Plenary sessions

Landrieu served in the United States Senate for three terms, from 1997-2015. During her 18 year tenure, she chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, and was the first Democratic woman to serve on the Armed Services Committee. She is credited with the passage of several important pieces of legislation: most notably, the landmark Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA); the Israel American Energy Alliance; and the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE Act) – the single largest environmental investment in the Gulf Coast in US history.   

While in the Senate, Landrieu was known for her bipartisan approach to addressing national challenges and her passionate advocacy for her home state of Louisiana, particularly in the aftermaths of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.   

Prior to serving in the Senate, she was elected twice to the Louisiana state Legislature from 1979–1987.  For eight years, she successfully championed causes related to women and children, flood protection, and education reform. In 1987, she was elected State Treasurer and served with distinction for two terms. Strong fiscal management, pension fund diversification, debt limitation and the creation of the first-ever municipal investment fund (now valued at over $2 billion) are some of her noteworthy accomplishments.   

Since leaving the Senate, Landrieu served on the Board of Directors for CenturyLink (Lumen) (November 2015-May 2020) and Tyler Technologies (January 2020–February 2024). She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Evergy, a Midwest utility company. She has been a leader in the public-school reform movement for decades and is a co-founder of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), which supports the work of over 150 Members of Congress regarding policies and funding initiatives to support domestic and international adoption and foster care reform. CCAI believes that every child has the right to a safe, stable and nurturing family, and that every family deserves community support. In addition, Landrieu serves on the board of Resources for the Future and on the National Academy of Sciences’ Gulf Research Program Advisory Board. 

She earned her B.S. degree from Louisiana State University and is married to Frank Snellings, an attorney and real estate broker. They reside in Washington, D.C., and have two grown children and one grandchild. 

Coming soon

Mr. Wingate serves as the Executive Vice President of MSMM, a small business engineering firm headquartered in Metairie, LA, specializing in horizontal infrastructure design for the federal and non-federal markets. Mr. Wingate is a Louisiana native and a registered Professional Engineer with 35 years of experience.   

Mr. Wingate retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New Orleans District (MVN), in December 2023 after 30+ years of service including serving as the Deputy District Engineer for Programs and Project Management (DPM) from May 2015 to December 2023. As DPM, he led the team to complete and turn over the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System in May 2022 to the State of LA and initiate billions of dollars of infrastructure across south LA. 

In 2017 he served with the Executive Office of the President, Council on Environmental Quality, in drafting the $1T infrastructure package.   

He serves as a board member for The Water Institute of the Gulf and was the first recipient of the R. King Milling Distinguished Coastal Service Award in December 2023. 

Mr. Wingate is married to Lori Wingate and is the proud father of Lindsey Wingate.  Mark and Lori live in Slidell, LA. 

Coming soon

Mark Schleifstein retired at the end of 2024 as an environment reporter for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate | NOLA.com, and a member of its four-person environment reporting team.

In 2025, as a Walton Family Foundation environment reporting fellow, he is advising that newspaper’s environment reporting team and the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a journalism collaborative covering the nation’s largest watershed. He also will be writing freelance stories on environmental issues.

He also continues to serve on the advisory board of SciLine, a service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps reporters on deadline contact scientists who have been vetted for their research and their ability to talk to journalists. As a member and former board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, he also moderates that organization’s main listserve, SEJ-Talk. He also is a member of the board of directors of the Press Club of New Orleans, having served three terms as its president and receiving its lifetime achievement award.

Schleifstein’s stories on Hurricane Katrina were among the Times-Picayune’s stories honored with 2006 Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service and Breaking News Reporting. He’s the co-author of the 2006 book, “Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms,” about Katrina. He’s co-author of the award-winning 2002 series, “Washing Away,” which warned that New Orleans could be flooded by hurricane storm surge. He also was co-author of the 1996 series, “Oceans of Trouble: Are the World’s Fisheries Doomed?”, which won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Two other series he co-authored were Pulitzer finalists: “Home Wreckers: How the Formosan termite is devastating New Orleans,” published in 1998, for national reporting; and “Louisiana in Peril,” about the state’s petrochemical industry, published in 1991, for explanatory journalism. A number of his other stories for The Times-Picayune and The Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger have won both national and local awards.

He worked for The Times-Picayune, then owned by Advance Publications, between 1984 and 2019, when the paper was shuttered, and between July 2019 and the end of 2024 worked for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, which is the renamed New Orleans edition of the Baton Rouge-based The Advocate. Prior to that, he worked for five years for the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger; four years for the Norfolk, Va., The Virginian-Pilot; and one year for the Suffolk, Va., News Herald. Mark is a member of the board of directors of Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation and heads its team of lay service leaders. He has two grown children and four grandchildren.

Beaux Jones is the President and CEO for The Water Institute, where he leads transdisciplinary teams, leveraging his extensive legal expertise to merge the Institute’s ongoing work in science, engineering, and resiliency with legal policy. 

Prior to joining the Institute, Beaux served as the environmental section chief for the Louisiana Department of Justice, where he represented the State of Louisiana and its agencies in a wide variety of matters ranging from environmental and coastal law to criminal and appellate law. He most recently worked as an environmental and coastal lawyer for the law firm Baldwin Haspel Burke & Mayer in New Orleans. 

Beaux has represented agencies, companies, and organizations arguing cases at every level of state and federal court in Louisiana and has worked on several high-profile cases related to the Gulf Coast and Louisiana. He was on the BP spill litigation team with the Louisiana Attorney General. Beaux earned his bachelor’s from Davidson College and his law degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at LSU. He is active in a variety of community and environmental causes. 

Born and raised in Louisiana, Beaux is passionate about his home. As a frequent guest lecturer and speaker, he champions a new narrative around Louisiana, not just its water and climate risks but as a global leader in resilience and innovation.  

Coming soon

COL Cullen Jones takes command as the 65th Commander and District Engineer of the New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He comes to New Orleans having recently served as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Security Cooperation–Iraq (OSC-I) at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, where he was a principal assistant to the Senior Defense Official/Defense Attaché (SDO/DATT) with responsibility for staff operations and management of the MILGROUP-Iraq Joint Staff.

COL Jones is a native of Delaware and received his U.S. Army commission in 1999 from West Point. He has served in leadership and staff positions in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and multiple locations in the United States. Between 2000 and 2004, he was a platoon leader, executive officer, and battalion air officer with the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He remained at Fort Bragg from 2004 to 2005, transferring to the 18th Airborne Corps as a current operations officer. From 2005 to 2006, he deployed to Iraq, serving as the Multi-National Corps anti-terrorism/force protection engineer, before returning to the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne) and deploying to Afghanistan in 2006 to assume command of B Company (Combat)(Airborne) (Rough Terrain) until 2008.

From 2010 to 2013, COL Jones was an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department at the United States Military Academy at West Point before transferring to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he served from 2013 to 2014 as the brigade engineer officer for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (Strike). In 2014, he deployed with the Strike Brigade to Afghanistan as the battalion operations officer for the Special Troops Battalion. He continued with the Strike Brigade from 2014 to 2015 as the brigade executive officer. After completing a Training with Industry fellowship in the Washington D.C. area in 2016, COL Jones transitioned to serve as the Deputy District Commander for the Portland District, Northwestern Division, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.

COL Jones commanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District July 7, 2017, to June 28, 2019. As Commander and District Engineer, COL Jones managed the water resources development and navigable waterways operations for the Cumberland and Tennessee River basins covering 59,000 square miles, with 42 field offices touching seven states and a work force of over 700 employees. While in command, COL Jones also supported Taskforce Power Restoration in Puerto Rico helping restore the Commonwealth’s power grid post-Hurricane Maria. Following command of the Nashville District, COL Jones served as the Executive Officer to the U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

COL Jones’ awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal (with two oak leaf clusters), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (with five oak leaf clusters), Army Commendation Medal (with one oak leaf cluster), Army Achievement Medal (with six oak leaf clusters), Department of State Meritorious Honor Award, Afghanistan Campaign Medal (with three campaign stars), Iraq Campaign Medal (with two campaign stars), Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal (with one campaign star), Kosovo Campaign Medal (with one campaign star), NATO medals for both Kosovo and Afghanistan, Armed Forces Service Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Ranger Tab, Air Assault Badge, and Master Parachutist Badge. He also wears the Joint Meritorious Unit Award (with one oak leaf cluster) for operations with the Multi-National Corps – Iraq and the Department of State Office of Security Cooperation – Iraq, the Meritorious Unit Citation (with one oak leaf cluster) for combat operations while serving with the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Airborne) and with Strike Brigade, both in Afghanistan, and the Army Engineer Association’s Bronze De Fleury Medal.

COL Jones holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the United States Military Academy, a Master of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. His technical education includes the Blast Effects Estimation and Security Engineering courses from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Protective Design Center and his military education includes Command and General Staff College and U.S. Army War College. COL Jones is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer (P.E.), Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM).

COL Jones is married to Sharon and has a son, Jameson, and daughter, Arden.