The Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking celebrated its five-year anniversary in November. The center aims to support students as they identify their changemaking path through programs in teaching, research and practices of design thinking, social entrepreneurship and social innovation. The center was founded in 2014 with a $15 million contribution from Taylor and the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.

Douglas Harris, director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans and chair of the Department of Economics at Tulane, discussed on NPR his research on failing charter schools closing in New Orleans. “If you’re doing [closures and takeovers] well, then those opening schools are better than the ones that you’re closing and taking over. That’s going to lead to improvement in the city — and it did.”

“... the stereotype is that the environment is about tree hugging or saving exotic birds.” 
THOMAS LAVEIST, dean of Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in Bloomberg Environment on why he thinks black politicians haven’t focused much on climate change.

Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine observed the 400-year anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America and its lasting impact on inequalities in communities with a daylong event called “400 Years of Inequality: Changing the Narrative.” The School of Public Health plans to hold additional events as part of the series throughout the academic year.

Matt Sakakeeny, associate professor of music at Tulane, is co-editor of Remaking New Orleans: Beyond Exceptionalism and Authenticity (Duke University Press, 2019). In an opinion piece Sakakeeny co-authored in The Advocate, he writes about the book stating, “… in celebrating the vibrancy of our traditions, we fail to understand that they’re a tremendous driver of profit for those who can capitalize on them.”

Students August Janow (left) and Rohan Goswami (right) present a flag to President Fitts with his likeness on it. Janow and Goswami asked Fitts to sign the flag. The flag was designed by another student, Yara Hantash.

Tulane students volunteered at more than 20 local organizations for this year’s Outreach. The annual event is Tulane’s largest and oldest community service event and gives students, along with staff, the opportunity to positively impact New Orleans.

T.R. Johnson, professor of English at Tulane, is editor of New Orleans: A Literary History (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which provides detailed discussions on the most significant writing the city of New Orleans has inspired. In a video on the publisher’s website, he mentions several major authors like Joan Didion, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Kate Chopin who spent time in the city.

“I remember Katrina, we did not have enough psychiatrists and people to provide mental health care.” DR. ANAND IRIMPEN, professor of medicine at Tulane, said in an American Heart Association News article about hurricane preparedness and the toll a hurricane can have on one’s health.