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Former Louisiana health secretary, Landry adviser to make $475,000 at LSU • Louisiana Illuminator

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Former Louisiana health secretary, Landry adviser to make 5,000 at LSU • Louisiana Illuminator


Louisiana’s former health secretary who spent months advising Gov. Jeff Landry on health care matters now has the highest publicly funded salary of any woman in state higher education.  

LSU agreed to pay Courtney Phillips $475,000 annually as its vice president of health affairs and chief health officer, a job that had been vacant for years. Her pay is the seventh-largest publicly funded salary at LSU and the 13th largest among all state higher education and executive branch employees, according to state Civil Service Commission data from March. 

The university provided information about Phillips’ salary to the Illuminator in response to a public records request. The LSU Board of Supervisors must sign off on her compensation before she becomes a permanent employee. She started work this past Monday. 

LSU President William Tate said Phillips was hired to “maximize the system’s healthcare-related financial well-being, enhance operational efficiency, develop new revenue streams, and leverage strengths across campuses.” 

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“It’s an investment in talent,” LSU spokesperson Todd Woodward, who works for Tate, said. 

“Our practice with all high-level positions is to research similar jobs (when possible) across the country. Her compensation is actually lower than the pay for similar positions (some up to $1 million),” Woodward said in a statement.

Phillips’ pay is one of the highest in all of state government. She makes more money than Southern University System President Dennis Shields and Louisiana Community Technical College System President Monty Sullivan. 

“I think it’s extreme,” LSU Board of Supervisors member Jay Blossman said of Phillips’ salary, noting it was unusual for someone who does not oversee any campuses to be paid so much. He intends to raise questions when Phillips’ confirmation comes before the board.

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LSU coaches Brian Kelly and Kim Mulkey earn considerably more than Phillips, but only because private funding comprises the bulk of their pay. The portions of Kelly’s and Mulkey’s salaries that are state-funded are $400,000 each, less than what Phillips makes. 

LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward’s state-funded pay is $525,000, according to his contract, but he also receives money from private sources to boost his income.

Other LSU personnel listed with higher pay than Phillips’ in the database include five men: Dr. David Guzick, chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport ($900,000); Tate ($725,000); Dr. Philip Schauer, a professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center ($523,611); John Kirwan, executive director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center ($475,860); and Roy Haggerty, LSU vice president and provost ($475,602). 

As a conservative Republican, Gov. Landry is generally critical of how Louisiana higher education institutions spend their money.

“I don’t want money going to higher education,” the governor declared in February when he tried to block a proposed multibillion-dollar health care foundation from giving grants to almost all Louisiana universities and colleges.

When it comes to Phillips, however, Landry’s office declined to comment this week on her new role or salary at LSU, even though she has been helping the administration with health care policy matters in recent months.

Phillips served as secretary over the Louisiana Department of Health from 2020 to 2023 under Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, but also has extensive experience working for Republicans. She did not return phone calls and text messages for comment this week. 

Before joining the Edwards administration, Phillips served as chief executive officer of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and executive commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services. Earlier in her career, she worked as a state health care agency leader under Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. 

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She is considered one of the foremost experts on public health care funding in Louisiana, particularly on issues related to the state Medicaid program. 

As health secretary for Edwards, Phillips was responsible for carrying out the Democratic governor’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent vaccine campaign, which Landry often criticized.

Nevertheless, Landry tapped Phillips to serve on his health care advisory transition team after he won the October governor’s race and was preparing to take over state government. 

Once he took office in early January, Phillips continued to work with Landry’s leadership at the state health department, sometimes showing up to the state health department building to help in person, according to three people with knowledge of the agency. The three people did not want to comment on the record about Phillips’ work with the health department for fear of professional repercussions.

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A state ethics law blocks Phillips, as a former state agency head, from being paid as a private contractor or consultant for Louisiana’s health department until next spring, when she is two years removed from her time as health secretary. 

Phillips is not prohibited from working for a public college or university.

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Other executives at state agencies have also ended up at Louisiana’s universities. Kimberly Lewis served as Edwards’ revenue secretary for six years before leaving to become LSU’s chief administrative officer in 2022

State Rep. Jack McFarland, who oversees Louisiana’s state budget for lawmakers, said he likes Phillips personally and found her to be an excellent health care secretary, but her salary gives him pause, especially as Louisiana heads into a financial downturn next year.

“It does concern me that we are doing this at a time when everyone is asking for additional revenue,” said McFarland, R-Jonesboro.



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Louisiana

How to watch Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati in Starkville Regional

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How to watch Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati in Starkville Regional


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For the second day in a row, Louisiana baseball has its back against the wall in the NCAA Tournament Starkville Regional.

The No. 25 Ragin’ Cajuns (40-24) secured their 40th win of the season and kept their postseason dreams alive by beating Lipscomb 10-4 in an elimination game on Saturday, May 30. Now, the pressure is back on for seventh-year coach Matt Deggs and his squad as they face No. 24 Cincinnati (38-21) in another win-or-go-home matchup on Sunday, May 31 in Starkville, Mississippi.

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Against the Bisons, UL used four pitchers, and in total has used seven of its arms so far in tournament play. One of the Cajuns’ fresh arms heading into the matchup against the Bearcats is senior Andrew Herrmann. The lefty made his latest appearance during the Cajuns’ Sun Belt Conference tournament run on May 24.

While the Cajuns come into the match with some momentum, Cincinnati enters the match with a chip on its shoulder after losing its first game of the tournament on Saturday against regional host Mississippi State.

Watch Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati on ESPN+

What channel is Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati on?

TV: None

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Livestream: ESPN+

Radio: Varsity Network, 96.5 FM

Louisiana vs. Cincinnati will be available live on ESPN+ streaming for the first game of Day 3 of the Starkville Regional. Jack Kizer and Jack DeLongchamps will provide commentary from Dudy Noble Field.

What time does Louisiana baseball play Cincinnati?

Date: Sunday, May 31

Time: 2 p.m. CT

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Location: Dude Noble Field, Starkville, Mississippi

The Louisiana vs. Cincinnati game starts at 2 p.m. Sunday at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, Mississippi.

Starkville Regionals schedule

Friday, May 29

  • Game 1: Mississippi State 10, Lipscomb 1
  • Game 2: Cincinnati 12, Louisiana 2

Saturday, May 30

  • Game 3: Lipscomb 4, Louisiana, 10
  • Game 4: Mississippi State vs Cincinnati, 8 p.m. CT

Sunday, May 31

  • Game 5: Louisiana vs Cincinnati, 2 p.m. CT
  • Game 6: Winner G5 vs Mississippi State, 7 p.m. CT

Monday, June 1

  • Game 7: If necessary, TBD

Shannon Belt covers high school sports and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow her high school and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ShannonBelt3. Got questions regarding HS/UL athletics? Send them to Shannon Belt at sbelt@gannett.com.



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Louisiana Gov. signs Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act

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Louisiana Gov. signs Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act


BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — The Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act has been signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry.

This comes after HB 636, authored by Rep. Vanessa LaFleur (D-Baton Rouge), was signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate on May 19.

The measure redefines hazing, mandates annual prevention training, and strengthens penalties for student organizations involved in hazing.

The legislation is named after a Southern University student who was killed in 2025 after being punched in the chest with boxing gloves during an unsanctioned, off-campus fraternity hazing ritual.

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The law will go into effect on August 1.

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As Seas Rise, Louisiana Faces a Choice: Plan for Movement or Let Crisis Decide – Inside Climate News

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As Seas Rise, Louisiana Faces a Choice: Plan for Movement or Let Crisis Decide – Inside Climate News


The shoreline of Louisiana has never been still or fixed, though recent generations have treated it as such.

Since the last ice age roughly 20,000 years ago, around when people arrived in what is now the United States, sea levels have repeatedly reshaped aspects of the Gulf Coast. But today, human-caused warming is accelerating that ancient process, pushing Louisiana’s dynamic shoreline into conflict with cities, roads, ports and levees built to contain and stabilize nature.

A new study in Nature Sustainability argues that this history is a guide to what comes next. Coastal Louisiana, the authors write, is ground zero for coastal climate adaptation: a place where rising seas and sinking land are already reshaping where people live, and where planning for movement could offer more agency than crisis-driven displacement.

“We have got to remember that when people first came to North America 20,000 years ago, there had already been a lot of climate change,” said Jesse Keenan, a co-author of the paper and professor of sustainable real estate and urban planning at Tulane University. “There’s been a lot of sea level rise in the region, and Indigenous populations have always moved with that shoreline.”

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In geologic time, he added, “New Orleans has been there for just a blip. We’ve got to get it out of our heads that this is terra firma.”

The physical stakes are still stark. Southern Louisiana is facing a convergence of rising seas, wetland erosion, stronger storms and land subsidence, much of it worsened by decades of oil and gas canals cut through the coast. The state contains what theIPCC has identified as the world’s most exposed coastal zone, where the shoreline is projected to move more than 30 miles inland of New Orleans.

By comparing today’s warming trajectory with the last interglacial period roughly 125,000 years ago, when global temperatures were similar and seas were much higher, the new study estimates that the region could eventually face three to seven meters of sea-level rise and lose as much as three-quarters of its remaining coastal wetlands.

Keenan emphasizes that the point is not to forecast a sudden disappearance, but to widen the planning lens: if the coast is already moving, Louisiana has a chance to decide how people, infrastructure and economies move with it.

The danger is assuming everyone has the same ability to act on that choice. Social mobility, he said, depends on financial mobility— which means adaptation cannot simply tell people to move to safer ground. It has to move opportunity, too: jobs, industries, schools and affordable housing beyond the form of voluntary buyouts, a common managed-retreat tool in which governments purchase flood-prone homes and return the land to open space.

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“Outmigration is often framed as tragedy or failure, but in some cases it signals agency,” said Brianna Castro, a co-author of the paper, who highlights that this is a chance to plan around choices people are already making. 

Nearly all of Louisiana’s coastal zone has lost residents since 2000, and since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, about a quarter of Orleans Parish’s population has left the area, while more than half of rural Cameron Parish has relocated. 

“If you build jobs and you build homes, specifically affordable homes, [on] safer ground, people will come,” said Castro, who is a professor of urban sustainability at Yale University’s School of the Environment.

The opportunity, she argues, is to make those moves possible before crisis forces them on harsher terms—with schools, housing and work in places where communities can carry culture forward rather than be scattered by disaster. New Orleans at its core, she said, is not confined to its current footprint.

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“We’re not going to ‘lose’ New Orleans,” she said. “New Orleans has an incredibly rich local culture, and that will carry across the lake.” What must change, she argued, is the assumption that a moving coast can be met with immovable systems.
That idea resonates beyond Louisiana. Vivek Shandas, a professor of earth, environment and society at Portland State University who was not involved in the study, said the paper widens the frame from emergency response to long-term adaptation.

“We’ve been resettling for hundreds of thousands of years as a species,” Shandas said. “I think we’ve gotten really complacent with thinking that once we’ve set up a place and invested in it that it has to be like that forever. But the Earth is a very dynamic and incredibly fluid system.”

For that reason, he said, Louisiana is a “bellwether” for the rest of the country—a place where planners, policymakers and communities can study what adaptation strategies work before the same pressures intensify elsewhere.

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“It’s super important for people to recognize that what we’re ultimately calling for in this paper is a public, private, and civic engagement with adaptation policy, planning and practice,” said Keenan. 

The study points to immediate action projects, including reviving the canceled Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion—a $3-billion coastal restoration project designed to reconnect the Mississippi River with the Barataria Basin, the rapidly disappearing wetland area on the west bank of the river south of New Orleans—and advancing the Breton diversion on the other side of the Mississippi River. 

Unlike dredging, which moves sediment once and deposits it in place, river diversions are designed to restore a more continuous flow of sediment into wetlands, mimicking the processes that built the delta over thousands of years. Dredged material can create land, Keenan said, but it does not sustain the same root systems and ecological processes as a living riverine system.

“We’ve got a big challenge here, but this isn’t about the challenge. This is about the opportunity,” he said. “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. There is so much economic opportunity to engage with people and to build things. Data centers won’t give people more jobs, but adapting to climate change just might.” 

About This Story

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.

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