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chronic medical problems such as cancer, HIV, hepatitis and those who have undergone organ transplants. “Ours are the patients most people shy away from,” Scaccia says. “They require more attention and someone who follows them every month … and if new therapies arise, we can help them [access those].” The pharmacy, which serves 150 to 200 patients a month, helps patients navigate changes in Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance and advocates for patients when insurance carriers balk at prescribed treatments. “I think it’s the direction that pharmacy should go in,” he says. “What we do here is not just dispense medication and charge insurance. You get a higher level of service.” Scaccia has been president of the Greater New Orleans Pharmacy Association for seven years, is on the board of the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, works with Cancer Crusaders to raise research funding for Louisiana State University and Tulane, and is active in the youth ministry of the Archidocese of New Orleans. — Graves
NEEL SUS, 33 CEO of Susco Solutions and Touch Studios Photo by Cheryl Gerber
With a touch of a finger or two, potential high school football recruits can have unprecedented access to the purple and gold, thanks to the Miles Method, a free iPad application created by CEO of Touch Studios Neel Sus and Jameson Quave. Sus and Quave created Miles Method after LSU football coach Les Miles approached Sus about technological ways to connect with prospective student-athletes. Released on Sept. 16, the Miles Method is the first of its kind, providing highlight videos, Twitter and Facebook posts from Miles and guided tours of LSU. Realizing a budding entrepreneurial spirit, Sus left his engineering job at Northrop Grumman in 2005 to start Susco Solutions, a custom software development company that has grown from a one-man operation to employing multiple programmers. Grateful for the entrepreneurial community that has believed in him, Sus has channeled his energy to help other entrepreneurs through his participation in many local organizations including Louisiana Technology Council and the city’s chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Accelerator Program. He is a founding member of Net2NO (Net Squared New Orleans). “I cannot imagine who I would be as a person if I was not doing this,” he says. “I’ve never been so happy as I am now.” — Pitts
CHARLOTTE SYNIGAL, 38 Detective, Kenner Police Department Photo by Cheryl Gerber
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NIKKI DEMETRIA THANOS, 32 Fellow at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice
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Nikki Demetria Thanos recently completed an intense three years at Loyola University School of Law, but she’s not taking a break. “Now the real work begins,” she says. “There are ideas that have been gestating inside me and some of my colleagues, and now is the time we can put them in full throttle.” Long before she was sworn in to the Louisiana State Bar Association on Oct. 21, Thanos was hard at work with social justice organizations on and off Loyola’s campus, around the country and internationally. She moved to New Orleans in 1996 to study environmental policy at Tulane University, which led to human rights work in Latin America. While at Loyola law school, she worked with and founded organizations focusing on issues ranging from fair housing to immigration, and also authored A Handbook for Social Justice Activists Thinking About Law School, a guide for law students interested in public interest work. “Law is a funny field,” she says. “It traditionally has become sort of a niche profession. In the kind of lawyering I do, I have accountability to one person — the client — but also to a much broader group of people.” In her spare time, Thanos contributes to building sustainable food systems in the city by running a community garden in MidCity. She says New Orleans is a perfect fit for her. “The importance of what I call ‘front-porch organizing’ is much more a part of the way things happen here,” she says. “I can’t PaGe 31
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When Det. Charlotte Synigal quit nursing school in 1994 to join the Kenner Police Department, she encountered resistance from her mother, pastor and coworkers. “I did it as a dare,” she says. “I really did it because [my coworker] said, ‘You better not.’” The Kenner native was elected Officer of the Year by the Louisiana Association of Chiefs of Police after her meticulous work as lead detective on a homicide investigation uncovered a loosely knit gang of 16 men dealing in stolen weapons and narcotics. “We ended up with five narcotics arrests. Some are doing time now,” Synigal says. “It was really a team effort, everybody going through everything tooth and nail.” The detective recently completed a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and plans to earn a master’s degree in education. “At some point, I would love to try my hand at teaching,” she says. Synigal credits her compassion and faith for her ability to stay grounded in a job that exposes the worst — and best — of human nature. “So many different things can lead a person to make a decision that may not be the best thing for them,” she says. “It is not my job to judge them. It is just my job to make sure that I catch them.” — Wilkinson
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