Lisa Wade is an Associate Professor at Tulane University with appointments in Sociology, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Newcomb Institute. Her research agenda has involved four main areas: hookup culture on college campuses, feminist theories of sexuality, the relationship between biology and society, and U.S. discourse about female genital cutting in Africa. Before receiving her M.S. and Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Lisa earned an interdisciplinary M.A. in Human Sexuality from NYU and a B.A.

Jess Issacharoff is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Law and Society at the Newcomb Institute. She holds a Ph.D. in Literature from Duke University’s Program in Literature and a certificate in Feminist Studies. Her work focuses on the women’s prison and domesticity at the intersections of feminist theory and critical prison studies. Her dissertation is titled Big House: Women, Prison and the Domestic.

Annie is a postdoctoral fellow in Law & Society at the Newcomb Institute. In 2019, she received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Washington, where she was a Comparative Law and Societies Studies Graduate Fellow. Her research sits at the intersection of Law & Society, Social Welfare, and Stratification. She is currently working on two research projects; the first examines how ideas about pregnancy have shaped surveillance in social welfare programs and the subsequent consequences for pregnant and mothering individuals’ privacy rights.

Julie Qiu is the Office Administrator for Newcomb Institute. She provides advanced levels of administrative and project support for the Executive Director, the Director’s Advisory Council, and Newcomb Institute. Originally from Memphis, TN, Julie received both her B.A. and M.A.

Bernadette Floresca is the Archivist for Collection Management and Digital Preservation at Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection at Newcomb Institute. Bernadette holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Sculpture, a Master of Library and Information Science, and a Graduate Certificate in Archives and Special Collections from the University of Southern Mississippi, as well as a Master of Liberal Arts (with an interdisciplinary focus on gender, sexuality, and art) from Tulane University’s School of Professional Advancement.

Julie Henriquez Aldana serves as an Administrative Assistant Professor of Women’s Leadership and Director of Student Leadership and Engagement for the Newcomb Institute.  She earned a B.S. in International Trade and Finance (2003), M.S. in Human Resource Education (2005), and a Ph.D. in Human Resource Education with a concentration in Human Resource and Leadership Development (2017) from Louisiana State University. 

Sally J. Kenney served as the director of the Newcomb Institute and held the Newcomb endowed chair from 2010-2022. She is a faculty member in the Political Science Department, and an affiliated faculty member in the law school and Africana Studies. Her research interests include sexual assault on campus, women’s imprisonment, women and leadership, gender and judging, judicial selection, feminist social movements, women and electoral politics, the European Court of Justice, exclusionary employment policies, and pregnancy discrimination.

Laura Wolford is the Interim Executive Director of Newcomb Institute. She has a BA in English from Reed College and a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School at the University of Texas, Austin. At the Newcomb Institute, Laura oversees all administrative and operational aspects of the Institute. She takes lead responsibility for annual budgeting, annual program planning, and space management and manages programs and staff related to budget and administration, event planning, communications, and faculty engagement.

Lauren Wethers is the Student Leadership and Engagement Program Coordinator. She works with all of the Newcomb student organizations, coordinates the Big/Little Sister mentorship program, and assists in creating leadership development programming for students. Originally from the Saint Louis metro-east, Lauren moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane. She graduated magna cum laude in 2015 with a B.A. in English and Spanish and earned her M.A. in English in 2016.