Deidre Deculus Robert

Deidre Deculus Robert serves as Vice President, General Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Loyola University New Orleans, where she is a member of the university’s senior leadership team. In this role, she provides strategic legal counsel, leads governmental affairs, and helps advance the university’s priorities and partnerships across Louisiana and nationally.

An attorney, executive, educator, and public servant, Robert has spent her career working at the intersection of law, government, higher education, public policy, and community and economic development. Immediately prior to joining Loyola, she served as President and CEO of Build East Baton Rouge, where she led efforts to strengthen the redevelopment authority while advancing equitable investment, neighborhood revitalization, affordable housing, blight remediation, and economic development throughout East Baton Rouge Parish.

Robert previously served as a presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. As Louisiana State Director, she helped deliver nearly $4 billion in investments supporting housing, infrastructure, broadband, community facilities, agriculture, and economic development. She was subsequently appointed Director of State Operations, providing national leadership and support to Rural Development operations across 47 states and territories, more than 500 offices, and approximately 2,500 employees.

Her career in public service also includes serving as Executive Counsel for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, where her work encompassed legal counsel, legislative affairs, and major infrastructure initiatives; leadership positions with the Louisiana Department of Justice and City-Parish of Baton Rouge; and General Counsel for the Southern University System. She also served as an adjunct professor at Southern University Law Center.

Service has remained a constant throughout Robert’s career. She served as President of the Louisiana Bar Foundation, becoming both the first Southern University Law Center graduate and the first Black woman to lead the statewide organization. Her civic engagement has included leadership and service with The Links, Incorporated; the Diocesan School Board of the Diocese of Baton Rouge; Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated; Ellevate Louisiana; MDC; the Louisiana State Bar Association; and the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society. Her professional engagement also includes the Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association, and National Black Growers Association. Across these organizations, her service has centered on education, access to justice, community advancement, leadership development, and expanding opportunity.

A native of Mamou, Louisiana, Robert grew up on her family’s rice, soybean, and crawfish farm, grounding her early understanding of community, agriculture, hard work, and service. She earned her Juris Doctor from Southern University Law Center and her Bachelor of Arts in History and Classical Civilizations from Louisiana State University. In 2026, she was inducted into the Southern University Law Center Hall of Fame.

Throughout a career spanning local, state, and federal service, Robert has built relationships across Louisiana and the nation while remaining rooted in a simple philosophy: leadership is an opportunity to serve, strengthen institutions, open doors for others, and leave communities better positioned for the future.