By LEONARD GRAY

Managing Editor

LAPLACE — The River Region Chamber of Commerce, with its headquarters in LaPlace, is a constantly busy engine of communication and activity. At its hub, keeping everything running smoothly, is Administrative Assistant Deborah Guillory.

Guillory, a lifelong resident of Reserve, nevertheless spent most of her working life in New Orleans, working in billing and administration for Lifecare Hospital in New Orleans, a facility specializing in long-term, acute care.

Then came Aug. 29, 2005, and her job ended. Hurricane Katrina shut down the facility permanently, and Guillory found herself at the St. John Job Fair, filling out employment applications.

She happened to run into Executive Director Chassity McComack, who immediately recognized a corporate soulmate, a yin to her yang. Where McComack admits to being excitable and hyperactive, Guillory is the oil on the water, keeping everything smooth and calm.

The Workforce Initiative sent Guillory to the Chamber as a part-time clerk, and she quickly picked up on the organizational needs and carved out a considerable niche in the corporate structure of the Chamber.

In January, Guillory had performed her work duties so well, that a full-time job was in the bag.

Her duties now include updating the membership database, maintaining the Chamber’s website, coordinating board and committee meetings, coordinating Chamber events down to signing people in at the door, creating flyers on upcoming Chamber events and she’s usually the one answering the telephone.

&#8220She’s the hub of the Chamber,” McComack said. &#8220She’s truly the silver lining of the Katrina cloud.”

&#8220They embraced me from Day One,” Guillory commented. Taking a job in St. John Parish has enabled her to not only cut down on her commute but also rediscover her community assets.

&#8220All those years I lived here and worked here, I didn’t know what was going on here,’ she said.

Now, she is on a first-name basis with many of the business, industrial and political movers and shakers in the Parish.

She remembers once going through a power outage and while most people would sit through a long period of waiting on hold for an anonymous voice, she knew people in the corporate ladder, called them directly and got swift action.

Another time, an important meeting of the Chamber’s Public Policy Committee was a half-hour from meeting. The conference room at the Chamber office was prepared and ready.

Suddenly, water burst through the ceiling, drenching chairs in the conference room. McComack turned into a whirlwind of crisis mode mush, running and near tears. Guillory calmly moved a trash can to collect the leak and began making phone calls to have the problem cleaned up and the water leak source found.

For Guillory, divorced and with two sons, ages 15 and 18, crisis was nothing new.

&#8220There’s a lot of growth potential here, and I want to be apart of that growth.”