CLASS Notes
1970s
Lynn Phillips-Gaines (B.A. communication, ’78) was ranked in the 2021 Barron’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors list, her sixth consecutive year on the list. She is a certified financial planner and registered principal at Phillips Financial in Starkville.
1980s
David Pittman (B.S., M.S. civil engineering, ’83, ’88) was chosen for the 2021 Director of the Year award by the Federal Laboratory Consortium. He is director of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg. Director of ERDC since 2017, he previously received the Director of the Year honor in 2011 while serving as director of the center’s Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory. John W. Hester Jr. (BBA, ’85) was named office director for the Office of Prevention and Therapeutic Services of the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services. Jon Carr (BBA, ’88; MBA, ’90; Ph.D., ’01) was elected to the leadership track of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management, a professional association for management and organizational scholars. He is the Jenkins Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and head of the Department of Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship at North Carolina State University.
1990s
As director of the National Hurricane Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Kenneth Graham (M.S. geoscience, ’94) was announced in May as a finalist for the 2021 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. His nomination falls into the safety, security and international affairs category and recognizes his impressive coordination of the national response to the most active hurricane season on record, which also hit during a global pandemic.
90
FALL 2021
Camille Young (B.A. communication, ’94; M.S. agricultural and Extension education, ’96) was named to the Cal-Maine Foods Inc. board of directors as an independent director and part of the audit, compensation, nomination and long-term incentive plan committees. She is principal and director of Cornerstone Government Affairs, a bipartisan consulting firm, and serves as the organization’s co-chair of the diversity and inclusion working group. She previously worked as a government affairs representative with Watkins Ludlam Winter and Stennis, P.A., and for the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. Brian W. Meredith (M.S. leadership, ’96) has returned to his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, to serve as associate dean of the Graduate School at the University of Memphis. He previously spent eight years at Western Kentucky University as the associate vice president for enrollment management. Matt Wyatt (B.S. sports communication, ‘99) was named the 2020 Mississippi Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. A former Mississippi State quarterback who led the Bulldogs to the SEC championship game during the 1998-99 season, he is currently host of “the Matt Wyatt Show” for ESPN's The Zone.
2000s
Rhoshunda Kelly (BBA, ’01) was appointed Mississippi’s Commissioner of Banking and Consumer Finance by Gov. Tate Reeves. She succeeds former commissioner Charlotte Corley, a fellow MSU alumna, in leading the department that “touches every pocket of the state.” Kelly started her career with the state’s Department of Banking and Consumer Finance as a bank examiner soon after her MSU graduation. Aimee Kilpatrick (B.S. international business, ’03) was named chief operating officer of BXS Insurance Inc., a subsidiary of BancorpSouth. In this position she leads BSXI’s marketing and communications teams; resources, recruitment and retention team; international education and talent development programs; and will works closely with the organization’s regional operational leaders.
