Feb. 11, 2025

NATCHITOCHES – Dr. Kathleen Byrd of Natchitoches has created an enhancement fund for Northwestern State University’s College of Arts and Sciences that will bridge the liberal arts with several other disciplines and provide funding for student and faculty research, travel and collaboration.

Unlike an endowment, Byrd stipulates that the money should be spent within one year.

“They can use the money where they see fit,” said Byrd, an anthropologist and former state archaeologist who served as head of NSU’s School of Social Sciences for 12 years.  “Sometimes just a little bit of money can go a long way.  From a donor’s perspective, an added benefit to this kind of donation is that you can see where your money is going. I get to see what happens.”

“A gift like this can be transformative for liberal arts and a launching pad for more grants and opportunities,” said Dr. Francene Lemoine, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.  “Even $2,000 can be a game changer.”

Already a portion of the enhancement fund has been earmarked to help fund a research trip to France in March to further a collaboration between NSU, the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) and the University of Technology of Troyes.  Dr. Damien Tristant, assistant professor of physics, will accompany seniors Shae Wetzel, a biology major from Pitkin, and Brody Heard, a liberal arts major from Alexandria, to further explore how sensors in buildings collect data on temperature, humidity, CO₂ levels and other information, then use Artificial Intelligence to improve energy efficiency.  The students will also attend class and experience French culture and architecture.

NSU’s School of Science, Technology and Mathematics faculty are creating an edutainment program in which they travel throughout the region presenting hands-on activities for students.  Byrd’s enhancement fund dollars could pay for items such as portable fume hoods for chemistry experiments and other safety equipment.   Last summer, NSU and NCPTT hosted a workshop for high schoolers who learned to use drones and 3D mapping technology to digitally document historic structures in a non-invasive way.  That program could be expanded through Byrd’s generosity.

“This funding can help create exposure in the community of things we do in the College as a recruiting initiative and to make sure the community is engaged with the work we do,” Lemoine said.

Byrd, a native of Connecticut, earned a B.A. at Marquette University and a master’s degree at LSU where she did archaeological field work around Weeks Island in Iberia Parish and completed a thesis on coastal subsistence patterns.  She earned a doctorate at the University of Florida, completing a dissertation on coastal subsistence patterns in Ecuador.  She did consulting work and was state archaeologist for 15 years before accepting a position at NSU in 1994.

In Natchitoches, she became involved with NSU’s Creole Heritage Center, Folklife Center, Williamson Museum and the Cammie G. Henry Research Center as well as the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches (APHN).  She has authored two books on the history of the area.

Byrd previously established a scholarship through the NSU Foundation in memory of her late husband, the archaeologist Robert W. Neuman, to benefit students majoring in anthropology, sociology or history. She also created the Robert W. Neuman Program Enhancement to support the preservation of documents and organization of cultural material related to the Melrose Collection and APHN, which are archived in the Cammie G. Henry Research Center at NSU’s Watson Library.

Lemoine’s hope is that faculty will be inspired to launch new and collaborative projects with funding not limited to one academic discipline.

“I’m passionate about connecting people who don’t have the opportunity to work together,” she said. “Liberal arts is all about sparking collaborations. Dr. Byrd is held in such great esteem by everyone in the College, I hope it inspires other people and I hope in the future I’m in a position to create similar opportunities.”

Information on NSU’s College of Arts and Sciences is available at https://www.nsula.edu/coas/