Diversity Task Force

Attendance -- Top row (left to right): Dr. Debra Walker King, ACE Fellow – LSU System; Dr. Michael Gargano, Vice President for Student and Academic Support Services – LSU System; Ann Coulon (Proxy); Dr. Katrice A. Albert; Dorothy F. Reese - Member of the LSU Board of Supervisors and Chair of the LSU Board Diversity Initiative; Raymond T. Diamond; Dr. Joseph M. Moerschbaecher, III; Dr. Carolyn H. Hargrave - Vice President for Academic Affairs – LSU System; Shirley Roberson; Pamela S. Bloom, Staff Liaison – LSU System. Bottom row (left to right): Roberto E. Diaz del Valle; Gena Doucet; Dessie Williams; Margaret Young; Kenna Franklin; Yvette Marsh.
Absent: Torii Ransome Freeman

The LSU System Diversity Task Force has been established to serve as an advisory group to LSU System Administration and LSU Board of Supervisors, particularly the Academic, Student Affairs, Achievement & Distinction Committee chaired by Board of Supervisors’ member, Ms. Dottie Reese.

The Diversity Task Force membership is made up of a chief diversity professional representing each campus in the LSU System. They have been charged with evaluating the LSU System’s status on cultural diversity and community outreach and identity the challenges and opportunities for the LSU System. They will develop policy recommendations to the LSU System Administration and the LSU Board of Supervisors on best practices to increase cultural diversity and community engagement. This year, the Diversity Task Force will assess three major areas of interest: Campus Climate, Recruitment and Retention, and Training and Development.

LSU Diversity Task Force Members

Katrice A. Albert, Ph.D.
Katrice A. Albert is Vice Provost for Equity, Diversity, & Community Outreach at LSU. In this post she serves as the Chief Diversity Officer and is responsible for developing and implementing strategic initiatives and policies aimed at cultivating a campus environment that embraces individual difference, sustains inclusion, and enhances institutional access and equity.

She also serves as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy & Practice where she teaches the graduate course entitled, “Multicultural Counseling.” She is committed to teaching, research, service, and mentorship.

Dr. Albert completed her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology at Auburn University. Her clinical internship was completed at Boston Medical School’s Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology. She earned her Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi. She graduated magna cum laude from Xavier University of Louisiana with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. She is a native of New Roads, Louisiana in Pointe Coupee Parish.

Raymond T. Diamond; BA, JD, Yale University
Prof. Diamond is currently a Professor at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center and has been designated beginning 2009/10 as the Jules F. and Frances L. Landry Distinguished Professor of Law. Prof. Diamond previously was the John Koerner Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of African Diaspora Studies at Tulane University. Prof. Diamond has written widely in the area of Constitutional Law, race relations, and legal history. His scholarship in the area of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms has been has been cited in Supreme Court jurisprudence and has been awarded the 2000 Carter-Knight Freedom Fund Award. His latest scholarship, a chapter in the second edition of The Bill of Rights in Modern America, is “Public Safety and the Right to Bear Arms,” published in the fall of 2008. In connection with the issues he has raised in his Second Amendment scholarship, he was co-counsel on the amicus brief presented by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller, decided in 2008. He is the co-author of Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution, which was awarded the 2003 David J. Langum, Sr., Prize by the Langum Project for Historical Literature.

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Gena Doucet
Gena Doucet assumed the Human Resource Management Director position at Pennington Biomedical Research Center on June 1, 2003. Prior to her appointment with PBRC, Ms. Doucet was employed by the Office of Human Resource Management at Louisiana State University A&M College from October 1999 to May 2003. During her tenure with the LSU Baton Rouge campus, she served as Human Resource Manager, Human Resource Analyst, and Management Intern.

Ms. Doucet holds leadership positions with numerous LSU System and PBRC committees and external organizations, including the State Human Resource Management Association (SHRMA), the PBRC Conflict of Interest Committee, the PBRC Crisis Management Committee, the PBRC Upper Management Committee, the PBRC Safety Committee, and currently serves as chair of the LSU System Office Council of Staff Advisors to the Board of Supervisors. She has previously served on the LSU System Office Agenda for Change Civil Service Reform subcommittee, Greater Baton Rouge Society of Human Resource Management (GBRSHRM), the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) and co-chaired the PBRC United Way Drive.

Ms. Doucet earned a Bachelor of General Business from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in May 1989 and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in December 1996.

Kenna M. Franklin
Kenna M. Franklin is an Instructor of Social Work/Sociology at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. As of January 7, 2009, she became the founding Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Mrs. Franklin is currently a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin in the educational administration program. She has received her Certificate of Advanced Study in Social Work as a doctoral student at Tulane University, earned a Masters degree in Social Work Administration from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and completed double major requirements in Sociology and Criminal Justice from Grambling State University. Mrs. Franklin teaches a series of four Social Work courses emphasizing introductory content, professional methods, overview/analysis of historical social work and independent studies of local social service agencies. Additionally she teaches lower level sociology courses exploring introduction content, contemporary social problems, marriage and family, and minorities in America. Mrs. Franklin is currently awaiting the publication of her first children’s story, Grandmother, Grandmother What Do You Dream? She has been appointed by Louisiana State Governor Mike Foster to serve as a Board member of the Louisiana Board of Social Work Examiners. She serves on numerous university committees, has collaborated on several newspaper feature stories, presented papers to state and national organizations, served as board member to local organizations, received the 2002 American Studies Fellowship Award, and is ranked in the Top 20 Faculty at LSUS.

Torii Ransome Freeman, BA - Spelman College, JD – Paul M. Hebert Law Center
Ms. Freeman is presently employed at the LSU AgCenter, Human Resource Management Office. Ms. Freeman has over 10 years of experience in the field of Human Resource Management, many of the years spent in private industry. Her most recent tenure has been spent in higher education/state employment. Her primary areas of responsibility include EEO, Diversity, Employee Relations and Immigration.

Peggy Gaffney, Director of Multicultural Affairs at the University of New Orleans
Peggy Gaffney currently serves as Director of Multicultural Affairs at the University of New Orleans. She is also Assistant Dean in the College of Business and an economics instructor. Ms. Gaffney has served in numerous UNO faculty, staff and student committees in her 25 years with UNO. Prior to her joining UNO she worked in the international banking industry for many years. Ms. Gaffney earned her Bachelor of Science in Economics in 1975 and a Master in Arts in Economics in 1979 from the University of New Orleans. She is a native of Honduras, Central America.

Joseph M. Moerschbaecher, III, Ph.D.
A graduate of Loyola University-Chicago, Dr. Moerschbaecher earned his Ph.D. at the American University in Washington, D.C., and was a postdoctoral research associate at the Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology at the Georgetown University Schools of Medicine and Dentistry where he was subsequently appointed Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology. He joined the LSU Health Sciences Center faculty in 1983. From 1989 through 1998, he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He also served as Co-Director of the LSU Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center. In October, 1998, Dr. Moerschbaecher was formally appointed as the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the LSU Health Sciences Center.

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Shirley Roberson
Shirley Roberson, received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Microbiology from Southern University in Baton Rouge in 1971, and is a former biology instructor at Southern University-Shreveport. She has also been employed by several prestigious medical and research institutions which includes: the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Dessie S. Williams
Dessie S. Williams currently serves as Director of Multicultural and International Affairs at LSU Alexandria. She is also an Assistant Professor of Developmental Studies. Williams has been employed with LSUA for 20 years. She obtained a Bachelors Degree in Business Education from Louisiana College in Pineville, and a Masters Degree in Student Personnel Services with a Concentration in Counseling from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. Williams completed coursework toward a doctoral degree in Educational Technology at Northwestern.



Margaret Young
Margaret Young is Executive Assistant to the Chancellor at Louisiana State University Eunice, and since May, 2008, has served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity. She also serves as Chair of the LSUE Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Committee and as a member of the Administrative Council. Young received her Bachelor’s degree from LSU in 2001 and her Master’s in Public Administration from Louisiana State University in 2006. She has 32 years of service with the LSU System, 4 years at LSU and 28 years at LSU Eunice. She is a member of the National Association of Presidential Assistants in Higher Education.

 

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