Dr. MarkAlain Déry is an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist with Access Health Louisiana- the most extensive Medicaid-providing clinic system in Louisiana. Dr. Déry serves as the Medical Director of Infectious Diseases and Chief Innovation Officer.
Dr. Déry has over 23 years of experience and has been at the forefront of the COVID pandemic, offering his expertise and recommendations affecting the most medically needy in Louisiana. He was the medical director of the country’s first public COVID testing site. He served on the COVID Public Health commission for New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell and handled weekly reviews of the medical literature and presenting them directly to the Mayor’s office and health commissioner.
Dr. Déry has also been a medical responder to global catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake and worked as a clinical field epidemiologist for the World Health Organization during the 2014-15 Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone.
An avid human rights and social justice activist, Dr. Déry is the founder of 102.3FM WHIV-LP, a radio station dedicated to human rights and social justice. Dr. Déry also hosts a daily 10-minute podcast called NoiseFilter, outlining the most recent updates on Covid-19 through the lens of social, economic, and racial justice. This podcast has an estimated daily listenership of 80,000.
Arnie D. Fielkow has enjoyed a long career in sports, politics, law, and Jewish communal work. Before coming to the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, Fielkow served as President and CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association. Twice elected to the New Orleans City Council as President, he helped rebuild New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. He also served as Executive Vice President of the New Orleans Saints from 2000-2005.
In 2017, he became CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. He has focused on the building and strengthening of relationships with synagogues and other community partners, as well as expanding the big tent under which the Federation operates, by creating: JNEXT, a program for Gen-X Jewish New Orleanians; LGBTQ outreach through JP NOLA; a professional mentoring program designed to retain top talent in New Orleans; and two landmark external relations centers: the Goldring Family Foundation Center for Jewish-Multicultural Affairs, and the Sherry and Alan Leventhal Center for Interfaith Families.
Fielkow is married to Dr. Susan Fielkow, and has five children and two grandchildren. He received his BA from Northwestern University and his JD from the University of Wisconsin.
Simone Levine has dedicated her career to ensuring public accountability and fairness in the criminal courts. In 2022, Simone joined reform prosecutor Jason Williams’ office to prosecute some of the most serious violent offenses in the city, doing so ethically, constitutionally and fairly. Between 2015 and 2021, Ms. Levine ran Court Watch NOLA, a group that ensured transparency, ethics compliance, and constitutional rights in the Orleans Parish Criminal Courts. Ms. Levine has also served as the Deputy Police Monitor under Independent Police Monitor Susan Hutson and before that practiced criminal defense for ten years. She has served as the criminal justice counsel for two state legislative houses as well as serving as an adjunct law professor at both Loyola Law School and the John Jay College for Criminal Justice. Ms. Levine has been awarded the National Association of Civilian Oversight over Law Enforcement’s Contribution to Oversight Award, the New Orleans City Business’ Leadership in Law Award, Tulane University’s Social Justice and Advocacy Award, and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law’s Elihu Burrit Prize. She has been personally profiled by the New York Times, the St. Charles Magazine and the New Orleans’ City Business Newspaper. Ms. Levine loves most to spend time with her two beautiful sons, Elan age 8 and Ezra age 6. In her spare time, she also works as a referee and judge for USA Boxing.
This event will follow all CDC-recommended health and safety guidelines.
For event-related questions, please contact Tessa Zevallos at tzevallos@avodah.net.
