LOUISIANA, A DREAM STATE. ☀️

It’s been another jam-packed LYS day, we have a lot to report- so let's get right to it!

Spotlight Involvement Session of the Day: Parliamentary Procedure (PP) 📕. Led by Colin Clement, PP gives the delegates a chance to see firsthand how to run a proper meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order. This is the same order and terms used all over the country and even in the U.S. Senate! We hope students take what they learned in this session back to their schools and extracurricular activities. Of course, at LYS we emphasize how to run meetings efficiently, but in a fun-filled way!
This week we mentor our delegation to become not only Louisiana's future but to lead the future of Louisiana. In this session we reflect solely on our great state of Louisiana. “Dream State” is a presentation that truly captures the essence of Louisiana, from its people to its scenery, to its truly diverse and unique cultures and traditions!
Our Dream State Speaker 📣 Dr. Ralph Abraham and Dr. Pete Croughan laid the groundwork for our groups to work on the 2024 Dream State Challenge 🤔. For Dream State Challenge, The delegates worked together in their home groups to develop a proposal that addresses the key challenges and gaps that Louisiana is experiencing.
Today you get a double play, this afternoon we participated in another involvement session.
Speaking of dreams - the 2nd Spotlight involvement session of the day is Dreams to Reality 💭 led by staffer Leigh Ann Lutgring. A delegate favorite, LYS’s Dreams to Reality involvement session allows participants to set goals and provides them the tools to verbalize their goals, dreams, and aspirations – past, present, and future. At the end of the session, each delegate writes an “I Will…” card that states what he or she “will” do by a date of their decision.
Tonight we are in the middle of the next step and most fun-filled, energetic part of the political party process- Can I get a Caucus?! We can’t wait to see what each party has in store! There will be skits 🎭, speeches🎤, candy, campaigning🍭 and, of course, lots of cheering🎉!! And once all is said and done, the elected Tory party candidates and the Whig party candidates go head-to-head tomorrow in the LYS General Election (🐔 v. 🐷). Shoutout to Political Party Assistants Deporres Taplette (Tory) and Keagan Davis (Whig)!

For the WHIG Party 🐷

Chairperson - ADDISON MORRIS

Secretary/Treasurer - ZAHARA FIRVEN

Vice President - CHLOE SPEARS

President - DALILA GULATI

For the Tory Party 🐔

Chairperson - GREYSON SCHWARTZ

Secretary/Treasurer - CAYLA BOLDEN

Vice President - ADDYSYN CRUZ

President - RAMAUN FERNANDEZ

Delicious WEDNESDAY 🍬 & LOUISIANA DREAM STATE

“You have the ability to touch a life and change it with just a conversation, develop that potential in the career of your choiece ”

— Dr. Ralph Abraham

DREAM STATE SPEAKERS

As Louisiana’s first-ever Surgeon General, Dr. Ralph L. Abraham serves as the state’s chief medical officer. His responsibilities include creating health policy, advocating for disease prevention, and addressing healthcare workforce development. The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) is the state’s largest agency, with a budget of $19.8 billion, delivering services to millions of Louisianans. LDH protects and promotes health for Louisiana residents through services provided by Medicaid and the Offices of Public Health, Behavioral Health, Citizens with Developmental Disabilities, Aging and Adult Services, Women’s Health and Community Health, and Emergency Preparedness. These programs work to ensure access to medical, preventative, and rehabilitative services for Louisiana’s most vulnerable residents.

Dr. Abraham is also a practicing family medicine physician in Richland Parish and a former three-term Congressman for Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District. With almost 30 years in medicine, Dr. Abraham has firsthand experience with the many healthcare challenges facing Louisiana. He graduated from Mangham High School before earning his degree at Louisiana State University. He completed his studies at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and his Medical Doctor degree at the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport. Dr. Abraham also served as a First Lieutenant in the Army National Guard and has participated in missions with the Free Burma Rangers in Burma, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian missions in Afghanistan, Haiti, Africa, and the Amazon rainforest.

Additionally, he is a fixed-wing and helicopter pilot who currently flies missions for the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Air Force’s Civil Air Patrol Green Flag Program. He’s a certified flight instructor, a graduate of the Army Flight Surgeon School at Fort Novosel in Alabama, and actively works with Pilots for Patients, an organization that provides free air transportation to patients needing medical treatment not available to them locally. He’s flown with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hurricane Hunters during reconnaissance missions through Hurricanes Harvey and Michael. He has also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Dr. Abraham has been married to his wife Dianne for 46 years, and they reside in Richland Parish. They have three children and ten grandchildren.

Dr. Pete Croughan, first attended LYS as a delegate in 2007, from the Episcopal School of Acadiana, where he was also elected LYS President; he first served on staff as a JC in 2008 and continue to serve on staff until 2012, during his years on staff, he served as Staff Assistant, Political Party Chair, and Assistant Program Director. Dr. Croughan is an Internal Medicine physician with a background in health policy, state-level administration, and addiction medicine.

He grew up in Crowley, Louisiana before attending Yale University, where he majored in History of Science and Medicine. He then worked in health policy research at PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, before heading to UCSF for medical school.

In 2017, he served as Policy Director for the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), where he spearheaded a statewide cancer strategy, analyzed state funding of graduate medical education, and led development of the Hepatitis C pharmaceutical payment subscription model, later being promoted to Chief of Staff for the Department.

After returning to his medical training, Dr. Croughan returned to Lafayette and his hometown of Crowley to work as rural addiction medicine physician, caring for patients with substance use disorders.

Dr. Croughan currently serves as Deputy Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health as well as the interim State Health Officer.

He and his wife, Allie, an LSU General Surgery Resident, enjoy spending their free time outdoors, watching Saints and LSU football, and playing with their 1-year old daughter.