Meet the 2026 Community Leadership Alumni Award Honorees

Michael Tipton, Class of 2009

20 years ago, Michael Tipton was teaching high school history in the South Bronx, an experience that cemented his commitment to making the world better for the next generation. Since returning home to Louisiana in 2007, Michael has lived that commitment by leading growth and change for some of the state’s leading organizations in education and health. As the executive director for Teach for America in South Louisiana, he led a team that grew fundraising from $650,000 to more than $3.7 million and graduated over 400 alumni, many of whom are now serving as non-profit and policy leaders. In 2015, Michael joined the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation (Louisiana Blue Foundation) as its president, where he manages a $50 million endowment and grantmaking programs to improve the wellness and wellbeing of children and communities across Louisiana. Michael is also the Vice President of Community Relations for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana (Louisiana Blue), where he oversees corporate giving of more than $1 million annually, supports volunteer efforts for the company’s 3,500 Louisiana-based employees and supports the work of both the company’s internship program and its employee networks and related programming. During Michael’s tenure, employee-led community impact has grown and deepened substantially. As two examples, in 2022 Louisiana Blue employees gave more than 50,000 hours of community service and for this was named the United States’ Volunteer Leader, the award given to the top volunteering company in the US. In 2020 Louisiana Blue launched a new state-wide platform with the Taproot Foundation allowing volunteers to leverage skills in support of non-profit projects. This was a first-of-its-kind effort and one that is now being replicated elsewhere in the United States including by several Louisiana companies. For these and other efforts Louisiana Blue has been named the Corporate Volunteer Champion (2017, Volunteer Louisiana), been given the Torch Award for Ethics in Business (2018, Better Business Bureau), has been named to the Points of Light Foundation’s Civic 50 Award, highlighting the most community- minded businesses in the United States, for the last 7 years (2019 - Present), been honored as the Volunteer Leader in the United States in 2021 and 2023 and the best at integrating the work of community impact with business impact in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Louisiana Blue and the Foundation have also launched numerous high-impact projects during Michael’s tenure, including the launch of Blue Bikes New Orleans, grants to enable Ruston to become Louisiana first walkable city, grants to bring telehealth to libraries in Louisiana most rural communities and expand the number of nurses and mental health providers throughout these same communities. The Foundation has also launched collaborative efforts like the Louisiana Health Fellows and the Louisiana Funder Collaboration to share ideas and best practices. In 2020 & 2021 the Foundation launched a $15M Disaster Relief Grant Fund, supporting both COVID-19 and Hurricane related statewide. These investments make the Louisiana Blue Foundation the top, Louisiana-based grant maker in response and recovery during that time period. Tipton is a native of Louisiana and graduate of LSU with dual degrees in political science and history. He earned his master’s degree in teaching from Pace University in New York and is the recipient of numerous community honors, including being named as LSU’s Young Alumnus of the Year. He is an alum Leadership Baton Rouge and Leadership Louisiana and serves on the boards of Leaders for a Better Louisiana (CABL + C100) and the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge among others. Michael and his wife Sarah have three children, Alexander, Eleanor and Cecilia.

Monica Vela-Vick, Class of 2020

Monica Vela-Vick is a complex litigation attorney at the Dugan Law Firm in New Orleans, where she serves on the class action team. Her practice focuses on high-stakes litigation, chiefly in the healthcare space, and her career spans both plaintiff and defense-side work, giving her an unusually complete view of complex cases from pre-suit investigation through trial, writ practice, and appeal. She has been recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Commercial Litigation and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Action–Defendants (2022–2024) and in Best Lawyers for Commercial Litigation since 2025.

Monica earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she chaired the Latino Law Students Association, and holds dual undergraduate degrees from Rice University in Psychology and Women and Gender Studies. She is licensed in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and is admitted to the Federal Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, and several federal district courts. The Louisiana State Bar Association recognized her with its 2017 Hon. Michaelle Pitard Wynne Professionalism Award, and she has received two President's Awards from the Baton Rouge Bar Association.

Monica served as President of the Baton Rouge Bar Association in 2025 and remains on its executive committee. A committed advocate for youth education, she is past chair of both the Region III High School Mock Trial Committee and the Teen Court of Greater Baton Rouge Committee, where she has served as a trainer and volunteer judge for more than a dozen years. She is a fellow of the Louisiana Bar Foundation.

Advancing diversity in the legal profession is a throughline in Monica’s work. She co-chairs the Louisiana State Bar Association Diversity Committee, which she has served on since 2016 and led since 2023. She completed the Hispanic National Bar Association's Latina Executive Leadership Program in 2024 and now serves as the Deputy for HNBA Region XII, covering Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. She previously served as HNBA Deputy Regional President for Louisiana. Monica is a 2023 Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), where she presently serves as a 1L Mentor and participates as a Coaching Circle Member.

Monica’s civic footprint in Baton Rouge is broad. She recently joined the board of the EBR Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). She sits on the boards of the BREC Foundation and the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students’ Changemakers Alumni Board (Changemakers Class of 2021). A graduate of the Leadership Baton Rouge Class of 2020, LANO Community Leaders Program Class of 2018, and Leadership LSBA Class of 2014, she also served for five years on the board of The Walls Project, including as its secretary. Most recently, following her term as Co-President of the Westdale Middle School Parent-Teacher Organization, she received the 2025 Apple Award for Outstanding Secondary School Volunteer from Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS).

Outside the office, Monica's calendar is largely managed by her sons through wrestling, competitive golf, and academic competitions. When she does steal a moment, she spends it at a local gallery or tending a houseplant collection that her family insists has gotten out of hand.