Iam Christian Tucker serves as the President and CEO of Integrated Logistical Support, Inc. (ILSI Engineering).  Founded over two decades ago, ILSI Engineering is a 100% minority female-owned, 8(a) Certified civil engineering firm that provides competent, cost effective services in the civil engineering field. Her company specializes in sewer, water, streets and drainage design projects, as well as Program and Construction Management.

While Ms. Tucker has been thriving in the male dominated profession of Civil Engineering and Infrastructure, this was not her first foray into a profession that does not see many females in staff nor leadership roles.  Prior to taking over her family’s business, she was a Baton Rouge City Police Officer.  Police work was a passion of hers as a Criminal Justice major at Southern University in Baton Rouge, and she considered it an honor to work in public service.  She graduated as the President of the 72^nd Basic Training Academy, and ultimately ended up working in the department’s 1^st District station on Plank Road.  She was able to gain experience across several different specialized divisions including mounted patrol, bait car/car theft division, and brief experience on a federal + local narcotics task force case.

Working in these fields has driven Ms. Tucker to become more aware of the challenges that women and girls face in working in male dominated fields, and the importance of self-confidence & female empowerment.  Her experiences have contributed to her becoming an advocate in various causes that promote the realities, experiences, and growth of women and girls in all types of careers.  It has also helped to ignite a fire in her to be a community champion for disadvantaged businesses and the activities & initiatives that hope to level the playing field of opportunity in the fight for economic parity amongst all disadvantaged groups. She was recently appointed to the Governor’s Louisiana Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council and serves as Vice President of the council for 2019-2020.

As the daughter of parents who owned a federal contracting business, and whom were always engaged in causes that lifted and empowered the community, civic activism has long had a place in her heart.  Her father, Robert H. Tucker Jr., has long been a leading political operative in many political campaigns from New Orleans to Washington DC.  The apple does not fall far from the tree, as she has been active in many political campaigns & initiatives and has recently made her first venture into an attempt at elected office.  As recently as last month, she has thrown her hat in the race for the Democratic State Central Committee, and the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee.  Her goal is to re-ignite the passion inside the democratic party amongst young voters and to help lift up the next generation of democratic office holders.  

While all of these causes are noble in their own rites, her greatest pride is in growing a small business domiciled in her hometown of New Orleans.  She comments that “being able to seek and employ engineers and staff members of many diverse backgrounds and nationalities is a source of pride, and a positive contribution to a field that can often be very homogenous.  Our strengths as a city, as a state, and as a nation reside in our acceptance and encouragement of perspectives outside of our own.  I am proud to promote and shine a light on diversity, especially in fields where it has been lacking for too long.”  

Helena Williams
Walls Project

Change doesn’t come all at once, but with unwavering determination, change happens.

Brightening the once banal streets of downtown Baton Rouge, the first mural of the Walls Project shone like a beacon for newly returned artist, Helena Williams. Since moving back from the west coast, Helena, then twenty-four, was settling back into her hometown. Despite returning, she wanted to see more from her city than what she experienced growing up,

“I felt that Baton Rouge had so much potential, and it took me seeing other cities embrace its diversity and creativity so well to know we could absolutely do it here too.”

The Walls Project’s first mural inspired Helena to act, signing up for the first opportunity to participate in their volunteer mural event. Helping paint a large fence at BREC’s Gayosa Street Park allowed her to experience, first-hand, the volunteer rush of helping out for a greater cause. From there Helena went on to help the nonprofit wherever a need presented itself, mainly using her creativity and skills to be the organization’s main graphic designer.

After years of seeing Walls grow, not only by adding programs, but growing deeper in its mission, Helena knew this nonprofit’s ripple effect was invaluable, and she wanted to be a part of it. In 2017, Helena seized the opportunity to join the Walls Project staff full time.

Always recalling her first volunteer experience, Helena sought to strengthen the structure of the organization and its events. By planning the volunteer experience, Helena allowed for the artists and creatives to do what they do best, make beautiful art. Working closely with Walls director, Casey Phillips, Helena assisted as volunteer coordinator for the 2018 and 2019 MLK Festival of Service.

MLK Festival of Service, shortened to MLK Fest, is Walls Project’s four-day community service event. Started on MLK Day in 2014 as a one-day painting project grew into an event seeing thousands of volunteers from all over the parish during the course of MLK weekend. Working with over 200 partners, including the City of Baton Rouge, Walls Project manages the coordination and implementation of the projects focused on revitalizing old buildings and cleaning trash and debris from streets.

As the organization’s influence and creative reputation grew, bringing in first 1500 volunteers in 2018 and then 2500 volunteers in 2019, the Walls team designed a strategic plan behind catalyzing the numbers of volunteers and partner organizations to one location. Following the Plank Road Master Plan put forth by Build Baton Rouge, the Walls team brought to life a new program: Reactivate. This program’s mission was to bring the action of MLK Fest to a yearlong endeavor – reactivating neighborhoods in need.

Setting sights on Plank Road, and having a vision at the helm, Helena worked to plan three Quarterly Cleanups along Plank Road and major artery streets, like Winbourne Avenue. By returning to past locations and systematically going along Plank, the clean up efforts saw consistent work accomplished, and most importantly, set a precedent to the community that the work is never done.  

For MLK Fest 2020, Walls focused on an area of Plank Road sandwiched in between two major streets, Choctaw and Winbourne Avenue. With the help of 3500 volunteers, Helena and her team painted 8 buildings, cleared 3 large vacant lots, and cleared a total of 50 tons of trash and debris from neighborhood streets along Plank Road.

The effect these cleanups have on the community are not just in the number of sites, or how many building owners are served, but in the thousands of volunteers who have the opportunity to participate in something bigger than themselves, and to help a city that faces many struggles. As the work continued, it became clear to Helena that the people of Baton Rouge want to see their city flourish, and they are increasingly willing to take charge and make change.  

“What I look forward to the most in our cleanup events is not just the work getting done, but seeing the relationships form between strangers. We really start to see a community grow closer together.”

A decade after returning home, Helena is finally seeing the needle move. While the work never seems to stop, the end result is a city propelling forward. As a creative, she is excited to see a vibrant city, and as an activist, she is thrilled to see everyone having a seat at the table.