Southeastern Professor of Philosophy Jeffrey Bell is temporarily living abroad thanks to a prestigious Leverhulme Fellowship. This semester Bell, a resident of Covington, is working as a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at the School of Politics, International Relations, and Philosophy at Royal Holloway College in the University of London.

The Leverhulme Trust awards such grants to institutions in Britain that wish to invite an eminent researcher from overseas for an extended stay to enhance the knowledge and skills of their academic staff or student body, said History and Political Science Department Head William Robison. Bell will be advising the philosophy unit at Royal Holloway about how they might develop a specialization in philosophy that bridges the differences between analytic and continental philosophy.

“Professor Jeffrey Bell is a very worthy recipient of the extremely prestigious Leverhulme grant,” Robison said. “He has an extensive record of top-quality scholarship that would be stunning if he were at an Ivy League university with a fraction of the teaching load he has at Southeastern.”

A member of the Southeastern faculty since 1993, Bell earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Tulane University and was the recipient of the 2010 President’s Award for Excellence in Research. He is the author of “Deleuze’s Hume: Philosophy, Culture and the Scottish Enlightenment,” “The Problem of Difference: Phenomenology and Poststructuralism,” and “Philosophy at the Edge of Chaos: Gilles Deleuze and the Philosophy of Difference.”

“Jeffrey Bell has an international reputation, especially for his work on the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and has been an invited speaker at conferences in America, Asia, and Europe. His books are well-reviewed, and he enjoys the esteem of the best scholars in his field,” Robison said. “Moreover, he is one of the best teachers in a department full of good teachers and is the only member of the Department of History and Political Science to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in history, philosophy, and political science. It is no exaggeration to describe him as a superstar. He has made the department and the university proud.”

As part of his fellowship responsibilities, Bell will give three public lectures related to his research, as well as a series of six research seminars. He also has speaking engagements scheduled at Dundee University, Manchester University, University of Warwick, and Nottingham University.

The Southeastern Louisiana University Police Department has been awarded a grant from the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission to participate in the LHSC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “Click It or Ticket” and “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaigns. The primary goal of the grant is to reduce crash-related fatalities and injuries on Louisiana roadways.

“Our students and employees travel the city and state roadways every day including commutes from surrounding parishes,” said Patrick Gipson, police lieutenant at Southeastern. “We want everyone to arrive at their destination safely. That’s why we conduct traffic safety enforcement.”

The grant provides funding for officers to work overtime conducting day and night occupant protection and impaired driving enforcement.

“Enforcement is only part of the effort,” explained Gipson. “We will also be collaborating with local partners to educate about safe driving habits.”

Gipson listed partners including Tangipahoa – Reshaping Attitudes for Community Change, Hammond City Police Department, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office, and Louisiana State Police.

“Our activities are part of a community-wide effort to save lives,” added Gipson. “If everyone works together and encourages their friends to drive safely, we can make our parish roadways some of the safest in Louisiana.”

Southeastern business administration major Janine Hatcher of Chesapeake, Va., has been chosen Miss Southeastern 2020.

Hatcher received her crown from Miss Southeastern 2019 Chelsey Blank of Paulina at the annual pageant Nov. 22 at Southeastern’s Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. Sponsored by the Campus Activities Board, the pageant is affiliated with the Miss America Pageant System.

A senior, Hatcher also received the Evening Gown and Social Impact Statement awards.
The top five contestants for the pageant were Hatcher, Lily Gayle of Hammond, Leslie Jones of Watson, Victoria Reid of Folsom, and Abby Eubanks of Zachary.

First runner up was Gayle, a junior majoring in communication broadcast, and second runner up was Jones, a junior majoring in English.

Omaira Romero, a freshman from Gonzales majoring in athletic training, took home the Talent Award, while Catherine Spanogianni, a junior human resources management major from Mandeville, took home the Miss Congeniality Award, as well as the Student Government Association Academic Award.

Cameron Hooper, a junior kinesiology major from Tampa, Fla., took home both the People’s Choice and Miracle Maker Awards.

Hatcher will advance to the Miss Louisiana’s Pageant that will be held in Monroe in June.

What makes success? What mix of nature, nurture, surroundings, and events come together to create a person’s life? Most importantly, once successful, what does one do with that success?

John Regan, a 1969 business graduate in marketing, considers these things as he reflects on his life to this point.

“Over and over I think about just how truly blessed I am,” he said as he looked off the balcony of his home atop the building he lives in on Walnut St. in New Orleans that overlooks both the Mississippi River and Audubon Park with views of downtown. John considers his road to success and thinks back to his days at Southeastern.

“It opened up my life to opportunities to do what I wanted to do. It provided a launching pad for my career in the financial industry,” he said.

He noted that some of his professors had a major impact on him. Mac Mitchell was one of them. “I was not as outgoing as I am today. Mitchell taught his class in a very interactive way. He got you participating in class.” This helped John become more outgoing and find his ability to eventually lead others. Another was Odies Ferrell. Today, Dr. O.C. Ferrell is the James T. Pursell Sr. Eminent Scholar in Ethics at the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University.

John noted how challenging Ferrell’s tests were and how it seemed the entire class struggled. “His tests were so hard he always had to curve the grades significantly,” he said. The challenging level of this class encouraged John to be creative in how he approached obstacles.

Southeastern gave John the foundation and confidence he needed to venture out in the business world. As his career moved into the very competitive and highly networked financial trading sector, he never felt his degree from Southeastern, in spite of it being a small regional university at the time, was ever a hindrance to his career. He used what he learned, worked hard, and could compete with colleagues from Ivy League schools and larger state universities.

Around the time of graduation, John was considering a marketing position with Campbell’s Soup, but he began getting more and more interested in becoming a stock broker. Encouraged by an acquaintance with the Howard-Weill brokerage, John’s interest was piqued. Also, John’s wife, Francelle Bryant, who he met at Southeastern, was working in an office with other stock brokers and she told John, “There are a lot of these guys who are not all that smart making a lot of money.” He decided to move in that career direction. ”

With his family just beginning and a college degree in hand, John spent a short time in the Navy before pursuing an MBA and stock broker training at Northwestern University in Chicago. From there, the sky was the limit. John became a successful stock trader and financial services entrepreneur. In his long career, he worked with Howard, Weil, Labouisse, Friedrichs Inc; South Coast Capital; and Sterne Agee & Leach, for whom he started the Institutional Equities Department. Now partially retired, John keeps his eyes on the future.

John reengaged with Southeastern by helping to establish the KDT fraternity endowed scholarship. It was important to him and his fraternity brothers that the name of the fraternity, which is no longer on campus, continue to exist at Southeastern. As he reconnected, he learned things about the University he was not aware of, among them, that Southeastern had a Bloomberg Lab. He had just visited another major university with his granddaughter and had seen a Bloomberg Lab, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Southeastern had one. Bloomberg software perfectly mirrored what he had done in his career as a broker, only he used a Bunker Ramo machine, where you could only get one quote at a time.

Coincidentally, as he was contemplating investing in Southeastern, he serendipitously got to know a student in the MBA program who was using the Bloomberg Lab, and who was holding down a full-time job while attending school. The work ethic of that young man and the information he shared inspired John to invest in Southeastern’s College of Business for the benefit of future students.

John has named Southeastern’s Bloomberg Lab the John and Francelle Regan Bloomberg Lab in loving memory of his beloved wife of 47 years to help ensure that students choosing a career in the finance industry have the greatest opportunity for success. Half of his gift is dedicated to the current needs of the lab and the other half has been placed into an endowment to provide perpetual support for the lab. He hopes his gift will inspire other successful Southeastern grads to remember the University by giving something back.

When asked what he would tell others considering a gift to benefit students, John  clearly stated, “Do it!” When he learned what a Southeastern semester costs today he was surprised. He remembered his tuition being significantly lower; it was $93 per semester, and now it is $4,500 per semester. He knows firsthand that coming up with this amount of money can be hard for many students.

John hopes his story opens students’ eyes that a degree from Southeastern can take them anywhere they want to go, and that they can compete for jobs at any level. He encourages them to just be persistent and go after what they want. He also hopes that his gift can inspire others to support the University in ways that are important to them. John knows that a great deal went into his success, and he knows what to do with it.

“We all should help the next generation find their own opportunities,” he said.

By Mike Rivault

Southeastern has been awarded a Veteran Nurses in Primary Care Health Resources and Services Administration grant. The three-year, $1.2 million grant was awarded for the College of Nursing and Health Sciences program LION VIP CARE—Louisiana Increasing Opportunities for Nurse Veterans in Primary Care.

Southeastern is partnering with Federally Qualified Health Centers and State Public Health Units in the Florida Parishes region to provide primary care clinical experiences for undergraduate veteran and active military nursing students.

“LION VIP CARE will provide opportunities for veteran/military undergraduate nursing students to develop primary care competencies and complete community-based clinical training experiences in FQHCs and PHUs located in rural and medically underserved communities,” said School of Nursing Department Head Ken Tillman. “This will be achieved through recruitment, retention, and support of veteran/military undergraduate nursing students and by providing curriculum enhancements and academic clinical partnerships in community-based primary care.”

Tillman said the project will provide ongoing support to veteran/ military undergraduate nursing students by incorporating a student success coach and dedicated nursing academic advisor. A stipend will be provided to student participants while enrolled in nursing courses.

“The LION VIP CARE project will provide a professional development training workshop for nurses on primary care nursing competencies, roles and scope of practice, and offer an interdisciplinary professional training workshop on the health needs of veterans, including chronic disease prevention and control, mental health and substance use disorders, as well as military cultural competence,” he explained.

An additional goal of the project, Tillman said, is to increase employment of veteran/military undergraduate nursing students in community-based primary care settings in rural and medically underserved areas following graduation.

In an effort to assist veteran students, Southeastern houses an Office of Veteran Services that serves as an intermediary between veterans, or their family members, who are seeking or receiving educational benefits and Veterans Benefits Administration. The office strives to provide veteran students with the tools and education benefits needed to succeed in college.

Southeastern was also named a 2019 Military Friendly School for the seventh consecutive year. Viqtory Media, publisher of “G.I Jobs,” states the listing honors the top colleges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace the nation’s military service members, veterans, and spouses as students and to ensure their success on campus.

For more information on LION VIP CARE, visit the program’s webpage or email lionvipcare@southeastern.edu.

The LION VIP CARE project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $1.2 million dollars. The contents of this press release are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

Southeastern Professor of Education Gerlinde Beckers received the Iva Dean Cook Educator of the Year Award recently at the 2019 Division of Career Development & Transition International Conference in Seattle.

The practitioner honor is awarded to an educator, including a higher education professional, who has demonstrated outstanding commitment and service to the career education and transition of students with disabilities. The award is named in recognition of Iva Dean Cook, a DCDT founding member, past president and a pioneer in teacher preparation in transition.

A resident of Loranger, Beckers received the award for her work with the Lions Connected Program, a program that provides personalized, post-secondary educational experiences for individuals with intellectual disabilities and recently received national recognition as the Exemplary Program for Vocational Training and Transition from the American Council on Rural Special Education.

“While Dr. Beckers is a busy associate professor in the College of Education, she still finds time to remain connected in the community, state, and across the nation, campaigning for rights and opportunities for people with disabilities,” said Dean of the College of Education Dr. Paula Summers Calderon. “As director of our post-secondary transition program, Lions Connected, Dr. Beckers has the opportunity to mentor colleagues and university students, motivating them to become active in programs for people with disabilities and to become voices and advocates.”

The mission of DCDT is to promote national and international efforts to improve the quality of and access to career/vocational and transition services, increase the participation of education in career development and transition goals, and to influence policies affecting career development and transition services for persons with disabilities.

Assistant Professor of Health Systems Management Alissa Dickey utilizes her decades of managed care experience, coupled with a caring, supportive attitude, to help Southeastern students excel in both their courses and the real world. But her current
accomplishments don’t end there.

Alissa, along with her husband of 31 years Jeff Dickey, owns and operates Zocalisa Fine Chocolates. Founded by the couple in 2014, Zocalisa sells gourmet, hand-crafted chocolates and caramel sauces made from fresh, natural ingredients. The products, often inspired by the unique culture and flavors of Louisiana, are created in Hammond—in the kitchen of The Rind, only about half of a mile from Southeastern’s campus.

Like the products themselves, the origin of the business was a sweet adventure. “In October 2013, my husband Jeff and I took a trip to Costa Rica for our 25th wedding anniversary,” Alissa began. “While we were there, we overheard one of the B&B owners where we stayed talking to other guests about sourcing cacao beans. That same week we saw a cacao tree in the wild with small football-shaped cacao pods growing straight out of the trunk! We were fascinated . . . and hooked on learning about chocolate.”

A few months later, Jeff enrolled in an online class with Ecole Chocolat, through which he became a certified chocolatier, and began making artisan chocolate in their home kitchen. When he brought some of these test batches to his workplace, Jeff’s coworkers raved about the treats—even stating that they had “never tasted chocolate like this before.”

Seeing how much people loved their unique creations, the couple decided to bring their product to market.

When it came time to name the company, Alissa and Jeff paid homage to the history and culture surrounding cacao as well as the experience that sparked their love for it. “Xocatyl (zocatyl, shocatyl) was the Aztec / Mayan / Olmec word for a drink made from cacao beans,” Alissa said. “These were the first people known to have used cacao, the bean from which chocolate is made. The Zócalo is the name of the central square in Mexico City and in many other cities in Mexico. So we are centered on chocolate and chocolate is the center of the community.” And when the couple was on their Costa Rica trip, the one during which they first discovered wild cacao, their guides would shout encouragement during new adventures like rappelling down a waterfall as “Aleeesa! Way to go Aleeesa!” The couple then creatively put it all together as “Zocalisa” and registered the name with the US Patent Office.

While this was their first venture into the world of chocolate production, Alissa and Jeff had plenty of experience in starting and managing a business. When the couple first met, Alissa owned a computer consulting business, which she operated until giving birth to a set of twins. They have owned rental property and, most notably, opened the popular PJ’s Coffee on W. Thomas St. in Downtown Hammond, which they owned and operated for nine years. Relying on their business foresight and market research, the couple opened this location in 1992 as only the third franchised PJ’s Coffee, a company which today boasts over 100 locations in nine states and growing.

Alissa regularly draws on this entrepreneurial experience in her role with the company. “My primary work with Zocalisa is marketing, sales, packaging, strategic planning, and finance. Jeff says that he makes the chocolate taste good, and I make it look good.”

This perfectly balanced partnership does indeed result in a chocolate that is both melt-in the-mouth delicious and beautifully packaged. When each batch is completed, the chocolates are also carefully inspected for any imperfections. Alissa and Jeff are left with the hard job of “disposing” of any that have even a minor flaw on their surface to ensure an even, quality product.

Jeff mentioned that people often comment on how they’re surprised he doesn’t gain weight making and taste-testing so many sweets. But a lot of work and energy goes into making the products, sometimes with him spending an entire evening after his primary job, and occasionally even an entire day.

Chocolate making can be very temperamental, and the often hot and humid Louisiana weather does not always play nice. “There is an art and science to making chocolate,” Jeff said as he began to demonstrate the very delicate process by making a batch of pecan caramel chocolates.

The chocolates are all made using either a milk or dark chocolate base, heated to a precise temperature then poured into specialty molds. These molds form a delicate shell for the filled chocolates. When cooled to the right stage, the filling is meticulously piped into the cup of each chocolate. More warm, melted chocolate is poured over the mold to form the bottom of the chocolates to protect the sweet, gooey filling. The fillings are made ahead of time, often drawing on Louisiana flavors such as Ponchatoula strawberries, cayenne pepper, and Pointe Coupee pecans.

Their most popular flavor is the pecan caramel, which is available as a caramel sauce in addition to a filled chocolate. “This is a true caramel made by heating sugar until it turns a rich reddish-brown, like the color of strong tea, then adding butter, cream, some flavorings, and pecans,” explained Alissa.

But everyone has their own favorite, including Alissa. “I’m a purist—I like the simply dark, just chocolate and butter,” she said.

After more cooling, the chocolates are tapped out of the molds, inspected, placed in individual paper cups, and either placed on trays for catering and wholesale or into upscale packaging complete with a hand-tied ribbon. Along the way, there is a lot of scraping and banging on the molds to help the chocolate settle just right and remove excess, waiting on heating and cooling to exact temperatures, and cleaning.

Through all of this effort, the couple can produce 400 chocolates and six cases of caramel sauce per week. It has become a labor of love. Alissa explained that “trying new flavor combinations; the sheer joy on someone’s face when they bite into our chocolates; the sense of accomplishment when perfectly tempered, glossy chocolates just fall out of the molds; and when a customer comments on how pretty our packaging is” makes the hard work worth it.

This love for making chocolates, entrepreneurial spirit, and the happiness they get to bring to people through their products has kept them going despite the challenges they have had to overcome. Following flooding from the devastating “no-name storm” of August 2016, Alissa and Jeff had to take a break from Zocalisa to get their home back together. They also faced difficulty in finding the right commercial kitchen space before settling in to their current location at The Rind.

The location has worked well for the couple, but they hope to eventually move the center of operations even closer to home and keep growing. “We have plans to build out our own commercial kitchen space on our property in Ponchatoula,” Alissa said. “And we have a marketing plan in place to attract more wholesale accounts in general and more corporate accounts for the Christmas gift-giving season.”

Alissa’s passion for Zocalisa is evident—as is her love for research and teaching in her field. She reflected on why she chose to continue her career at Southeastern, joining the faculty of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences in the fall of 2018. “Southeastern provided an opportunity for me to integrate my information technology background with my managed care experience. It seemed like a job made just for me. I’m a good example for students to see that it’s possible to have a wonderful career in healthcare without being a clinician (e.g., nurse, doctor, therapist, and so on). We need clinicians, but we need non-clinicians, too, to solve the challenges we face in the healthcare industry.”

While she loves and believes in the work itself, Alissa has also been moved by the caring, supportive environment she has encountered since calling Southeastern home. “My department head, Dr. Jacqueline Guendouzi, and my dean, Dr. Ann Carruth, are amazing. My awesome colleague in the Health Systems Management program, Ms. Susan Tufts, has been generous with her time and knowledge more than I can say. And I don’t know what I would have done this past year without all the folks at the Center for Faculty Excellence. These people allow me to be the best I can be for our students.”

And at the end of a long day, there’s always chocolate.

Alissa and Jeff’s products are available for online orders, catering, and wholesale, and they can also be found in select stores across the region. To find out more about Zocalisa Fine Chocolates, visit zocalisa.com or follow @zocalisa on Facebook and Instagram.

By Sheri Gibson

More students are choosing Southeastern Louisiana University. The Fall 2019 freshman class grew over 2.2% over the previous year’s freshman class, for a total of 2,733 students, and the university welcomed a better-prepared new student as the overall ACT scores increased.

Greater numbers of highly qualified students are choosing Southeastern, proven with over a 7.4% increase in the number of students with an ACT of 24 or higher, totaling nearly 800 new students.

“We are very pleased with our 2019 freshman class. Our recruitment efforts emphasize the quality and value of a Southeastern degree and the incredible caring environment we provide. As a result, we are garnering more and more interest from new students,” said President John L. Crain.

Southeastern also saw record attendance at each of its on-campus recruitment events this past year, including a 55% increase in Lion Pride Preview events over the previous year.

“All indicators were that this would be a stronger and better-prepared freshman class, and the numbers show exactly what we expected,” explained Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management Dr. Kay Maurin.

“Enhancements in our admission applications, improved communications to our new students, and stronger relationships with our high school partners generated positive results,” said Maurin. “Despite the shrinking high school population around the state, we are excited about our positive growth and highly qualified students choosing Southeastern.”

As the third-largest university in Louisiana, Southeastern continues to focus on the personal connections with core values of caring and excellence. Currently offering over 150 programs of study, including many that are regionally and nationally ranked, Southeastern continues to be a leader in higher education around the region.

The 2018 / 2019 academic year saw Southeastern Athletics place in the top five Southland universities for the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll for both the fall and spring semesters. Southeastern placed 117 students in the spring, representing the highest single-semester total in school history.

Fall 2018
Southeastern placed 81 student-athletes on the Fall 2018 Honor Roll.

Just under 1,000 student-athletes from the league’s 13 institutions landed a spot on the Fall Honor Roll overall. To be included, student-athletes from the sports of football, soccer, cross country, and volleyball had to post a grade point average of 3.00 or above for the semester. Southeastern’s contingent was the fifth largest among the league’s schools. For the semester, 198 Lions and Lady Lions had a 3.0 GPA or higher in the fall semester, as SLU Athletics posted a combined 3.13 department-wide GPA for the semester—the highest in school history.

The Southeastern football team led the way with 34 student-athletes, while 22 Lady Lion soccer players were among those honored. Southeastern was fourth among cross country programs with 15 members on the honor roll, while the SLU volleyball program featured 10 representatives.

Spring 2019
Building on the success of the fall semester, Southeastern placed 117 student-athletes on the Spring 2019 Honor Roll. The 117 honor roll selections represented the highest single-semester total in school history. Southeastern has placed 100 or more student-athletes on the spring honor roll for each of the last four years.

Every Southeastern spring sports’ honor roll total was in the top half for their respective sport when compared to the other institutions’ programs. Leading the way was the Southeastern baseball team, which had 25 representatives on the honor roll— the most among the 13 Southland baseball programs. Coach Matt Riser’s squad’s contingent was highlighted by Academic All-American and Southland Student-Athlete of the Year Corey Gaconi. The league’s Pitcher of the Year was joined by fellow Southland All-Academic selections Jared Biddy, Mason Knopp, Kyle Schimpf, and Bryce Tassin. Gaconi and Schimpf were among five Lions who posted a 4.0 GPA this spring.

The women’s track and field program tied for department-high honors with 25 selections. Sixth among Southland women’s track programs, SLU was led by Southland All-Academic performers Ashley Davis and Grace Walford. Walford was one of four Lady Lions with a 4.0 spring semester GPA.

Walford and company’s male counterparts added 20 representatives to the honor roll, good for fifth among Southland men’s track and field programs. Southland All-Academic selection Gerald Coleman is among the Lions’ contingent, which also includes six 4.0 students this spring.

Southland All-Academic members Rebecca Skains and Madisen Blackford highlighted a 15-member contingent from the SLU softball program. Tanner Wright carried a 4.0 semester GPA for the Lady Lions, who had the fifth-highest honor roll tally among league softball programs.

The women’s basketball team was also fifth among league women’s basketball programs with nine honorees. Ashailee Brailey represented her team with a 4.0 GPA, while AllSouthland and All-Louisiana performer Celica Sterling was also among the Lady Lion representatives.

The men’s golf and women’s tennis programs each had eight honorees, ranking second and third, respectively, in the Southland among their respective sports. Head coach Jake Narro’s golf team had 100 percent representation on the honor roll, as all eight Lion golfers posted a 3.0 GPA or higher this semester, led by Southland All-Academic performer Joris Etlin.

The SLU tennis team maintained its top team GPA in Southeastern Athletics. Of its honor roll contingent, five had a 4.0 GPA this spring, including Southland All-Academic honoree Katya Cornejo.

Among Southland men’s basketball programs, SLU was fifth with seven honorees. Key contributors Kajon Brown and Pape Diop were among the Lion contingent.

“We want a culture of victory and success—victory in competition and success in the classroom. These record numbers demonstrate that we continue to ensure that wherever our athletes go in life, they will be well prepared for their future,” said Athletics Director Jay Artigues.

By Kemmler Chapple

Above Image: From left with the new species at St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park are Jen Brueggen, park social media manager; Caleb McMahan; Christopher Murray; and John Brueggen, park director.

It has been a while since anyone has found a new crocodile. Thanks to the research of Southeastern Assistant Professor of Biology Christopher Murray and his colleague and former Southeastern classmate Caleb McMahan, that is no longer the case.

Biological Sciences Department Head Christopher Beachy said that in an average year, worldwide there are many species of reptile described; however, most of these are snakes or lizards.

“Discovery of new species is not often a case of being in nature, seeing something remarkable and exclaiming ‘Wow! This is an entirely new species.’” said Beachy. “New species are described mostly when experts, like Dr. Murray, are involved. We’re especially excited that this work began when Dr. Murray was studying to complete his master’s degree at Southeastern. That this has come to completion now that he is a tenure-track faculty member speaks to the quality of the training our graduate students receive. It also speaks to the international reputation that many of our faculty have. We’re very proud of that.”

Murray said the discovery is important because there are only about two dozen described species of extant crocodilian.

“Adding to the diversity of a group that small, being such large charismatic organisms with undiscovered species hiding right under our noses, is pretty rare,” he said. “This also sheds light on biogeographic patterns of other organisms in the area.”

As a student working on his master’s degree in biology at Southeastern, Murray was reading several papers by the late Philip Hall, a crocodilian biologist who worked in the U.S. on alligators and in Papua New Guinea on a species of crocodile called the New Guinea Crocodile (Crocodylus navaeguineae).

“My thesis was on alligators in the U.S., but I recalled Philip Hall providing ecological and morphological evidence that the New Guinea crocs on the north side of the Central Highlands – a mountain range that runs east-west on the island of New Guinea – were different than the ones on the south side of the mountain range,” Murray explained. “For instance, they nested at different times of the year and had different osteoderm – the little bones on their backs – patterns.”

At the time, Murray’s roommate and friend McMahan, now working for The Field Museum in Chicago, was getting his master’s degree in evolutionary biology on fishes. Murray shared the details of his thesis with McMahan, and over the next several years they compiled data from New Guinea crocodile skulls from natural history museums, including The Field Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, American Museum of Natural History, Queensland Museum, Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, and Florida Museum of Natural History.

“We took photos of the skulls and used a technique called geometric morphometrics to analyze skull morphology,” Murray said. “These results when paired with published genetic data and the ecological data originally provided, diagnosed the northern and southern populations as being on independent evolutionary trajectories and warranted the description of a new species.”

From there, Murray and McMahan took their findings to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida to put their results to the test on live animals and on the ethno-artifacts on display.

“We were pleasantly surprised that we could easily identify the two lineages even when moving or artistically altered,” Murray said. “So Caleb and I decided to name the species after Philip Hall, whose initial interests and observations spurred the description itself.”

Named “Crocodylus halli,” the new species is a freshwater crocodile inhabiting rivers and lagoons on the island of New Guinea, but Murray said more work is needed assessing its ecology and conservation status.

“Now that we know the evolutionary history of these species, we need to re-inform the conservation status of them given that the distribution has changed and conservation threats are different in different areas,” he said. “Caleb and I would take on aspects of that work, funding permitting.”