Friday, February 11, 2022
Laurie Morrow has been named executive director for Economic Development, Innovation, and Outreach at Northwestern State University effective March 7. Her hiring is subject to approval by the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System.
Morrow will supervise and lead the departments of Student Technology, Electronic and Continuing Education, Sponsored Programs and Northwestern State campuses in Leesville, Alexandria, Barksdale Air Force Base and Marksville.
She will serve as principal leader for economic development and provide the vision for developing and implementing strategies and initiatives that will that support the development and continuance of business and industrial partnerships for the university and in the region.
Northwestern President Dr. Marcus Jones said the establishment of the new position “reflects the university’s expanded focus and emphasis on economic development across the Northwest and Central Louisiana region served by NSU.”
He said, “Laurie Morrow has extensive experience and expertise in working with business, industry and other entities in developing and maintaining partnerships that will be beneficial to the university and enhance this area’s economic growth and stability.”
The position of Executive Director for Economic Development, Innovation, and Outreach “was created as part of the restructuring of an area of the university that has been directed for a number of years by Dr. Darlene Williams, who is transitioning toward retirement later this year.”
Williams is Vice President for Technology, Innovation, and Economic Development at NSU. Williams will work with Morrow over the next several months to help make the transition easier.
Williams said, “It is gratifying that Dr. Jones has selected someone with Laurie Morrow’s capabilities and experience for this position that will be so important for the university and the region it serves in these rapidly changing times in higher education in Louisiana and nationwide.”
In her position, Morrow will collaborate with university leadership in expanding relationships and initiatives to enhance enrollment growth. She will be asked to develop strategic public, private and governmental partnerships to capitalize on new and emerging opportunities and markets trends. Morrow will serve as a key member in advancing the university’s strategic vision and work closely with the Leadership Team, faculty and staff, students, and other external constituencies to further align operations with strategic goals.
“I am deeply honored to join Dr. Jones and his team at NSU,” said Morrow. “In this role, I will be working closely with university leadership and community partners to advance the vision of Northwestern State University. I am eager to make a positive contribution to the university and our region.”
Morrow has more than 20 years of experience in the state’s Community and Technical College System. She has led the Natchitoches campus of the Central Louisiana Technical Community College since 2017 and headed the campus when it was under the Northwest Louisiana Technical College from 2008 to 2017.
In her roles as campus dean, facilities manager and chief academic officer, Morrow supervised all aspects of operations including recruiting, retaining and educating students, maintaining campus facilities and seeing that academic programs were keeping up with a changing educational environment. She also supported mutually beneficial partnerships between the college, business and industry and other educational institutions.
Morrow was director of Admissions, assistant campus dean and an accounting instructor for Northwest Louisiana Technical College from 1997 to 2004 and director of Admissions for Louisiana Technical College, Region 3 from 2005 to 2008.
Morrow attended Northwestern State and earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and a Master of Arts in Counseling and Guidance from Louisiana Tech University.
(A special thank you to our longtime friend and NSU News Bureau head David West for sending the above article.)
Surgeon, Scientist, Entrepreneur, Husband and Father. Ronald G. Tompkins, MD, ScD, of Boston, MA passed away unexpectedly on Jan. 17.
Ron is survived by his wife Denise of thirty-seven years, his children, Megan and her husband Adam, Ryan and his fiancé Meredith, Caitlin, his first grandchild, Noelle, and many beloved nieces, nephews and extended family. Ron was preceded in death by his parents, Horace and Ruby, and his brothers, Victor, Norman and Stanley.
Ron was born in Many as the youngest child of Horace and Ruby Tompkins. Ron always spoke fondly of his childhood growing up in northwest Louisiana. His father, Horace, was the president of a local bank and his mother, Ruby, was an elementary school teacher – and, specifically, Ron’s fifth grade teacher. His parents instilled in Ron the value of education and the importance of using one’s talents to contribute meaningfully to society.
Ron graduated as valedictorian of his Many High School class and went on to Tulane University where he graduated in three years with a double major in mathematics and chemistry. Ron then attended Tulane Medical School and was accepted into the surgical residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). During his surgical residency at the MGH, Ron earned a doctorate in chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the help of his unpaid lab assistant and dissertation copy editor, Denise. He completed his Harvard surgery residency and joined the surgical faculty at MGH in 1987.
Ron went on to have an illustrious career as a surgeon. He was the Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the former Chief of the Division of Burn Surgery at the MGH. He also served as the Chief of Staff of the Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston for 22 years, where he met his wife, Denise. Colleagues and subordinates knew him for being extraordinary kind in an era when it was not generally the culture of surgical training programs.
In addition to his surgical career, Ron was widely recognized for his work in translational science, medicine, and engineering with a focus on inflammation and metabolic features of humans in response to severe stresses. Ron led one of the largest and most successful research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Inflammation and Host Response to Injury Grant known as “the Glue Grant,” which led to improvements in survival, reduction in morbidity for injured patients, and established benchmarks for care in the fields of burns and trauma. In addition, Ron was a pioneer in outcome studies and quality of life for burn victims. His motto was “GPB” (Get People Better).
Ron has been honored by many societies throughout his career for both his clinical surgery and his innovative science. He has published more than five hundred articles in both medicine and engineering journals. Papers Ron has authored are credited with over 50,000 citations. He was elected as a Director of the American Board of Surgery in 1994 and served for six years. He has received multiple honors including a fellowship from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and an honorary M.A. from Harvard University. He has served as an officer, including as president, and board member of more than a dozen national and international academic societies. Ron has also served on the boards as a scientific advisor to numerous start-up companies in a vast array of medical applications including treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease and point-of-care diagnostics.
Following his decades of significant clinical and basic science discovery, Ron was the founding director for the Center for Engineering in Medicine & Surgery at MGH, a center for research and innovation, which has translated scientific applications into multiple inventions and companies. The center promotes the development of new approaches to healthcare delivery and personalized medicine, minimally invasive therapies, as well as a myriad of new technologies such as re-engineered organs, smart nano-pharmaceuticals and nano-diagnostics, and living cell-based micro-fabricated devices for diagnostics, therapeutics, high-throughput drug screening, and basic and applied biomedical investigation.
More recently, Ron became involved in the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) project of the Open Medicine Foundation (OMF) and became passionate about improving the care of this special patient population. He joined the OMF Scientific Advisory Board in 2014 and he became a co-director of the OMF in 2017.
Outside of his clinical and scientific pursuits, Ron enjoyed travel, wine and spending time with friends and family. He often claimed to have flown “a billion” miles on his most favored airline, a typical exaggeration (it was actually 4 million). Ron travelled frequently, often as an invited speaker at medical and scientific conferences, but he preferred to take his family with him whenever possible, including to destinations such as Egypt, South Africa, India, Brazil, Australia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and all over Europe and the U.K. He recently enjoyed his 70th birthday spent with Denise in Napa Valley.
Ron’s favorite activity was visiting with friends, both old and new. He enjoyed dinners out at a new place or just drinks and “tapas” (by Ron’s definition) at one of his favorite places, if that is what the occasion called for. In summer evenings, Ron could often be found sitting with Denise at their cabana at the Charles River Park Pool catching up with all the regulars. Ron and Denise also loved hosting dinner parties for family, friends and colleagues.
Above all else, Ronald enjoyed his family whom he loved deeply and of whom he was very proud. A highly accomplished man, the only boasts he ever made to anyone were about his children and grandchild. Ron recently ran into a friend outside North Station and he insisted that she needed to come over right away to meet his remarkable ten-month-old granddaughter. He was sure she would be very impressed.
Visitation was held at St. Joseph’s Church in the West End [Boston, MA] on Saturday, Jan. 22, followed by a funeral mass.
Donations in Ron’s memory may be made to the Open Medicine Foundation. Your donation will continue Ron’s legacy by supporting research at the Ronald G. Tompkins ME/CFS Collaboration at the Harvard Affiliated Hospitals.
(Special thanks to good friend Dr. Ted “Bussy” Mims for sharing the above obituary.)
WE GET LETTERS. And we always love hearing from regular Observations reader and longtime friend David West of Natchitoches. You won’t meet a nicer guy anywhere. His thoughts follow.
“Robert, I read your column item regarding gas prices. I am attaching an article […] from the Wall Street Journal.
“The oil companies are cutting back on exploration and production for their own reasons that have nothing to do with government policy. They are no different than any other company. They are seeking to make as much money as they can for their shareholders.”
We are supplying a link to the article here, which was also published on the Oklahoma Minerals web site. (This link directs to the Oklahoma site instead of the Wall Street Journal, as the Journal requires an online subscription to access articles.)
-30-
