Tulane Press

Scholarly rigor, energy, determination and commitment typified this week's presentation by "Project IX" students, many of whom were sexual assault survivors themselves. But there was also a palpable sense of joy in the room as the students discussed their ideas. This unexpected joy seemed to spring from a collective knowledge that the scourge of sexual assault will neither define nor overwhelm us, but will be the catalyst for our transformation through education, justice and true community.

Thomas LaVeist, a national expert on issues related to equity and health, has been named dean of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He will also hold the position of Presidential Chair in Health Equity, making him the first to hold one of Tulane’s newly endowed presidential chairs, created to support the recruitment of exceptional, internationally recognized scholars whose work transcends and bridges traditional academic disciplines.

Rachel Blume, a student in the Tulane School of Liberal Arts, was recently awarded the Campus UnSung Hero award from the One Love Foundation for her work leading campus programming around healthy relationships and relationship violence.

The Bedsheet Project will allow students to write on, or even cut, bedsheets with any comments, questions or feelings about sexual violence on campus. The project is spearheaded by the Project IX Dialogue Team. Project IX is a team of students creating initiatives to get students thinking and talking about what consent looks like, to prevent sexual violence at Tulane, and how to build a safer community.

Growing up in an environment plagued by high rates of gun violence can affect someone for the rest of his or her life, according to public-health experts. In the 1990s, the CDC and Kaiser Permanente partnered on a landmark study of more than 17,000 individuals, looking at the connection between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and children's long-term health. The more ACEs someone has—the higher their ACE score—the higher their risk of depression, drug use, and such health problems as diabetes and heart attacks, which disproportionately impact communities of color.