Alumni

Our alumni make communities better.

When CHSE alumni show up in your community it will be better. They are changemakers and heart-changers. They leave an imprint - not a light one, but one that alters the landscape, challenges minds, forges new futures, and reimagines the status quo.

Our alumni have a fierce devotion and deep-rooted passion to change lives and make a significant positive impact on the world around us in woven into our DNA.

CHSE ALUMNI CHANGING LIVES

D-D Breaux celebrating with her team after winning the SEC championship.

D-D Breaux (BS Health Physical & Safety 1976, MS Health Physical & Safety 1978) is the longest tenured coach of any sport in SEC history. Breaux built the LSU women's gymnastics program into a national powerhouse. During her tenure, the Tigers placed among the top-10 teams nationally 31 times in 43 seasons with program-best second place finishes in 2016, 2017 and 2019, third in 2014, fourth in 1988 and 2018, fifth in 2008 and 2013 and sixth on four separate occasions. The Tigers are the three-time defending Southeastern Conference champions. Breaux’s squad won the inaugural SEC Championship title in 1981 and returned to the top once again in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The three-peat marked the fifth time in SEC history a team has won three or more SEC titles in a row. Her team has also gone on to finish second on five occasions and third seven other times.

Photo fo Jyric Sims.

Jyric Sims (BS Kinesiology 05) serves as president and CEO of Medical City Plano and Frisco, a health system within HCA Healthcare, that includes a 603-bed level 1 trauma medical center, 92-bed level 3 trauma medical center and more than 3,200 employees. He previously served as President and CEO of Medical City Fort Worth, COO of Tulane Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana, COO of St. Lucie Medical Center in Port St. Lucie, Florida and in executive roles in Houston, Texas and Little Rock, Arkansas. Prior to HCA, he worked as an administrative fellow and director of operations at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

 

Photo of Rachel Balkovec

Rachel Balkovec (MS Kinesiology 2011)  is a minor league manager for the New York Yankees and has worked in professional baseball for 10 years. She is the first woman to be a full time strength and conditioning coach and also the first woman to be a full time hitting coach in the history of professional baseball. 

Photo of Michael Shaw

Lt. Col. Michael C. Shaw (MS Human Resource Education 2012, PhD Human Resource Education 2015) is a military professor in the Strategy and Policy Department. He most recently graduated from the Army War College. An Army aviator, his past assignments include battalion command, Army staff, commander's initiative group, and various other command and staff positions. Past operational tours include in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Spartan Shield, and Operation Inherent Resolve.

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Photo of Johnnie W. Jones Jr.

Johnnie W. Jones, Jr. (MS Social Work 1975, PhD Textiles, Apparel & Merchandising 2018) doesn't let his age stop him from learning. In fact, he graduated with his PhD from LSU when he was 83. Jones received a Master’s of Social Work from LSU in 1975 and was about nine hours short of his PhD when he received a job offer from the Department of Corrections. He would retire 25 years later as the warden for the women’s prison. When he returned to school he had to start all over again. His dissertation was about racism and religion and specifically the perceptions of racism and the stress that black families experience as a result, and how religion serves as a coping strategy.

 

 

Photo of Hall of Distinction 2022 Honorees (from left to right) Roland Mitchell, Jackie Ducote, Carolyn Hargrave, Carolyn Collins, Laura Lindsay, D-D Breaux, Russell Mosely.

Hall of Distinction

SInce 2011, the college recognizes and celebrates our alumni, or individuals who make significant positive impacts to the College mission, their profession, their community, academia, or government. Recipients exemplify the mission of CHSE to address the complex human issues and policy decisions facing Louisiana, the nation, and the world through their gifts, talents, and time.

 

More about the Hall of Distinction & Past Honorees

 

Alumni News

Honoring the December 2023 Distinguished Graduates of the College of Human Sciences & Education.

LSU alumna, Janis Pardue Hill, PhD, a retired university professor and lifelong educator, has recently published a memoir about her father’s journey as a prisoner of war on the Bataan Death March that occurred during World War II. In Telling His Story: POW #1000, Pardue Hill, as primarily a compiler and editor, provides the details of his story.

School of Information Studies alumna, Mackenzie Roberts Beasley (MLIS, 2018), recently found herself at the center of an amazing archival discovery as part of the team that located one of the oldest films of New Orleans. The film shows the February 22, 1898 Rex Parade following the year's Mardi Gras theme of Harvest Queens, as highlighted by The New York Times' feature article on the discovery. Founded in 1872, the Rex Carnival Krewe continues holding one of the most anticipated parades each Carnival season.

LSU Office of Research & Economic Development, or ORED, honors the exceptional research and scholarship of two LSU faculty as Distinguished Research Masters each year. In addition, the LSU Alumni Association and the LSU Pinkie Gordon Lane Graduate School sponsor the Distinguished Dissertation Awards presented to two doctoral students whose research and writing demonstrate superior scholarship.

Mackenzie Roberts Beasley, a Shreveport native and 2018 graduate, helped uncover a piece of Louisiana history - long-lost Mardi Gras footage of the 1898 Rex parade. A family friend, who was the historian for Rex, asked Beasley for help finding any Mardi Gras Rex parade footage. Beasley, an audiovisual archivist, searched through Internet databases and even called friends for help.

 

Share Your Story

College of Human Sciences & Education graduates are shaping communities worldwide. We are proud of our alumni and want to stay in touch and share your stories, advice, and reflections from your time at LSU.

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