(New Orleans)— The Institute for Environmental Communication, a 13-week program sponsored by the Loyola University Center for Environmental Communication (LUCEC), is proud to welcome more than a dozen new fellows to its ranks.

The institute, started in 1999, provides a forum for discussion of environmental topics among people directly affected or who have the power to solve the issues discussed. The institute is organized and hosted annually by Robert A. Thomas, Ph.D., director of LUCEC and interim director of the School of Mass Communication.

This year’s lectures, held Aug. 29 to Nov. 21, covered the following topics: the economics of environmentalism, understanding environmental data, sustainable development in Greater New Orleans, green design, conflict between business and environment, and global climate change.

Guest speakers for this year’s institute included Robert Moreau, Ph.D., director of the Turtle Cove Research Center at Southeastern State University; Janet Kester, Ph.D., senior science adviser of the ENVIRON International Corporation; Jeffrey J. Thomas of the New Orleans Recovery Office; Allen Eskew of Eskew + Dumez + Ripple architecture firm; Aaron Viles, campaign director for Gulf Restoration Network; Tom Mullikin and John Saydlowski of the government, policy, and regulatory affairs team at Moore and Van Allen LLC in Charlotte, NC; Mark Schleifstein, an environment reporter at The Times-Picayune; Garland Robinette, a host on WWL Radio; Lee Zurik, an anchor and reporter at WWL-TV; Mark Davis, director of Tulane University’s Institute on Water Resources Law & Policy; Robert Verchick, Ph.D., a professor and head of the Loyola Center for Environmental Law and Land Use.

For more information, please contact Bob Thomas at (504) 865-2107 or rathomas@loyno.edu

The Institute for Environmental Communication would like to welcome the following new 2007 fellows:

Yasmin Bowers, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality

Vaughn Brennan, Bergeron Volvo

Andrea Bourgeois-Calvin, Program Coordinator, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

Craig Cortello, Trinity Consultants

Dan Favre, Campaign Organizer, Gulf Restoration Network

Blaire Fernandez, Gulf States Real Estate Services, L.L.C.

Wynecta Fisher, Director, New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Environmental Affairs

Hope Herron, Environmental Scientists/Communications & Outreach Specialist, Tetra Tech

Dr. Guerry O. Holm, Jr., Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Louisiana State University

Katie Landry, specialist in natural food marketing

Jill Mastrototaro, Environmental Coordinator, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

Colleen Morgan, Disaster Recovery Assistant, Audubon Nature Institute

Michael Murphy, Tulane environmental Law Clinic, Community Outreach Director

Ridgely Myers, P.E., Environmental Manager, International Matex Tank Terminals

Jen Pipitone, sophomore environmental studies student, Loyola University

Jordan Schneider, environmental communications senior, Loyola University

Robbie Vitrano, Trumpet Advertising

Eman Williams, Scientist/Educator, LA Department of Health & Hospitals, Metairie

For more information about the institute, please visit the website at http://www.loyno.edu/lucec/iec.html