Caroline Dormon Awards

Nominate Your Choice for 2025 Dormon Award! Read here about the award and past winners and download the form to submit your nomination!

Previous Caroline Dormon Award Winners

Linda Barber Auld, widely known as the “NOLA Bug Lady,” was the recipient of the 2024 Caroline Dormon Outstanding Louisiana Naturalist Award. This award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to education, research, and conservation in Louisiana’s natural history. A major criterion of the award is that the recipient has actively shared knowledge with the public and contributed to meaningful conservation efforts that have positively impacted the state’s natural resources. Auld dedicated more than 47 years to the study of butterflies and moths, raising 147 species and meticulously documenting their life cycles. She conducted butterfly count surveys for the North American Butterfly Association for three decades, contributing critical data on species distribution and population trends. She participated in monarch tagging programs led by Dr. Fred Urquhart and Monarch Watch, helping to advance knowledge of monarch migration patterns. Her research collaborations with Dr. Christen Steele of Tulane University and the University of Georgia’s Monarch Health team focused on the Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (Oe) parasite, enhancing understanding of its effects on monarch populations. Auld was also deeply committed to conservation and education. She installed butterfly gardens in 17 schools, providing hands-on learning opportunities for students and teachers to raise monarchs and participate in tagging programs. She established Monarch Waystations in seven Louisiana cities and donated native plants to public spaces to support pollinators. In 2023, she launched “Kick-Start the Migration,” a statewide initiative to restore native milkweed along Louisiana’s western corridor, helping to strengthen the monarch migration route. Throughout her career, Auld’s work in entomology, habitat restoration, and public education inspired countless individuals to appreciate and protect Louisiana’s biodiversity. Her dedication to conservation and outreach made her a deserving recipient of the Caroline Dormon Outstanding Louisiana Naturalist Award.
  

Dr. Malcolm F. Vidrine was the 2023 recipient of its Caroline Dormon Outstanding Louisiana Naturalist award is Dr. Malcolm F. Vidrine, professor emeritus of biology at Louisiana State University Eunice. He will receive the award at LMNA’s annual Rendezvous to be held in Hackberry, Louisiana, and hosted by the Southwest Louisiana Master Naturalists. This award is given in recognition of an outstanding career in education, scholarship, and research in the field of natural history. A major criterion of the award is that the recipient has actively shared knowledge with the general public and accomplished projects that have resulted in important improvements in conservation of Louisiana’s natural resources. Dr. Vidrine earned a B.S. and M. S. from Louisiana State University and a PhD. From the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now ULL). His work experience includes high school teaching, various teaching positions throughout graduate school, research at The Gulf South Research Institute, adventures in the private sector with the Jefferson Parish Mosquito Abatement District, followed by teaching at LSU Eunice for 38 years. Dr. Vidrine is especially recognized for his work in prairie restoration, one of his passions throughout his career. He has remained on the cutting edge of expansion of our knowledge on restoration of Louisiana’s prairie grasslands, and again he included this research in his scholarship as well as engaging in the private sector such as his efforts with The Cajun Prairie Gardens. Dr. Vidrine has received much recognition during his career, including serving as a Jessup Fellow at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and receiving the Dr. Charles M. Allen Cajun Prairie Award from the Coastal prairie Partnership. 

Mr. A. James “Jim” Delahoussaye was the recipient of the 2022 Caroline Dormon Award. He was nominated for the award by Clifford J LeGrange and C. Ray Brassieur of Acadiana Master Naturalists chapter. 
​Jim Delahoussaye has worked as an environmental scientist, teacher, folklorist, and commercial fisherman in the Atchafalaya Basin.  He has also worked as a zooarchaeologist, an adjunct researcher in the department of Sociology/Anthropology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he analyzes animal bones from prehistoric Native American middens.
In addition to his scientific publications, numerous presentations to the public, and participation in videos documenting life on the Atchafalaya, Jim has chronicled the unique relationship between the people and the Atchafalaya River.  He has collected life stories from descendants of houseboat families who lived in the Atchafalaya Basin, preserving a unique culture for posterity.  His large collection of recordings and related materials from this project was recently gifted to the Library of Congress, where it is housed in the American Folklife Center. Jim’s knowledge and expertise covers all aspects of the natural history of the Atchafalaya Basin, and the people who depend on it.  He not only has the formal education and background, but he also has the lived experience of working and earning a living in the Basin. His familiarity with this vast swampland enabled him to assess the height of the tallest Bald Cypress tree in the Atchafalaya by eye, within a margin of accuracy of just over 2 feet! 

2021:  William R. “Bill” Fontenot M.S, celebrated ornithologist, native plantsman and wildlife landscape restoration ecologist and author.
​Fontenot has served as a member of the Louisiana Ornithological Society’s Louisiana Bird Records Committee, The Louisiana Nature Conservancy’s Technical Advisory Board, and as President of the Louisiana Native Plant Society, President of the Louisiana Ornithological Society, Director of the Gulf Coast Native Plant Conference, and Program Director for the Cullowhee, NC Landscaping with Native Plants Conference.
In 2001, Fontenot was honored in receiving the Louisiana Wildlife Federation’s Professional Conservationist of the Year award. In 2009, he received the Louisiana Ornithological Society’s President’s Award, and the Louisiana Native Plant Society’s Karlene DeFatta Award  for service to those organizations. In 2011 The Cullowhee Gardening with Native Plants Conference honored him with the Tom Dodd, Jr. Award of Excellence.

2020:  Kelby Ouchley managed wildlife refuges for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for 30 years. Two of his major accomplishments during that tenure are establishment of the Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the Mollicy Project, a 19,0000-acre restoration venture that has been featured in the New York Times.  Being situated on the outskirts of Monroe/West Monroe, Kelby’s vision for BBLNWR as a primary location for public education and outdoor experience has been well realized. The refuge has a thriving “Friends of Black Bayou” group, also initiated by Kelby, that took on converting an old house into a Visitor Center with a meeting room, gift shop and educational exhibits. The Refuge also has an Educational Center with live animal exhibits and a classroom.  Kelby is an acclaimed author with six published books, all of which educate and advocate for natural history. His eloquent and accessible “way with words” draws people in; his books are widely read by a general audience. He has also published many articles in both popular magazines and scientific journals.  He is probably even better known in Louisiana for Bayou Diversity, his weekly radio program that has aired on the local NPR affiliate,  KEDM-FM 90.3, since 1995.  Kelby writes and narrates the program.  Bayou Diversity frequently shows up on the “favorite programs” list of people who support KEDM financially during its various membership campaigns.  Kelby is often called on as a speaker for natural history related conferences and workshops. View Kelby Ouchley’s award ceremony on LMNA Channel. He has been invited as our Keynote Speaker for Rendezvous 2022.

2019:  Vernon Antoine Brou, Jr., is in his 52nd year of catching, mounting, cataloging, and studying insects on a 24-hour, 7-day basis!  During 2018, he operated 115 insect traps every minute of every day, January 1 to December 31, as he has done every year for the past half century.  He has discovered over 400 new species of Louisiana moths and scientifically described 16 new species of Lepidoptera!  He has a personal research collection of about 400,000 insects, mostly Lepidoptera, and especially moths in about 650 drawers.  Vernon officially donated an additional >349,000 specimens to museums just in the US, with an appraised value  exceeding $600,000.  Seven new Lepidopteran species have been named after him.  He has provided public displays of his collections at the La. Wildlife & Fisheries Museum, Louisiana Nature & Science Center, Audubon Zoo (“Butterflies in Flight”), and the Audubon Insectarium.  Paramount to accomplishing his 50+ year study of Louisiana insects of all orders and families has been the design, testing and development of numerous types of insect traps (more than 400 traps) and the development of associated unique automatic collecting chambers allowing continuous daily and nightly, year-round, sampling without having to be present or actively attend the collecting devices during the collecting activities. 

2018:   Dr. Charles Allen is a botanist and has collected more than 22, 000 herbarium specimens and published more than 100 botanical articles!  Charles is a retired Professor of Biology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and also retired from Colorado State University’s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands.  He is a charter member and past President of the Louisiana Native Plant Society (LNPS).  His published books include “Edible Plants of the Gulf South,” “Wildflowers of Louisiana,” “Trees Shrubs and Woody Vines of Louisiana,” and “Grasses of Louisiana, 3rd ed”.  With Dr. Malcolm Vidrine, he helped to establish the Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society and its restoration projects.  In recent years, he has offered plant id classes at home and on the road and also teaches master naturalists’ programs.  He and his wife Susan own and operate Allen Acres B&B, a nature-oriented paradise in west central Louisiana where he organizes and leads many area field trips.  Their property (Allen Acres Natural Area) is constantly monitored for the identification of living organisms (plants, moths, butterflies, birds, etc.).  Since 2014 Dr. Allen has been running eleven mercury vapor lights and sheets for an inventory of moth species with the species count at 874 (as of Dec. 24, 2020) and growing!

Named in his honor, the 80-acre  Dr. Charles Allen Nature Preserve is located in the biodiverse Ouachita Hills Region on the banks of the Ouachita River near Columbia, Louisiana. The forested land has really interesting ridge and vale topography. It was donated to ULM in the year 2000 by Dr. Harry Winters in honor of his accomplished Botanist colleague, formerly ULM professor, Dr. Charles Allen, the protected area is now administered by the town of Columbia.  

Use the form below to make your nominations. Email completed forms to Larry Raymond at lrraymond@aol.com