gala chair of Citizens for a Better
New Orleans.
Client services include development audits, instituting
a fundraising program, strategic planning, action plans,
board training and retreats, feasibility studies, campaign
planning and implementation, and executive searches.
Florence received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish
from Newcomb College and Masters in Counseling from
Tulane University.
While a student at Newcomb she served on the Dean’s
Search Committee and was elected President of the
Newcomb Student Body. After graduation she worked as
director Customer Service for Xerox Corporation in New
Orleans and Dallas. She returned to Tulane as Assistant
to the Director of Alumni Affairs and later served for 10
years as the Counselor to Women/Assistant Dean at Newcomb.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Stacy Boegem
Stacy Boegem is known
as the Action Instigator.
Through speaking,
coaching, and leading
of a vibrant community of women business
owners and professionals, Stacy teaches her
clients and audiences to get out of their own way and
take action in their businesses and lives - always while
keeping their HAPPINESS at the top of their agenda.
After a career practicing law in New York representing
large financial institutions and multi-national corporations in the area of securities class action litigation,
bankruptcy matters, and products liability litigation,
Stacy served as the Chief Operating Officer of a technology startup, where she first dipped her toe into the entrepreneurial waters. Once she did, she was hooked. Stacy
obtained her certification as a Master Coach practitioner
and launched The Happiness Agenda in 2011.
She leads workshops and facilitated masterminds, and
coaches private clients to achieve clarity and take action.
She was named a top 50 mompreneur to follow in 2014
by Mompreneur Media, is a nominee for 100 Outstanding
Women of Broward County, and has been featured in the
Wall Street Journal, New York One, Women’s E-News, the
CW’s Inside South Florida, and the national She Should
Run campaign by the Women’s Campaign Fund, among
others.
Stacy was the keynote speaker for the Greater Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce “Business Woman of the Year”
luncheon, the Nova Southeastern Society of Human
Resources Management conference, the Women’s Elevate
Summit, the Working Women Conference, and has spoken for the National Association of Professional Women,
the National Association of Women Business Owners,
Disney’s Niche Parent Conference, and many others.
Stacy is a native of New Orleans and received her B.A. in
Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her J.D. from Tulane University Law School.
She now lives in Fort Lauderdale with her husband, Sacha, also a Tulane Law alum, and their son Jay.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Mignon Faget
Mignon Faget is driven to design jewelry
derived from natural
and architectural forms
found in her native New
Orleans environment.
“I was born here and
I’ve lived here all of my
life. What is so beautiful
about Louisiana comes
out through my work. It
is a mysterious place.”
Mignon began her
design career in 1969 with the launch of her first readyto-wear collection. The success of the collection prompted her to explore what might be the perfect belt, pin or
necklace to enhance these ensembles. This early exercise
and her studies in sculpture from Sophie Newcomb College led to her first jewelry forms. Since then, jewelry has
become her all consuming interest in the field of design.
From the beginning, she has worked closely with natural
forms, never simply duplicating but always extracting the
substance, the essence of a particular shape…refining
it to perfection. “My work is like a journal. Whatever it is
that I am particularly interested in at that phase of my life
comes out in my work.”
A fifth generation New Orleanian, Faget has flourished in
the culture and traditions of her birthplace. Her collections reflect this. Her first jewelry collection, SEA, is the
transformation of the natural jewels found on the Gulf
Coast into wearable objects of adornment. Botanical
designs include HIVE and indigenous plants such as Banana Leaves, Cycas, Palmae and BAMBOO. ROMANESQUE
RETURN reflects the architectural details of the historic
Henry Hobson Richardson Library located on the famed
Lee Circle. IRONWORKS is a study based on the historic Vieux Carre work of Marcellino Hernandez, the most
renowned of the Spanish iron forgers in
Louisiana. LOUISIANA features touches of whimsy with
the Gumbo Necklace and Mardi Gras Charm Bracelet.
Mignon Faget’s formal training in the arts began at Sophie
Newcomb College of Tulane University from which she
received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with a concentration in sculpture. She furthered her studies at l’Atelier de
la Grande Chaumiere in Paris and the Parsons School of
Design in New York. Faget returned to Tulane University
to take postgraduate classes in botany and other areas of
personal interest.
Faget has long been an active preservationist and art
advocate. She has donated proceeds of her designs to the
Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana to aid in the Gulf oil spill clean up, NOLA for Life to
combat gun violence, and Dash30Dash NOLA in support
of former Times Picayune employees. Her first gallery
building was donated to the Preservation Resource
Center of New Orleans. She has been an active leader
and supporter of the arts and has served on boards for
several of the local museums. The Historic New Orleans
Collection and the Louisiana State Museum Capitol Park
honored Mignon Faget with a retrospective exhibit examining her life’s work, titled MIGNON FAGET: A LIFE IN ART
AND DESIGN.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Ruthie Frierson
A long time civic leader
and the top residential
realtor in Metro New
Orleans, Ruthie Frierson retired from her
profession after Katrina
to Found and dedicate
her time to Citizens for
1 Greater New Orleans.
She conceived a grassroots movement of
citizen volunteers to advocate for deep systemic reform in the areas of flood safety, public education,
criminal, justice, and good government. Ruthie first led
the group in consolidating and reforming the entrenched
levee boards of S.E. Louisiana and then the consolidation
and reform of the Orleans Assessors offices through two
successful legislative and state constitutional campaigns.
Gambit newspaper ranked the two reforms as the number one story of 2006.
She received the prestigious Times - Picayune Loving Cup
for 2006 “for her leadership in a movement that slayed
two sacred cows of Louisiana politics, and advanced citizen activism during SE Louisiana’s darkest hour.”
Coalition; member of Mayor Landrieu’s Task Force on
Levees and Coastal Restoration; Crimestoppers Board
of Trustees; Board member of The New Orleans Public
Belt Railroad Commission; a founding member of New
Orleans Museum of Art’s Director’s Council; and Fleur de
Lis Ambassador for the City of New Orleans- one of 20 city
leaders who have traveled the country and state telling of
the recovery and renewal of our great city since Katrina.
She has chaired and served on numerous community
boards, including serving as President of the Junior
League of New Orleans, Chairman of the Louisiana Nature and Science Center, Newman and Mc Gehee School
Boards, and Chair of the School Volunteer Services of the
New Orleans Public Schools.
.
Ruthie has been the recipient of numerous community
honors since Hurricane Katrina, which include: Times
Picayune Loving Cup for 2006; The Alliance for Good Government Civic Award for Orleans Parish, 2006; The Junior
League Sustainer of the Year, 2006; Newcomb College
Alumnae of the Year, 2007; Loyola University Doctor of
Humane Letters Honorary Degree, 2008; Young Leadership Role Model 2008; Tulane Emeritus Club Alumnae
of the Year, 2012. and The CrimeStoppers George Loker
Community Service Award 2011 on behalf of Citizens for 1
Greater New Orleans;
As a retired public school history teacher her passion
has always been to stimulate public awareness through
civic engagement. Post Katrina, she is a Founding and
Executive Committee member of The New Orleans Crime
Ruthie is a graduate of Louise McGehee School and
Sophie Newcomb College. She is married to Louis Frierson and they have two sons, Lou Jr. and George and one
grandson, Brice.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Yvette Jones
Yvette M. Jones, Executive Vice President for
University Relations
and Development at
Tulane University, is
the university’s chief
advancement and
external affairs officer.
She is responsible for
overseeing all fundraising, coordinating and
managing the university’s relationship with all
government agencies
and for developing a comprehensive communications,
marketing and branding strategy for the university. She
is the chief liaison to the Tulane Board and all external
advisory boards and councils.
which exceeded its $700 million goal in June 2008, making it the largest university fundraising effort in the history of Louisiana. She currently is leading the university’s
efforts to plan and execute a $1 billion-plus campaign.
As chief advancement officer, Yvette was responsible
for the “Promise and Distinction Campaign for Tulane,”
She has Bachelor of Arts and M asters of Business Administration degrees from Tulane University.
Since 1979, Yvette has served Tulane University in a variety of roles including Chief of Staff to the University President, Vice President for Finance and Operations, Senior
Vice President for Planning and Administration, and Chief
Operating Officer of the University.
She is an active member of the higher education community, and a member of the Council for the Advancement
and Support of Education (CASE). She is involved in the
New Orleans community as a member of the Boards of
Tulane University Medical Center, Greater New Orleans
BioDistrict, New Orleans BioInnovation Center and the
Louisiana Audubon Society.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Virginia Saussy
Virginia Saussy builds
successful brands. With
over twenty-eight years
of experience in marketing, sales, advertising,
public relations and
business development,
she knows what it takes
to lay a path to the next
level of success.
Virginia joined Sucre,
a New Orleans based
Sweet Boutique and
confection studio, to strengthen the administrative
management, organize fulfillment and fine-tune sales
and marketing efforts. Within eighteen month she had
defined a wholesale product line and introduced a beloved local brand to the national gourmet and specialty
food marketplace, expanding distribution by over three
hundred percent.
In her tenure at Mignon Faget, Ltd., Virginia enabled company growth through strong branding and relationship
marketing, taking sales from $1.3 M to over $13 M; and
saving the company from tragedy after Hurricane Katrina.
She established this local jewelry designer as an artist,
connected community leader, philanthropist and Louisiana legend, securing her place in history with a traveling
retrospective exhibition in 2011.
Virginia spent several years in corporate America
developing the network that would become Verizon
Wireless through marketing demographics and negotiated roaming agreements and pioneering the wireless
retail industry with innovative strategy and rate plans
still used today. She encouraged a national corporation
to value localized marketing and used it to build brand
strength and customer loyalty.
After Hurricane Katrina, Virginia also used her skills to rebrand a devastated New Orleans neighborhood, engaging
property owners and citizens of New Orleans to force its
survival and establishing the Broadmoor neighborhood
as the come-back story of the city. Her devotion to her
city has benefited numerous community organizations.
She is a founding member, officer and the creative force
behind one of the city’s most popular carnival organizations, The Krewe of Muses.
Virginia Saussy has been honored with numerous awards
including Gambit Magazine’s 40 Under 40 (2002), Newcomb College Outstanding Alumnae (2006), and Top
Female Achiever by New Orleans Magazine (2012) and is a
frequent speaker at area universities.
Beginning her career in advertising agencies as a copy
writer, media buyer and account executive, Virginia
Saussy realized her marketing passion was to understand
all aspects of the product marketing spectrum, from
research to concept to advertising to sales to distribution
to customer service, giving her the perspective to enable
positive impact for success.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Carol Showley
Carol attended Newcomb earning a B.A in
art history and spent
her junior year at the
University of Madrid.
She received a master’s
degree in architecture
from Tulane School of
Architecture. She has
fifteen years experience in the design and
construction of commercial, medical and
educational facilities.
While working in New Orleans, projects included the
convention center for the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair,
the Veterans Administration Medical Center and Lenox
Station/MARTA in Atlanta. She was a member of the New
Orleans chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
She moved to San Diego in 1985 and joined the construction department of HomeFed Bank at its headquarters in
the capacity of architect and project manager. Projects
for HomeFed Bank include retail banking, tenant improvements for private banking and remodels of acquisitions. She is currently licensed in California and has
previously been licensed in Louisiana.
Carol has also lectured on New Orleans architecture at
the University of San Diego.
Active on the Tulane Alumni Association Board since
2005, she served as president of the San Diego alumni
club and currently serves as national alumni president.
The TAA honored her as Alumna Volunteer of the year in
2011.
Carol is married and has two college-age children,
Charles, an astrophysicist completing his master’s
degree, and Catherine, a sophomore, majoring in civil
engineering. Outside interests include tennis, travel and
her Scottie dog.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Cecile Tebo, LCSW
Cecile W. Tebo, LCSW
a New Orleans Native,
is in private practice
as a Crisis Intervention
Specialist and is the
family resource specialist and Counselor at
NAMI. She is the past
Commander of the New
Orleans Police Department Crisis Unit, where
she had been employed
for the past 10 years. In
that capacity she responded to 911 calls involving people in our community that were having a mental health
crisis. For the 20 years prior, she was involved in the field
of adoption where she assisted in over 1500 adoption
placements.
Since Katrina, Cecile has invested a great deal of her time
in promoting awareness of the plight of the mentally Ill in
New Orleans. The challenges in servicing this population
are among the most difficult, a challenge she has met
with tremendous energy and enthusiasm. When not on
the ground responding to their acute needs, she has been
successful in securing many spots on local television and
radio shows to share their needs and the services that are
and are not available in the community. Her advocacy
on behalf of the mentally ill keeps this population at the
forefront of needs as the city rebuilds.
Cecile’s work has been highlighted nationally on CNN,
NPR radio ,MORE and W magazine. She is a contributor to
the Times Picayune, Gambit, uptown messenger and assisted in the production of WDSU’s weekly Mental Health
Minute, a show highlighting mental health community
services. She was also a regular guest on Channel 8 Fox
News Monday Morning, titled mental health Monday in
which she highlighted various mental health programs
around town. You can now hear her the second Tuesday
morning of each month on WBOK radio, Mental Matters.
Cecile is on the board of Family Service of Greater New
Orleans and Gulf Coast Services. She has been the recipient of many honors, including the City Business’ Top
50 Women, The City Business Health Care Hero, Family
Service Outstanding Person award, CADA media award,
Grace House Women of Substance award, and was
named one of the 10 top females by New Orleans Magazine.
Women Making Waves
Leadership Conference
Tulane University • March 21, 2015
Kara Van de Carr
Kara Van de Carr is an
attorney and former
United States Diplomat
responsible for writing the Trafficking in
Persons Report for the
country of Jamaica.
She is also the Founder
and President of the
Board of Directors of
Eden House.
Recognizing the prevalence of human trafficking both
internationally and in the United States, Kara worked
with State of Louisiana Representative Neil Abramson
to draft legislation to protect children trafficked into the
sex trade. Other efforts include: lobbying lawmakers in
connection with drafting and enacting this legislation;
testifying at state legislative hearings; and petitioning
for the equal protection of victimized individuals. Her
persistence and dedication culminated in strengthened
anti-human trafficking legislation, which elevated Louisiana to one of the highest ranking states in anti-human
trafficking laws in the U.S.
In addition to fighting modern-day slavery through legislation, Kara and the Board of Directors of Eden House
recognize the extreme need for solutions for healing
for those victimized. She travels throughout the U.S.
to speaking on the issue of human trafficking and the
recovery process, as well as assisting national, regional,
and local organizations to establish similar residences.
She has worked to educate leaders in the criminal justice system on the gravity of human trafficking and the
revictimization that often occurs when victims are treated
as criminals in the justice system. She also has taught
Continuing Legal Education courses to legal professionals
on these subjects.
Kara is honored to have recently received a Gubernatorial Appointment to the Human Trafficking Court Task
Force, entrusted with establishing Human Trafficking
Courts around the State of Louisiana. Prior to accepting
her presidential commission as Vice Counsel at the U.S.
Embassy in Kingston, Kara practiced law with Phelps
Dunbar in the Public Utilities practice area. In addition to
this practice, Kara worked as a legal intern in the Office of
Legal Affairs at the United Nations, and was an intern at
the U.S. Embassy in The Hague in the Netherlands.
In September 2014, Kara received the Sarah T. Hughes
Civil Rights Award from the Federal Bar Association and
was honored as 2014 Person to Watch in New Orleans
Magazine. Kara received the Phenomenal Women Community Leadership Award by the National Dental Association in addition to the Award in the Fight Against Human
Trafficking by the AKA Sorority. The Federal Bar Association, New Orleans Chapter awarded Kara the President’s
Award in August 2014 and prior to that, she was named a
Fellow of the Louisiana Bar Foundation.
Kara received her B.A. in Political Economy of Industrial
Societies from University of California Berkeley, her J.D.
from Tulane Law School, and her L.L.M. in International
Law from Georgetown Law School.