PARTICIPATE
in Louisiana Public Square!

October 2005,
Baton Rouge,
Louisiana

By the People is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions with primary funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and additional support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service.

By the People Citizen Deliberation
Biographies of Panel Members

October 29, 2005

Dr. Frederick P. Cerise, head of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
Dr. Frederick Cerise, a native of Monroe, LA, was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco in January 2004. Dr. Cerise is an internal medicine physician who has spent over 13 years of his career both teaching medical students and treating patients in the state’s public hospital system. Prior to assuming his position as Secretary, Dr. Cerise served as chief executive officer of the Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge. He had been on staff in some capacity at Earl K. Long since completing his medical residency in 1991. He previously served as medical director of Earl K. Long and medical director for LSU Health Care Services Division. Dr. Cerise is an associate professor of clinical medicine at the LSU School of Medicine. He previously served as an assistant clinical director of the Earl K. Long internal medicine residency program and as an instructor of medicine. Dr. Cerise received an undergraduate degree in science from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and a graduate degree in medicine from the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. He completed his residency at the University of Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham. Dr. Cerise later received a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. Dr. Cerise serves as a board member of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. He is also a standing member of the Louisiana Health Care Review Clinical Advisory Board.

Louisiana State Senator Jay Dardenne
State Senator Jay Dardenne was elected to the legislature's upper chamber in 1992. A graduate of Baton Rouge High School, Louisiana State University, and the Louisiana State University School of Law, Dardenne served three years on the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council preceding his election to the Louisiana State Senate. Prior to his service on the Metro Council, he served eleven years on the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors. In addition to his duties in the State Senate, is active in numerous social and civic endeavors in his native Baton Rouge, namely the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and the River City Festivals Association. He is married to the former Cathy McDonald and they are the parents of two sons, John III and Matthew. Senator Dardenne’s many honors and awards include being named National Republican Legislator of the Year (August 2003) and LSU Manship School of Mass Communication Hall of Fame (2002).

Teri G. Fontenot, M.B.A., CEO of Woman's Hospital
Teri G. Fontenot is the president and chief executive officer of Woman’s Hospital, Baton Rouge, LA, the largest free-standing women’s hospital in the country. Her education background includes a degree with honors in accounting from the University of Mississippi and an M.B.A. from Northeast Louisiana University. Teri is also a certified public accountant and a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

In addition to her leadership role at Woman’s Hospital, Ms. Fontenot is active in civic and professional organizations at the local, regional, and national level. Her current appointments include: American Hospital Association Board; Chairman, Hospital Billing and Collection Service, Inc., Newcastle, DE; Member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health; Louisiana State University System Research and Technology Foundation Board; Louisiana Commission on Perinatal Care and Infant Mortality.

Ms. Fontenot was the 2000 Chair of the Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce and was Chair of Louisiana Hospital Association in 2001. She was named one of the 25 most influential women in Baton Rouge by the Baton Rouge Business Report and received the YWCA’s 1997 Woman of Achievement Award.

Roberta Madden, director of women’s health and public policy for the YWCA of Greater Baton Rouge

Roberta Madden is Director of Women’s Public Policy and Women’s Health at the YWCA of Greater Baton Rouge, where she directs racial justice programs, including the successful Dialogue on Race; and ENCOREplus, a breast health program for low-income women. A 12-year breast cancer survivor, she started this program to provide uninsured women with vital health information and to link them to free screenings.

She has more than 30 years' experience with nonprofit organizations, including Common Cause, the American Diabetes Association, and the Consumer Protection Center.

Currently she chairs the State Advisory Committee of the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, of which she has been a member since 1981. For two years she served as a stakeholder member of a Peer Review Committee of the American Cancer Society. An active member of the Early Risers Kiwanis Club, she also served as its president. Other board memberships include the Southern Mutual Help Association and Common Cause/Louisiana.

She has been recently honored by the Bienville House Center for Peace and Justice, the NAACP, the Louisiana Center for Women and Government at Nicholls State University, 100 Black Men, and the Battered Women’s Center.