LSU Experts Available to Speak on Coronavirus Impacts

Up-to-date context and analysis for the on-going situation


UPDATED 07/02/2020
BATON ROUGE – LSU has a number of experts available to discuss topics related to the coronavirus, social and physical distancing and more. Please check here as this list will be updated.

To schedule interviews, contact 225-978-8277/eballa1@lsu.edu or 510-816-8161/asatake@lsu.edu.

Epidemiology

Rebecca Christofferson, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine's Pathobiological Sciences department assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Emerging viruses and infectious diseases such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya. She is part of the team that set up the River Road Testing Lab at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine to help the community fill a critical gap in COVID-19 testing capabilities in Louisiana.
rcarri1@lsu.edu

Society and Culture

Troy Blanchard, LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences dean and LSU Department of Sociology professor
Areas of Expertise: Social impacts of the pandemic and how it is affecting the trust, social capital and faith garnered from religion and churches in the midst of the stay-at-home orders.
troy@lsu.edu

Lori Martin, LSU Department of Sociology and LSU Department of African and African American Studies professor
Areas of Expertise: Persistent racial and economic disparities and how historic inequality has led to Black people being at greater risk of negative impacts during crises such as the pandemic.
lorim@lsu.edu

Michael Pasquier, the Jaak Seynaeve Professor of Christian Studies, LSU Religious Studies and History associate professor and LSU Center for Collaborative Knowledge director
Areas of Expertise: How the pandemic and physical distancing is impacting culture and religion, especially in Louisiana.
mpasquier@lsu.edu

Tim Slack, LSU Department of Sociology professor
Areas of Expertise: Impacts of the pandemic on people across the economic spectrum including low-income workers and the service sector as well as differences between how rural, small towns and large, urban cities are being impacted.
timslack.lsu@gmail.com

Psychology and Mental Health

Anna Long, LSU Department of Psychology assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Child psychology, mental health and resilience in times of crises as well as in school settings. Wrote the Helping Kids Cope with COVID-19 information sheet for parents, teachers and caregivers.
along@lsu.edu

Emily Qualls-Creekmore, LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Stress, anxiety and emotional eating.
ecreek2@lsu.edu

Raymond Tucker, LSU Department of Psychology assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Potential impact of COVID-19 on suicide rates; the impact of physical and social distancing on mental health as well as ways to cope given this change; and the impact of uncertainty on mental health and ways to cope with uncertain times.
rtucker1@lsu.edu

Don Zhang, LSU Department of Psychology assistant professor
Areas of Expertise: Risk perception and decision making; personality and the effect of social isolation.
Zhang1@lsu.edu

Work and Industry

Tracey Rizzuto, LSU School of Leadership and Human Resource Development associate director
Areas of Expertise: Workplace disaster recovery; technology and workplace issues including how working remotely is impacting workers and employers.
trizzut@lsu.edu

Rachel Williamson Smith, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Area Head and LSU Department of Psychology assistant professor
Areas of expertise: Work-family balance, boundary management between work and non-work, employee well-being including managing stress in situations such as this pandemic. 
rsmith3@lsu.edu

Business and Economy

Jim Richardson, the Harris J. and Marie P. Chustz Endowed Professorship and LSU Department of Public Administration and LSU Department of Economics professor
Areas of Expertise: How COVID-19 is impacting the economy.
parich@lsu.edu

Dek Terrell, LSU Economics & Policy Research Group executive director and LSU Department of Economics professor
Areas of Expertise: Economic impacts of the coronavirus and recovery from the pandemic relative to hurricanes such as Hurricane Katrina.
mdterre@lsu.edu

Food Safety, Nutrition and Growing Your Own Food 

 

John Apolzan, LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center Assistant Professor-Research
Areas of Expertise: Nutrition, exercise and food cravings.
japolzan@lsu.edu

Wenqing Xu, LSU AgCenter and School of Nutrition and Food Sciences assistant professor 
Areas of Expertise: Food safety and microbiology. She has compiled fact sheets on grocery store safety and food takeout, videos on proper disinfecting and has been fielding media requests on those topics.  
Wenqing.xu@agcenter.lsu.edu

Sandra May, LSU AgCenter and School of Nutrition and Food Sciences instructor
Areas of Expertise: She is a registered dietitian and has developed content on emergency food supply, stretching food supply between grocery visits, hypertension and the link to COVID-19. 
SaMay@agcenter.lsu.edu
  
Heather Kirk Ballard, LSU AgCenter and the School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences assistant professor 
Areas of Expertise: She is a consumer horticulturist and has been fielding requests about the surge of interest in home gardening during the stay-at-home order.  
HKirkBallard@agcenter.lsu.edu

 

 

Contact Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
510-816-8161
asatake@lsu.edu

Ernie Ballard
LSU Media Relations
225-978-8277
eballa1@lsu.edu