Christine Albert, 38 ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING, TOURO INFIRMARY
Class of GAMBIT’S 18TH ANNUAL
PAY HOMAGE TO SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST AND MOST INNOVATIVE YOUNG PEOPLE IN A RANGE OF AREAS, INCLUDING HEALTH CARE, CRIME, LITERATURE, EDUCATION, ART, LAW AND MORE.
Sometimes a success story sounds as if the desired result was inevitable. Over the past nine years, BOOK CURRENTLY READING: Christine Albert Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New has made it appear Orleans after Katrina, edited Touro Infirmary’s by Cynthia Joyce successful longevity FAVORITE NEW ALBUM: was predestined. It The Phosphorescent Blues by was anything but. Punch Brothers Albert joined Touro FAVORITE TWITTER ACCOUNT: in 2006, when the @wwoz_neworleans city’s public health system was still FAVORITE LOCAL BAND: Lost Bayou Ramblers in crisis following Hurricane Katrina FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Patois and the levee failures. Despite WHAT DO YOU DO a long legacy of IN YOUR OFF TIME? Travel and play tennis service in New Orleans, Touro COCKTAILS OR BEER? needed to rebrand Cocktails and reposition itself. As the senior manager of marketing, Albert led the effort. She doubled Touro’s outreach efforts, hosting twice as many health fairs and other events and drawing double the number of attendees. The hospital also improved its digital presence, reverberating its messages across several social media channels and expanding the audience for Touro’s website. Albert doesn’t rest on pass successes; she says she still has a lot to do. “The role of marketing, within Touro and within health care in general, is a really powerful one,” she says. “We want to be sure that we’re continuing to be that resource for people, meeting them where they are, when they need us, giving them the information they need.” — CATE ROOT
CO-OWNER, CASTILLO BLANCO ART STUDIOS; CO-FOUNDER, INTERGALACTIC KREWE OF CHEWBACCHUS www.artgobang.com; www.facebook.com/chewbaccacabra; @kreweofchew
BOOK CURRENTLY READING: Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson
FAVORITE NEW ALBUM:
With a Little Help From My Fwends by The Flaming Lips @AlYankovic
FAVORITE LOCAL BAND:
ANNA GAC A , DENA MARKS, L AUR A RICKS, C AT E R O O T, K AT E W AT S O N , M I S S Y WILKINSON & ALEX WOODWARD
Ballzack and Odoms
FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Palace Cafe
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR OFF TIME?
I spend time in the ocean or on the beach. I love to spear fish and fly trick kites and kayak and play with my dogs.
COCKTAILS OR BEER? PHOTOS BY CHERYL GERBER & K ANDACE P OW ER- GR AV ES
In a metropolitan area area traumatized BOOK CURRENTLY READING: by violence, Jeff Asher The Red Web: The Struggle analyzes crime data to Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and the New Online discover solutions that Revolutionaries by Andrei will have a measurable Soldatov and Irina Borogan impact on public safety. FAVORITE TWITTER ACCOUNT: Asher returned @ScottDKushner to his native New FAVORITE LOCAL BAND: Orleans recently after Rebirth Brass Band spending 10 years in FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Washington, D.C., where Coquette he earned a master’s WHAT DO YOU DO degree in security IN YOUR OFF TIME? policy studies from I throw the ball with the dog, play softball, watch sports, George Washington read and watch HGTV and University and worked ridiculous Real Housewives in counterintelligence shows with my wife. for the CIA. COCKTAILS OR BEER? In his role as a Beer, definitely beer. senior crime analyst for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Asher now performs tactical analysis: identifying criminal hot spots, mapping the social networks of gangs and using data to solve crimes. He also writes a blog for The New Orleans Advocate called Behind the Numbers, where he charts larger trends in violence and discusses the efficacy of crime prevention policies. Through Jeff Asher Consulting, he helps businesses analyze problems and craft workable solutions. “My business goal is to be able to provide analytical support to all types of organizations that don’t typically analyze their problem set,” Asher says. “From a New Orleanian’s standpoint, I want to use analysis as a force multiplier to help solve any number of civic problems.” — DENA MARKS
Ryan Ballard, 37
FAVORITE TWITTER ACCOUNT:
BY WILL COVIELLO, FR ANK ETHERIDGE,
SENIOR ANALYST, JEFFERSON PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE; AUTHOR, THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE’S BEHIND THE NUMBERS BLOG; CEO, JEFF ASHER CONSULTING www.blogs.theadvocate.com/ behindthenumbers; @Crimealytics
Depends on the situation… mostly on whether I’m wearing a costume, a suit or flip flops. I’m usually either a dirty vodka martini guy or a cheap beer guy
Ryan Ballard takes the stereotype of a lone tortured artist and turns it on its head. He’s a conceptual artist who believes art is a collaborative process and works hard to help others unleash their imaginations — as evidenced by his co-founding of the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus and co-ownership of Castillo Blanco Art Studios. Chewbacchus is a sci-fi themed Mardi Gras parade of 80 or 90 groups that Ballard refers to as a “nerd mafia.” He says his job is to help the various groups
achieve their vision, do amazing things within an organic structure (that he says he runs like a benevolent dictatorship) and let things skate to the edge of chaos — a line he says he loves to push and has gotten very good at straddling. Castillo Blanco is where Ballard creates art, but it’s also a space for other artists and activities associated with Chewbaccus and Ballard’s other collaborative art projects. As for why he chose to settle in New Orleans, this adventure-loving world traveler said it’s because the city’s “not entirely civilized” and is the “weirdest, wildest place in the United States” where he can be himself and thrive. “In life, you really only get to choose between love and fear,” Ballard says. “You can choose to shrink in a shell or you can do what you love. And choosing what I love has worked for me every time.” — LAURA RICKS PAGE 20
GAMBIT > BESTOFNEWORLEANS.COM > NOVEMBER 3 > 2015
40 UNDER 40 AWARDS
Jeff Asher, 32
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