“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
– Calvin Coolidge
Since joining the Junior League of New Orleans in 2006, Virginia “Ginger” Spencer LaCour has cultivated an understanding of organizational opportunities that make her well-suited for JLNO’s Community Council Director. She will coordinate, develop and maintain JLNO programs that further the mission to improve the community, as well as the focus area of Advancing the Wellbeing of Women. She hopes to bring a structured and sustainable approach with a strategic plan to JLNO’s Community Council, which has over 50 women in leadership positions and oversees approximately 200 dedicated committee members. Delivery through others is not a new concept for Ginger. She looks forward to empowering JLNO’s leadership team to take on new challenges and implement a path forward for the years ahead.
Ginger has fond memories of her mother volunteering with the Junior League of Houston. Ginger’s mother was very creative and normally on a committee that involved performing arts. She would pick Ginger and her siblings up from school and take them to the children’s hospital, where she and other Junior League members would put on puppet shows for patients and their families. Like her mother, Ginger joined JLNO looking for an outlet for her creative side. She loves working with children and enjoyed teaching Safe Sitter for five years. In more recent years, she has stayed with the organization not only for the personal growth opportunities, but also for the opportunity to truly give back and make a lasting contribution for a greater New Orleans. She believes the Junior League is an ideal way to volunteer on an individual’s own terms. Whether a woman’s motivations are to network with other women, employ skills that are otherwise not utilized on a daily basis or apply a specific skill set, the Junior League has an opportunity to fit everyone.
As a Senior Wells Engineer with Shell Oil Company, Ginger is currently the Completions Project Lead over the Auger Tension Leg Platform. She has over 10 years experience working as a Deepwater Completion Engineer in the Gulf of Mexico. Her responsibility is to take an existing well, design the most effective way to produce it and develop a plan on how to get it ready to start producing. As a volunteer, she has served on a number of committees related to the arts, such as the New Orleans Museum of Art’s LOVE in the Garden party, and she also actively volunteers through Shell.
This fourth generation New Orleanian, who happened to have been born in Houston, received her Bachelor of Arts in mechanical engineering from Tulane University’s School of Engineering. She has lived in different places, but believes New Orleans is a microcosm of American history and culture — a true melting pot of diverse humanity where one can still feel like a part of a special fabric of community. Ginger and her husband Mark live in Lake Vista with their three children, Charlotte (7) and Caroline (5), who attend Academy of the Sacred Heart, and Mark Jr. (2) who is affectionately called “Bam-Bam.”
Ginger’s father is an inspiration to her. Since she was a child, he always told her that as long as she worked hard to be the best she could possibly be, she could do anything. Her father has been a strong role model in helping her become who she is today, and he has supported her in more ways than he could possibly know.
