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Ashley Berthelot Media Relations As a media relations professional, what I remember best was that there was no time to breathe. This horrible tragedy had occurred, but reflection wasn’t an option at that time – there was just too much to do. My phones never stopped ringing – not even at 2 a.m. – and my inbox was overwhelmed. The world was hungry for information and wanted experienced, reliable experts to provide it. News outlets from around the world came to Louisiana in order to get the latest information about the oil spill, and because of LSU’s reputation, they wanted our experts to comment. Working with so many visiting journalists was a true learning experience – try giving a French journalist directions to a specific place on LSU’s campus, and you’ll know what I mean. I know that I personally took more than 700 media calls during this time, and that’s probably a low estimate. That doesn’t count the work others were doing. While everyone knows we have an exceptional faculty here at LSU, most people don’t know – or maybe don’t notice – that many of our faculty are also great communicators. They really take public service to their state seriously, and many of them stepped forward to explicate the complicated scenarios presented on the news each night to make sure the public was well informed. I was fortunate to work closely with many of these internationally respected researchers during the oil spill. It made the job easier, but more importantly, it made the news getting out to the public more accurate.