James Miller Memorial Health Fair & Blood Drive to Honor Young Man’s Tradition of Giving Back

July 25, 2022

LSU Health New Orleans, Tulane University and The Blood Center will hold the James Miller Memorial Health Fair and Blood Drive on Saturday, July 30, 2022, from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Audubon Tea Room, 6500 Magazine Street, New Orleans. The event honors the August 1 birthday and the legacy of community service of an exceptional young man who went missing and was presumed drowned while vacationing with his family in November 2021. His parents are members of the faculty at LSU Health New Orleans (Fern Tsien, PhD) and Tulane University (Chris Dvorak, MS, CGC).

Follow Us

Media Contact

Leslie Capo

Office: 504-568-4806

Cell: 504-452-9166

lcapo@lsuhsc.edu

Activities include blood pressure screenings and the opportunity to save up to three lives by donating blood. Health education offerings include water safety and safe sleeping information for infants from the Jefferson and Orleans Parish Coroners' Offices, ALS education from Team Gleason, youth mentoring and mental health from Son of a Saint, addressing health disparities from Dillard University, as well as domestic abuse prevention and resources in Spanish from Golden Change. The Tulane and LSU Health New Orleans Latino Medical Student Associations (LMSA) and LSU Health Latino Health Scholars will provide health information in Spanish. Other LSU Health New Orleans participants will be the Community Outreach, Rebuilding, and Education (CORE) medical students providing blood pressure and glucose screenings, Tiger Pride medical student organization with LGBT health information, Krewe du Flu medical student organization with Flu Vaccine info, All of Us Program with information about precision medicine, the School of Public Health with tobacco and vaping cessation, and cancer information, as well as the Human Development Center with information about its deafblind program and resources for people with disabilities.

Blood donors will receive free t-shirts, and other giveaways include free snowballs. Live music will be performed by the “Music and Medicine” Tulane Medical Student Band, the “LaCoste Band” (James’ Ben Franklin High School teacher’s jazz and R&B band), and “SIGMA,” the LSU Health New Orleans Medical Student Band.

James Benjamin Miller III was a philosophy and history major at Tulane University. As Vice President of Community Engagement, he established a recycling system, organized student events, and led hurricane relief programs for residents who had been displaced by Hurricane Laura and more recently Hurricane Ida. He participated in community cleanup efforts and data collection for the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition. James worked during summers as a Counselor and an Instructor at the Audubon Zoo, where he received praise for his patience and kindness when working with children of all ages and abilities. His loss led to the approval and implementation of the Ley de Seguridad Acuática (Aquatic Safety Law) in El Salvador, which has already saved hundreds of lives.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans (LSU Health New Orleans) educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with branch campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous annual economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO, or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.