The Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation Excellence Award is issued to those individuals who are pillars of their community, lead by example, make a measurable impact, and have establish or operate a charity at an elite level. Winners of our Excellence Award have shown such dedication, perseverance, and sophistication in running their charity that they have become synonymous with the organization they lead. We could not be prouder to issue an Excellence Award to James R. Kelly on October 10, 2019. Mr. Kelly is an easy selection to receive this award. He has devoted his life and career to making this world a better place through serving the suffering children of the street. Mr. Kelly founded Covenant House New Orleans in 1987. In 2011, he returned to Covenant House as Executive Director. In the past forty years, Mr. Kelly has worked in ministries that serve the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society. Mr. Kelly is the past Co-President of Catholic Charities of New Orleans. The organization played a major role in the community’s relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts following Katrina. Mr. Kelly serves on many local Boards of Directors and has testified before numerous Congressional Committees. In addition to the Excellence Award, the Foundation issued a $10,000 grant in Mr. Kelly’s honor to Covenant House, bringing the Foundations total support to Covenent House through year end 2019 to over $650,000.

Families Helping Families of Greater New Orleans is a family directed resource center serving the entire state of Louisiana since 1991. They provide peer to peer support, information, resources, and training on disability/special health care need and special education topics. We first issued a small exploratory grant to this prestigious organization in 2000, and then developed a program with them eighteen years later. In October of 2019 our board proudly approved a second $25,000 grant to support FHF’s pilot program to work with children diagnosed with autism, teaching said children the science of computer coding and securing employment in the high technology industry. For more information about Families Helping Families and their incredible dedication to improving lives in the state of Louisiana please visit their website: https://fhfofgno.org/

The Brown Foundation is proud to announce the winner of the $100,000 grant designated for Louisiana State University (LSU) - an invited participant to our 2019 Oncology Program - is the sophisticated work of Harry J. Gould III, M.D., Ph.D. (photo’d) and Dennis Paul, Ph.D. Dr. Gould & Dr. Paul’s work is to activate sodium channels while pharmacologically blocking sodium pumps. Thus, they believe they can selectively kill cancer cells, bacteria and inflamed neurons. In the presence of disease or injury, basic cellular mechanisms that are usually beneficial for cell function can become detrimental to an organism’s survival. Current approaches for treating cancer and disease focus on eliminating the offending agent in the hope that normal functioning will return. This approach is effective when the components of cellular function have not been changed by the disease; but in many disease states such as cancer, basic cellular functioning is altered. In such instances, the standard approach to treatment is to correct or eliminate the altered cells, e.g. chemotherapy or radiation treatments in cancer, thereby effecting a treatment. Dr. Gould & Dr. Paul propose a different approach to treating the altered cells: to use the way in which they differ from normal cells (the very features that make them so successful) against them to cause their destruction without damaging the normal cells. This is a paradigm shift from conventional methods for treating cancer that the Brown Foundation is truly honored to have the opportunity to support.

The Brown Foundation is proud to announce the winner of the $100,000 grant designated for the Salk Institute - an invited participant to our 2019 Oncology Program - is the Regulatory Biology Laboratory with Dannielle Engle, PhD. as the principal investigator. Dr. Engle’s proposal to epigenetically intercept CA19-9 for the treatment of pancreatic cancer is potentially nothing short of revolutionary. She has already demonstrated that CA19-9 is a therapeutic target in pancreatic inflammation and cancer. Instead of drugging CA19-9 itself and waiting for this high abundance target to reach elevated levels, Dr. Engle proposes to go after the elevation process itself. She will do this by identifying the key epigenetic regulators controlling CA19-9 levels in human pancreatic organoid cultures using drugs that are rapidly translatable to the clinic. In layman’s terms, Dr. Engle’s work builds upon the finding that pancreatic cancer cells use different sugars than normal pancreatic cells. She will test whether interference with metabolic pathways governing the production of these sugars will weaken the cancer cells without impacting the healthy cells. This work also considers the financial burden of a cancer diagnosis by pursuing drugs that are already FDA-approved and are also now available as generics, reducing their cost by 5- to 10-fold. Dr. Engle’s hypothesis is that preventing the elevation of CA19-9 will shut down the malignant cascade and trigger cell death in the cancer cells. For more information on the work of Dr. Engle, please visit here: https://www.salk.edu/scientist/dannielle-engle/

Though the Foundation generally requires more than two years of operational history before we consider program support, rare exceptions have been made for programing that is dealing with an acute emergency or has the potential to be revolutionary. One such case where we proudly supported an organization during their operational commencement is Café Reconcile. Café Reconcile now has a 15-year track record of success, 100 active partnerships, and more than 400 requests to support similar efforts in other communities not just in the United States but around the world. Grant support from the Foundation for Café Reconcile began in 2004 with the most recent grant of $25,000 being vetted and approved by our grant review team in November of 2019. A total of ten (10) grants aggregating to $285,500 have been approved for Café Reconcile’s Workforce Development Program over the last sixteen (16) years. With the financial backing of its supporters, Cafe Reconcile’s Workforce Development Program has successfully graduated more than 1,500 youth between the ages of 16 and 24.

These students leave the 8-week program with basic independent living skills, interpersonal skills and work skills, enabling and empowering them to successfully enter the workforce. Café Reconcile has established a sustainable model for helping disadvantaged youth achieve career success. Currently, Cafe Reconcile strives to provide: 1) youth with an opportunity to learn the life, job, and educational skills necessary for successful entry into the food service and construction industries, 2) a cornerstone for the economic recovery of the Central City neighborhood, and 3) a gathering place where people of goodwill can work together to solve difficult problems.

On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 our Education Team hosted our twentieth (20th) annual Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation Service Learning Event! A fantastic time was had by all at the Lake Pontchatrain Center, where we have hosted the event every year for more than a decade.

Teachers, students and local non-profits came together to kick-off another school year of service learning projects that span 11 parishes and total over $230,000 in funding for 108 unique Service Learning Plans across 62 different K-12 schools. Our total attendance at our 2019 celebration event topped 1,200 people dedicated to improving the human condition through the utilization of service learning.

Pictured left and right (respectively) are 2019-2020 service learning participants from Arlene Meraux Elementary School in St. Bernard Parish and Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish! Destrehan High School received $7,404 in support of TWO Service Learning Plans, one being where students of the Industrial Electronics and robotics program will inspire and educate younger students about STEM at seven Greater New Orleans Area elementary schools. The second plan being their Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps class teaching middle school students about American Flag etiquette.

Arlene Meraux Elementary School received funding for TWO plans as well: 1) environmental science students will complete services at a local cultural arts center involving weeding in the center’s garden beds, testing the soils and planting starter seedlings while 2) science and math students will partner with LSU Coastal Roots Program to plant, study and nurture cypress trees on school grounds before transporting them to areas in need of coastal restoration. Funding for Arlene Meraux Elementary totals $2,600.00 this school year!

During the service learning ceremony, we took the opportunity to present a special award and scholarship in honor of an outstanding partner of the Foundation. Coach Melvin R. Howard of Victories In Service received the second (ever!) Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation Excellence Award. The Foundation launched the Excellence Award program earlier in 2019 to recognize individuals who have become synonymous with the mission of the charity they have led for a significant portion of their life. Coach Melvin is the ideal embodiment of this award as his service to others to make this world a better place through leading Victories in Service has had a recognizable and transformative impact on inner city New Orleans. The Victories in Service program uses sports and sportsmanship to redirect the mindset of underserved youth in the upper and lower ninth wards and throughout inner city New Orleans and strives to encourage children to be dedicated in their work habits and to become productive members of and engaged in society.

In honor of Coach receiving our Excellence Award, the Foundation issued the medal of excellence (shown in the photos) and Victories In Service received a $10,000 check in support of its programming. Further, we are honored to have issued a $20,000 scholarship in Coach Melvin’s name to Southern University of New Orleans, where Coach Melvin played baseball. Great work, coach!

Scripps Research enjoys a rich history of academic and scientific achievement. Its world-class faculty and visionary leadership have partnered to create a top-ranked nonprofit biomedical research institute that translates discoveries into new medicines while training the next generation of scientists. In 2016 program officers for the Foundation conducted a site visit to Scripps Research. Though this site visit did not lead to a grant the visit left a longstanding positive impression on the Foundation and now in 2019 we have determined that Scripps Research is a perfect fit for our Oncology Initiative Program. Three lead in exploratory grants of $10,000 each have issued to Scripps Research for three world class projects.

Come back in December of 2019 to learn which of these three laboratories will receive a full grant of $100,000: 1. The Brunhilde Felding Lab – for research into modulation of tumor cell metabolism to reduce resistance to therapies, under the direction of Brunhilde Felding, Ph.D. 2. The Wendy Havran Lab – for gamma-delta T cell stimulation research, under the direction of Wendy Havran, Ph.D. 3. The Katja Lamia Lab – for research harnessing circadian rhythm pathways to suppress cancers - under the direction of Katja Lamia, Ph.D.

Ms. Dorothy Dorsett Brown spent much of her time in the beautiful state of Mississippi and a meaningful portion of her philanthropic attentions were dedicated to improving the human condition in Mississippi. The Foundation is proud to announce its first ever project with the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Cancer Center, who after careful consideration was invited to participate in our basic science oriented 2019 Oncology Initiative Program. The following three projects received, in the aggregate, $30,000 of exploratory grants in August of 2019 from the Foundation,

and one of them will be selected for a substantially larger research support award in December of 2019: 1. Demonstrate that Lfng marks both cell-of-origin and cancer stem-like cells of PDAC, ultimately leading to the identification of novel biomarkers for early detection and/or targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer, under the direction of Dr Keli Xu. 2. Development of chemotherapeutic agents to be used in the fight against leukemia: PUFAs and enhanced hematopoiesis, under the direction Dr. Yann Gilbert. 3. Gene therapy and improvement of the adenovirus as a delivery system in fight against Prostate Cancer, under the direction of Dr. Pier Paulo Claudio.

One of the most exciting activities a foundation gets to undertake is launching new initiatives. Frequently a new initiative exposes us to organizations we may have hitherto never interacted with. When that new organization is a decorated and revered world class leader in their field like the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is in oncology research, we feel truly blessed and become incredibly captivated by their programming. At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute basic, translational, clinical, and population sciences research are never far apart — physically or philosophically. It’s a tradition that goes back to the Institute’s founder, Sidney Farber, MD, who conceived of a facility where scientists in upper-floor laboratories would make discoveries that could be used in treating cancer patients in ground-floor clinics.

On August 16, 2019 the Foundation issued three exploratory grants to three laboratories with our new friends to further basic research. In December of 2019 one of these three labs will receive a $100,000 award to further support their research: 1. The Center for the Prevention of Progression of Blood Cancers (CPOP), under direction of Rob Soiffer, M.D. and Irene Ghobrial, M.D. 2. Reprogramming Immune Responses Using Long Non-coding RNAs, under direction of Carl D. Novina MD, PhD. 3. Immunotherapeutic Vaccine Strategy for Lung Cancer, under direction of David Barbie, MD (DF/HCC Lung Cancer Program); Jonathan Duke-Cohan, PhD (biochemistry); Bruce Reinhold, PhD (Mass Spectrometry); and Ellis Reinherz, MD (molecular immunology).

The University of Florida is one of the most prestigious universities along the gulf coast and is the only AAU accredited member university in Florida. The UF Health Cancer Center has a mission to prevent, detect, treat and ultimately cure cancer. The overarching goal of the UF Health Cancer Center is to improve cancer outcomes. This is, in part, accomplished by promoting research in cancer mechanisms, developing and conducting interventional clinical trials addressing the most prevalent cancers that affect patients, and improving their understanding of the determinants of cancer outcomes in rural, underserved and elderly patients.The UF Health Cancer Center is committed to the interdisciplinary basic discovery and translational research, and the pursuit of scientific endeavors that have near-term clinical applications.

It is our honor to have just issued three exploratory grants to this organization to further basic research with the following projects: 1. The development of novel pathways of micro RNA processing in gene regulation and cancer, under the direction of Mingyi Xie, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry UF College of Medicine. 2. The development of novel approaches to target brain tumors, under direction of Catherine T. Flores, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Department of Neurosurgery UF College of Medicine. 3. Understanding the biochemical activities of carbohydrate processing enzymes involved in cancer progression and metastasis, under the direction of Lina Cui, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry UF College of Pharmacy.

“The Price of Freedom Can Be Seen Within These Walls.” — Captain William “Bill” Detweiler. Construction on the New Orleans VA Medical Center (an eight-story, 1.6-million-square-foot hospital that replaced an aging facility destroyed by Hurricane Katrina) was completed in November of 2016. On August 13, 2019 the Foundation was able to develop our first program within this impressive structure. We couldn’t be prouder to be the first private foundation to grant $50,000 of money to the Louisiana Veterans Research and Education Corporation to help them fill their laboratories and launch their veteran focused research operations. Need lab space? Contact Stephanie Kleehammer (the Executive Director of Louisiana Veterans Research and Education Corporation) today and see if this impressive new center could house your research initiatives.

In early July of 2019, Hurricane Barry threatened the Louisiana coastline. Though New Orleans did not catch the worst of the storm, there was still flooding that impacting non-profit organizations throughout our region. The administrative offices of our friends at the School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans were some of the offices that were damaged and they needed an emergency home base to continue their operations. We at the Foundation were blessed to have a vacant office at the Brown Foundation Center so we took in their three employees and housed the operations of the School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans through August 19, 2019. It was our pleasure and honor to provide rent and cost free emergency space to our friends. Learn more about the great work of the School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans through their website: https://www.slc-gno.org/

At MD Anderson, one of the nations top institutions for cancer care, crucial scientific knowledge gained in the laboratory is rapidly translated into clinical care. In FY18, MD Anderson invested almost $863 million in research, a 17% increase in the past five years and a substantial investment in humanity’s future. MD Anderson and the Brown Foundation have partnered with one another to fight cancer several times over the years. It took little deliberation among our program officers to unanimously determine MD Anderson was a perfect invitee to our 2019 Oncology Initiative Program. On August 16, 2019 the Foundation issued three exploratory grants of $10,000 each to three basic science projects with MD Anderson. The Foundation’s three newest initiatives to battle cancer beside our longstanding allies in the fight against cancer at MD Anderson include:

(1) the work of Mark Bedford, Ph.D. in using protein domain microarrays to evolve small-molecule inhibitors of epigenetic pathways; (2) the work of Guillermina “Gigi” Lozano, Ph.D. in identifying vulnerabilities in p53 mutant tumors; and (3) the work of Florencia McAllister, M.D., in understanding the role of the immune system in immunosurveillance and immunoevasion and on dissecting the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate the immune responses to tumor progression. At the end of 2019 one of these three laboratories at MD Anderson will receive an additional one hundred thousand dollars in support through our new program.

The Foundation couldn’t be prouder that LSU Health and Sciences was one of the nine basic research institutions to be featured in our 2019 Oncology Initiative Program. In August of 2019 the Foundation issued three exploratory grants of $30,000 to three cancer research programs at LSU.  In December of 2019, one of these three programs will be converted from an exploratory grant to a full foundation grant of $100,000 in additional research support.

The Foundation’s three newest projects to fight cancer along side LSU include: (1) the work of Hamid Boulares, PhD to develop a new and improved approach to treat/prevent inflammatory diseases that involve oxidant stress and PARP-1 activation; (2) the work of Francesca Peruzzi, PhD on molecular mechanisms associated with brain cell dysfunction caused by HIV-1 infection and on the role of microRNAs in controlling tumor growth; and (3) the work of Harry J. Gould, M.D.,Ph.D., and Dennis Paul, Ph.D. in targeted osmotic lysis (activating sodium channels while pharmacologically blocking sodium pumps).

On August 5, 2019 the Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation launched the Excellence Award Program. This three year program is designed to recognize individuals who have given a substantial part of their life to make this world a better place through either founding or leading a charity that has had a longstanding and recognizable impact. Winners of this award will receive a framed medal and a grant check for $10,000 made out to the charity they have tirelessly served. The Foundation is deeply honored to have Dan and Jackie Silverman as the

first ever winners of the Excellence Award. Their relentless work from 2006 through the present day at the New Orleans Women and Children shelter is an inspiration to everyone. To meet the needs of vulnerable people in our community, the New Orleans Women & Children’s Shelter is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and consistently operates at 90% capacity or higher. Innovation, dedication, perseverance, and sophistication are all words that can describe the management and leadership style of Dan and Jackie. Dan and Jackie have helped keep families together and give hope to not just those specific families they serve but all of us in this community. For more information on the New Orleans Women and Children Shelter and the relentless efforts of Dan and Jackie, please visit their website at: https://nowcs.org/

The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is one of the world wide leaders in cancer treatment and research. In July of 2019 the Foundation proudly issued three exploratory grants of $30,000 to three laboratories at Sloan Kettering. At the end of 2019 one of these three labs will receive an additional, substantially larger, gift from the Foundation.

The Foundation’s three newest projects to fight cancer with Sloan Kettering include: (1) Genomic landscape underlying response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancers, under the direction of Matthew Hellmann, MD; (2) Defining and dissecting immune cell-cancer cell interactions in the spinal fluid, under the direction of Adrienne Boire, MD, PhD; and (3) Understanding the roles of histone 3 lysine 36 methyltransferases in regulating gene expression and in cancer, under the direction of Zhen Sun, PhD and Kristian Helin, PhD.

Foundation support for Boys Town over the last two decades has totaled $226,250. Boys Town Louisiana opened in 1989, and today meets the needs of youth and families through a variety of Integrated Continuum of Care® services. Boys Town offers Diagnostic and Assessment Services to provide immediate help to youth in dangerous situations and Boys Town has three Family Homes for Adolescents in New Orleans while even providing In-Home Family Services SM to qualified troubled families. These services and programs supported by the Brown Foundation touch the lives of 7,600 children and families in Louisiana each year.

The Ochsner Clinic Foundation recently received $19,900 for STEM programming support for professional development. We’re very pleased to have another program with this group, who last received grant approval from the Brown Foundation in 2007. Our relationship with Ochsner spans nearly 30 years, and total funding has now surpassed $350,000 with this most recent grant.

2019 SupportSTEM grantees were announced and awarded funds at our June 4, 2019 Emmy Noether Awards Event! Twenty-seven applicants were approved for a total of $304,022. Recipients presented the best STEM implementation plans and instructional support for k-12 schools via paid professional development, curriculum implementation programs, equipment and STEM kits.

Pictured left are our partners from the Talaria Antibodies out of Baton Rouge, accepting the award on behalf of Bay Area Bioscience Education Community who are working to create a new STEM curriculum. Pictured right is Electric Girls, one of the few groups to receive a SupportSTEM award from the Foundation in both 2018 and 2019.

Lusher Charter School accepting 2019 SupportSTEM Award at June 4, 2019 event. Project “Environmental Sustainability” received $18,645 in support! Also included in picture (second from the right) is Amaris Lewis, our 2019 Emmy Noether Award Gold Medalist who is a (very!) recent alumni of Lusher Charter School.

GNO Science and Engineering Fair accepting 2019 SupportSTEM Award at June 4, 2019 event. Project “Mentors for Student STEM Research” received $12,390 in support!

Archbishop Shaw High School accepting 2019 SupportSTEM Award at June 4, 2019 event. Project “Forensic Science” received $16,675 in funding support! We loved this plan involving the build of a new class and a motivated teacher working with great partners. This program aims to foster interest in science careers through the emulation of forensic methodology. Could a future crime scene analyst be inspired by this foundation gift?

Woodmere Elementary School accepting 2019 SupportSTEM Award at June 4, 2019 event. Project “Woodmere STEM” received $8,670 in support!

The 2019 Emmy Noether Awards Event was held at the Louisiana Cancer Research Center on Tuesday, June 4, 2019. It was another successful year! Professor E.F. Hunter III and gold medalist Amaris Lewis.

One of our two silver medalists, Shivani Patel, with her family and Foundation board members.

Taylor Collins, one of the Emmy Noether Award Scholars, with Professor Hunter, the Foundation’s Education Program Officer and President. We couldn’t be more proud of these young ladies.

Special thanks to our 2019 Emmy Noether Award judges! First row: Kristi Trail, P.E. Jean Jacob, Ph.D., Cathie Smith, Victoria Belancio, Ph.D., and Tamika Duplessis, Ph.D.

WYES has a mission, in part, “to educate and inform”. We at the Foundation have a long history of partnering with WYES to produce high quality educational programming in Louisiana. On April 30, 2019 we awarded $90,000 to WYES to assist in their Service Learning Opportunities Project. This new project will feature multiplatform programing with streaming, broadcast, an online forum, and other avenues to assist Louisiana and Mississippi educators learn more about service learning initiatives in our region. Stay tuned for the Service Learning Programming on WYES!

We at the Foundation love seeing groups that legitimately cross over into multiple areas where we are focused.  Such was the case with our new friends at unCommon Construction who recently received a grant in the amount of $12,000 in support of their expanded programming.  At unCommon Construction, youth from different high schools apply to join a diverse team to earn hourly pay and school internship credit for building a house in a semester. With the revenue from each project, apprentices also earn a matching "Equity Award Scholarship" for further education, industry certifications or the tools (literally the tools!) needed for long-term employment. Through more than 100 hours each semester, apprentices develop career awareness and exposure, technical, soft skills, and leadership abilities through a work-based learning experience in a real-world classroom. Learn more about our new friends at www.uncommonconstruction.org/

Our program to preserve the Louisiana coastline while simultaneously sequestering carbon to preserve the planet continues to matriculate. In March of 2019 the Salk Institute graciously hosted researchers from the Louisiana coalition (including Tulane ByWater Institute, LUMCON, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, The Water Institute of the Gulf, and - our Program Officer - Dr. Ronald Spencer) to work on the larger federal support grant applications. During the three days of meetings Dr. Spencer proudly presented an additional $100,000 grant to support the ongoing collaboration of the five research organizations. The Brown Foundation is committed to addressing the carbon build up struggles we face through science and believes the Salk Institute led marsh grass project can salvage the Louisiana coastline.

Our SupportSTEM applications were due on April 5, 2019. This is the second year of our SupportSTEM pilot program and we received 38 applications totaling $620,000 in requested funds! We are honored to play this small part in helping develop STEM programming in the New Orleans MSA.

Did you know the Brown Foundation has a large conference room that is free for exempt organizations to utilize for their training sessions, seminars and board meetings? From January 1, 2018 through March 15, 2019, the Foundation’s conference room has been used 159 times by dozens of different organizations we are proud to call our partners. If you or a charity you work with has need of a conference room in Metairie, Louisiana please contact Beth Buscher at 504-834-3433 and make a reservation. We already have 71 bookings for this totally free space (with free parking!) in 2019 so do not delay.

The Foundation has a long, proud history of supporting first responders and we are proud to call The Professional Fire Fighters Association of Louisiana a partner in our efforts. PFFALA utilize no professional grant writers or outside fundraisers of any kind and they conduct all of their money raising efforts in-house. We were proud to issue our third grant to this organization in December 2018.

Over the last twenty years, the Foundation has gifted $298,375 to Loyola University, but no gifts have been made to Loyola since 2011...that is, until January of 2019!

Our very first grant in 2019 is a $30,000 feasibility/planning grant to Loyola University for the launch of a new post graduate program that we have been working with Loyola to develop since the fall of 2018. This program, assuming development, will be the first of its kind in the United States and will draw sophisticated and already successful students to Loyola from all over the country. Check back in the summer of 2019 to learn what exactly our new and exciting partnership with Loyola may entail.

We proudly support many STEM museums and aquariums around the country that have novel programming. One of those is Shedd Aquarium in Chicago who operate a floating field station the R/V Coral Reef II docked in Miami and working throughout the gulf coast and Caribbean. This custom-designed floating field station and laboratory is indispensable to Shedd’s conservation research, education programs and collecting expeditions.

Our final grant of 2018 was a matching grant to the North Texas Food Bank in the amount of $1,000. We agreed to be their Foundation match for their “Flip Off Hunger” fundraiser event up to $1,000 and they earned over $1,000 and received the entire match. Thank you to all who helped our friends at the NTFB meet their event goal!

In late November 2018, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium hosted scientists from the Tulane ByWater Institute, The Water Institute of the Gulf, and the Lake Pontchatrain Basin Foundation (among others) along with two program officers from Brown. For their efforts and in order to assist LUMCON secure and participate in a much larger federal program, the Foundation issued a $20,000 planning grant to LUMCON.

Following an extended weekend worth of meetings among five major research institutions, universities and the Foundation around the Houma area, the Foundation proudly issued a $20,000 planning grant to Tulane ByWater Institute to aid Tulane in applying for a larger federal grant in the carbon sequestration space to save our coastline.

Biotechnology is key to the economic growth of the entire gulf coast region and the United States. Throughout this country biotech incubators have been forming to help aspiring scientists take their ideas from the laboratory and put them into commerce. Located just outside of the French Quarter, the New Orleans BioInnovation Center has received three grants totaling $90,000 since 2017. Our support of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center does not stop at cash contributions, we have proudly produced guest speakers for their conferences and have provided other critical services to help them fulfill their mission.

The Lake Ponchartrain Basin Foundation shares Brown’s vision for protecting our coastline and sees the importance of marsh grass to the vulnerable gulf coast region and all the animals inhabiting same. On the day before Thanksgiving 2018 we issued our first grant to the Lake Ponchartrain Basin Foundation in more than a decade. We are proud to renew this partnership and look forward to the matriculation of the science.

Louisiana knows what it is like to be victim of a natural disaster. We send our thoughts and prayers to the residents of California suffering from the 2018 wildfires. In November, our board authorized emergency contributions totaling $60,000 to aide in alleviating the suffering.

It is an honor to be able to assist the firefighters, the families of fallen firefighters, the communities they protect, as well as the animals and pets of those communities. Photo credit to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

On October 22, 2018 our Program Officer of the Health, Medicine and Science Committee - Ronald P. Spencer, M.D. - visited three organizations in order to learn what charities in the northeast are doing to address their respective hunger and homeless needs. During these three site visits Dr. Spencer presented each group with an exploratory grant check to aid in their mission programming. It was an honor and pleasure for Brown to learn from these three organizations and pass that knowledge down to organizations we work with more frequently. We would like to highlight the good work of Saint Thomas Church Soup Kitchen, St. Johns Bread of Life, and Grand Central Neighborhood Social Services and we were pleased to award all three grants.

Photo from left to right: Brady Crain, Executive Director of Grand Central Neighborhood and Ronald P. Spencer, M.D.

The Foundation has a proud history and partnership with law enforcement. When one of our Program Officers polled various law enforcement agencies to determine areas of need we were surprised to learn that, nationwide, up to 200 police service dogs were killed or forced into early retirement due to serious injury sustained while on duty. In an effort to address this issue locally, and to try and gain some much deserved attention for canine units, a round of K-9 Unit Grants totaling $39,430 was issued to SEVEN Sheriffs Offices and Police Departments! Pictured above is our President, Mr. Hunter presenting a grant to the Calcasieu Parish Sheriffs Office.

The officers with the New Orleans police department talked and we listened to wish-list-items that would keep dogs safer and enhance the quality of their lives: Gun vests, knife vests, tactical first aid kits, duty-specific collars and leads and training tools to name a few! It was an absolute pleasure to meet some of the bomb dogs, narcotics dogs, apprehension dogs and SWAT dogs throughout this process. Pictured above: Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office Lt. Frey, Sgt. St. John with JPSO canine, Mary Poché (Foundation Staff) and Deputy Chief of Special Operations, Robert Woods.

Did you know that many K9 units go home with their handlers and are part of their families?

Thanks to a $27,430 grant to the New Orleans Police Department, 6 police service dogs in New Orleans will have full GPS collars in case they become lost in their neighborhood and full police grade kennels in their home designed to safely contain these highly trained members of the police force. Pictured left: NOPD Officer D. Bennett, Sr. and his canine partner, Toby. Pictured right: Kenner Police Department Handler with K9 Unit, Lt. Desforges, Mary Poché (Foundation Staff), Police Chief Michael Glaser, Sgt. Tusa with Sasha. The Kenner police department has graciously attended our annual K-12 service learning celebration held every September for many years. Thinking of Zoran, a frequent favorite at our service learning event, we were determined to get him what he and his fellow canines needed to safely perform his duties.

Can you believe the Foundation and Ducks Unlimited have never crossed paths before 2018? Us either! What a great pairing for our conservation and environmental efforts. We responded to a superb Letter of Interest from Ducks Unlimited and, after much due diligence into their organization, reached out to them with approval to apply. In November of 2018, the Foundation proudly issued its first ever grant to Ducks Unlimited. This initial $50,000 gift is ear marked to assist with expansion of the Rice Stewardship Partnership into Louisiana. This project will aide Louisiana rice producers on improvements in nutrient management for better production, improved water quality and healthier habitat for waterfowl and people alike.

Meeting a human need: Heartstrings and Angel Wings provides clothing and handmade items for babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Clothing for babies under 5 pounds is simply not readily available. This hardworking Breaux Bridge / Lafayette area operation provides comfort to babies and their families during a very stressful time. Brown was proud to issue its fifth gift to this organization on October 15, 2018.

After Hurricane Michael 2018 hit the Florida panhandle, we were especially saddened.

The Greater New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast communities know how devastating these destructive storms can be and our communities were blessed in 2005 to receive much aid from foundations that were out of state. Immediately following Hurricane Michael we proudly deployed emergency aid relief to three groups in hopes of alleviating suffering caused by the storm: the Cajun Navy 2016, Matthew 25: Ministries, and Save the Children.

Blessed to know and support this organization located in Slidell Louisiana, serving the venerable and homeless within their community. The Foundation is proud to support his new grant recipient, Community Christian Concern. Our October 2018 grant to this organization was $18,000.

Another group in the venerable Slidell area, The Good Samaritan Ministry. In October 2018, Good Sams received its seventh grant approval over the last decade, bringing their total gift receipts to $115,000, in support of their Emergency Case Management program.

The Foundation recognizes that mental illness is a disease that devastates not just those directly afflicted, but their entire families. In 2018 we commenced a proud partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to aid the venerable community of St. Tammany Parish.

In October 2018, HeartGift Louisiana received its eighth consecutive grant approval from the Foundation! This group has never been denied support by the Foundation. Children with heart defects travel from China, Jamaica, Uganda (to name a few) to the Children’s Hospital New Orleans for life saving treatment, and return home healthy. Over 50 children have been welcomed to Louisiana for life-saving surgeries.

Four grant awards totaling $55,000 have issued to this group for their Low Vision Program, serving children in the Greater New Orleans area. SSA combats the drastic disadvantages severe vision reduction presents to children academically and developmentally.

Electronic Video Magnifiers (pictured right) are given to children, and one-day clinics are provided to train family members on every function of their equipment.

We are very proud of Rebekah Travis, a 2018 Emmy Noether Silver Medalist, who interned at the Fellowship of Orthopedic Researchers this summer! Rebekah is currently a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology and is aspiring to be a mechanical engineer.

Project Lazarus provides transitional housing to people in southeast Louisiana living with AIDS/HIV where care is individualized according to need. The Foundation’s support for Project Lazarus began in 2007 for volunteer coordination, therapeutic actives, and more recently we have been supporting the Food and Nutrition Program. Over the last decade, more than $80,000 has been gifted to this group by the Foundation.

Our 2018 Service Learning Event was a great success!

It was held at the Lake Pontchartrain Center in Kenner, Louisiana. At over 1,500 attendees, we broke our own record! Event exhibitors that met with students, teachers, and other educators included many non-profits such as Holy Cross University, New Orleans Mission, Tulane University K-12 STEM outreach program, Nature Conservancy, Victory in Service and more than 40 other fantastic organizations. Pictured below is Todd Wackerman, Executive Director of the STEM Library Lab, speaking during the opening program.

2018 Emmy Noether Gold Medalist, Grayce Mores is an aspiring researcher who would like to continue her work in virology. She is an intern at Duke University and researching the Epstein Barr Virus. Grayce aspires to complete a MS in Public Health and a PhD in her field.

As gold medalist, she may receive $25,000 of funding for each of three years that she remains in a graduate level program to obtain a degree in a qualified STEM program through which she will continue to pursue research and discovery.

2018 Emmy Noether Silver Medalists! Pictured left, Avni is a national merit finalist and an award winning orator on the Speech and Debate team. She has conducted research with the High School Summer Research Internship Program at Louisiana State University. She hopes to complete a MD/PhD and develop better drugs for diseases such as HIV.

Pictured right, Rebekah is captain of FIRST Robotics Competition Team 4087 and the founder of the BFHS Society of Women Engineers chapter. She is a 2017 World FIRST Robotics Competition Dean’s List Winner and a 2017 Society of Women Engineers Global Innovator Award Winner. She plans to continue her STEM journey as a mechanical engineer.

2018 Emmy Noether Scholars! Welcome to a network of motivated young female scientists working to further science, innovation, and discovery for students and scientists of all ages and backgrounds. Pictured from left to right: Rebekah Travis, Amaris Lewis, Grayce Mores, Alexis LaRosa, Nameera Islam, Mariza Francis and Avni Shridhar (not pictured).

How did you spend your President’s Day in 2018? Our trustee and program officer over medical research, Dr. Ronald Spencer, spent his President’s Day in a research lab at the University of Utah with Dr. Florian Solzbacher inspecting the progress on the implantable biosensor that may revolutionize many otherwise painful or impractical blood screening/testing needs for millions of people. A grant commitment of $400,000 to the University of Utah has been awarded for this groundbreaking research.

Prescott Deininger, PhD serves as the Director of the Tulane Cancer Center and currently holds The Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation Chair in Oncology.

He is a leader in understanding intrinsic elements of genetic instability in the human genome, particularly in cancer, and his laboratory has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1981.

The Foundation is proud to announce a $750,000 program related investment into Gulf Coast Housing Partnership.

Featured in photo to the left, is Kathy Laborde, President and CEO of Gulf Coast Housing Partnership along with Dr. Ronald Spencer, a Foundation Program Officer and Trustee.

Studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually. Humanity must do more to prevent domestic violence and break the cycle.

In 2018 the Foundation has proudly awarded grants to Palmer Home for Children, Iris Domestic Violence Center, the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence, Safe Haven Family Shelter, Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, Center for Hope and Safety, and the MS Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

In an effort to foster relationships and cooperation amongst our grantees and expand on Second Harvest Food Bank’s reach throughout the state, the Foundation brokered deals with five community foundations to create partnerships with Second Harvest!

Through the use of Designated Fund agreements, these five year partnerships will surely help alleviate human suffering.

In March of 2018, the Foundation proudly issued a $50,000 grant to support the continued groundbreaking research of the Fellowship of Orthopedic Researchers.

FOR has assisted over a dozen students from Tulane and LSU acquire doctorates in STEM areas. The doors of FOR are frequently opened to primary school students interested in STEM, as they were in these photos from April of 2018 when students from Langston Hughes Academy were treated to lab tours. At the request of fellow Foundation grant recipient - the Wounded Warrior Project - FOR is currently dedicated to engineering a superior industrial grade anchor for prosthetic limbs.

Support for Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center is at 1,981,403 dollars in research and development for a Novel Flouride Releasing Dental Composite Resin and the Fabricaition of Ross Lined Polymar Nanofibers!

The research under this grant spanned 14 years and has recently successfully concluded.

Grants to the Louisiana Lighthouse have reached a total of $438,008 going back to 1990. The Foundation is very proud of this partnership with a group that:empowers people with disabilities through employment, services and advocacy.

Since 2006, $450,000 in support has been awarded to the New Orleans Medical Mission Services. Their stated goal: “to bring free medical treatment, consultation, education, equipment and supplies to needy people in foreign countries. We are volunteers, non-profit and dedicated to improving health while supporting human dignity.”

As an avid animal lover, Dorothy Dorsett Brown initiated the first SPCA building in New Orleans, on Japonica Street. During construction, she housed the animals at her own farm in Braithwaite, Louisiana.

Mrs. Brown’s dream was to see a newer and larger facility built, so after Katrina and with her vision in mind, the Foundation partnered with the SPCA to construct the Mardi Gras Blvd location. Contributions to the Louisiana SPCA have totaled $2,776,270.

Brown proudly supports various law enforcement agencies and partners with law enforcement for the betterment of humanity. We have proudly supported the Louisiana State Troopers and state sheriff associations since 2012 and made our most recent gift to them in March, 2018.

The Foundation issued a grant to Harch Hyperbaric Institute in 2017 for groundbreaking work in oxygen theraphy. Thanks in part to this research support funding, Dr. Harch was involved in what is being referred to as a miracle cure for a little girl who had drowned. Please see our newsfeed section for more information on how Dr. Harch saved this girls life.

Nearly $200,000 in grants have been awarded to the Jewish Family Service of G.N.O. This proud partnership has existed since the 1990s and underwrites Teen Life Counts.

Tean Life Counts is a school-based suicide prevention program serving middle and high school students in the G.N.O. area at no cost.

The Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation support for the National WWII Museum commenced in the late 1990s. We were one of the first groups to fund this museum to ensure it would be located in New Orleans. The Museum opened on the 56th anniversary of D Day, June 6, 2000. Under the leadership of our current President Emeritus, a WWII Veteran, D.P. Spencer and the board of trustees, the Foundation went on to pledge support for the Special Exhibit Gallery in Discovery Hall ... an Oral History project ...

... the Into the German Heartland, End of War exhibit in the Campaigns Pavilion ... the Loyal Forces: The Animals of WWII that was featured in the Special Exhibits Gallery in 2010 ... and the Searching for International Justice and Order and Services Exhibit in the U.S. Freedom Pavilion. This is one of our most proud partnerships. D.P. Spencer will speak to visitors at various points on their trek through the museum via previously recorded videos.

One of the oldest partners of the Foundation, the Audubon Nature Institute, has hosted thousands of student participants in the Foundation’s Service Learning Program. Further, the Foundation has partnered with the Audubon Nature Institute to make the Butterfly Garden and Insectarium a reality in New Orleans.

More than a half dozen other novel projects and grants come to a total of $1,658,250 to the Audubon Nature Institute during our long standing and very proud partnership.

In honor of the Greatest Generation and in proud partnership with Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation: The Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation sponsored 400 low income seniors to visit the 2017 WWII Air, Sea and Land Festival!

The Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation sponsored 400 low income seniors to visit the 2017 WWII Air, Sea and Land Festival!

Chairman of the Board, David B. Spencer, visited WRBH Radio for the Blind and Print Handicapped in December 2017. He is pictured above with Natalia Gonzales, Executive Director of the radio station. Visit www.wrbh.org to learn more about this worthy, volunteer-driven cause, whose mission: turn the printed word into the spoken word so that the blind and print handicapped can receive the same ease of access to current information as their sighted peers.

Brown is a long time supporter of DePaul USA. We agree that “Homelessness Has No Place”. Our most recent grant to DePaul USA has resulted in 60 people exiting homelessness in New Orleans.

The Whistle Stop provides supervised visitation for families referred by Family Court which can include foster care children and high conflict divorce and custody cases. In 2018, the Brown Foundation will supplement 375 hours of supervised visits for non-custodial parents with their children!

The Brown Foundation proudly supports the efforts of Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans. While striving to inspire and prepare young people to successfully participate in our economy through workforce development, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, this group has received over $400,000 in approvals from the Foundation over a two decade period.

LaPREP and Its Associated Programs of LSU Shreveport received fall 2017 and spring and summer 2018 support from the Brown Foundation to help underwrite the enrichment programming for high ability elementary and high school students. Contributions to date have topped $300,000.

Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies (CBIB, Inc.) has been supported by us since 2015 and recently received a full approval in general support providing "dignified burials for abandoned or indigent babies" and for raising awareness of the Safe Haven Law.

The Brown Foundation is proud to have supported both the Girl Scouts

and the Boy Scouts an aggregate amount of $1,454,015 over the years.

The Foundation has proudly awarded $1,209,630 in grants to Bridge House / Grace House. “If it is hard for you to watch someone suffering from addiction, imagine how miserable it must be to live with addiction. Bridge House / Grace House serve a vital role in relieving human suffering and it is our privilege to support their programs” - Ronald Spencer, MD, Brown Foundation Healthcare Program Officer and Trustee.

For the past several years the Foundation has committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Holy Cross create and establish a food science degree program. In September of 2017, the Foundation renewed its commitment to Holy Cross’s food science program and will now assist with the development of the beverage science concentration program.

Support for the Atchafalaya Terrebonne Basin is and always has been of crucial importance to the Brown Foundation. The Brown Foundation has proudly awarded grants totaling $220,000 to the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper. Special thanks to @johnchittyimages for the stunning photograph.

We wish to recognize Patricia Gay who recently retired from the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans and applaud her relentless efforts and achievements in preserving the past for our present and future. Foundation contributions to PRCNO: $1,450,000

Second Harvest Food Bank and the Brown Foundation have partnered in the relief of human suffering for many years. Our support for the relentless efforts of Second Harvest have recently eclipsed $1.3 million. Their mission - ending hunger in the Gulf Coast states by providing food access & disaster response – should be admired by all.

Joe W. Brown identified polio as “the greatest plague of our time” and worked tirelessly to help distribute the vaccine. In the decades that followed, Dorothy Dorsett repeatedly hailed Jonas Edward Salk as a “hero, champion, and miracle worker” and credited him with “saving humanity by solving polio”. Over the past several decades, the Foundation has proudly supported the SALK Institute for Biological Studies’ research initiatives in the amount of $2,573,140.

One of Dorothy Dorsett Brown’s favorite charities.

The Foundation is proud to have given over $1 million in grants to the Salvation Army in honor of her.

The Covenant House New Orleans has received over $630,000 in contributions from the Brown Foundation over the years.

Pictured above, you see executive director, Jim Kelly (left) graciously receiving our Board Chair, David Spencer (right) for a tour and meeting at Covenant House.

The Foundation introduced service learning to Louisiana. Through our Service Learning Program we have proudly contributed $6,195,922 to our community in Louisiana and Mississippi. Visit the Education section of this site for more information.

Our President, E.F. Hunter III speaking at the Annual Service Learning Event, held at the Ponchartrain Center on September 12, 2017.

The Foundation is proud to have supported Camp Bon Coeur for children with heart disease in the amount of $350,000 since 1999. The program officers of the Foundation enjoyed their recent summer site visit.

Our partners at The Nature Conservancy have been champions of our environment for decades. Grants totaling $1.6 million have also been awarded to The Nature Conservancy for their environmental efforts.

The Foundation has given $2.9 million to Tulane University and its affiliated programs over the past two decades. We are proud to announce support for The Tulane Cancer Center’s Belancio Laboratory. Victoria Belancio, Ph.D. will work with Emmy Noether Scholars for one year, and teach them how to use

bioinformatic tools to analyze human genome sequencing data. Pictured left is Dr. Belancio (left) with Madison Smither (right) at the 2017 Emmy Noether Award Inaugural Event. Dr. Belancio and Madison wrote the grant for the Belancio Laboratory. Pictured right, are the 2017 Emmy Noether Award Scholars!

Since 2008, the Foundation has contributed $336,500 to Victories In Services, an organization addressing student motivation in the upper-ninth ward by creating an environment where students can experience success and learn skills needed to increase motivation to learn.

The Foundation is proud to announce a large research grant has been issued to UNO Department of Biological Sciences for the Howard Laboratory; two STEM projects approved to Delgado that will send a team to compete in iGEM in Boston, and a new partnership with Tulane Medical School to reduce the backlog of autism diagnosis in New Orleans from 180 to 30 over a two year period.

E.F. Hunter III, Foundation President, signing a $900,000 Program Related Investment (PRI)

in favor of local New Orleans homeless shelter, the New Orleans Mission.

The Foundation partnered with The Nature Conservancy and St. Paul’s Episcopal School to build an osprey nesting platform adjacent to our building. Now we await the great birds to occupy the habitat!

Since June 2016, an osprey has been regularly seen on the Brown Foundation’s building light fixtures.

2017 Emmy Noether Award Winner, Hailey Rowbatham. Hailey graduated high school from St. Scholastica Academy and currently studies water management at U.C. Berkley.

E.F. Hunter, our President, with Madison Smither and Illaria Simeone, working on the Emmy Noether Award.

Did you know the Toys for Tots program, founded by the United States Marine Corps, is supported by law enforcement agencies across the United States?

We have supported the Lake Charles Police Department in their fundraising efforts for Toys for Tots for three years and counting!