The Women’s Symposium

The ULM Women’s Symposium annually highlights women from across Northeast Louisiana for their individual achievements, professional and personal. The panelists share their stories with ULM students and fellow community members to showcase the importance of success and failure in one’s journey. Here we highlight five of the 2019 panelists and why they were chosen as leaders in their respective fields.

ARTICLES BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE AND
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

Katrina Branson

Katrina Branson is a woman empowered as she continues on a path to change her life for the better. Katrina holds a bachelor’s in finance from ULM and a master’s in human resources management from Grambling. As Director of Human Resources with several years experience, Katrina understands the intricacies and complexities of people and personalities. After experiencing her father’s death she went into a deep depression, and had to learn how to deal with her own self—her own feelings and her own emotions. The weight of depression took a toll on her mentally and as a result, she gained more than 50 pounds.

Diagnosed with chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure and obesity, along with anxiety and depression, Katrina desperately wanted to take back control of her life. Katrina researched her options on how to be well naturally and how to heal herself holistically. She invested in a treadmill and walked before work every day until she lost her first 20 pounds. She hired a trainer and lost more of the weight her doctor advised her to lose. She began to cook whole foods and explored different options for healthy eating. Overcoming depression and losing 70 pounds, she wanted to share her story by reaching out to others in the community. Her passion for holistic health moved her to launch the health and wellness company she owns, Holistic Vibes.

Katrina understands maintaining overall good health is a lifestyle. She encourages, motivates and inspires others to living a holistic, healthy lifestyle through her organization, Holistic Vibes. She says “the energy you put out and the energy that surrounds you are the vibes in Holistic Vibes which sustains your mental well-being.” Having a good support system, positive energy and some form of accountability is what she says attributes to her overall well-being. Her advice to other women is to not be afraid to ask for help. Hire a trainer, talk to a nutritionist, go to counseling, or hire a maid. “Your mental health is the single most important part of your well-being,” she says. Stress and anxiety affect not only your mental state but your physical well-being. Find ways to reduce stress in your life.

Katrina’s true passion for health and wellness is evident in her smile, her confidence and her image. Spreading her positive vibes and holistic healthy lifestyle is what makes her feel empowered.

Dr. Deborah Chandler

Born and raised in Georgia, Deborah Chandler moved to Monroe 15 years ago to become the Director of Choral Activities at ULM. After receiving her bachelor’s at Valdosta State and her master’s at Florida State, she served as music director for a presbyterian church in Tallahassee for 18 years before pursuing her PhD in music education in 2004, also at FSU. When pursuing a university position, ULM’s opening attracted Deborah who knew the area, her parents having lived in Delhi in the early 80’s. Her father had helped build the Alcoa Aluminum plant. Her love of music and a newfound career in teaching brought her to the place Deborah is now proud to call home.

Her passion for music began in church where Deborah sang and played guitar, and eventually led to the position of drum major in her high school marching band and student conductor in the choir. Music was obviously “a natural fit.” Doors just kept opening and eventually led her to higher education. Deborah has experienced what music means to others and the profound impact it has on people’s lives. Higher education affords her more opportunity to share her passion with people who also love music.

In addition to being an associate professor at ULM, Deborah directs many choral ensembles; is the founding artistic director and conductor of the Monroe Symphony Chorus; and is music director at Northminster Church in Monroe. Recently Deborah made her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall and in Syros, Greece with MidAmerican Productions. She has been invited to return to Greece in July of 2020. She loves teaching teachers, “watching the light come on” and seeing people grow in music. She says it’s a lot like parenting, both difficult and rewarding to watch them “fly out of the nest.” Along with her wife Kristin and daughter Olivia, Deborah enjoys traveling, boating, fishing and wood working. She is thankful for her family and is surrounded by extended family, those who support her and her loved ones. Monroe has embraced the Chandlers, and they feel free and accepted here. Deborah never felt different in this environment, always welcome, accepted, and encouraged by her educated and artsy community. Raising a family here also feels natural, much like music always has.

Meredith Hayes

Raised in Baton Rouge, Meredith Hayes is a graduate of LSU, where she majored in Mass Communications, with a concentration on print journalism, and minored in Political Science. She knew early on that she would attend law school, and ultimately chose LSU Law, where she met her husband, Tommy, in her final year. Meredith spent three years practicing law in New Orleans, and in 2005, shortly before Hurricane Katrina, moved to Tommy’s hometown of Monroe. There, Meredith opened a satellite office of her New-Orleans based law firm, where she handled commercial litigation for the northern part of the state until 2013, when Meredith joined the in-house legal team at CenturyLink’s Monroe-based headquarters.

Moving from private practice to a Fortune 200 Corporation was both challenging and exciting. At CenturyLink, Meredith oversees the company’s Corporate Ethics and Compliance Program. Fundamentally, the role has always been about the principle espoused by the company’s founder, Clarke M. Williams, that doing the right things will always lead to success in life and in business. In 2018, Meredith was named the Vice President of Ethics & Compliance, and currently acts as the company’s global Chief Ethics and Compliance Office.

Meredith oversees a team of attorneys, analysts, and corporate investigators who review and handle internal compliance issues and internal investigations. The team is also responsible for training on the company’s Global Code of Conduct, as well as other compliance policies. They regularly work with legal and Human Resources teams globally to develop and maintain the company’s global ethics and compliance program in the 60 countries in which CenturyLink conducts business.

Meredith believes in surrounding herself with the right people. Her team is one of diverse talent, where each person’s unique contributions make it easy to work together, even in the most stressful and difficult situations. She appreciates the importance placed by Century Link on ethics and values. She loves her position, that it promotes fairness, and offers her the opportunity to interact with and provide guidance to people all over the globe. A lover of the law and tradition, Meredith feels grateful to represent her business in the way that she conducts her life. Meredith and Tommy have three boys: Thomas, Charlie, and Weston. Her position at CenturyLink offers fulfillment in her professional life, but also gives her the ability to act as an example for her boys and her family, as a mom, lawyer, and professional.

Amy Weems

A career educator, Amy Weems has grown professionally from challenges and changes. She began her career at West Monroe high School developing career academics and preparing students for life after high school. She then took a position in Recruitment and Admissions and later in Student Affairs at ULM before eventually returning to K12 as a middle school teacher at Ouachita Junior High School. Through the shifts and turns, Amy gained tremendous experience in diverse areas of her field, seeing education through many different lenses. The latter change in schedule allowed her the time to finish her EdD from ULM through the Louisiana Education Consortium in Educational Leadership.

When she returned to ULM as an adjunct professor, she was excited to again be a part of higher education. Amy’s passion has always been academics. In the School of Education, she taught online courses, graduate courses, doctoral courses, and secondary undergraduate courses, again gaining experience across the spectrum. She was then promoted to Associate Professor of Education and was back at ULM full time. She still works with Ouachita Parish as a liason, utilizing her K12 experience and allowing personal and professional growth. In hindsight, she is thankful she was pushed out of her comfort zone and now sees the hardships as “growth moments.” She has been married to Clay Weems for 18 years, and their 10-year-old daughter Ella is a competitive gymnast attending Sterlington Elementary School.

Amy sees failures as lessons. She’s learned what to keep doing and what she can actually control moving forward. While it’s never easy being at the bottom, it made Amy work harder to get back up. Some of us have to be forced to move, and it is hard, but the hard makes it worth it. Amy relishes her role as an educator, living for those “lightbulb moments.” She even has her sign in her office to remind herself and her students why we’re all here. When she says that moment of understanding on a student’s face, it gratifies what she’s devoted her professional life to. She lives for the success stories and is grateful to teach people how to teach.

Ieshea Hollins Jones

Cyber security expert Ieshea Jones is a Chief Information Security Consultant who partners with C-level executives and other industry leaders to provide cutting-edge cyber intelligence solutions. After graduating from ULM in Computer Information Systems, Ieshea went on to have an amazing career at a local Fortune 150 telecommunications company, CenturyLink. As SR Lead IT Program Manager, Ieshea utilized her 13 years experience, Masters of Project Management, and PMP® certification to successfully manage programs and lead teams.

In 2011, Ieshea saw an opportunity to be a voice for the people. She boldly took a leap of faith and went from a stable income to relying solely on her own instincts and started one of the very first private industry cyber security, digital forensic firms headquartered in Monroe, LA – Direnzic Technology & Consulting, LLC. In her eight years as Founder CEO, Ieshea has worked with numerous government and state agencies, such as the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the City of Monroe, LSBDC, and more, to assist with the cyber security education initiatives ongoing within the state. To that end, she has hosted and in some instances was the keynote speaker at numerous public events about cyber security intelligence.

As a black woman in an otherwise traditionally white male-driven industry, Ieshea has faced some hurdles, but she asked herself, “Do I want to be the one in the hallway knocking on doors, or do I want to become the door?” She recognized that with Direnzic, she had found a viable path forward and is proud to acknowledge that April will mark six years since she made that decision to go out on her own, and she is most proud of taking that chance.

Ieshea insists risk is essential and failure is absolute; however, it’s about perspective. If we fail without learning, then it was truly a failure. If we never “take the risk”, we fail! But it’s important to realize that failing is how we grow. Successful people believe in thinking outside the box, and Ieshea refuses to stay boxed in. Her dad would frequently ask her when she stumbled, “Ok, so what did you learn?” She was taught to fail with purpose. “Comfort is the enemy of success.” It’s why Ieshea lives outside her comfort zone and encourages everyone else to do the same. The possibilities are worth the risk.