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Johanna Kalb, 34
Mark LeBlanc, 27
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY NEW ORLEANS COLLEGE OF LAW
PARALYMPIC SAILOR PHOTO BY AMORY ROSS
PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER
Before she even passed the bar, Johanna Kalb was a student member of the litigation team that successfully challenged the use of military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. “Now I’m lucky to live in a city that’s full of incredible social justice lawyers who are at the forefront of the movement to bring human rights home to the U.S.,” Kalb says. “Loyola has also been a great fit for me as a university that’s deeply engaged with the community, where commitment to social change is part of the
educational mission.” The 2011 Loyola Professor of the Year and author of a forthcoming casebook on human rights advocacy, Kalb decided to concentrate on human rights law because she felt discouraged by the human condition: “Law school can be frustrating for students who care about the problems of poverty and inequality in the U.S.,” she says. “I became interested in human rights law while I was in school because it offered a way through the impasse, since federal and state law often doesn’t offer very satisfying solutions to these issues.” Kalb is helping pilot a human rights clinic at the Loyola College of Law to assist law students who feel the same frustration she did — and as a vehicle to campaign for human rights. “This kind of partnership epitomizes Loyola’s commitment to learning through service,” Kalb says. “Students can apply what they’re learning in the classroom to increase the impact of the work of social justice advocates in practice, creating an amazing synergy.” — MEGAN BRADEN-PERRY
Angela Massey, 18
Max Materne, 25
STUDENT, BOSTON UNIVERSITY
GENERAL MANAGER OF AFTER-SALES, THE TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION
PHOTO BY NICOLE SIEVERS
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > october 30 > 2012
As an elite competitive sailor, Mark LeBlanc finds it interesting that he still trains with the same drills he learned growing up. “They’re just a little more complicated, but it always comes down to the basics,” says LeBlanc, who competed in the London 2012 Paralympic Games. LeBlanc, who was born without a left forearm, grew up on the water, learning sailing from his dad and grandfather. As a kid he loved team racing, and in his teen years he taught sailing to disadvantaged children. Though it was late in the game, LeBlanc decided in 2007 to compete for a spot in the 2008 Paralympics in the 2.4-meter category. He considered it a precursor for the 2012 trials, but LeBlanc ended up coming so close to winning — losing on a tiebreaker — that he was crushed. He shifted his focus to the 2012 games: raising funds, training hard and getting organized. His persistence paid off when he placed first in the trials for the games in London. Though at a disadvantage as an American in a European-dominated sport (“In the U.S., sailing is seen more as a hobby, but over there, some of the sailors have salaries,” he says.) — LeBlanc competed well. He raced in 10 events, recording five top-5 finishes and placing sixth overall. “It was a three-week adrenaline rush,” he says. LeBlanc has put sailing on the back burner for now as he searches for a job in civil engineering. “The guys in the boats ahead of me (in the London games) were in their 40s,” he says, “so I have plenty of time to go back.” — EILEEN LOH
Angela Massey’s galactic research was published in a scholarly journal before she had even received her diploma from Lusher High School. A six-week research internship in science and engineering at Boston University (BU) in 2011, the summer before her senior year in high school, led to the paper “Refined Metallicity Indices for M Dwarfs Using the SLoWPoKES Catalog of Wide, Lowmass Binaries,” in which Massey was listed as a co-author. The paper was published in the March issue of The Astronomical Journal. “I looked at binary pairs in our Milky Way which are stars close enough together that their gravity causes them to orbit around each other,” says Massey, who wrote computer code to sort through a large database and establish which stars really were pairs and which were just “perceived” pairs. “These stars make up 70 percent of the star population of our galaxy, so they hold a lot of information about the makings of our galaxy.” Currently a freshman at BU, Massey is studying astronomy and physics and is again working with researcher Andrew West, her mentor last summer. “He made my first experience with astronomy amazing,” Massey says. She also is working alongside graduate and post-doctorate students in West’s lab and says one of the best things about college is seeing the research applied. Massey had never studied astronomy before she applied for the BU internship, but stated she was “very interested and would work hard.” She now plans to earn a doctorate in physics or astronomy and eventually become a professor. — MARTA JEWSON
Zachary Materne, 30 GENERAL MANAGER OF SALES, THE TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER
The Materne brothers both began riding motorcycles in 2002, the same year their family became involved in the industry by opening a Vespa dealership along Bayou St. John. Younger by five years, Max was 15 at the time and used a provision in his state-issued motorcycle endorsement that allowed him to ride within a 1-mile distance of his home in the Gentilly subdivision of Lake Oaks. “It was closed off, a pretty easy, safe place to ride,” Max says. Today he enjoys pushing his Daytona 675 bike to speeds more than 155 mph while riding at The NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, a new attraction that promises to transform local interest in the Maternes’ passion and profession. NOLA Motorsports, with Zachary’s help, already has brought the first professionally sanctioned motorcycle race to Louisiana — the AMA pro racing finale, The Triumph Big Kahuna — fostering a huge surge in local exposure to a sport that’s as big as NASCAR in Europe but little-known in America. It’s also brought an expansion of the Maternes’ family-owned and operated business, The Transportation Revolution in the Central Business District, with the recent opening of their Speed Shop at NOLA Motorsports Park. “[The new park is] not only for the guys who want to do track days and spectator racing, but it’s given us a location for a business that really works out there,” Zachary says. “It’s not only a garage, but we have a 400-square-foot lounge with a bar, couches and a TV. We offer a valet service to keep and maintain your bike for you. Some marinas do this, as do some horse stables, but no one had yet been doing this here.” He credits the success of their business — which was initially the venture of their parents, Gayle and Stephen — to Max’s stellar reputation for servicing bikes using the dynamometer technology novel to New Orleans — and both brothers’ passion for the sport. “Really,” Zachary says, “we’re trying to engage you in the whole bike culture.” — FRANK ETHERIDGE PAGE 30
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