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CREATING A SAFE SPACE FOR EXPRESSION
by Amber Ewing
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When you mention Liz Egan’s name in the Millsaps community, you will likely hear these words to describe her.
Egan, assistant professor of creative writing and the director of the Centers for Writing and Academic Success at Millsaps, came to Mississippi in 2014 from the Washington, D.C. area. She always had a profound respect for the literary history of Mississippi, and when a job opening at the college came her way, she jumped at the opportunity.
“I had amazing mentors in D.C. and got to experience the large literary community there, so I saw a move to Jackson as an opportunity to build a literary community. I was drawn to Millsaps in particular because I wanted to work in a small college setting where the students really wanted to be students.”
Soon after coming to Millsaps, Egan was appointed director of the first McMullan Young Writers Workshop. The workshop is a five-day, residential creative writing experience for young writers. Each July, high school students reside on the Millsaps campus and immerse themselves in creative writing. Students are exposed to the various styles of creative writing, partake in readings of their work and hear lectures by acclaimed writers. Past keynote speakers for the workshop include Natasha Thethewey (Native Guard), Joyce Carol Oates (A Garden of Earthly Delights), Richard Blanco (How to Love a Country), Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give) and Kiese Laymon (Long Division).
“It’s one of very few opportunities like it in the state,” Egan said. “In the first year, we had 23 students participating. Since then, we’ve had as many as 82 students with an average of 72-75 students attending each summer.”
Most of the young writers attending the workshop are from Mississippi, including current Millsaps student Izzy Suell. Suell attended Murrah High School, less than a mile from the Millsaps College campus, and participated in the 2018 and 2019 McMullan workshops.
“I gained a sense of self as a writer, and I was exposed to a variety of writers,” Suell said of her experience. “I was able to see different perspectives of writing — not just poetry but also short stories, graphic novels and creative nonfiction. The McMullan workshop gave me the experience of attending a professional writing workshop.”
One of the key factors to the workshop’s success has been Egan’s kind leadership. MacKenzie Moffett, a Millsaps class of 2021 alumna and admission counselor for the college, got involved with the workshop during her second year at Millsaps working as Egan’s program assistant.
“I still have the email from Liz announcing the job posting,” Moffett said. “I worked with Liz throughout my time at Millsaps and took her creative writing classes. She encouraged me to stretch my boundaries and explore classes I may not have been interested in before. She became my mentor and close friend — we even exchange Christmas gifts!”
One of Egan’s standout qualities is her persistent optimism and presence as a safe space for students.
“Liz’s personality is what keeps students coming back,” Suell said. “There’s a lot of rejection in writing, and it’s not easy being a student and getting rejections from different poetry magazines or a hard workshop. But it’s a lot easier when there are people who treat you kindly and give you a space where you feel accepted.”
Margaret McMullan, who founded the workshop with her partners at the Eudora Welty Foundation, thinks the growth of the workshop has been remarkable. McMullan also has ties to Millsaps; her mother Madeline was a history professor at the college.
“I attribute a lot of that (growth) to Liz,” she said. “Students keep coming back because of her. The program is a crown jewel in Mississippi and a special program nationally.”
Over the years, 24 students have matriculated from the workshop to Millsaps. Workshop alumni are taking initiative to improve the event and act as resident advisers to the new groups of young writers.
Egan said, “They’ll come to me during the week and be like, ‘We have an idea to do this with the students!’ I’m like, ‘That’s awesome — let’s do it!’”
Egan, McMullan and the workshop team are excited for the next event in summer 2022. Author Stephanie Land will be the keynote speaker; her memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive” was recently adapted into a Netflix series.
McMullan believes Land will be able to connect with students on a personal level because of the shared COVID-19 experience, saying, “Young writers explore their personal lives for material, and Stephanie does that really well.
“After the last three years, students have had a rough time. They are experiencing depression and loneliness. Connecting with people who are willing to explore difficult topics is really, really important for young people — especially young writers.”
The 2022 McMullan Young Writers Workshop will take place from July 18 to July 22.
Telling the Stories We Need to Hear
by John Sewell
That determination has pushed Casey Parks, a 2005 graduate of Millsaps College, to the forefront of journalists getting national exposure, as she now works as a reporter with The Washington Post covering stories on gender, family and other social issues. Known for her honest and insightful stories about the South and education, she has written for the Oxford American, The New York Times, The New Yorker, USA Today and ESPN.
It’s been an amazing career so far for Parks, especially considering Millsaps does not offer a degree in journalism but instead offers a variety of both academic and experiential opportunities that help students apply knowledge and build the foundation for their careers.
“So many moments at Millsaps shaped me, but I think what affected me most was when Dr. Paula Garrett agreed to create and teach a journalism class,” Parks recalled, saying that Garrett put together a course of study tailored to Parks’ specific interests. “Dr. Garrett agreed to advise me on a thesis about the history of features journalism. Those lessons eventually led me to a career in journalism.”
Growing up in Monroe, Louisiana, Parks was the first in her family to attend college. She graduated from a high school with no guidance counselor, leaving her to work her way through the process of college decisions on her own. A brochure from Millsaps ended up in her mailbox, and she and her mother both liked the idea of a college with a female president.
A visit during her senior year, in which she sat in on a class taught by Dr. George Bey, professor of sociology and anthropology, sealed her decision to attend Millsaps.
“His lecture that day was about how people became obsessed with paint-by-numbers during the Cold War,” said Parks. “I just thought what he had to say was so much more interesting than anything I'd learned in high school.”
Once on campus, Parks reveled in her coursework, being exposed to literature that she remembers as “works I loved so much, I almost felt guilty earning a degree just for reading them.”
Those loved works included “The Crying of Lot 49,” by Thomas Pynchon; Eudora Welty’s beloved short story “Why I Live at the P.O.” and “Post Office,” Charles Bukowski’s account of his time working with the United States Postal Service.
Parks holds fond memories of her classes and professors, and still feels influences today.
“I would kill to relive the post-colonial literature class Dr. Laura Franey taught,” Parks said. And of course, Franey would gladly welcome her back.
“It really was a wonderful class, and I loved having Casey in my literature classes since she always tried to get to the heart of why something we were reading worked,” Franey remembers.
For Parks, getting to the heart of literary works found great reward in a class taught by Dr. Greg Miller, professor of English.
“Dr. Miller’s Literature and Sexuality course has stuck with me the most,” recalled Parks. “I was just realizing I was gay when I took the class, and the Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich poems we read gave me a road map for the rest of my life.”
Former Millsaps art professor Sandra Murchison also had a special impact on Parks.
“My favorite person at the college was Sandra Smithson (Murchison), not just because she was a great teacher,” Parks said, “but because she was the mentor I needed at age 18. She was the first person I told I was gay, and she took me to my first art gallery. My adult life began with her.”
The memory of Parks as a student is still fresh for Murchison.
“I still see her in my mind’s eye, sitting with one foot tucked underneath herself and seemingly on the perimeter of our liberal studies first-year course,” Murchison recalled. “There was both an eagerness exuding from her as she leaned toward the edge of that precarious seat on top of her foot and a hesitancy to say too much. From her writing and the comments that she did offer, I knew that she was both especially quick and filled with empathy. Her sensibility was perfect for what I was trying to do with the class: to seek out new disciplines at Millsaps and to get the students to head out into the community.” Parks has built a stellar career on the foundation provided to her by Millsaps faculty. Just a year after graduation, Parks entered the inaugural “Win a Trip with Nick Kristof” contest sponsored by The New York Times. Parks' essay was selected out of 3,800 entries and she traveled to Africa with Kristof to report on issues of poverty, maternal mortality and AIDS.
In the years since, the accolades for her work have continued. She was a 2016 finalist for the Livingston Award, which recognizes journalists under the age of 35; received the 2018 Notable Narrative from Mayborn Best American Newspaper Narratives; was awarded the Best Feature Award in 2019 from the Education Writers Association; and received first place for Feature Writing for Magazines in 2021 from Green Eyeshade Awards.
In 2015, together with Aubree Bernier-Clarke, Parks produced and directed a short film titled “The Ballad of Little Pam.” Over the course of the nine-minute film, viewers hear the story of Pam Sykes and her return home to Louisiana to care for her mother, who had kicked her out of the family home 40 years prior because she was gay. The film won the “Most Transformative” award at the 2016 Crossroads Film Festival and has since screened at other festivals across the country and around the world.
After reporting stints with The Hechinger Report and Portland’s The Oregonian, Parks pursued her Master of Arts in journalism at Columbia University, where she was a Spencer Fellow in education reporting.
Now with The Washington Post, Parks continues to produce important stories related to gender and social issues.
Next up for her is the publication of her book, “Diary of a Misfit,” which tells the story of her own upbringing and the emotional and fascinating story of Roy Hudgins, a local musician in her mother’s hometown. Soon after Parks came out as gay, her grandmother confided in her that Roy had always been seen as a man. After the death of Roy’s mother, Jewel, Parks’ grandmother shared the real story: Roy used to be a little girl named Delois. Jewel had kidnapped Delois, then renamed the child Roy. “Diary of a Misfit” is scheduled for publication in May 2022. Parks recently won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award from Columbia and Harvard for the book.
Parks credits her mentor from Millsaps for making it all possible.
“I wouldn't have been able to write this book without the strength Sandra Smithson gave me my freshman year.”
MEMBERS OF THE BRANDON FAMILY IN FRONT OF THE FAMILY CLINIC. FROM LEFT: DR. STEVEN BRANDON AND KATHY BRANDON WITH THEIR CHILDREN, JONATHAN BRANDON AND DR. EMILY LANDRUM. JONATHAN HOLDS A PICTURE OF HIS GRANDFATHER, DR. LEONARD BRANDON.
MILLSAPS FAMILY
A LEGACY OF CARE
by Amber Ewing
Jonathan Brandon (’20) did not originally plan to attend college, much less pursue an MBA.
The Starkville, Mississippi, native knew he wanted to be a chef and restaurateur from an early age. However, Brandon also came from a long legacy of Millsaps College alumni. Five of his close relatives are Millsaps graduates: his grandfather, Leonard Brandon, M.D. (’48); parents, Steven Brandon, M.D. (’82) and Kathy Brandon (’83); and his two sisters, Emily Landrum, M.D. (’11) and Caroline (’15).
“My grandfather was always very well-read, and he placed a lot of value on education,” Brandon said. "That value was passed on to my father and then further to me. My siblings and I were always expected to do our best and apply what we could from our educational experiences."
In addition to the family’s Millsaps legacy, the Brandon family is also known for their health care practice in Starkville. Dr. Leonard Brandon opened the doors to The Family Clinic in 1954. Jonathan’s father, Steven, joined the practice in 1992, and Jonathan’s sister Emily began providing care at the practice in 2018. “The clinic has always been a staple in our family. My grandfather and grandmother ran it. My mother eventually began managing the books while my father practiced medicine.”
When Jonathan was contemplating options for his future after high school, his grandmother encouraged him to consider Millsaps. “When I visited, I felt comfortable and was impressed with the focus on education. I felt like I was going to learn a lot while I was there.”
Jonathan thrived during his time at Millsaps. He majored in business administration with the intent of fulfilling his dream of attending culinary school after college. His uncle Ward Van Skiver thought business would be a good fit for Jonathan. Van Skiver is also a 1965 graduate of Millsaps and currently serves on the college’s board of trustees.
“My uncle worked in finance, and he encouraged me to look into the business field. I figured
out I was really good at finance, and I knew having a business degree would be helpful when I eventually started my own restaurant,” Jonathan said.
With his father’s encouragement, Jonathan pursued his MBA through the Else School of Management’s Early Start Program, which allowed him to take classes for the graduate degree during his senior year. Upon graduation in May 2020, he only had one year left to complete the program and begin his journey into the restaurant industry.
However, Jonathan’s plans were impacted when the world began to shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many Millsaps students, Jonathan left school for spring break that year and never returned to campus. The pursuit of his MBA at the Else School provided additional security during the chaotic job market. He said, “I had been anxious about the job market. Participating in the MBA program while COVID disrupted the country not only gave me additional skills, it also gave me time to truly explore my career options.”
Similarly, the clinic was also experiencing COVID-19-related change. Emily felt the stress of the constant adaptation required of the clinic in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said, “At the beginning of the pandemic, we had to completely revamp how we operated by incorporating telehealth as a large part of our practice; we had to continuously adapt and change almost every day.”
Jonathan saw how these difficult changes were negatively impacting and causing stress for his father, sister and the rest of the clinic team.
“The doctors had always managed the business side of the clinic. All of a sudden, they found themselves seeing patients via telehealth systems, experiencing staffing issues and handling an influx of people needing care. Whether directly related to the virus or not, the level and style of health care the clinic was able to provide was interrupted,” said Jonathan.
“Seeing how COVID impacted the way my dad and sister were having to practice medicine helped make it clear to me that they needed to focus on providing care to the patients and let someone else think about how to make it all work.”
Because of his Millsaps education, Jonathan was the right man at the right time for the job. “It was as if there was a role available at the clinic that had never existed before, and it only seemed natural for me to fill it.”
Jonathan started in the summer after receiving his MBA in May 2021. He decided to run the clinic like a restaurant with a customer-service mindset. He implemented new systems and technology to increase efficiency. He began analyzing revenue cycles to cut costs and maximize profits. And with these changes, Jonathan is able to help his father and sister provide better care to their patients.
“The medical practice requires a lot of things to be well-run. From procedures to privacy laws, I’m making sure all the correct boxes are checked. I hope to create a better experience for the patients that enter the clinic through shorter wait times and fewer headaches.”
Emily spoke to the relief of having Jonathan’s assistance at the clinic. “It’s been a huge help to have him helping us at the clinic,” she said. “He’s been able to provide a fresh set of eyes to help us begin to reboot after the pandemic forced us to prioritize certain things over others.”
Through it all, Jonathan’s dream of eventually becoming a chef and restaurateur hasn’t gone away. For now, however, he’s happy to stay involved with the clinic and help with the books.
“I am thankful that Millsaps gave me the tools I needed to continue my family’s legacy of care in Mississippi.”
