LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)- The University of Louisiana at Lafayette has created the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center in honor of the former Louisiana Governor.

The center will work in partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and the Edith Garland Dupre Library at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on research, training and overseeing the archiving of the former governor’s records and papers.

“The University is working to finalize plans for the Blanco Public Policy Center. It will release details once those plans are completed,” the university said in a statement today.

A job notice on HigherEdJobs.com calls the center “an independent, interdisciplinary research center, bringing together experts from different academic departments to conduct research, analyze data, create white papers and write grants.”

The center will focus on public policy issues Blanco worked on during her career as Louisiana governor, lieutenant governor, state representative and public service commissioner.

Those issues include governmental ethics, criminal justice reform, education, and poverty and economic opportunity, the job notice states. 

The Blanco Center, the notice states, will provide policymakers and the public with information to help improve lives and communities in Louisiana.

Of special interest is promoting and expanding the role of women in politics and providing training.

Blanco, who lives in Lafayette, served as Louisiana governor from 2004-2008. She announced in December that she is battling an incurable form of cancer. Days later she gave the commencement address at her alma mater and was awarded an honorary doctorate in liberal arts at UL.