Welcome to another edition of Gambit's 40 Under 40! Once again this year, we asked you, our readers, to nominate folks in our community who are doing something special. And once again, you delivered! This year's list of honorees represent the very best of our city, and each in their own way is an integral part of what makes New Orleans the most unique and amazing city in the world. As Gambit staff, it is truly an honor to take a moment and recognize them and their achievements.
Whether they're a teen overcoming extraordinary adversity to succeed academically, one of our city's new generation of culture bearers, a small business person smashing glass ceilings or an activist working for positive change, each of these 40 people inspire us, teach us and help us live better lives.
Congratulations to them all!
Jeremy Oatis, 34
Dean of students, New Orleans Career Center;
Trail Chief, Original Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians;
CEO and founder of Pickle NOLA;
Artist volunteer mentor, Congo Kids
Jeremy Oatis’ mission in life is to help young people thrive.
In 2022, he joined the New Orleans Career Center after working as a behavioral interventionist, teacher and eventual dean of students at New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School. Now, he works with kids from 24 local high schools.
As dean of students at NOCC, he helps train and mentor students in potential career paths, giving them the opportunity to earn a range of industry-based certifications, including in carpentry, electrical engineering, culinary arts and hospitality management.
Growing up in the Melpomene projects, he says he didn’t always have many role models to look up to outside of school. But he credits his mother and several of his high school teachers for helping him recognize his own potential as an educator, and now he wants to pay it forward.
“Those guys helped me realize what I could become,” he says.
Oatis also is dedicated to preserving the culture of New Orleans Black Masking Indians, as a member of the Original Wild Tchoupitoulas tribe.
He also started a homemade pickle venture, Pickled NOLA, with his wife Kimberly, turning locally grown cucumbers into pickles to sell at grocery stores and farmers markets.
On top of all that, Oatis volunteers with Congo Kids, a nonprofit that gives kids cultural and music training rooted in African and African-American traditions.
“Anything involving youth, I want to be involved in it,” he says. “I’ve surrounded myself with good people. I have a duty to my city and the people that raised me.” — Sarah Ravits
Sydney Doyle, 34
Program director, unCommon Construction
As the program director of unCommon Construction, Sydney Doyle works to create a space where young people can learn real-world skills through an unconventional classroom: a construction site.
At unCommon Construction, high school students join a team of peers to build a house throughout a semester. Not only do they learn craftsmanship, but they use math, science, reading, communication, critical thinking and more on a day-to-day basis. The teens also receive hourly pay, a matching equity award scholarship and school credit.
Doyle, who moved to New Orleans from North Carolina nine years ago, shares that the most important part of her job is being able to create a space where young people can be hands-on and solve problems. “The excitement and pride that you can see on their face when they complete a task or project is indescribable,” she says.
So far, every student who has successfully completed the experience has graduated on time and is either enrolled in post-secondary education or was employed within three months. Doyle believes that this intersection of education and workforce experience can spark change and build a brighter future for New Orleans youth.
“The young people in this city are so amazing, and I love being in a position to be able to uplift and highlight that and be a small part of their journey during and after high school,” Doyle says. — Marigny Lanaux
Dr. Jacklyn Ruhl, 36
Clinical psychologist, psychology section head, Ochsner Health;
Foster Respite volunteer, Crossroads Nola
Ochsner Health’s Dr. Jacklyn Ruhl is not only changing the way the medical community approaches mental health but also how patients see the process.
When many people think of therapy, they might picture an open-ended, years-long process with no real end point at which their mental health problems will be solved. But according to Ruhl, it doesn’t always have to be that way.
And while some types of mental health issues require lengthy treatment, there is a growing mountain of evidence that shows a targeted, short-term, evidence-based approach can be much more effective in many cases. Ruhl says this approach is “almost like if someone has a physical injury and signup for rehab for several weeks.” But instead of rebuilding physical strength and learning new exercises to maintain it, patients are working on mental and emotional injuries.
It's an innovative approach to mental health – and a successful one. Since Ochsner’s “Step Clinic” launched in March they’ve had a steady stream of patients, and Ruhl says several other health care providers have approached her to discuss creating similar programs of their own.
Serving those in crisis is a central part of Ruhl’s life. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Ruhl came to the United States at 11 months old, when she and her sister were adopted by her parents, who lived in Huntsville, Alabama.
That triggered an interest in foster care for Ruhl, who says she knew she wanted to be involved in the system in some way since she was in high school. Over the years Ruhl has fostered five children for varying lengths of time. Recently she’s taken a break from fostering, opting instead to focus her efforts on providing support to other foster parents through Crossroads Nola’s Foster Respite program. Providing foster parents, particularly single mothers, with a few hours each week to run errands or even just see a movie can be enormously beneficial to the child and parent alike, she says.
“The foster care system is very hard and challenging ... [the respite] means so much to a foster family,” she explains, adding “it’s very clear that if these kids are given stability and love they can be as successful as any other child.” —John Stanton
Maxwell Cohen, 28
Founder, Big Gay Baby
Every time they step onstage as their drag persona April May, Maxwell Cohen is living out their childhood dreams.
They’ve gone from performing in their bedroom to getting on stage in front of crowds as the host of Big Gay Baby, the monthly queer drag and variety show they created in March 2022. More than two years in, the shows have become a supportive space for newbie performers to dip their toes in the water in front of a tight-knit community of LGBTQ people and allies.
Currently on summer hiatus, the show starts up again in September, moving from Thursday to Friday nights — or “prime time” as Cohen puts it.
Through drag, Cohen has also become involved in activism. In 2023, they testified in drag at the Capitol against the anti-LGBTQ bills proposed by the Louisiana Legislature and connected with a lot of people in advocacy spaces in the state.
This year, with an anti-LGBTQ governor, Cohen decided to focus their attention to spaces for queer joy, performing at the New Orleans Pride Center’s grand opening, putting on a Big Gay Baby showcase at a Forum for Equality fundraiser and hosting a gala for women's rights group Lift Louisiana.
“My queer identity and my desire to connect queer identities will never change,” Cohen says. “That's unwavering, no matter how oppressive the world may feel right now.” — Kaylee Poche
Elijah Hogan, 19
Student
Elijah Hogan made local and national headlines when he graduated from Walter L. Cohen High School in May.
He was named valedictorian with an impressive 3.93 GPA and gave a speech to his classmates and their loved ones.
“It’s your turn to choose and define what success means in your life,” he said.
It was a triumphant day, but the road to get there wasn’t easy.
He’d been living with his grandmother since he was 11, but during his junior year, he became unexpectedly homeless when his grandmother’s landlord decided to sell the property where they’d been living. They had a month to figure out what to do.
She ended up moving to a senior living home, while he went to Covenant House, a shelter for unhoused people ages 16-22.
Hogan kept in touch with his family living out of state, and teachers and Covenant House staff stepped up to support him and encourage him to complete his studies.
Hogan’s next stop is Xavier University, where he plans to study graphic design. An artist and Marvel fan, he hopes to one day publish his own comic book.
“Take pride in how far you have come,” Hogan told his classmates during his graduation speech. “Have faith in how far you can go. But don’t forget to enjoy your journey.” — KP
Joy Clark, 39
Singer-songwriter
Joy Clark has had many milestone moments the last few years, like touring with Americana artist Allison Russell, signing to Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records and paying tribute to Tracy Chapman at the International Folk Awards. And the singer-songwriter is preparing to release her first full-length album, “Tell It To the Wind,” in October.
It’s been a real time of personal growth, she says.
This “period of transition is sort of coming to peace with the disparate parts of myself,” Clark says, “so my Christian upbringing, my queerness, and coming to peace with those things, bringing it together and presenting Joy Clark’s artistry.”
Born in Harvey and the daughter of a minister, Clark grew up with music at church. She learned to play guitar at an early age, finding influences in artists like Tracy Chapman and Lalah Hathaway, and started writing and performing at open mics while at the University of New Orleans. Over the years, she’s performed with Soulkestra, Cyril Neville, pianist Lilli Lewis and many others. She’s also led her own band local venues, on tour and at French Quarter Fest and Jazz Fest.
Clark, a queer Black woman, is among a growing number of Black musicians re-claiming the Americana genre, like Lewis, Russell, Lizzie No and Joy Oladokun.
“When I really got onto the scene, there were a lot of Black artists, women, who really took me in, because I was coming into my queerness, and there was a community there that allowed me to see what was possible,” Clark says. “I want to continue to be that for somebody that’s coming behind me, or somebody who isn’t out yet and is feeling like, ‘She’s integrating all these parts of her life, and the world has opened up.’” — Jake Clapp
Ayyub Ibrahim, 30
Director of research for the Louisiana Law Enforcement Accountability Database, Innocence Project New Orleans
When Ayyub Ibrahim graduated in 2016 from the University of Pennsylvania, he expected to spend his professional life fighting for human rights on the international stage — not in the Deep South fighting police violence.
But Ibrahim’s path hasn’t ever followed much of a straight, predictable line. Take, for example, his sport of choice: fencing.
After graduating, the Bronx native worked in New York on international human rights issues. But within a few years, he realized he wanted to have a more local focus.
So in 2020 he moved to New Orleans to head the Innocence Project New Orleans’ Louisiana Law Enforcement Accountability Database (LLEAD) program. He has since become a leader in the effort to shed light on one of the criminal justice system’s darkest corners: police misconduct and violence.
The LLEAD database has catalogued more than 40,000 incidents in more than 500 law enforcement agencies across the state and has become an important resource for attorneys, the media and public in understanding — and combating — police brutality.
Ibrahm has recently turned his attention to Artificial Intelligence and how it can help civil rights attorneys fight for their clients. He’s become a national leader in developing AI tools for the civil rights sector.
At the Innocence Project, he’s currently building a “wrongful conviction officer index” which, when completed, will allow lawyers to search through hundreds of thousands of court filings, reports and other documents to determine if there is a pattern of misconduct involving a specific officer or within departments and other key areas. That will not only help attorneys but also policymakers, who’d have to spend years sorting through documents without AI’s help. — JS
Ava Kreutziger, 17
Student;
Activist for LGBTQ issues;
Advocate for Grow Dat Youth Farm
Ava Kreutziger describes herself as a “people person” whose life is defined by her relationships.
“That’s where I get the most joy from,” she says.
Last summer, Kreutziger, a volunteer with Grow Dat Youth Farm in City Park, witnessed an horrible tragedy as her best friend, Belle Adelman-Cannon, was struck and killed by a bus in the parking lot.
To cope with her grief, Kreutziger helped build a memorial garden dedicated to Adelman-Cannon to honor the solace they found together there.
“It’s the place where I could grow with my identity and be confident in my leadership, learn how to grow food and how to help people,” she says. “It’s also the place where I tried to save my best friend.”
When she found out about City Park’s Master Plan to bulldoze the farm and build a road, it felt like a betrayal. She has since become a staunch advocate of the farm’s survival as city and park leaders grapple with its future.
Kreutziger is also an advocate for LGBTQ rights and helped secure a grant for the Q Center, a safe space for queer students, while attending Ben Franklin High School. She helped organize a theater piece students performed at the state Capitol, which aimed to humanize her peers as lawmakers were attacking their rights and identities.
“I’ve grown up with my parents telling me about how art can be a mechanism for social change,” she says.
As she sets off for college, she plans to continue her advocacy and aspires to become a social worker.
“The idea of working one on one against our systems and to help people overcome circ*mstances — I'm looking forward to it,” she says. — SR
Scott Tilton, 32
Executive director, Nous Foundation
Scott Tilton, a New Orleans native, was living in Paris with his husband, Rudy Bazenet, when they came up with an idea that would ultimately lead to the Nous Foundation.
They wanted to launch a cultural institute in Louisiana, an organization that would bring people together and foster the kind of cultural innovation that keeps cities like Paris at the forefront of conversation.
“We had this clear vision of what we wanted to do in Louisiana,” Tilton says.
So they moved back home and in 2021 launched Nous Foundation, a nonprofit promoting Louisiana’s heritage cultures, particularly the French-speaking communities in the state.
This wasn’t Tilton’s first big undertaking. In 2017, while earning a master’s degree in international relations at Science Po Paris, he launched a campaign that led to Louisiana becoming the first U.S. state to join the International Organization of La Francophonie.
Tilton is passionate about raising awareness and exposure to minority cultures and languages that have been repressed and banned. He also is a filmmaker and has helped produce French- and Creole-language films from Louisiana, including a piece recently featured at the Cannes Film Festival.
Earlier this year, the Library of Congress awarded a Community Collections Grant to Nous Foundation to support “La Musique Nous Reunit,” a project documenting Louisiana French and Creole music and featuring artists like Louis Michot, Leyla McCalla and Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes. — Andrea Blumenstein
Shondricka “Shay” Claiborne, 31
Founder/CEO, Mommyfluent Toys
Shondricka Claiborne has gone by “Shay” since she was in diapers. But she now also answers to “mom” after having her first child four years ago.
While on maternity leave from her career working with autistic children, Claiborne noticed a few things about the toy industry: There isn’t much African-American representation, and the toys did most of the playing.
So in 2021, after her daughter struggled with language skills, Claiborne launched Mommyfluent, a retail company specializing in open-ended toys for infants and toddlers.
“The innovation that I am making with my company is because of my daughter. I wanted her to have access to better toys,” Claiborne says. “I am my own best customer — early intervention, this stuff works.”
Claiborne also sits on the board of Black New Orleans Mom and is a certified play expert and program coordinator for TrainingGrounds’ We Play, a nonprofit facility dedicated to improving early childhood outcomes for local families.
We Play is a hub for family resources and early parenting education. It also helps connect families with professionals, like Claiborne, during the early years of childhood, when brain development is very important.
Through her work, Claiborne has worked with more than 200 families in just the last year, and she has helped 10 families navigate the long process to receive an early autism diagnosis.
Mommyfluent is working to build a technology channel to connect families to early intervention resources. And recently, the company was named a semifinalist in the Black Ambition Prize, founded by Pharrell Williams. — AB
Hope Kodman Von Starnes, 38
Founder/co-owner, Dynamo
Images of Hope Kodman Von Starnes pop up on streetcars, billboards and go-cups all over town in ads for her part-time work at French Quarter Phantoms Ghost tours, but she most often gets recognized for her work doing informational videos for the sex-positive erotic boutique Dynamo.
“I grew up in western Kentucky and the only sex ed we got in school was an hour in homeroom,” Kodman Von Starnes says. “I don’t even remember getting a puberty talk. They just threw deodorant at us.”
Now via their Instagram account (@dynamonola), Kodman Von Starnes entertainingly informs people about ropework, flange-ended plugs, vibrators, paddles and leather harnesses, all with an emphasis on consent and safety. Kodman Von Starnes co-owns Dynamo with Nico Darling, and the shop turns 11 years old this summer.
Kodman Von Starnes first realized her penchant for talking about sex in college. “If I gave permission to talk about sex, people really wanted to,” she says.
Her degree in anthropology helped her process sex through the lens of history and her interest in theater provided enough fodder to keep the conversation going.
She now gives talks at Tulane’s undergrad Sex Week and bachelorette parties, runs occasional workshops, and has partnered with the Reproductive Justice Action Collective (REJAC) to provide emergency contraception, even hand delivering it during the pandemic.
Kodman Von Starnes also leads a history tour via French Quarter Phantoms called “Saints and Sinners” which focuses on Storyville and Victorian-era sex ed.
“New Orleans is such a sexy, open city,” Kodman Von Starnes says. “So I thought that we could do better than what we had.” — Liam Pierce
James Mayes, 37
Founder, Emline
James Mayes tends to incorporate a particular flower into his designs for his luxury streetwear brand Emline. The magnolia — his nod to growing up in the Magnolia Projects — is a representation of personal growth, he says.
“A flower starts as a seed. A person starts as a seed. They both grow. The flower grows through the dirt and the rain, which are like the trials and tribulations a person will learn from. And at the end, they both have the opportunity to blossom, even though they have been through so much,” Mayes says.
Mayes launched Emline in 2017 after going through some major life changes — a child, a new job, being laid off, relocating to Houston and back to New Orleans — and in the years since, the brand has blossomed. Today, Emline sells a range of limited-release items, including shirts, pants, shorts, hats, socks and accessories, all designed by Mayes.
Young Jeezy, Russell Westbrook, Lil Baby and Missy Elliott have been spotted in Emline pieces, and BG has embraced the brand since returning home. Earlier this month, Emline collaborated with the Essence Festival of Culture on a limited-edition shirt.
In 2022, Mayes along with Kristin Meyers of Like Minds Dine Production also launched the Emline Ball, a Carnival-time ball that has also become increasingly popular. Each year, the ball celebrates legends in the New Orleans community, like Mia X, Juvenile and the late Soulja Slim. The 2024 Emline Ball celebrated Bryan “Birdman” Williams and the legacy of Cash Money Records with performances by Curren$y, Magnolia Chop, AK and Paasky.
“Right now, in the space that I’m in, I don’t know what will happen next, but I’m hoping it’s something big and exciting,” Mayes says. — JC
Emily MacKenzie, 38
Filmmaker
In their debut feature documentary, “Carpet Cowboys,” Emily MacKenzie and Noah Collier went to the carpet production capital of the world Dalton, Georgia, and pulled at the threads of a story that took them around the world. They met Roderick James, a Scottish immigrant and self-styled cowboy whose freelance career designing carpet patterns was drying up as globalization moved more of the industry to China. James struck out for the east, and again tried to reinvent himself.
MacKenzie got her own taste for travel, after growing up in Santa Barbara, California, and dropping out of school to move to Florence, Italy.
“I was like, ‘I just turned 18, I am leaving the country,’” she says. “I don’t need to finish high school.”
Bard College didn’t require a diploma, and she went to New York and got interested in documentary filmmaking. Then, after a year of graduate study at the New College (and more time in Italy), she got an internship with filmmaker Nina Davenport and eventually climbed her way to an editing position on the film “First Comes Love.” Since 2010, MacKenzie has worked in TV and film production when not focused on her own projects, such as 2016’s widely viewed breast cancer survival short doc, “Scar Story.”
In 2015, MacKenzie moved to New Orleans, where she had friends and family, including her great-uncle Johnny North, who coached the New Orleans Saints in the 1970s.
Since “Carpet Cowboys” (available at memory.is/carpet-cowboys) was released, she started working on her own mockumentary project about New Orleans costuming group the Intergalactic Realtors Association Conference (IGRAC), in which the alien realtors try to sell Earth.
After the IGRAC movie, she sets her sights abroad, with a film project about the foodways that connect New Orleans and Honduras. — Will Coviello
Patrick Hernandez, 35
Director of capital access, Propeller
Patrick Hernandez’s first brush with entrepreneurship came while growing up in Burwick, near Morgan City.
“I had a few lemonade stands,” Hernandez says. “But it was never actually my calling.”
Ironically, after dreaming up his award-winning craft rum distillery Roulaison with an old college roommate in New York, he ended up in the beverage business anyway.
Nowadays, Hernandez has put his Roulaison work on the backburner to help others start their own businesses via his role at Propeller, an organization that helps small businesses — primarily those led by BIPOC entrepreneurs — and nonprofits close the equity gap in the fields of education, food, health and water.
Hernandez manages a network of more than 300 alumni at Propeller, helping anywhere from 10 to 15 clients at a time. He also launched a $3 million seed capital fund for BIPOC-owned businesses.
His free time is filled with playing a lot of pickleball and community involvement, as the immediate past president of the Young Leadership Council and a board member for OnPath Federal Credit Union and Advocates for Arts-Based Education (via The Willow School). Hernandez also helps fundraise for Boys Hope Girls Hope and the American Cancer Society, specifically for cancer research involving the LGBTQ community. — LP
Jeez Loueez, 39
Burlesque performer, producer
Jeez Loueez has had a straightforward goal: “You’re gonna know who I am,” the New Orleans-based burlesque performer and producer says.
On and off stage, Jeez Loueez’s personality fills the space. She’s funny, dramatic and passionate. But it goes beyond her stage performance; Jeez Loueez wants to help Black burlesque performers be undeniable.
“I want to connect with more people, meet more people, let them know that not only does burlesque happen every day, all day in New Orleans, but that there’s Black people who are doing it,” she says.
A St. Louis native, Jeez Loueez moved to Chicago when she was 19 to study musical theater. She was dancing in a club to help pay for school, and a friend asked if she’d like to fill in during a burlesque show. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is just musical theater and stripping mixed together,” she says with a laugh.
More than 15 years later, Jeez Loueez has twice been named 21st Century Burlesque’s No. 1 most influential burlesque industry figure, first solo and then again with her close friend and collaborator Lola Van Ella (who also is based in New Orleans).
Jeez Loueez moved to New Orleans in 2019 and is a popular presence on local burlesque lineups, and each month, she hosts a late-night talk show-style event and a queer line dance night at the AllWays Lounge & Cabaret, in addition to teaching classes.
In 2011, Jeez Loueez launched the annual all-Black burlesque revue Jeezy’s Juke Joint. It has grown into a multi-night festival and traveling show, and she hopes to bring the revue to New Orleans in 2025.
“My focus has been on Black people being the ones writing the check and paying people,” says Jeez Loueez, “because there could be 100 Black performers in one city, but if everyone in charge and writing the checks and producing the events are white, then it’s not diversity, it’s not inclusion.” — JC
Joseph Boudreaux Jr., 38
Second chief, Golden Eagles Black Masking Indians;
Vocalist, The Rumble
Being the son of Big Chief Monk Boudreaux carries a certain weight of expectation in New Orleans.
It’s “kind of like being Michael Jordan’s son,” says Joseph Boudreaux Jr. “No matter how good you play basketball, you’re gonna always be compared to your dad in some way, shape or form.”
Joseph Boudreaux grew up immersed in Black Masking Indian traditions and is now the second chief of the Golden Eagles. He also gravitated toward music and is the frontman for the Mardi Gras Indian funk band The Rumble.
But Boudreaux has worked to distinguish himself, especially through his suits.
“I took the foundation and all the lessons he taught me on how to build, but I always wanted to look like me. I developed my own style, in a sense,” he says. “I approach music the same way … I felt like I will be setting myself up for failure if I was to try to mimic what [my father] did. So I just try to be original to myself.”
Boudreaux is part of a group of young culture bearers who are helping to guide those traditions into the future.
“It’s a responsibility of mine, to carry our culture on, to make sure our culture continues to thrive,” Boudreaux says. “Part of me doing that is through music. I want to be able to use my music to just bring this culture to the spotlight, get this culture the recognition it deserves, because there are so many talented people within the culture.”
The Rumble recently released a new studio single, “Now You Know,” and has new music on the way. — JC
Mary Jacobs, 33
Playwright;
Comedian;
Podcaster;
Co-Owner of Vitality Community Fitness and Mary’s Rack
Just listening to Mary Jacobs describe the myriad and varied projects she’s got going is enough to exhaust most folks. “I always have been doing 40,000 things. That’s kind of my thing,” the New Orleans native jokes.
Part of that energy and drive is rooted in old-fashioned civic pride, she says. “When you’re a busybody, you don’t realize it’s a lot,” Jacobs says of the 60- to 80-hour work weeks. “But I really love what I do.”
Since 2013, she’s worked as a comedian and master of ceremonies, developing a local following to the point that she’s regularly hired to emcee galas and other events around town.
After she returned home from college, she was struck at how different the city had become post-Katrina — so she wrote a play about it. In “Be in Touch,” Jacobs explored the challenges many locals experienced coming home to a city changed not only by the storm but by the influx of transplants.
In 2016, Jacobs and her wife Kristin Kavanaugh opened Vitality Community Fitness. The goal, Jacobs says, was to upturn the traditional testosterone-dominated gym model and create a woman-centered, queer-friendly space.
Four years later, Jacobs started a new business, Mary’s Rack. She works as a self-described “secondhand stylist,” through which she helps clients find a sense of style using sustainable shopping habits and centering body positivity. She initially operated a pop-up and turned it into a traditional brick-and-mortar shop on Oak Street.
She also hosts Planet Nola, a podcast featuring interviews with local artists, bartenders, musicians and people “who are cool or who are doing cool things.”
“I’m obsessed with New Orleans, and I love being from here. I want to open 20 more businesses here before I die ... I feel lucky to be from here,” Jacobs says. — JS
Khai Nguyen, 38, and Tap Bui, 38
Co-executive directors, Song Community Development Corp.
Khai Nguyen and Tap Bui have known each other since they were children growing up in the Versailles Arms Apartment complex in New Orleans East.
The area was home to many Vietnamese immigrants who came to New Orleans after the war in Vietnam. They formed a close-knit community, akin to a fishing village, anchored by the Catholic church, Mary Queen of Vietnam.
However, the community, isolated from the rest of the city, is often an afterthought in policymaking. Nguyen and Bui have spent their careers fighting to make sure folks there get the resources they deserve.
Both worked for the MQVN Community Development Corp. and helped Vietnamese fishers access relief after the Deepwater Horizon BP oil disaster in 2010. Nguyen also co-created the VEGGI Farmer’s Cooperative, three acres of community-owned land where out-of-work fishers could farm to earn money.
Nguyen and Bui co-founded Song Development Corp. in fall 2021 to continue investing in New Orleans East. As part of this work, they are exploring ways to manage stormwater, including rain gardens — shrubs and flowers planted in dips of land to hold and soak rain runoff.
Many young Vietnamese Americans are leaving the area, Nguyen says, and Song Development Corp. aims to make sure the aging population is taken care of and to adapt to the needs of the area as it changes, including the needs of the significant Black population and growing Latino population.
Bui also is helping plan 50 events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon next April, both to remember the past and celebrate Vietnamese Americans’ contributions to New Orleans. They’ve had more than a dozen events so far.
The East is “full of people who are committed to investing in this area and working collaboratively to bring in additional resources to make this community better for our futures,” Bui says. — KP
Carolina Murriel, 35
Death doula;
Journalist:
Ceramicist, Barro y Luna
Death doula Carolina Murriel ferries people from the world of living to the dead — and she doesn’t mind if you call her work metal.
“I have not died yet — that I know of,” Murriel says. “But I have always been drawn to the darker, harder aspects of our existence.”
Murriel was born in Peru, where she witnessed civil unrest between guerilla fighters and the government; her school was close to car bombs, blackouts and hostage situations. That experience eventually led to her work doing trauma-informed journalism, covering immigration, the 2016 election and criminal justice.
Her byline has appeared in The Miami Herald, WLRN and The World, to name a few, and Murriel co-founded the podcast network Pizza Shark to help build radical inclusivity in media.
During the pandemic, Murriel became more proactive about her own mental health, which led her to seek healing through art, specifically ceramics. She also tapped back into her college studies of birth practices, which eventually led to a focus on the death end of the life cycle.
Her practice, Barro y Luna (Clay and Moon), fuses death, storytelling and ceramics together with the hope to destigmatize death and dying. And in partnership with the deathcare organization Wake, Murriel recently launched an oral history project, Legados de Luisiana, to record Latine elders’ legacies. — LP
Thomas McRae, 30
Program director, My Community Cares for Boys Town Louisiana
Even though Thomas McRae isn't from New Orleans, the city made an impact on him as a child.
While growing up in Washington, D.C., McRae remembers watching coverage of Hurricane Katrina with a foster family. A year later, when he needed a sports jersey to wear to middle school, he picked a black and gold one with the number 25 and “Bush” on the back. He used computer class to look up the New Orleans Saints.
“I thought I’d find football pics,” McRae says, “But I found Katrina pics … I told myself I’d be a friend of New Orleans. And if this city could bounce back from the most devastating thing, it made me feel like I could bounce back.”
McRae was facing hardships of his own. He was just 11 when he entered the foster care system after a gunshot wound brought the authorities to his home.
“Statistics for foster kids going to college were so low, like 3%,” he says. “Growing up in a bad neighborhood, education wasn’t the focus.”
But now a doctorate of social work candidate at Tulane University, McRae has defied those odds and then some.
He's the program director of My Community Cares for Boys Town Louisiana, a foster care service in New Orleans. MCC is a program supporting kids and families in high-need communities with resources like parenting classes, workshops and counseling sessions.
“Every day feels like survival mode because I’ve always had to fight for things,” McRae says. “Knowing that’s my mindset at 30, I’ve got to take that energy and invest it in the community and the kids.” — AB
Tif “Teddy” Lamson, 36
Drummer;
Vocalist
Growing up in Lafayette as the daughter of pastors, Tif Lamson got an early start in music playing in her family’s church band.
“I was recruited by the time I was born to be in the band, and that kind of just led me to continue playing music throughout my entire life,” says Lamson, who is now a drummer, singer, music director, producer and engineer.
Decades later, she’s in a different band: Shania Twain’s. For the last year, she’s been playing drums and singing backup vocals for Twain on her world tour, giving Lamson the opportunity to perform in front of the largest crowds of her career.
Her career first took off after she formed indie pop band Givers with Taylor Guarisco in 2008. The 20-somethings were living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit and had moved back to Lafayette following the storm, unsure what their next steps would be.
The band released two full-length albums, performing on the late-night circuit and at Jazz Fest, Coachella and Lollapalooza. They also played Carnegie Hall in New York City with Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
In 2017, Lamson was the music director for electro-musician Peaches’ show at Music Box Village. She played with her off and on for the next several years, including on her “Teaches of Peaches” 20-year anniversary tour.
Working with the boundary-pushing feminist artist made her reflect on societal constructs of gender, sexuality and art, including “what are the lines and who’s drawing the lines,” she says.
Lamson will perform with Twain at Canadian festivals in August, followed by a second stint at her Las Vegas residency.
Though the route wasn’t always clear, “I couldn't think of any other path that I could have walked on, really,” Lamson says. — KP
Danyel Nicole Black, 39
Founder, Crown Me Foundation
After 17 years working in education, Danyel Nicole Black started the Crown Me Foundation to focus on different areas of personal development.
“I realized that as a first-generation college student in my family, I wanted to undo toxic patterns,” Black says. “We’re often educated academically but we’re not educated on how to socially engage and have healthy relationships; how to pick healthy partners. We’re very intentional about things like picking the right major, getting in the right network to grow our business or make connections, but no one is focused on healthy partnerships, healthy patterns, healthy boundaries, healthy family dynamics. Those are not taught in college. A lot of women may be highly successful but end up in toxic relationships.”
She established the foundation in August 2020 and launched an array of programs to support women and mentor girls. First there was a fundraiser for the New Orleans Women & Children’s Shelter. For Crown Me Closet, the foundation collected donations of new clothes and had a stylist meet with women to help coach them on how to look their best. Some recipients from the women’s shelter needed the clothes for job interviews and to go to work.
Other programs honor women for their achievements and pair them with young girls for mentorships, as well as supporting them with scholarships.
Black also is a fitness trainer and has become an emcee, hosting fundraisers and galas.
At Crown Me, she’s always a cheerleader and has gold and pink pompoms to symbolize the effort.
“The colors are pink and gold for femininity and power,” she says. “I try to help women embody their femininity more, because when we are wounded and unhealed, women are brash, defensive and shut off. When we heal, we can open up and become more open to the endless possibilities of life.” — WC
Katie East, 39
VP of creative operations, Caroline Rosa Marketing; comedian
Katie East has often used comedy to reframe a tough situation — although, she quickly admits she also likes the validation that comes from being on stage.
A stand-up comic, East several years ago began hosting burlesque shows. She became close with Big Deal Burlesque and Trixie Minx, and the experience pushed her to reconsider her self-deprecating style of comedy, East says.
Surprisingly, she received pushback from local venues who preferred to see a man or one of the burlesque performers host the show. So East decided to try something different. She enrolled in the New Orleans Drag Workshop and created the fabulous drag persona Mammary Lane. It was a chance for her to be funny yet less self-deprecating and continue to emcee as part of the show.
“It was a super insane learning process, and I got exactly what I wanted out of it,” East says.
East grew up in Baton Rouge, graduated from LSU and moved to New York City for several years, where she performed stand-up and improv regularly and trained with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. After returning to Louisiana in 2012, she became a part of New Orleans’ comedy community, and in 2014 opened for Louis C.K. in front of a sold-out Joy Theater crowd.
Over the years, East has developed a one-woman show called “Sick Girl,” drawing from her experience having a rare case of melanoma while just 19 years old. She’s performed “Sick Girl” in New York, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
“And I had a lot of stand-up jokes about it,” East says. “If I can make someone laugh about it, I really love that.”
East still occasionally performs stand-up and drag but has slowed down a little since the pandemic. She focuses more now on using her humor and creativity to work with clients at digital marketing agency Caroline Rosa Marketing, where she’s vice president of creative operations. — JC
Kenneth Spears, 36, and Antarah Hasan-Spears, 35
Founders, Abstract NOLA
Faced with consolidating the guest list for their wedding in 2015, New Orleans natives Kenneth Spears and Antarah Hasan-Spears decided to throw a big afterparty. They enjoyed the process and, with love for the city’s culture, decided to organize events to highlight New Orleans artists.
Eight years in, Abstract Nola has held more than 150 arts-centered events and collaborated with more than 175 artists working in all mediums. Their quarterly tentpole Art and Music Experience tends to bring in around 1,000 people to dance, meet artists and see their work.
Growing up around musicians, Kenneth’s developed a love for New Orleans’ cultural diversity. Today, he’s also French Quarter Festival Inc.’s food, beverage and hospitality director, curating menus showcasing the city’s culinary talent, including on French Quarter Fest’s new Culinary Stage, and helping implement environmental best practices at FQF and the Satchmo SummerFest.
Kenneth manages the business aspects of Abstract Nola along with the music and production side while Antarah oversees the creative direction of the events, such as curating artists, installations, galleries and aesthetic elements.
“Being in business together has added another layer to our relationship and communication,” Antarah says. “I’ve really been able to appreciate it so much more because of how our passions line up and how even our work styles come together.”
Antarah also is a curator, designer, and event producer and has worked with the Essence Festival of Culture, the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund Gala and the New Orleans African American Museum. She also works with Queen Tahj of the Golden Eagles.
“Abstract Nola is really a passion project,” Kenneth says. “At its core, it embodies the passion that Antarah and I have for the culture and our commitment to uplifting and sustaining it.” — Sofia Mongillo
Kyle DeVries, 38
Director, Catalyze Consulting & Productions;
Board president, New Orleans Pride Center
Kyle DeVries was drawn to activism and organizing while in college at Florida State University. He left school after one year to get to work.
“I was pursuing communications and political science, and I realized I was learning so much more being on the ground,” DeVries says. “LGBTQ activism has always been my biggest passion, but I worked for the Sierra Club and the Florida League of Conservation and at the state capital as an assistant lobbyist.”
DeVries gained experience advocating for Florida public radio and later worked to create LGBTQ service organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2013, he founded and directed Groundswell, an LGBTQ retreat in Boonville, California.
In 2016, he switched back to community organizing and activism, and in early 2021 moved to New Orleans. “I have always been in love with New Orleans,” DeVries says. “This is where I found culture and community. It was an easy decision to come back.”
After the city’s community center for the LGBTQ community closed in 2022, he led efforts to open the New Orleans Pride Center in Bywater.
“We talked with groups to see what they wanted in a center,” he says. “We wanted to create a hub for LGTBQ organizations and individuals in the region where they can have access to space and resources.”
He is the center’s board president, but also is hands-on, directing volunteers and attending events. The center is being used by Trans Queer Youth NOLA, Forum for Equality and other groups. It will add drop-in hours when it gets full-time staff, and DeVries’ eventual plan is to buy a building to create a permanent space and support more groups and programs. — WC
Camille Roane, 36
Director of Client Experience, Red Cypress Consulting
Camille Roane is especially passionate about her work as a communications professional at Red Cypress Consulting because she gets to connect with people on the frontlines of social and reproductive justice issues.
Red Cypress Consulting, which she describes as a “small and scrappy” team of writers and strategists from different backgrounds, is a worker-owned agency that does communications for progressive nonprofits, causes and political campaigns in the South.
Roane's main focus is on reproductive justice work, which she says is about much more than just standing up for abortion rights and bodily autonomy, extending to affordable housing issues, the climate crisis and mass incarceration.
“It’s a human rights framework,” she says. “Criminalization and control over bodies is inextricably linked."
Roane says the work is especially important in Louisiana’s current political climate.
“Things are really bad, but I get to see and work with people who are fighting back,” she says. “There’s so much brilliance and creativity, and we have always figured out ways to survive and organize.”
The Texas native is also on the board of the nonprofit Dancing Grounds, which blends performance art and fitness with advocacy.
“New Orleans is the cultural capital of America, particularly Black America,” she says. “It has always been a place of freedom for me. It’s created a lot of space for personal growth. It’s so Black, so queer, so culturally free. I’m so thankful for it.” — SR
Nicole Caridad Ralston, 35
Senior director of education and programming, Beloved Community
Nicole Caridad Ralston remembers her first visit to New Orleans, despite being just 4 years old at the time. “I loved these New Orleans coloring books that we got,” she says.
Ralston found her way back to New Orleans in 2012, and today, she runs education and programming for Beloved Community, a consulting firm helping businesses build diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
“As a mixed kid, you often feel stuck between two different cultures,” says Ralston, the daughter of a white father and Cuban mother. “How do I create spaces to make people feel big?”
Through Beloved Community, Ralston helped one restaurant build an all-Black women management staff and helped tweak dress codes to be more inclusive, removing inherently biased rules like nail length requirements. She also helped one organization serving the Black community transition from a white founder into a Black-run operation.
Ralston’s personal project, the foodie Instagram account “Off the Eaten Path” (@eatenpathnola), takes on a mission of celebrating New Orleans businesses owned by people of color, often detailing the cultural histories of food. The account now has more than 29,500 followers.
Ralston, a mother of adopted twins, also is an adjunct professor at UNO, teaching about multiculturalism in higher education, and she runs a birth doula practice, where she’s helped six mothers through the birthing process. — LP
Alfred Banks, 33
Rapper
In May, Alfred Banks became the first hip-hop artist to perform a full collaborative concert with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a noteworthy achievement, but for Banks, the real honor was selling out a show in his hometown.
“That little week in May was just like a testament, I’m at another plateau now and the respect I get has been cool,” Banks says.
Ambition, hustle and gifted lyricism have continued to elevate Banks over the last 15 years, ever since he jumped on stage at Truth Universal’s Grassroots showcase in 2009. There have been performances with Mickey Factz, Mega Ran and Lupe Fiasco; slots at Voodoo Fest and Buku Fest; well-received albums; and a Volkswagen commercial.
Banks just pursued what felt good, he says.
“In that, I find that it’s different than the norm, and I leaned into it,” Banks adds. “I want to do what’s natural for me, and what’s natural for me is to be very enthusiastic about my bars, the punchlines, the metaphors and structures in my verses ... It was less about trying to be different and more about finding what felt good.”
Banks also has been reaching new audiences as part of the duo SaxKixAve with saxophonist and producer Albert Allenback. With two EPs under their belt, the duo has been touring widely in 2024.
Banks’ next show is Friday, July 26, at Siberia with Marcel P. Black, Kaye the Beast, Luke Julien and D. Horton. And he will open for Talib Kweli Oct. 5 at The Joy Theater.
“I want people to know hip-hop can be alternative,” Banks says. “It can be different. It can be thought-provoking. It can be conscious. It could be humorous and just as potent. Those are the types of things I want to bring to the table.” — JC
Claiborne “Clay” Christian, 35
Executive director for commercialization, Tulane University Innovation Institute
Claiborne “Clay” Christian grew up going to theater productions and studied the classics as an undergrad. He likes to cook, collects art and is currently reading Rebecca Spang’s “The Invention of the Restaurant.”
He’s also an award-winning scientist.
A New Orleanian since 2012, Christian earned his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences at the Tulane University School of Medicine and later became a postdoctoral fellow at St. Jude’s Research Hospital. His work in 2020 on Tulane School of Medicine’s “The COVID-19 Digest” publication earned him the prestigious President’s Award for Excellence.
Christian in 2022 helped conceptualize and launch the Tulane University Innovation Institute, an initiative supporting startups and entrepreneurship in the Gulf South. In his role there, Christian works to grow technology-based startups and an entrepreneurial ecosystem across New Orleans.
As of May, he’s overseen programs that have given more than a half a million dollars in funds to early-stage locally developed technologies, ideas and teams.
Christian is a founding member of the equity, diversity and inclusion committee at AUTM, a global professional organization promoting academic research. He also spent years fundraising for LGBTQ group Friday Night Before Mardi Gras and volunteers with Friends for All, which helps people living with HIV.
“If you can help, you are obligated to,” he says. “Through practice, accident or natural birth, if you are in a position to put your gifts, to put your talents to benefit society, you should.” — AB
Alyson Curro, 35
Professional-in-residence, LSU
After Alyson Curro got her political communication degree from LSU, she figured the next step was Capitol Hill.
Instead, the New Orleans area native surprised everyone by going to Turkey, where she worked as a reporter after a research internship. After getting her master’s at Princeton, she spent a year in Myanmar, where she created and self-published a children’s book, “Girl Power in Myanmar,” about 14 local women who broke barriers.
But perhaps the biggest shocker of her career came shortly after she began the role of communications director for the Louisiana Department of Health — in January 2020. Within her first weeks, the department started communicating about Covid-19.
“I was still learning where the bathroom was,” she says.
In her three and a half years there, Curro helped the department promote Covid-19 vaccinations, including through partnerships with community leaders, door knocking, phone banking, texting, billboards, and TV and radio PSAs.
“It was, in short, the most challenging, meaningful and important work I've ever done to date, and probably among the most important work that I'll ever do in my career,” she says.
The effort got Curro thinking about ways to reduce political polarization on critical health issues, especially during a crisis. She’s been exploring that in her new role as professional-in-residence at LSU.
Curro’s working with Lift Louisiana on their abortion rights door knocking campaign, partnering with students to advocate for increased access to emergency contraception on campus, and conducting interviews with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center staff about being on the frontlines of the pandemic.
She also helped with the New Orleans Health Department’s summer campaign promoting testing for syphilis and other STIs.
“I really believe in the power of language and stories to connect, to find common ground, reduce stigma and build empathy,” Curro says. — KP
Gabrielle Perry, 31
Epidemiologist;
Founder of the Thurman Perry Foundation
Gabrielle Perry is dedicated to helping women and girls impacted by the incarceration system. The issue is personal for her.
A decade ago, her father died, and she was left to take care of her disabled mother while she was in college. Her father’s death meant a loss of primary income, and the family’s home was taken in foreclosure. She turned to what she calls crimes of survival, she says.
“I was in a desperate situation,” she says. “People are one adverse life event away from the jail house.”
A judge took mercy on her and dismissed her charges, allowing her to earn multiple degrees. But she still had difficulty finding work because of the arrest on her record, causing her to become homeless.
She fought to get her record expunged and now works as an epidemiologist. She founded the Thurman Perry Foundation, named for her father, to give women impacted by the prison and jail system new opportunities through scholarships, transitional housing funds and other resources.
One of the latest initiatives, Girl Code, has become a national program distributing organic, high-quality menstrual products to women in jail and prisons. In 30 states, Perry says women who are incarcerated do not receive menstrual products from the facilities.
“They are doing God knows what, without any dignity,” she says. “They are cutting open mattresses ... they are ripping their clothes, using socks instead of tampons.”
Since she started the program in 2021, she has orchestrated the delivery of more than 210,000 products to prisons.
“The majority of (incarcerated) women are sexual abuse survivors, domestic abuse survivors. These are battered and broken women who are being buried above ground,” she says. “These women matter. Please remember them.” — SR
Kelsey Foster, 36
Executive director, Algiers Economic Development Foundation
Recently, Kelsey Foster bought a giant pair of scissors — the kind that it takes two hands to use. In the past year alone, she’s helped cut 12 ribbons on new businesses in Algiers through her work at the Algiers Economic Development Foundation (AEDF).
“Everybody here is a dreamer,” Foster says of Algiers. “They’ve got three different side hustles that they’re working at all times.”
AEDF is a nonprofit nurturing small business owners in Algiers by providing them with resources and information to help their businesses grow. Say, if a business has an $8,000 Sewerage and Water Bill they need to contest, or they need to navigate permits to get a new sign, AEDF can help.
Foster says she picked up public finance from her previous career as a journalist, where she developed a knack for analyzing school board budgets. When she started at AEDF in 2020, the pandemic pushed the organization to reset their focus from hosting events in whiter neighborhoods to better serving communities of color. Since Foster has joined, AEDF’s budget and staff both tripled and their membership increased by 1,200%.
When Foster is not working full time for AEDF, she’s volunteering at various events and sits on the board of the University of Holy Cross and the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority, West. Foster also runs a program to better connect high schoolers with local employers.
“It’s a really small world here,” Foster says. “So it’s fun to be in the mix.” — LP
Bennett Kirschner, 32
Founding artistic director of Intramural Theater;
Co-songwriter at TV Pole Shine
Bennett Kirschner was raised in the theater and started acting in plays starting around age 4 while growing up in New Jersey.
He stuck with it, founding the Intramural Theater in 2015 while attending University of New Orleans for a master’s degree in playwriting.
Intramural puts on site-specific plays at venues around town, including unconventional spaces like a Frenchmen Street hotel room or a friend’s backyard. The group’s last play, “Bermuda Can Company,” was an offbeat comedy at the Music Box Village that incorporated start-up culture, nepotism and a visit beyond the grave, all in a uniquely dysfunctional New Orleans office. The next play, scheduled for early next year, will be about politics.
Intramural puts on two types of productions a year, he says: a devised one that the group creates entirely from scratch, in addition to a regional or world premiere of a play by a contemporary artist. “In both, we prioritize doing new and original works,” he says.
When the Intramural group develops their own shows, they start from a writing prompt about a subject such as synesthesia or voyeurism.
Kirschner also is a songwriter with the group TV Pole Shine, which focuses more on live performances than studio recordings.
“In a time where we are dealing with political and cultural polarization – that I think is really fueled by our obsession with screens – there’s something inherently revolutionary about nurturing and sharing a space with other people to enjoy a moment in time that will never exist again,” he says. — SR
Dr. BC Egan, 37
Assistant professor of emergency medicine, UMC New Orleans
Providing accessible healthcare and ending the opioid epidemic has driven Dr. BC Egan — the medical director of forensics at UMC New Orleans — to invent new ways to help those living with opioid use disorder.
When patients visit the emergency department due to an opioid overdose, it is usually a last resort. In the past, they were merely given a phone number to call for treatment after their visit. Now, Egan has started a program where they are also given Naloxone, a drug that can reverse the life-threatening symptoms of an opioid overdose, and Buprenorphine, a long-term treatment solution.
Egan says that by connecting patients with community providers once they are discharged to continue their treatment, a bridge is created that didn't exist before.
“While a lot of my practice involves treating injuries and illness, it's also problem solving how to navigate the social service network in New Orleans to help patients get access to transportation, housing, substance use treatment, and mental health services,” they said.
Besides providing medical care, Egan views the most important part of their job as making patients feel seen, heard, comfortable, and respected — this includes breaking down any negative stigmas around drug use.
“Part of my work and that of a network of many other motivated providers is to abolish that old way of thinking in medicine and treat our patients with opioid use disorder like we would any other patient: with kindness and empathy, offering them a variety of treatment and harm reduction options for wherever they are,” Egan says. — ML
John Huppi, 34
Professor, Tulane University;
Rower
John Huppi came to Tulane University as an undergraduate in 2007, largely as a response to Hurricane Katrina.
“I was like, that’s the place I want to go,” Huppi says. “I wanted to learn from a city rebuilding. All of those mechanics were interesting to me.”
He got involved immediately by volunteering.
“It was me swinging a hammer on the job site,” he says. “Then I started getting all these questions about who were doing all these projects and driving decisions.”
Huppi also went to grad school at Tulane and began a career looking at real estate development. He designed a real estate major within Tulane’s School of Architecture, and it has become the largest program within the school.
“The vast majority of our students want to be developers,” Huppi says. “But the field is really broad, so there are students who end up in banking, brokerage, construction, management, financing and on the policy and government side of things.”
Also at Tulane, Huppi discovered competitive rowing. He’s represented the U.S. and Switzerland in international competitions, since he holds dual citizenship.
“My wife and I were part of a team that won a bronze medal at the world championships, which we’re really proud of,” he says.
Huppi continues to coach the Tulane men’s and women’s rowing teams, but he and his wife also are focusing on a new challenge. Next summer, they’ll attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the fastest four-person team to cross the Arctic Ocean.
They’re joining with former New Orleans Saints player Jimmy Graham and former Navy SEAL Andrew Tropp in the 10- to 21-day, 1,000-kilometer journey from Tromso, Norway, to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle.
They hope to set the record and call attention to their charity beneficiaries, Laureus, which supports youth sports opportunities, and Covenant House New Orleans. — WC
Jerel Bryant, 39
CEO, Collegiate Academies
During the 2016-17 school year, Jerel Bryant had a vision to change the negative narrative around George Washington Carver High School and the experiences of its students. Then principal of the school, Bryant wanted to create an environment where children were eager to learn.
Bryant pushed the school to expand athletics and improve extracurriculars, and Carver introduced a program called “Las Sierras” to support students who are non-native English speakers. After Bryant’s adjustments, students regained school pride, and the percentage of teens staying enrolled at Carver went from less than 70% to nearly 90%. Within a year, the suspension rate dropped from over 60% to less than 15%.
“I especially love watching Black and Brown kids recognize what they’re capable of while even chasing more,” Bryant says. “As a Black male in this space, I want to model that enthusiasm for what’s possible; I feel especially convicted about that modeling.”
Bryant’s experience at Carver paved the way for him to now serve as the CEO of Collegiate Academies, a network of five local charter schools that includes Carver. With an increasing passion for teaching and learning, Bryant supports hundreds of educators and thousands of students around New Orleans. He believes in their potential to grow beyond expectations.
“At Carver, the road was never easy,” Bryant says. “But a clear vision, a committed team, and an unwavering belief in our kids led to seismic growth in Carver’s performance. I want more of that for even more kids.” — ML
Subtweet Shawn, 25
Entertainer
Shawn Taylor, better known as Subtweet Shawn, knew his “Get the Gat” challenge would go viral — but he never thought it’d reach the White House. During his winter break at LSU in 2019, Taylor created a dance to the Lil Elt ’92 bounce song, shot a video with his family and posted it to his social media as a prompt to get others to move to the song.
“To see how everybody was like, ‘I’m gonna join in,’ and watching it build up like that for the next two weeks, it was unbelievable,” he says.
Following their championship win, the LSU football team embraced “Get the Gat” and shot a video during their White House visit. It was a massive viral moment, but it wasn’t Taylor’s first and it hasn’t been his last.
The New Orleans-born rapper, actor, comedian and video creator has had a number of viral moments, going back to the 2016 song “Hit Da Dolphin” with Cozy With The Curls. Most recently, the track “Rock Yo Hips” with T99ZY led to a touchdown dance that took over college football last fall.
Taylor’s Subtweet Shawn moniker comes from a viral bounce parody he made in 2014, but in the last year, especially, he’s leaned into music, releasing two EPs and multiple singles blending rap, bounce elements, R&B, pop and an array of interesting samples. He’s racked up hundreds of thousands of streams across platforms.
“I’ve been able to reinvent myself every single year,” Taylor says, adding he’d like to soon turn his sights toward acting. “Every year, I’ve been able to come out with a new challenge or something that went viral … so to be able to do that for 10 years and keep my name in the room, I feel like that’s a goal in itself.” — JC
Jeremy Fogg, 36
Owner, Mae’s Bakeshop
Jeremy Fogg opened Mae’s Bakeshop as a home-based confectionery after the pandemic forced the city’s restaurants to close, including Emeril’s, where Fogg had been pastry chef for six years.
The Mae’s brand and its following grew, first through pop-ups and then with custom cake orders and catering events. In January 2024, Fogg opened the brick-and-mortar Mae’s Bakeshop in Uptown, drawing from a mix of new recipes and family traditions.
Fogg was driven by good food as a boy growing up in Florida, doing things like “looking up recipes, making things on Boy Scout campouts, [watching] grandma in the kitchen when she made family dinner on weekends,” he says.
While at Emeril’s, Fogg developed his skills not only with sugar, flour, butter and eggs, but also with people. And during his time there, he was featured on “Beat Bobby Flay,” “Best Baker in America” and “Guy’s Dessert Games.” Fogg took the prize on an episode of “Chopped Sweets” in 2020.
“It surprises me still, when people recognize me from TV,” Fogg says.
Over the years, he’s seen the effect a sweet treat can have beyond just a sale.
“I go to work. I bake. I go home,” he says. “I don’t look at myself as super important, but it is really nice that I can have an impact on people just by being myself.” — AB
