Celebrating Firsts and Excellence: 2024 NAA Awards

NAA award winners photos

 

August 7, 2024

Each year, the Newcomb Alumnae Association (NAA) honors Newcomb and Tulane graduates  who have made exceptional achievements in their industries, contributed to their communities,  and shown overwhelming dedication to their alma mater.  

This year's awards celebration includes two exciting firsts. For the first time, awards are being  presented during the homecoming celebration, and the Live Oak Award, an award honoring an  alum whose teaching, advocacy, or organizing efforts have increased educational opportunities  within their community, is being presented for the first time. The Live Oak award recipients  work should enhance equity and equality, have been recognized and respected by others, and  inspire future generations from all backgrounds and abilities.  

In 2024, the NAA Awards Committee has selected the following alumnae to be recognized at  this year's homecoming celebration:  

Newcomb Alumnae Association Outstanding Alumna 
Flora Fenner McConnell Hammond, MD, NC '86, M*90 

Dr. Flora Hammond has provided extensive advocacy, service, and leadership in improving the  lives of people affected by disability with tireless passion, compassion, creativity, and  collegiality. Dr. Hammond's service is firmly grounded in the example set by her parents, C.  Fenner McConnell, MD (Tulane '55, Tulane Medicine '59) and Shirley McConnell, who taught  her that in work, life, and play, we should care for others and always do our best. Her  commitment to the community started to take root during her time at Newcomb College and  Tulane University School of Medicine.  

Dr. Hammond's years of research and leadership have profoundly impacted rehabilitation  science and practice. Her research has expanded our knowledge about how people change over  the years after brain injury, dispelling the myth that one's function remains the same over time  after brain injury. Dr. Hammond is leading an initiative to change the view of brain injury as an  incident with limited short-term treatment to a chronic condition that must be proactively  managed throughout one's life. She and her colleagues have developed a new model of care for  chronic brain injury, including improving the accuracy and quality of patient-family discussions  after head trauma. She has also led presentations highlighting the irreversible consequences of  inaccurate outcome predictions.  

Dr. Hammond is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and  Rehabilitation (PM&R) at Indiana University School of Medicine and Chief of Medical Affairs at  the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana.  

Newcomb Alumnae Association Community Service Award
Hon. Robin M. Giarrusso NC ’74, L *77 

Robin M. Giarrusso served as a judge of the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans from  April 1988 to April 2023, and she served as the Court's Chief Judge from 1998-2000. Judge  Giarrusso was appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to the State's Judiciary Commission  and served as Chair of the Commission during the last year of her appointment.  

Judge Giarrusso is incredibly active in the community. She is a vice-president of the National  Council of Jewish Women, a board member of the Jewish Endowment Foundation, a member  of the Downtown Rotary Club, a past president of Congregation Temple Sinai, the previous  membership vice-president of the New Orleans Bar Association Inn of Court, a board member  of the Tulane Alumni Association, and a former assistant bar examiner. She has also served on  the board of the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Children's Regional Service, the Pro-Bono  Project, as Vice-President of the Newcomb College Alumnae Board, and as the class agent for  the Newcomb College Class of 1974. She was a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education  seminars on topics such as ethics, professionalism, civil procedure, and women in the judiciary.  Judge Giarrusso received the First Annual Michaelle Pitard Wynne Professionalism Award from  the Association for Women Attorneys and the National Urban League Award for Distinguished  Public Service. Judge Giarrusso received the Pro Bono Project Distinguished Jurist Award in  2015 and the Arceneaux Professionalism Award from the New Orleans Bar Association in 2023.  

Judge Giarrusso has lectured on and is interested in advocacy for people with physical  disabilities. She is a former board member of Resources for Independent Living, Easter Seals,  and the Education and Support Program for Children's Hospital. Former Chief Justice Calogero  appointed Judge Giarrusso to attend a national conference on the court-related needs of  persons with disabilities. In 2023, Giarrusso received the South-Central region of the Anti Defamation League's A.I. Botnick Torch of Liberty Award alongside Mike Fitts. She is a Board  member at Touro Infirmary.  

Judge Giarrusso is a graduate of Newcomb College and Tulane University Law School. Before  her election, she served on the City Attorney's Office staff, where she specialized in contract  and public bid matters. She is the proud mother of her son and the proud grandmother of her  two granddaughters.  

Newcomb Alumnae Association Young Alumna Award 
Rachael Richard SLA '19 

Rachael Richard got her BA from Tulane before returning to her home state of New Jersey to  teach high school history. She later went to Columbia University for her master's because of her  commitment to representing the histories and cultures of underrepresented communities in  the social studies classroom. Through project-based learning and engagement with graphic  novels as alternative texts, Rachael's non-traditional approach to the classroom encourages the  empowerment of student choice and civic engagement.  
Rachael's most recent endeavor has involved developing an Indigenous History of North  America elective at Bayonne High School. The elective was developed through representative scholarship and a partnership with the Lakota Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation. In the fall  of 2023, her scholars held discussions with reservation representatives over Zoom to determine  the community's needs. Then, they held a toiletries drive collecting and shipping out more than  300+ high-need toiletries items for the reservation. In the spring of 2024, Rachael helped her  students organize a Krispy Kreme Fundraiser to support updating the heating units on the  reservation, raising over $800. In 2024, Rachael was awarded the Cohen-Jordan Award for  Outstanding Social Studies Teaching by the Middle States Council for Social Studies and is an  active presenter on topics like graphic novels and challenging the deficit mindset in Indigenous  history for the NJ Council for Social Studies annual conference.  

Outside of the classroom, Rachael works as a field instructor for the urban wilderness company  Team Wilderness, which empowers Hudson County youth through outdoor experiences.  Rachael has helped bring her love of hiking and nature into the classroom, taking her scholars  on hikes to learn about George Washington's winter encampments, Lenni-Lenape migration,  and land stewardship. For the 2024-2025 school year, Rachael is also a Teach Asian American  Stories Fellow, and she will continue to develop curriculum and professional workshops to aid  NJ teachers.  

Newcomb Alumnae Association Live Oak Award 
Mildred "Millibeth" Currie NC '89 

Millibeth Currie is a passionate and dedicated educator who has made significant contributions  to the field of STEM education through extensive collaboration with various stakeholders.  Recognizing the importance of making learning relevant and engaging for students, she has  developed and fostered numerous partnerships with industry professionals, academic  institutions, and community organizations to enhance STEM teaching and learning.

One of Millibeth's notable collaborations involved bringing a speaker to her classroom to  discuss fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder, which helped her students understand the real world implications of genetics. Her work with the MIT Women's Initiative Program brought female engineering students to Charleston County School District schools to conduct hands-on  STEM challenges, inspiring young students to pursue STEM careers. Millibeth has also partnered  with the CCSD Career and Technology Education (CTE) program and Work-based Learning  Partnerships Coordinator Chad Vail to expand STEM opportunities. Through these  collaborations, she has created programs like Women in Charge (WIC), which has formed  outreach initiatives with local and national STEM leaders, including NASA engineer Tia Ferguson (E’89) and landscape architects, providing students with practical, real-world STEM experiences.    A great example is how Women in Charge students  learn from surgeons, Dr. Kate White and Dr. Galin Jackson Spicer (N ‘91),  to suture wounds (on bananas) while working with surgeons! She finds ways to remove the fear and mystery from STEM fields so students are more likely to pursue them!

Her partnerships extend to higher education as well, with partnerships with professors from  Florida State University and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to conduct  research and present STEM modules to her students. Millibeth's students have also benefited from collaborations with companies and labs like the Charleston Digital Corridor and Michelin.  Her dedication to STEM education is further exemplified by her work with the National Labs in  New Mexico, which led to the integration of cybersecurity into her STEM curriculum, and her coordination of the Greenwood Genetics Lab mobile visits to her school.  She has provided her  students invaluable opportunities to engage with STEM professionals and explore potential  career paths through these initiatives.  

Millibeth's efforts earned her the Digital Innovation and Learning Award "Community Counts"  from Ed Surge and Digital Promise. This award celebrates her dedication to involving the entire  community, including students, parents, and local stakeholders, in the educational process. Most recently, she was named the 2024 South Carolina STEM Educator of the Year!