Let's hear a Drum Roll
Let's hear a Drum Roll
Shreveport Fire Department promotes first female deputy chief; BR business gets Goldman Sachs grant, Dillard AD becomes commissioner
Henderson becomes first female deputy chief
Shreeport Fire Chief John Paul Lane officially promoted assistant chief of C-Shift Carolyn Henderson to deputy fire chief on Feb. 18. Henderson is a 40-year veteran of the department and the first female to hold the position since the department’s inception in 1837.
As chief, Henderson commands and oversees the chief of operations and safety, chief of aviation, and all operation shifts. Her command reaches more than 500 sworn firefighters.
Daniels receives Goldman Sachs Grant
Baton Rouge-based management consulting company S. Daniels Consulting LLC has been awarded a Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women grant which supports Black women sole proprietors and provides the tools necessary to turn their business potential into business growth.
Founded in 2017 by Sonia Daniels,, PhD, S. Daniels Consulting, LLC provides professional business services including strategic planning, grants management, process improvement, and team building.
As a grant recipient, Daniels will complete a 12-week online business education program and in-person learning at Goldman Sachs headquarters in NYC while earning a $2,000 stipend. She will also connect with a powerful network of Black women entrepreneurs and strategic advisors to guide her organization's path to growth.
Through S. Daniels Consulting, LLC , Daniels also provides leadership coaching and development, executive coaching, research, assessment, and evaluation, and workforce development skilling and reskilling.
The One Million Black Women Grant The grant is part of Goldman Sachs’s commitment of $10 billion to address gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations.
Barnes becomes athletic conference commissioner
Kiki Baker Barnes, Ph.D., has been named commissioner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, becoming the first Black woman to lead that organization.
For the last 16 years, Barnes, who is athletic director at Dillard University’s athletic program – serving as the only female athletic director in Louisiana. She will pivot from her role at Dillard at the end of this academic year to step into the commissioner role full-time bringing with her more than two decades of sports and executive leadership experience.
Barnes is a resident of New Orleans and a native of Minden, La. With this role, she becomes one of just four Black women in the country who hold that title.
GCAC was established in 1981 and is currently composed of HBCUs from Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. In 2019, the GCAC appointed Barnes to serve as interim commissioner on a part-time basis while she maintained her full-time commitment to Dillard’s athletic program. During her time in the interim commissioner post, Barnes worked to increase the conference’s membership and oversaw the return of championships in various sports.nThis year, GCAC plans to expand its membership under Barnes’s leadership with the addition of eight teams.
Barnes is the first female and Black president of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference and the first Black woman commissioner in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
