Since September, I’ve had the honor of being part of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s Coastal Leadership Institute cohort — an experience that has been both grounding and transformative.
In my day-to-day work with Healthy Gulf, I’m often moving — organizing, advocating, and showing up in spaces where decisions about our communities and coast are being made. There’s purpose in that pace, but this cohort created room for something different: reflection, connection, and deeper understanding.
It reminded me that leadership is not only about strategy and action, but also about listening — to people, to places, and to the histories that shape both.
Our coast is more than land and water.
It is memory.
It is livelihood.
It is culture.
Above: The LSU Center for River Studies focuses on the Mississippi River, understanding its origin, and features one of the world’s largest physical models of the river delta, as shown here.
For those of us in South Louisiana, coastal issues are never abstract. They are tied to family stories, traditions, industries, foodways, and the identity of our region. What I’ve appreciated most about this journey is how it centered that truth: environmental protection is inseparable from cultural preservation.
Because when wetlands disappear, so do ways of life.
When communities are displaced, so are traditions.
When ecosystems are harmed, culture absorbs the loss.
This experience strengthened my commitment to advocacy that is not only data-driven, but people-centered. It reinforced that the work is not just about policy or permits — it’s about protecting home.
I’m deeply grateful for the relationships, the shared learning, and the reminder that leadership can be collaborative, evolving, and deeply human.
Protecting the coast isn’t just environmental work.
It’s community work.
It’s cultural work.
It’s legacy work.
And I’m proud to continue showing up for all of it.
