Let's hear the DrumRoll!
Let's hear the DrumRoll!
10-year-old Antranae Alexander, Angola Deputy Warren Rochelle Ambeau, future animal scientist Kayla Benton, New Schools CEO Kenneth Campbell, Civil Rights Commission, and housing ED Joshua Hollins
10-year-old Antranae Alexander, of Amite, will spend a week in Los Angeles this summer performing for casting directors and other show biz professionals after being selected by the International Presentation of Performers. She’s one of four children in her age category who were selected. According to her parents Antony and Ashley, the Loranger Middle School fifth-grader has wanted to be an actress since she was 3-years old. They have established a GoFundME Page, “Help Support Antranae’s Dream #FutureActor,” to support her travels. It includes a video of her reaction receiving the acceptance call from iPOP.
Department of Corrections recently promoted Deputy Assistant Secretary Rochelle Ambeau to the position of deputy warden at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Ambeau is the third Black woman to serve as a deputy warden for the Louisiana Department of Corrections. She is the first Black woman to serve as deputy warden of Louisiana’s largest prison, Angola. She joined the Department in 1992 as a corrections officer at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. In 2005, she became as the agency’s first corrections transition specialist and was promoted in 2014 to deputy assistant secretary in reentry.
LSU animal sciences senior and Agriculture Student Association president Kayla Benton, of Cypress, TX, recently received the MLK Humanitarian Award by the LSU Black Faculty and Staff Caucus. The Black Faculty and Staff Caucus advocates for educational equity at LSU. The Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award acknowledges Benton’s activities to improve race relations on LSU’s Baton Rouge campus.
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Kenneth Campbell has been named CEO of New Schools for Baton Rouge where he will continue the organization’s mission to “ensure every child in the city has access to an excellent school”. Campbell most recently served as the executive director for southern Louisiana of IDEA Public Schools. Prior to his work at IDEA Public Schools, Campbell was president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options and worked as director of charter schools for the Louisiana Department of Education.
Monique Edwards has been appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Missouri and Louisiana Advisory Committee. Edwards is the founding member of The Edwards Law Group, LLC, a Baton Rouge-based firm that concentrates on governmental and community relations, medical management, strategic business solutions, and energy. Previously, she was appointed by Governor Bobby Jindal as the first Black secretary of the Louisiana State Mineral and Energy Board and assistant secretary for the Office of Mineral Resources of the Department of Natural Resources. She is a graduate and visiting professor at the Southern University Law Center. The advisory committee examines water affordability, school discipline disparities, policing practices, mental health and the criminal justice system, legal financial obligations, fair housing, hate crimes, voting rights, maternal health, and solitary confinement while advising the commission on policy changes at the national, state, and local levels. Also appointed from Louisiana were: Marjorie Esman (as chair), Renee Amar, Alexandra Bruce, Mariela Cruz, Melanie Donahue, Robert Garda, Robert Lancaster, Tia Mills, Jerome Smith, Frank Torres, and Raheem Williams.
The Louisiana Housing Corporation Board unanimously chose Joshua G. Hollins as the corporation's new executive director from a field of 93 candidates and three finalists. The purpose of the LHC is to substantially increase the availability of affordable, accessible, and safe residential housing in Louisiana, and the Executive Director is responsible for directing all administrative, financial, and programmatic activities of the organization. Hollins is currently the vice president of public financing at Stifel, Nicolaus & Company in Baton Rouge. He will assume the new role once contract negotiations are finalized.
