Speakers
Terence Blanchard, musician
New Orleans native, Terence Blanchard is a noted musician, composer, and band leader. Mr. Blanchard shared with us some of his music, some scenes from Spike Lees’s ‘When the Levees Broke’ (Mr. Blanchard scored the music for the film), and talked about how Hurricane Katrina has influenced his music and the arts in New Orleans.
Emily Brew, Creative Director, Nike Foundation
Pamela Shifman, Director of Girls’ and Women’s Initiatives, NoVo Foundation
Adolescent girls are the most powerful force for transformative change for communities living in poverty. When we improve a girl’s life, many more lives benefit: her brothers, sisters, future children and grandchildren. As an educated mother, an active, productive citizen and a prepared employee, she can break the cycle of poverty for families and nations. This is the girl effect. This session explored the power of the girl effect, and how girls around the world can work to unleash it.
http://www.facebook.com/girleffect#!/girleffect?v=app_181055026159
Mike Hemingway, Director of Global Clients, Ogilvy & Mather, Founder, brandhunger.com and thirdhunger.com
Service, compassion and generosity are important in today’s commercial world. The role of such values is self-evident in the everyday world, but now, brands are held accountable for environmental and social responsibility. Brands offer services and products. But now they must offer more. They must be seen to be human with human qualities; they must have a heart. And when they give back to the community, they become complete.
Julia Reed, author and journalist
Commitment to the Crescent City; Bestselling author, contributing editor at Newsweek and Garden & Gun Magazines and former contributor to Vogue, Julia Reed calls New Orleans her home. Julia Reed talked over mint juleps and iced tea about her home, her writing and her love for New Orleans.
Kevin Salwen & Hannah Salwen, authors, The Power of Half
The Salwen family’s journey to a life of giving back began in 2006, when then-14-year-old Hannah saw a homeless man (Sign: “Hungry, Homeless, Please Help”) juxtaposed against a gleaming Mercedes. That day, Hannah’s anger about the world’s inequities bubbled over, and, in an amazing domino of decisions, she convinced her family to sell their house, move into one half its size and give away half the money to help the world’s needy. But the Salwens’ uplifting message, chronicled in the father-daughter book The Power of Half: One Family’s Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back, is really about how the journey transformed the relationships within their family and their community. Their story — and the messages of hope and empowerment — sent you back to your schools confident that your community can go further than ever to turn optimism into action.
http://www.thepowerofhalf.com/
Scott S. Cowen, President, Tulane University
Scott S. Cowen is Tulane University’s 14th President. He also holds joint appointments as the Seymour S. Goodman Memorial Professor of Business in Tulane’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and Professor of Economics in the School of Liberal Arts.
Since President Cowen’s arrival in 1998, Tulane University has more than quintupled its undergraduate applications while experiencing all-time highs in student quality. In addition, Tulane has more than doubled the level of total private giving to the university and received a record level of research awards. The university has implemented a number of innovative academic and research program initiatives and significantly increased its community outreach. In recognition of Tulane’s accomplishments, it was noted as one of the “Hottest Schools in America” by Newsweek magazine in 2002 and 2008, and has been nationally recognized on multiple occasions for its civic engagement programs, while also being consistently ranked in the top tier of national research universities.
President Cowen spoke to conference participants about Tulane’s post-Katrina reinvention, with community engagement now defining the core of its required curriculum and transforming both the orientation and depth of the University programs across all its schools as well as sending it into the stratosphere of popularity among applicants.