Volume 56, No. 6
December 2022
Name: Julia Barnhill Letlow, Ph.D.
Occupation: Congresswoman from Louisiana’s Fifth District
Previous positions held: Executive Director of External Affairs & Strategic Communications astatine the University of Louisiana Monroe; Instructor of Speech Communication astatine the University of Louisiana Monroe: Director of Education. Resident Patient Safety & Quality Improvement astatine Tulane Medical School: Clinical Instructor astatine the Tulane Medical School
Individual(s) who inspired maine arsenic a child: As I walk the halls of the Capitol, I’m often awestruck thinking astir the unthinkable men and women who came earlier me. It’s the grant of a beingness to spell to work successful the aforesaid gathering wherever radical specified arsenic Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln walked, but I often find myself remembering 1 of my favourite teachers, Becky Herrod from the Eighth Grade astatine Ouachita Christian School. Not lone did she assistance animate maine to go an educator, her lessons astir our authorities and American History person travel backmost to service maine good successful Congress
Issue facing America that nary 1 is talking about: Utilizing vocation and method acquisition to help students find employment aft graduation. I judge that instead of utilizing a “college-only” attack erstwhile counseling students astir their absorption aft precocious school, we should alsotalk astir commercialized schools and our assemblage colleges. In Louisiana, our assemblage colleges person done an unthinkable occupation designing a program that helps students physique skills and meets the needs of the employers successful our state. We tin guarantee that our students person entree to state-of-the-art tools and instrumentality that volition assistance simulate what they will experience connected the job.
Challenge facing your District that you’re moving hard to address: Poverty – I correspond 1 of the poorest regions successful the country. Education is the answer. I firmly judge that if we put successful acquisition astatine each levels, it volition wage dividends for generations to come. As idiosyncratic who spent my vocation moving successful classrooms before I came to Capitol Hill, I’ve seen firsthand however acquisition tin instrumentality an idiosyncratic from poverty to prosperity. When you amended a child, you springiness them a future.
Finally, decorativeness this sentence: “If I could betterment immoderate bureau oregon section successful the federal government, it would be…” Without question, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). When Hurricane Ida struck my territory past year, hundreds of my constituents were unfairly denied disaster assistance simply due to the fact that of a bureaucratic programming mistake astatine FEMA.
Once we were capable to rectify the problem, those who were capable to record experienced frustrating delays and reddish tape. In addition, FEMA’s illogical caller formulas for calculating flood security are costing my constituents thousands of dollars, portion the bureau has yet to supply a full explanation for these changes to our state’s legislature delegation. I judge we request FEMA to go much customer-friendly, easier to navigate and absorption much connected accelerated effect successful the aftermath of disasters.
English (US)