The top financial officer for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has left the agency, marking the latest in a string of high-level departures under Secretary Aurelia Giacometto.
Theresa Delafosse, the lead administrator at LDEQ’s Financial Services Division, has transferred out of the agency after nine years on the job. The State Civil Service Commission confirmed her transfer but did not yet have any details about her new assignment.
Delafosse could not be reached for comment Monday.
A licensed attorney and certified public accountant, Delafosse was the highest ranking fiscal employee at LDEQ and the lone remaining executive in the agency’s Office of Management and Finance.
Former Undersecretary Christian Griffiths was in charge of that office until he transferred from the agency in September after just a few months on the job.
Delafosse previously worked at the state Department of Revenue and the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office. Her departure comes about a month after Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack published the results of a workplace culture survey that indicated pervasive low morale under Giacometto’s leadership with some employees reporting feeling pressured to violate the law or department policy.
LDEQ employees slam Aurelia Giacometto’s leadership in workplace culture survey
Her exit also comes roughly two weeks after the abrupt resignation of long-time LDEQ ombudsman Roger Ward, who disseminated a scathing seven-page letter detailing what he called “the increasingly erratic and alarmingly vicious behavior” of Giacometto. Ward said he wrote the letter in lieu of providing an exit interview, a long-established LDEQ practice Giacometto ended recently.
Ward’s missive reinforces a similar departing letter former LDEQ Undersecretary Chandra Pidgeon wrote in March 2024 after a few short weeks of being hired. Pigeon similarly complained about Giacometto’s “harassment of longtime employees” and other actions.
“I have worked for 23 years for the state of Louisiana, and I have never encountered a leader so destructive, calculating, and callous,” she wrote.
LDEQ’s communications division did not respond to a request for comment for this report Monday afternoon.
LDEQ executives and key employees that have left the agency under Giacometto’s tenure include, among others:
- Chandra Pigeon, undersecretary
- Stacey Holley, chief of staff
- Justin Crossie, chief of staff
- Meagan Molter, communications director
- Christian Griffiths, undersecretary
- Jordan Deshotels, undersecretary
- Jared Champagne, training and development program manager
- Courtney Burdette, executive counsel
- Tim Rupert, assistant secretary of Office of Environmental Assessment
- Warren Noah Hoggatt, executive counsel
- Graham Beduze, public information officer
- Chance Townsend, public information officer
- Mary Esther Ebeling, training and development program manager
- Roger Ward, ombudsman
- Theresa Delafosse, financial services administrator
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Last updated 6:28 p.m., Apr. 28, 2025
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