What has your life been like since leaving Southeastern? What do you do for a living? And have you married and/or had children?
After graduating from SLU, I began my career in New Orleans as an editorial assistant at New Orleans Magazine, where I discovered both my love for my native hometown and for photography. Since then, I’ve built a life as a journalist, documentary photographer and author of three books, capturing the city’s contradictions and celebrations. My husband, a trombonist, and I have been together 29 years, splitting time between the Marigny, Mississippi and Mexico, with family and our cat, Joan Didion.
What do you remember most about your time at Southeastern and working with student publications?
What I remember most about Southeastern was the encouragement I got from Joe Mirando. He pushed me to think bigger than the classroom. With his help, we started a student magazine called Spectrum, which was such a thrill at the time. But my favorite memory, hands down, was interviewing Carroll O’Connor from All in the Family. That was my family’s favorite show, so meeting him felt huge. He couldn’t have been nicer. He told me about his days working on his school paper and how he really wanted to be a writer before ending up an actor. It made me realize how many paths storytelling can take.
Give me your back story. How did you wind up at Southeastern and interested in working with student publications?
I grew up in southern Louisiana and was the first in my family to finish high school, let alone go to college. When I arrived at Southeastern, I had no idea what to study, so I signed up for general studies. That’s when my counselor, Joe Mirando, changed my life. After a series of questions about what I liked and disliked, he suggested journalism through liberal arts. Joe became my mentor, steering me into a job at the St. Tammany News Banner and and internship at The Daily Star under his wife, editor Lil Mirando. Those experiences gave me my first real newsroom training, and when Joe and I launched Spectrum, I was hooked for good.
What would you say is the biggest thing you learned while at Southeastern?
The biggest thing I learned at Southeastern was that experience matters just as much as the classroom. Joe Mirando pushed me to get out there and actually work as a reporter, and those opportunities gave me the confidence to believe I could make it in journalism. I learned how to follow a lead, meet a deadline and, most importantly, trust my instincts. Starting Spectrum back on campus showed me that with a little guidance and a lot of determination, we could create something lasting. That combination of real-world work and mentorship shaped everything that came after.
Southeastern Student Publications Alumni 