2022 Women's Symposium Keynote Speaker
Leslie Durham
Delta Regional Authority
Alternate Federal Co-Chairwoman
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Leslie Dandridge Durham was appointed Delta Regional Authority Alternate Federal Co
Chairwoman by President Joseph R. Biden on October 22, 2021.
Born and raised in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, Durham attended the University of Louisiana
at Monroe, and since January 2016 has served as Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’s
DRA Designee. She previously worked for Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco as Director
of Renewal Communities and Delta Regional Authority Designee, during which she was named
the 2007 Louisiana Planning and Development District’s Person of the Year. Durham is a
double graduate of DRA’s Delta Leadership Institute Executive Academy, both in its inaugural
year of 2006 and again in 2017, in which she also completed the Authentic Leadership Executive
Education Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
On July 31, 2021, the Louisiana Municipal Association awarded Durham with the LMA President’s
Award for her years of commitment to Louisiana Local Governments.
In addition to her role as Louisiana Designee to the Delta Regional Authority, Governor
Edwards appointed Durham to serve on the following:
- Broadband for Everyone in Louisiana (BEL) Commission, Chairperson ● Rural Water Infrastructure Committee (RWIC), Chairperson
- Rural Revitalization Commission (RRC)
- 4.9 GHz Spectrum Task Force
- Jobs for America’s Graduates Louisiana Board of Directors (JAG-La)
- Delta Agriculture Research and Sustainability District
