According to the philosophy statement that appears in the LSUE catalog, "the University strives to provide educational programs and related services which reflect and respond to the diversified interests, aptitudes, talents, needs, and goals of its constituency." LSUE seeks to meet these educational and cultural needs by attracting and maintaining an outstanding faculty that will provide a quality educational experience for all students.

The endowed professorship program is a major effort by the university, the community, the LSU Board of Supervisors, and the Louisiana Board of Regents to demonstrate commitment to quality of instruction by recognizing and fostering faculty excellence in professional projects/research that go beyond instructional responsibilities. The principle of each Endowed Professorship consists of funds donated by community sponsors and matched by the Board of Regents. The annual distribution of Endowed Professorship awards follows the guidelines set forth by the Board of Regents and the University's current policy statement, PS 62.

To be eligible to apply for an endowed professorship award, a faculty member must meet the following criteria:

1. Hold faculty rank at LSU at Eunice.
2. Be employed on a full‑time basis.
3. Be on a tenure track.

Applicants submit proposals that are evaluated by a campus-wide Selection Committee for Endowed Professorships. Each endowed professorship is awarded for a period of one year. Award recipients may re‑apply in subsequent years, but a recipient may not be granted two concurrent endowments.

2007-2008 Endowed Professorship Recipients

Betty Jo Aguillard, RN, MSN, Endowed Professorship in Nursing

Mrs. Aguillard holds a Master of Science in Nursing in critical care and nursing education from NSU in Shreveport. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from NLU in Monroe. She has more than 30 years of experience as a registered nurse licensed in the state of Louisiana. In addition to dedicating years to patient care and nursing education her distinguished career includes highlights such as speaking engagements at the state, national, and international level; healthcare exchanges in China and Brazil; appointment to and service on the Louisiana State Board of Nursing; nursing research and publications; serving as an elected officer in state and national nursing organizations; the 2006 LSUE Teaching Excellence Award; and seven LSUE Nursing Endowed Professorship Awards.

The 2007-08 Nursing Endowed Professorship Award entitled, "Pediatric Updates" provided money to have Pediatric Updates nursing workshops for the registered nurses in the local area. The workshop provided the nurses with current modalities on the nursing diagnosis and management of the hospitalized child. Through these two workshops at LSUE and WCH in Lafayette, LSUE had a direct role in fulfilling the school's mission statement to, "create and offer programs of Continuing/Adult Education and community service which respond to the needs of the area."

Updates in pediatric care are an ongoing need of registered nurses and evidence-based nursing practice is a critical component for a nurse to integrate in the care of the patients. Registered nurses have the ethical and legal responsibility to be aware of and practice at a level in accordance with the ANA nursing standards of care and the LSBN legal nursing standards of care. Due to this rural area being under served in nursing continuing education workshops, especially in the area of pediatrics, the information presented at the Pediatric Updates workshops helped to improve pediatric patient care in southwest Louisiana.

Jameel S. AL-Dujaili, Ph.D., Endowed Professorship in Sciences.

Dr. AL-Dujaili holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Microbiology from West Virginia University, an M.S. in Food and Nutrition Sciences from Tuskegee University, and a B.S. in Food and Nutrition Sciences from Mosul University in Iraq. He has over twenty years of experience in the areas of Food Science and Technology, Nutrition Science, Environmental Science, Molecular Biology, and Environmental Microbiology. Dr. AL-Dujaili has been a Professor of Biology at LSUE since 1993, during which time he has actively participated in the university's Undergraduate Research Summer Institute program and has published several articles on Food and Water Microbiology topics.

Dr. AL-Dujaili's 2007-2008 Endowed Professorship in Sciences is entitled "Advantage provided by iron for Escherichia coli growth and cultivability in drinking water." His research examines the idea that iron is a key parameter involved in coliform persistence in drinking water distribution systems. Through this study, Dr. AL-Dujaili plans: 1) To determine the survival of the E. coli strains in drinking water. 2) To determine if the iron is a key parameter involved in coliform persistence in drinking water distribution systems. 3) To determine the necessity of controlling the corrosiveness of drinking water for sanitary reasons. 4) To observe the effect of iron, as a nutrient under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, on the growth and cultivability of Escherichia coli in drinking water. Dr. AL-Dujaili hopes that information from this study will show that iron in drinking water may promote both growth and cultivability of E. coli. and it may be considered a potentially limiting nutrient in drinking water. An increase in iron concentration may thus lead to an increase in E. coli growth.

James E. Cordes, Ph.D., Endowed Professorship in Sciences

Dr. Cordes holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Arkansas and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Biology from Texas State University. While at Texas State, he was certified in secondary education. He taught at Texas State, the University of Arkansas and Arkansas College (Lyon College) prior to arriving at LSUE and has been recognized by "Who's Who Among America's Teachers". He has over twenty years of herpetological research experience working with parthenogenetic (all-female) Teiid lizards of the southwestern deserts and has been recognized by "Who's Who in Science and Engineering" and "American Men and Women of Science". Dr. Cordes has been a faculty member at LSUE since 1991 achieving the rank of Professor of Biology in 2000, has been awarded four Opelousas General Hospital Endowed Professorships in Science, and has authored 75+ peer-reviewed journal articles.

Dr. Cordes' 2007-08 Endowed Professorship in Science, entitled "Intra- and Inter-Populational Genetic Relationships of the Parthenogenetic Aspidoscelis sonorae Complex of Triploid Teiid Lizards Revealed Through Skin-graft Histocompatibility Techniques," focuses on discerning the genetic-relatedness of several different, all-female, wild, lizard populations whose individuals possess genomes from 3 parents each, through the reciprocal exchange of skin grafts. The technique of skin-grafting is considered to be the most sensitive and time-intensive method used to determine ancestry in parthenogenetic populations. The technique initially provided insight into skin-grafting involving humans who have suffered catastrophic burns and continues to provide information on genetic relationships and wound-healing.

Mr. Steve Gervais, Endowed Professorship in Public Policy

Mr. Gervais has worked in the public safety arena for nearly 20 years. His range and variety of experience include serving as a firefighter, emergency medical supervisor, public safety communications coordinator, consultant, disaster recovery manager, and instructor. In addition to numerous fire service and hazardous materials certifications, Mr. Gervais has earned a B.S. in Industrial Technology and a M.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Mr. Gervais has also participated in both web-based and conventional curriculum and course development for public safety-related courses.

Mr. Gervais' 2007-2008 Endowed Professorship in Public Policy entitled "COMPUTER FORENSICS FOR PARENTS: an Informative Program Development Initiative," is designed to help parents become comfortable with the tools and techniques available to monitor, record, and access electronic activity on the child's computer. More importantly, it will arm most parents with the ammunition required to retake control of the "technical divide" plaguing most households. Through this study, Mr. Gervais plans to: 1) Identify target demographic; 2) Explore ways in which current cyber-security and computer forensic techniques can be redesigned to be easily utilized by non-technical participants; 3) Identify the most common online threats to children; 4) Research and evaluate commercial online monitoring solutions, open-source (free) alternatives, and "build-in" forensic techniques; 5) Develop an informational program session, including syllabi, course outline, lesson plan, and PowerPoint® for presentation to participants in a seminar format and create pre- and post-program evaluations; 6) Create informational brochures for distribution in target areas; 7) Package material to be offered to the LSUE Division of Continuing Education for scheduling of a "leisure studies" course entitled "Computer Forensics for Parents"; 8) Conduct program seminars as needed through the LSUE Division of Continuing Education.

Mr. Gervais hopes that information from this program will provide critical information and concepts to bewildered parents about cyber-security and computer forensics to the LSUE service area. Parents effectively monitoring their children's online activity may prevent a far worse scenario in the future.

Debra Vidrine, M.S.N., Endowed Professorship in Nursing

Ms. Vidrine holds a Master of Science in Maternal-Child Health Nursing with a focus in teaching from NSU in Shreveport. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from USL in Lafayette. Ms. Vidrine has 29 years of experience as a Registered Nurse licensed by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing. She also has Post-Master's advanced practice education from ULL in Lafayette as a Nurse Practitioner and is board certified in Family Practice by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. She is licensed by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and authorized to prescribe and distribute medications. In addition to her role as an Associate Professor of Nursing, she is active in the community as a Psychiatric nurse and a Family Practice health care provider. This faculty member is interested in research and university, public, and professional service. This award is her fourth in this category and she is presently working on the fifth proposal. She also completed an URSI project.

Debra Vidrine's project involves creating and coordinating a proactive Wellness Program at LSUE for all employees. The effort includes employee wellness screening by use of the Personal Wellness Profile which is a standardized screening tool generated by Wellsource, a population health management system. Subjective data and physical measurements will be collected. After all assessments are performed, the data will be processed and an exercise program including cardiovascular exercise and weight training for each interested individual will be formulated to meet their individual needs and goals. A medical summary report on each participant and a group summary report will be generated. This will provide participants with information that increases awareness of health status and motivates planned changes necessary to promote wellness.

The following donors have made awards and specified how the award money is to be used:

• Two Lafayette General Memorial Center Endowed Professorships, awarded for nursing;
• The Opelousas General Hospital Endowed Professorship, awarded for science in support of nursing;
• The Fritz Lang Endowed Professorship, awarded for science in support of agriculture;
• The BellSouth, Atmos Energy, CenturyTel, CLECO, Entergy Louisiana Endowed Professorship, awarded for public policy.

Past Endowed Professorship Recipients