Nicholls State University’s Nancy Sanderson Matherne Global Communications Institute Awarded for Conservation Efforts

Lady Amelia Windsor presented the Golden Gorilla Award for efforts in conservation to faculty and students from Nicholls State University’s Department of Mass Communication at the Biodiversity Ball at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.

The award was in recognition of the first projects completed by the department’s newly formed Nancy Sanderson Matherne Institute for Global Communication.

The team worked on a “Tale of Two Habitats,” aiming to highlight similarities between global conservation efforts and open a door to the global conservation conversation. This work also introduced the Cross River Gorilla Project, a UK-based charity focused on protecting the critically endangered Cross River Gorillas in Cameroon, to a South Louisiana audience.

Mass communication students and faculty who were part of the campaign traveled to the United Kingdom to present their work. The team attended the Biodiversity Ball, which brought conservationists, activists, academics, and university students together to review the research from Students Against Species Extinction, a volunteer-based group of students from three countries over two continents. Students studying law, marine biology, zoology, media and mass communication, from Newcastle University, The University of Edinburgh and Nicholls State University presented their work at the gala.

Nicholls State University’s Nancy Sanderson Matherne Institute for Global Communication is a program that connects Nicholls to the world by providing a global communications structure that will aid its local community, faculty, staff and students. The institute was created with funds provided by Dr. Brian Matherne, a Houma physician, and his daughter Kellie Daniels, a lecturer in public relations and corporate communications at Newcastle University in England. The Institute honors Dr. Matherne’s mother, Nancy Sanderson Matherne, a United Kingdom native, long-time Terrebonne Parish resident and the first female member of Terrebonne Parish School Board.

Kellie Daniels is a founder of SASE and is a member of the board of directors for CRGP, serving as a communication consultant for the charity. To learn more about the CRGP, visit www.crossrivergorillaproject.co.uk.

To learn more about programs of study within the Nicholls State University Mass Communication department, visit www.nicholls.edu/maco.