Founder of New Orleans Architecture Tours / Nola Tours
Our team leader, Katrina, grew up in Connecticut and developed a love of history and culture at a young age. In 2004, she escaped New England’s snowy winters, headed to the warm subtropical climate of New Orleans and, so it was, Nola Tours began.
Katrina is currently enjoying the weather in the South of France where she attends graduate school and expanding the tour company to Europe.
Katrina graduated Tulane University with a BA in Social Sciences and a minor in Louisiana Studies. She loved studying state History, Free People of Color, Jazz, Storyville, Louisiana Archaeology, and Historic Preservation. Those courses created in her a love of New Orleans’ architectural treasures. She enthusiastically shares all of those topics with everyone!
Katrina’s other hobbies include reading, knitting, and being a proud member of Krewe De Seuss.
Jewish History Tour Guide, French Quarter Tour Guide
Suzanne is a New Orleanian by choice, having moved here from Washington DC, where she was a docent with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Suzanne learned about the unique history of New Orleans through the Friends of the Cabildo. She served as a docent at New Orleans’s WWII museum, Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Sazerac House. As a result, she is armed with an arsenal of knowledge! Suzanne loves to enchant visitors by explaining the ways New Orleans is unique from everywhere else and she will be the first one to tell you that it’s not only the architecture and cuisine thats unique. It is also the differences in our music, which bubbles up from the streets.
Suzanne specializes in lessor known New Orleans histories. For instance, one of her specialties is the women who helped build, and later save, the French Quarter. She also specializes in the Jews, who have been here since the 1700s and have majorly contributed to the multi-ethnic gumbo of our city.
Suzanne is one of a kind and is a well loved member of our team.
Guy became a New Orleans cheerleader in 1992 upon his arrival to the Crescent City. He brings an unequaled charm and wit to our team which he ultimately delights his tour guests with.
Guy earned his Master’s from Harvard Divinity School in 1997 and he is a practiced public speaker. He seeks to accurately portray the history, culture, and architectural heritage of New Orleans. He does this in ways that build greater understanding, increase civic enthusiasm, and convey current relevance. A perpetual student of New Orleans history, Guy seeks to convert complex concepts into manageable subjects. He aims to infuse dry facts with living context and a touch of humor.
Guy is a licensed tour guide who is professional and courteous to all he encounters. He resides with his husband in their restored Faubourg Marigny home.
Favorite New Orleans Quote: “Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become a study for archaeologists. But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio.” – “Inventing New Orleans – Writings of Lafcadio Hearn
Will Alexander
Garden District Tour Guide
Will grew up in Charleston, SC and finally moved to New Orleans in 2014.
He is a preservation consultant and general contractor. Will’s tours in the Garden District connect building science to the rich history and cultural context of these grand homes.
Will is on the board of directors for The Preservation Resource Center and his knowledge and professionalism is certainly unmatched.
He is not all work. He has a fun side too. Will can be spotted riding with the Krewe of the Rolling Elvi as well as marching with Krewe du Vieux during Carnival season. In summary, our team thrives with Will on board.
Favorite New Orleans Quote: “New Orleans listens eagerly to the seductive promises of the future but keeps at least one foot firmly planted in its history, and in the end, conforms, like an artist, not to the world but to its own inner being” – Tom Robbins
Artie Adkinson
Garden District Tour Guide, French Quarter Tour Guide
Artie Timberlake Adkinson is a sixth- generation New Orleanian with roots in the Strawberry fields near Hungarian Settlement, Louisiana. She has always considered New Orleans her first love and she is thrilled to be able to share that love with locals and tourists alike.
Artie is a member of several organizations. These include Friends of City Park, Save Our Cemeteries, the Irish Channel Neighborhood Association and the Historic Preservation Society. During Carnival, she performs with the Bearded Oysters Dance Krewe and the New Orleans Irish Society Walking Krewe. Additionally, she co-organized “Shamrock Our Blocks Nola” for Saint Patricks Celebrations.
Artie’s background includes teaching, Paralegal, art, and writing. New Orleans history is her favorite subject to research which certainly provides her with a lot of knowledge. Artie lives in the Irish Channel with her husband, children, and also Pawfessor Wray, her beloved cat.
Favorite New Orleans Quote: “Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins.” – A Confederacy Of Dunces
Kelsey Wartelle
Marigny Tour Guide, Garden District Tour Guide
Kelsey Wartelle was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana and was surrounded by the rich culture and history of the Heart of Acadiana. She has called New Orleans home for the past ten years and received her tour guiding license in 2021.
She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Loyola University New Orleans. When not leading tours, Kelsey enjoys writing poetry, spending time with her cats, and exploring various waterways around the Gulf South via canoe.
Favorite New Orleans Quote: “If you’re open to it, New Orleans will teach you about yourself, but if you want to hide from who you really are, the city will help you do that too.” – Laurell K. Hamilton
LeaLea Van Winkle – Gisler
French Quarter Tour Guide, Garden District Tour Guide
Even though LeaLea was not born in New Orleans, she says she knew from the first moment she walked into the French Quarter that she was home. She tells people almost every day: “I spent all of my adult life trying to find my way back to New Orleans.”
She now lives in her dream home in historic Algiers Point and spends her days and nights walking the streets of The Crescent City, telling her stories and loving our city more with every step.
LeaLea has a B.S. degree in Communications and was an award winning intercollegiate debater. Those debates and that training gave her the skill to be the orator that she is today.
LeaLea spent years in the field of hospitality management and live event production. She became a hotel General Manager and eventually opened her own event production and catering firm. That firm became the largest in a four state region.
She moved “home” to New Orleans in 2015 and was hired as the VIP Manager and department head for concierges at one of the City’s oldest, luxury hotels, again representing the city she loves.
Lealea is locally loved as a “porch party host” at her house in Algiers. Like New Orleans itself, Lealea is filling cups, ears and hearts with all things New Orleans.
Favorite New Orleans Building: Her own pink historic double shotgun house on Algiers Point
Favorite New Orleans Quote: “Here surely is the place I was made for.” Tennessee Williams, Journal entry upon arriving in New Orleans
Pauline Pastore
Garden District Guide
Pauline grew up in the Chicagoland area. She moved to New Orleans to be closer to family in 2019 and to escape the windy and often frigid city and she quickly became enamored with the history and architecture of New Orleans. She returned to school to learn as much as possible during the pandemic and shares that knowledge with visitors and transplants. The shutdown provided her with a unique opportunity to explore many neighborhoods from Lakeview to Holy Cross and Bywater to Audubon Park. She became engrossed by these enclaves and learned a myriad of details on each area’s unique history and architecture.
Pauline is a research nurse by profession. As a retiree she is having much more fun by sharing her enthusiasm by tour guiding in her favorite neighborhood, the historic Garden District. She enjoys deep dives into NOLA history and can often be found in libraries and archives, sharing her treasured photos and facts with guests. Pauline lives in Uptown New Orleans and enjoys traveling, dog-sitting and cocktails on her front porch.
Favorite New Orleans Quote: “There is no place like New Orleans. So it’s a must see city because there’s no explaining it, no describing it. You can’t compare it to anything. So, far and away New Orleans.” – Anthony Bourdain
Carrie Smith
Alumni & Guest Guide
Carrie Smith is an interior designer with a masters in historic preservation from Tulane University. She loves telling the stories of New Orleans through its buildings and the people who crafted them. She is a self proclaimed inveterate global traveler and life-long student. Carrie loves putting into context the complex history of her adopted city as well as its people, architecture, culture, cocktails, and long-held traditions.
Carrie is a relatively recent transplant to New Orleans and a welcomed member of our team. She and her husband run Wonk Press, a boutique publishing company focusing on all manner of fascinating and nerdy subjects. They put special emphasis on the cocktail and spirits industry and they live in the Riverbend neighborhood with their boxer dog, Nelson.
Erika Gates
Alumni & Guest Guide
Erika Gates grew up visiting New Orleans and came back in 2010 to attend graduate school at Tulane University. She has a Bachelors in Architecture and a Masters in Preservation Studies.
Erika brings so much knowledge to our team. She was the building inspector in the French Quarter for four years and now runs her own consulting firm, Gates Preservation. They specialize in permitting and compliance with city agencies for buildings in historic districts.
Erika and her husband collect and restore vintage objects which they exhibit in their Garden District home.
