Tulane News & Press

1. Drs. Wallace and Theall, states' reproductive rights laws linked with adverse birth outcomes

   Drs. Maeve Wallace and Katherine Theall conducted a study focused on the relationship between state laws that shape the breadth and scope of women’s reproductive rights and two adverse birth outcomes (preterm birth and low birth weight) in every U.S. state. They found that women in states with the lowest scores — the most restrictive reproductive-rights climates — had greater odds of delivering a preterm or low birth-weight infant the following year (2012) as compared to women in states with the strongest reproductive rights. They also received the Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize for the best paper published in the journal Women’s Health Issues in 2017.
2. Op Ed: Dr. Kat Theall on promoting equity for all New Orleanians

   Dr. Kat Theall notices how the abilities to raise a family in safe and stable housing, to eat healthy foods, to visit a doctor or get medicine when needed, to pursue high-quality education through college and beyond are taken for granted by some and distinctly out of reach for others. As the city's 300th anniversary approaches, Theall wonders if this will finally be the year New Orleans uplifts black women and black birth, which would the stage for a safer, healthier and more equitable next 300 years.
3. Drs. Overstreet and Baker on "Safe Schools NOLA" study

   Since 2015, Tulane University professors Stacy Overstreet, Courtney Baker and Kathleen Whalen have collaborated with a team of community partners to determine how six local schools can better support trauma-exposed students through an innovative study called Safe Schools NOLA. The study will help school administrators create an action plan to support those students.
4. Tulane students engage in local activist organizing

   For Ashlee Pintos and other Tulane students, the 2016 election of Donald Trump was a sign they needed to do something for the community and engage civically. Determined to make change, many have ventured away from the elite campus in Uptown and into the world of local New Orleans organizing.
5. Tulane among few universities to openly support student protesters

   As students participate in walkouts across the country to urge lawmakers to do something about gun violence, several universities, including Tulane, announced that they would not let discipline as a result of peaceful protest affect admissions decisions.
6. School shootings require attention, discourse

   In the wake of another mass school shooting, discussion about gun laws and how we think about and treat mental illness are brought back to the forefront of national conversations.
7. Tulane sexual assault survey results hard to compare among schools

   Experts say it is harder to decide whether the stark survey results mean that Tulane University has a much bigger problem than its peers around the country, or whether it simply did a better job of measuring sexual assault by using the most up-to-date methods and that these results may more accurately reflect what could be higher rates of sexual assault experienced on college campuses nationally. It will be hard to know this and compare Tulane's results unless more schools use comparable survey tools.
8. Tulane releases sexual assault survey results

   The report from the 13,000-student private research university adds to growing evidence that sexual assault is a widespread problem on campuses throughout America. Tulane President Michael A. Fitts called the findings “deeply disturbing” and pledged an expanded campaign to end sexual violence.
9. Dean Patrick Bordnick recognized for work in virtual reality for addiction and autism

   Patrick Bordnick received the Not Impossible Vitality Award for an innovation called VR-∆ and VR-Qualis Est Vita (quality of life). Still in development, the VR-∆ is designed to put patients into realistic virtual worlds using smartphone-based virtual reality, recreating situations that identify and trigger cravings akin to drug and alcohol addiction. The tool will allow for individualized patient diagnostics and aids in treatment by teaching coping mechanisms to avoid relapse.
10. Dr. Sarah Deland evaluates Travis Boys on trial for murder

    Sothern called forensic psychiatrists Dr. J. Brad McConville and Dr. Sarah Deland of Tulane University to the stand, both of whom testified Boys was incompetent to stand trial. Deland suggested Boys be treated at the hospital in Jackson, where she said doctors could further evaluate him for competency in a process that could take between two and three months.
11. NOPD patrol officers struggle to properly handle domestic violence calls, watchdog finds

    Tulane law professor and domestic violence expert Tania Tetlow said Friday that such lapses can be expected given the NOPD's severe shortage of officers. "It's an ongoing issue of training as well as of making sure they change ... the hearts and minds of officers throughout the department who can become very cynical about these cases," Tetlow said.
12. Dr. Loretta Sonnier on juvenile prison sentencing

    Loretta Sonnier, a child and adolescent psychiatrist from Tulane University, said it is impossible to predict whether a teenager will be able to be reformed later in life. Because teens’ brains haven’t fully developed, psychiatrists aren’t even allowed to diagnose anti-social personality disorder until the person is 18, she said.
13. Dr. Denese Shervington on rates of depression in New Orleans middle schools

    “At least a third of our kids are really experiencing symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which on a simple level means it is hard to attend school and do well,” said Dr. Denese Shervington, a psychiatrist and IWES president. At the other extreme, these symptoms could lead to acting out, including committing crimes, she said.
14. Dr. Izabela Steflja on civilian casualties

    “Making Civilian Casualties Count: Approaches to Documenting the Human Cost of War”. Steflja, Izabela; Darden, Jessica Trisko. Human Rights Review, December 2013, Volume 14, Issue 4.
15. Dr. Izabela Steflja on women in combat zones

    Research by Jessica Trisko Darden and Izabela Steflja has demonstrated that the support roles women take up in combat zones challenge our traditional categorization of them as civilians. The increasingly blurred line between combat and support roles in national militaries also poses a challenge for understanding the impact of female combatants on conflict dynamics.
16. Dr. Denese Shervington on traumatic disasters and the “New” New Orleans

    These changes left many people, including psychiatrist Denese Shervington and urban anthropologist Lisa Richardson, wondering about the city’s new identity and their place in it. Not only has Denese relieved mental trauma in New Orleans, but she's also traveled internationally to assist after traumatic disasters.
17. Dr. Denese Shervington on shifts in school discipline

    Psychiatrist Denese Shervington, president and CEO of IWES, said in a recent interview, "You cannot have a society where children are running around with this level of impairment." But her organization's research suggests that New Orleans has just that: a disturbingly high percentage of children with unacknowledged, untreated trauma.
18. Dr. Denese Shervington on rates of PTSD in New Orleans youth

    Dr. Denese Shervington is president of the New Orleans-based Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. She says many New Orleans children are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. "It's similar to the rate of veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. It's about the same rate," she said.
19. Dr. Denese Shervington on how trauma manifests in kids

    Dr. Denese Shervington is CEO of the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. You may have seen the group’s billboards or social media posts on how New Orleans kids are “Sad, Not Bad.” WWNO talked to the mental health expert about how trauma in the city’s children not only goes unrecognized – it’s misdiagnosed.
20. Dr. Denese Shervington on teen reproductive health and federal funding cuts

    Dr. Denese Shervington, president and CEO of the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, told Axios that ultimately, the decision to fund the TPP program and its grantees will depend on how members of Congress view these programs: "For it to be important, they would have to have a heart," she said. "They would have to be thinking about children and their needs versus their own ideology."