
Louisiana Tech University Conference
27 October 2022, 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM at Louisiana Tech University.
The Let Us Dream community conference was first held in 2017 at Louisiana Tech University. The conference provides a forum for professionals, scholars, researchers, and college and university students to share experiences, challenges, and achievements in their respective efforts towards community improvement.
HISTORY
Volunteers from the local community including business owners involved in voluntary community developmental projects, non-profit organizations, philanthropists, social workers, educators or educational administrators, retired personnel, students, or anyone interested in contributing to their community development can be a part of the conference and engage in fruitful dialogues with visionaries through the conference.
VISION
Our Vision is to Empowered local communities for sustainable impact, improvement, Global Harmony (and Holistic Success).
GOAL
The Let Us Dream Conference was established in 2017 for the purpose of providing a forum for sharing experiences with successes and challenges in community improvement organizations and efforts. Broad conference goals are to
- Improve networking and collaboration among all those interested in community improvement organizations and programs.
- Promote volunteerism and empower all those involved in community improvement organizations and initiatives, including employees, volunteers, post-secondary students, researchers, and practitioners.
- Create a professional learning organization dedicated to improving local communities and characterized by a culture of shared researcher and practitioner knowledge, skills, theories, and best practices.
PAST CONFERENCES
2017

2018
2019
2021
2022
SCHEDULE
KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Mayor Friday Ellis
Mayor Friday Ellis was born in rural Rayville, Louisiana. . Mayor Ellis is an advocate of entrepreneurship and business growth. He encourages community and civic development and involvement at local and state levels. In 2019, he was named Free Enterprise Champion by the Louisiana Business and Industry.

Dr.George Nofin
Dr. George Noflin, Jr., is a native of Jackson, Louisiana. Over the past thirty-plus years, Dr. Noflin has become a knowledgeable administrator who is diligent, conscientious, and hardworking. He has served in the United States Marine Corps for a number of years where he received the United States Marine Corps Meritorious Award while serving his country.
Conference core leadership team

Dr. Pauline Leonard

Dr. Suzanne Mayo
Health Panel


Tori Davis

Baylee Gray

Dr. Ashley Owen

Meleah Pea

Spencer Stelly

Becky Stutzman

Jerrilyn Washington

David Wells

Calvin C. Williams
Education Panel

Dr. Cheyrl Mansfield Ensley

Lanecia Deshund Clinton

Dr. Patsy Hughey

Dr. George Noflin Jr.

Dr. Dustin Whitlock

Chase Willis
Social Panel

Will Dearmon
Dearmon also currently serves as the President of the Louisiana Tech University Alumni Association National Board of Directors. He and his wife, Kelsey, have been happily married for almost five years and are the proud parents of a very active 13-month-old baby girl.

Janet Durden
In 2020, ULM Women’s Symposium awarded Durden with their Legacy Award. In February 2017, Monroe Chamber of Commerce bestowed their highest recognition, the prestigious Rambin Silverstein Award to Durden. She received the Kitty Degree Humanitarian Award in 2016. In 2015, she was recognized with Grambling State University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Leadership Award for Community Service and Leadership. Durden received her Master of Arts from Mississippi State College for Women.
She has served on numerous state and local board of directors and is currently on St. Francis Medical Center Board of Directors, Ouachita Business Alliance, and Louisiana Association of United Ways.
Janet and Bob Durden have been married for 27 years. Her daughter is a non-profit professional and lives with her husband and their two daughters in Kansas City. Bob has three children, and they enjoy their four grandchildren. Janet and Bob are active members at First Baptist Church in West Monroe.

Kristopher Kelley

Dr. Reginald Owens
As a student at Tech in the late 1960s, he was one of the founders of the university’s first African American student organization, Soul Tech, and served as its first president. He also initiated the application in 1969 to bring to campus in 1971 the first black Greek letter organization, Alpha Phi Alpha.
Owens began his professional career as a police reporter at the Houston Post. He later worked in Houston at Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. editing publications and as an advertising assistant; managing editor of The (Houston) Informer; and associate professor of journalism at Texas Southern University. He has also taught at Grambling State University and in Austin, Texas at Huston-Tillotson University, Austin Community College and the University of Texas.

Tory Smith
At IBM, she is a member of the Diversity & Inclusion council for her business unit to help foster inclusive environments and champion diversity of thought and voices. She is also the Engagement Champion for the Monroe office serving as executive advisor to the center’s business resource groups and supporting employee engagement endeavors which include community action and volunteering as IBM believes in giving back to the communities in which they reside.
UNSUNG HEROS

Brenda Dupree

Bobby Mounts

Michelle Tarpley

Jackie White
