Vizza Crowned Miss Louisiana 2012
June 24, 2012

Miss Louisiana Tech University Lauren Vizza was crowned Miss Louisiana 2012 on Saturday night at the Monroe Civic Center. Vizza was a preliminary winner Thursday night in the lifestyle and fitness in swimwear competition. For the talent portion of the competition, she danced to "Set Fire to the Rain."

Second Runner-Up: Miss LA Watermelon Festival, Jaden Leach; First Runner-Up: Miss Shreveport, Carley McCord; Miss Louisiana 2012 Lauren Vizza; Fourth Runner-Up: Miss Greater Baton Rouge, Megan Miller and Third Runner-Up: Miss Lafayette, Mallory Cox

Friday Preliminary Winners
June 23, 2012

Congratulations to Friday night's preliminary winners:
Talent - Miss Greater Baton Rouge, Megan Miller; Vocal, "Angels" and
Swimsuit - Miss Shreveport, Carley McCord

Thursday Preliminary Winners
June 21, 2012

Congratulations to Thursday night's preliminary winners:
Swimsuit - Miss Louisiana Tech University, Lauren Vizza and
Talent - Miss Lafayette, Mallory Cox; Piano, "Rhapsodie Mignonne"

2012 Miss LA Judges Announced
Updated June 4, 2012

	Erin Monroe Wesley currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC), where she leads all aspects of BRAC's governmental relations and advocacy efforts at the federal, state and local levels, and directs the activities of FuturePAC, BRAC's political action committee. Prior to joining BRAC, Ms. Wesley served as the Executive Counsel for the Office of Lieutenant Governor Mitchell J. Landrieu. An active member of the community, Ms. Wesley is a past president of Forum 35 and a past ex officio member of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation Board of Directors. She currently serves as a board member for the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority's Community Development Enterprise, Volunteers in Public Schools, Leadership Alumni of Greater Baton Rouge, and the Junior League of Baton Rouge, Inc. Ms. Wesley is a 2004 graduate of Leadership Greater Baton Rouge.
/images/Ja Bradie.jpg	Susan Downs is a retired educator with 33 years experience as a teacher, principal and educational consultant. She is currently the Executive Director of the Laura Crandall Brown Ovarian Cancer Foundation. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Samford University and Master’Äôs degree from the University of Louisville. She is the former owner of an event planning company based in the Birmingham area, and she worked extensively with the planning and grassroots efforts of the Curing Childhood Cancer car tag, an Alabama specialty car tag which has raised over a million dollars for childhood cancer research. Ms. Downs has two grown children and one grandchild. She is the mother of Dr. Deidre Downs Gunn, Miss America 2005, and currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama.
	Bobbie Candler, Miss Louisiana 1982, returns to Louisiana from California where she has lived for over 20 years. During that time, she has enjoyed acting in film and television roles as well as her first love, theater. Her favorite theater roles have included and been as diverse as "Mary, the Mother of Jesus" in the Crystal Cathedral's "The Glory of Christmas" to the role of "Mary Magdalene" in the Crystal Cathedral's "The Glory of Easter." Bobbie recently returned to the theater stage as "Jack's Mother" in "Into the Woods" and is preparing for the role of "Velma "for an upcoming production of "Chicago." Bobbie's favorite role is that of "Mommy" to her three precious children, Erica and her twins, Bobby and Lauren. She stays very busy with them in school, as well as in childre's theater productions where Bobbie provides musical accompaniment and vocal coaching.
	Suzanne Doland has been the Executive Director of the Miss Colorado Scholarship Pageant for the past eight years. She fell in love with the Miss America program when her daughter, Katee, was Miss Colorado in 2003 and continues to cherish the opportunity to be a volunteer. Suzanne is a retired educator who absolutely loved her career as a kindergarten teacher. Dance has also been her passion ever since she took her first ballet class as a small child and continued studying for 16 years. Suzanne's husband, Wayne, is a former professional baseball player who now owns and operates Diamond Club Training Facility with their son, Jeff. Wayne and Jeff are also scouts for the Colorado Rockies. Suzanne loves to travel and spend time with her family, including her 5 grandchildren, Dakota, Tanner, Jackson, Tenley and Carter.
	Senator Mike Walsworth, is in his 17th year in the Louisiana Legislature. He is a lifelong resident of Northeast, Louisiana, and one of the area's longest serving members of the Legislature. Mike is a graduate of Northeast Louisiana University and is a member of the Jackson Street Church of Christ, where he serves as song leader. Senator Walsworth was first elected to the Louisiana House of Representative in 1995 and re-elected in 1999 and 2003. He won election to the Louisiana Senate in 2007 and was re-elected in 2011. Senator Walsworth is married to Dawne Smith Walsworth of West Monroe and they have four sons, Chris, Zach, Kayden and Corbin and a son-in-law, Jeff Cobb. His daughter, Lindsay, made him very happy when she gave birth in late 2011 to his first grandchild, Conner Michael.

Miss Dixie Gem Peach Contestant Workshop
March 20, 2012

Hope Recognized with Duke of Edinburg Award
January13, 2012

Thursday night, Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan, Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2012 Elizabeth Fechtel, and 14 of our 2012 Miss America Contestants, including Hope Anderson, our Miss Louisiana, were recognized with Duke of Edinburgh Awards, presented by MAO Board Chairman, Sam Haskell, III and National Executive Director of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Young Americans' Challenge, Josh Randle. Learn more about this prestigious award at www.usaward.org.

Miss Louisiana Wins National Miracle Maker Award
January 12, 2012

Miss Louisiana Hope Anderson was honored last night as one of three national Miracle Maker Award Winners. Each year Miss America and the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals awards the contestant who raises the most money for CMN a $5000 scholarship. This year three contestants raised over $40,000 each for CMN Hospitals which is unprecedented, so Miss America chose to honor each of these states - Louisiana, Hawaii and North Carolina.

The state of Louisiana also won the State Miracle Maker Award for the state raising the most funds for CMN. Hope worked very hard to achieve her goal of raising $25,000, and even more to exceed it by $15,000. According to Darris Waren, "I remember when Hope announced after Miss Louisiana last June that she wanted to raise $25,000 for CMN hospitals.¬ÝI thought then that was a high goal, but I'd anybody could do it, Hope could and she did. Her hard work and perseverance paid off. She truly loves the children of CMN hospitals and has had several occasions to visit the hospitals. About a week prior to leaving for miss America Hope was called to Baton Rouge to stand at the bedside of a young girl dying with cancer. Her last wish was to meet a real princess. Hope dropped everything she was doing and left for Baton Rouge to spend the day with this child. The following day the little girl died. Hope literally feels the call of being miss Louisiana and serving our state. We hope that she can carry this dream on to the national level as Miss America."

Also lighting up the stage last night was Louisiana's CMN Hospital Champion Adam Linebarger. Adam had the audience cheering as he was asked who he thought was going to win this years Miss America and he answered with a confident "Miss Louisiana!" Adam was a special guest at this past years Miss Louisiana Pageant and was featured in a production number on stage with the contestants.

Hope competed in talent competition last night and did a phenomenal job as she danced en pointe to "Sway." Tonight preliminary competition wraps up as Hope competes in on-stage question.

We are extremely proud of Hope and all that she has accomplished. She is representing our state, as well as the city of Monroe and the University of Louisiana at Monroe and is certainly making her mark on the Miss America Pageant!