Our Staff

Executive Director

Peter Robins-Brown is the executive director of Louisiana Progress, and he has been a community organizer, political advocate, and lobbyist in Louisiana for the better part of a decade. In that time, he has had the honor of working for amazing organizations like the Louisiana AFL-CIO, Step Up Louisiana, the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, and the Unanimous Jury Coalition.

Snce joining Louisiana Progress in 2021, Peter has led our work to pass more than a dozen new state laws, build and deepen partnerships across the advocacy and political landscape, and develop our College Fellows program that has trained more than 25 Louisiana college students in policy, communications, and organizing.

Peter is a devoted husband to Veronique and doting father to Eliza. He enjoys spending his free time doing anything and everything with them, as well as taking his dog, Fiona, for walks.

Communications & Outreach Manager

A native of Natchez, Mississippi, Larensy L. Rogers graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in public relations and advertising. She is a member of the National Society of Leadership Success (NSLS), previously served as Student President for the Mississippi Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, holds a certification in media sales, and has more than 10 years of experience as a public speaker.

Larensy believes the magic of communications and public relations can open doors and close divides. She endeavors to use her skills and experience in these areas to advocate for people in the South whose stories are traditionally overlooked and unheard.

When Larensy isn’t working, she spends her time learning new things, creating new tea combinations, and hand-making soap. She currently resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her new cat.

Fundraising Consultant

Digital Consultant

David Brown is a biologist and attorney originally from New Orleans. While pursuing his master’s degree in botany and environmental studies at Louisiana State University, he helped launch the LSU chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and the Cannabis Action Network of Louisiana (CANoLA). David then completed his JD at Vermont Law School. While enrolled, he spent a semester in practice as a legal intern doing lobbying and legal work on Capitol Hill for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). In 2004, David returned to Louisiana to begin working at a small firm in Baton Rouge handling plaintiff side environmental and criminal defense cases. From October 2009 until May 2013, David served as an assistant prosecutor for the City of Baton Rouge and maintained his own private practice. He has lobbied the Louisiana state Capitol for over twenty years and is a co-founder of WHYR, Baton Rouge Community Radio. At the Beginning in 2013, David shifted part of his practice to Washington state where he lives part time and advocates for that state's legal adult-use Cannabis program. He currently runs a law practice in both states, heads or helps with a handful of medical Cannabis companies and lobbies for wider progressive policy reform.

Lady Carlson has been organizing with the Industrial Areas Foundation since 1991. She began her organizing career as a leader in the Triangle Interfaith Project in Southeast Texas when it was in the Sponsoring Committee stage. A native of Port Arthur, TX, her first organizing assignment was with The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) in Houston. She was a Senior Organizer with Dallas Area Faith (DAI) and the Lead Organizer with Allied Communities of Tarrant (ACT) in Fort Worth. Ms. Carlson is currently the Lead Organizer of Northern and Central Louisiana Interfaith.

Lady Carlson grew up on the segregated West Side of Port Arthur in the early 50’s. She is a widow and has three children and seven grandchildren. Her paternal grandfather grew up in the Jim Crow area of Shreveport, known as “bloody Caddo” because of the number of blacks lynched during that period. She does this work partly out of her passion to leave a legacy to her children of a more just society than the one she, her grandparents and parents wereborn into.

Part of IAF’s goal is to identify and train local talent in communities and Ms. Carlson is a direct product of that effort. Over the past thirty years, first as a leader then as an organizer, she has worked in various areas of Texas and Louisiana to create broad-based institutions where families learn to act together in their own behalf across race, denomination, socio-economic status, gender, geography and all the lines that separate communities.

In 2004 Ms. Carlson moved to Alexandria, La, as the Senior Organizer for Northern and Central Louisiana Interfaith. She is now the Lead Organizer of the Westside Sponsoring Committee. WSSC covers an area that includes Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee Parishes.

Melissa Flournoy is the chair of the Board of Louisiana Progress. Dr. Flournoy served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, founded the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations (LANO) and the Louisiana Budget Project. Dr. Flournoy was the Executive Director of the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute and the Louisiana State Director of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. Currently, Dr. Flournoy is an adjunct professor in Political Science at LSU. Dr. Flournoy has served on numerous boards and commissions and is a life long advocate for women and children.

Sherry S. Guarisco is a recognized child advocate, having most recently managed the Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families, a statewide advocacy organization, where she led the development of the Platform for Children, a comprehensive guide to the needs of Louisiana’s children. In 2015, Guarisco served on Governor John Bel Edwards’ Transition Team for Children and Families, and in 2017 served on Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s Transition Team for Human Services focused on children. From 2006 – 2010, Guarisco served as the first Director of the Division of Child Care & Early Childhood Education, Department of Social Services (now DCFS).

Guarisco also served as CEO of Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana and Louisiana CASA Association, served on the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board, is a member of the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, and also serves on the boards of Louisiana CASA Association, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and the Federation of Greater Baton Rouge Civic Associations. She lives with her husband, former Senator Tony Guarisco, in Baton Rouge.

Darrell Hunt is a political consultant who has been engaged with public policies and politics since 1974. In 2005, with the support and collaboration of five strong dynamic women—Mara Cohen, Maxine Cormier, Nancy Craig, Marry Bennett-Lindsey and Mary Lee Orr—he founded Louisiana Progress.

Amy Mercieca, a native of Shreveport, Louisiana, received an MPH in Health Policy from Tulane University in 2017 with a desire to focus on issues which ultimately improve population health and health equity across Louisiana. Since then, she has worked as Operation Restoration's Policy Director advocating for criminal justice reform and as a Legislative Aide for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast advocating for women's health in Louisiana. Amy is currently pursuing a doctorate in Health Policy at Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Prior to her MPH, Amy had a 20-year career in IT and professional services in the US, UK, and Australia. She has extensive experience in driving change through IT delivery by exceling in strong relationship management and an attention to technical details. She also holds an MBA from the University of Edinburgh.

After a 32 - year career in corporate America in managerial and executive positions with Cities Services Company, Occidental Petroleum, Amoco Business Services, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and IBM Business Consulting Services, Ambrose Sims retired to Louisiana in 2005. In 2007 Ambrose was named to the position of Parish Manager for West Feliciana Parish. Serving as the first black parish manager, he was responsible for managing all aspects of parish government including budget preparations, financial analysis, operational infrastructure and policy and procedures.

Leaving this position after four years, Ambrose co-founded the West Feliciana Democratic Party in 2013 where he served as the first Chairperson and in 2015 was one of the principles in establishing the West Feliciana Parish NAACP where he currently holds the position of president.

He and his wife, have been married for 49 years and they are the proud parents of two daughters, Ashli who resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Amber who lives in New Orleans.

Alfreda Tillman Bester is the principal attorney with Tillman Bester & Associates, LLC, a law firm located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Ms. Bester previously served as Special Counsel for Human Services at Southern University Law Center’s Vulnerable Communities & Peoples Initiative, and as an Adjunct Law Professor. She is the Host of “Perspective”, a weekly Public Interest Radio Show which airs every Tuesday and Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on WTQT 106.1 fm, www.wtqt.org, in Baton Rouge.She is a former Louisiana Secretary of Labor and is the former General Counsel for the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP.Ms. Bester is a cum laude graduate of Southern University Law Center, holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from McNeese State University, and a B.S. in Human Resources from the University of Southern Mississippi.