ALUMNUS Winter 2021 - Mississippi State University

NEW HOME HOM E FOR

I N N O VAT I O N MSU's new Richard A. Rula Engineering and Science Complex provides state-of-the-art spaces for civil and environmental engineering students p. 12

I N S I D E Winter 2021

A Man of Note p. 06 | When Bulldogs Heal p. 22 | From State to World’s Stage p. 29 | Changing Course p. 40

Table of CONTENTS

FEATURES

22 When Bulldogs Heal

ABOVE: A familiar fall sight on Engineering Row at Mississippi State is the Ginkgo trees turning their trademark golden yellow as students wrap up the semester. Photo by Megan Bean

MSU delivers health care to rural communities

29 From State to the World’s Stage

School-record six former Bulldogs competed at Tokyo Olympics, representing their countries and MSU

Mississippi State University is an equal opportunity institution. Discrimination in university employment, programs or activities based on race, color, ethnicity, sex, pregnancy, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, or any other status protected by applicable law is prohibited. Questions about equal opportunity programs or compliance should be directed to the Office of Civil Rights Compliance, 231 Famous Maroon Band Street, P.O. 6044, Mississippi State, MS 39762, (662) 325-5839.

WINTER 2021 | VOL. 98 | NO. 3 PRESIDENT Mark E. Keenum, ’83, ’84, ’88 VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI John P. Rush, ’94, ’02

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jeff Davis CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Sid Salter, ’88 EDITORS Susan Lassetter, ’07 Harriet Laird

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WRITERS Vanessa Beeson, ’19 James Carskadon, ’12 Joel Coleman, ’07, ’09 Susan Lassetter, ’07 Ashleigh Lee Addie Mayfield Sasha Steinberg, ’14 Erica Way DESIGNER Heather Rowe

DEPARTMENTS 02 Campus News 14 Discoveries 20 State Snapshot 38 Our People 46 Alumni News 54 Giving Back 58 Class Notes 60 Forever Maroon 64 Back Story

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PHOTOGRAPHERS Megan Bean Robby Lozano Beth Wynn

COVER New Orleans native Jessica Lewis, a graduate student in the Bagley College of Engineering who earned an MSU civil engineering bachelor's degree in 2021, prepares an asphalt specimen in MSU's Richard A. Rula Engineering and Science Complex. The new 70,000-squarefoot building is home to the Rula School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Photo by Beth Wynn

CONNECT TWITTER.COM/MSSTATE FACEBOOK.COM/MSSTATE INSTAGRAM.COM/MSSTATE

EDITORIAL OFFICE P.O. Box 5325 Mississippi State, MS 39762 662.325.0630 slassetter@opa.msstate.edu ADVERTISING Leanna Smith 662.325.3360 lsmith@alumni.msstate.edu

Mississippi State University’s Alumnus magazine is published three times a year by the Office of Public Affairs and the Mississippi State University Alumni Association. Send address changes to Alumni Director, P.O. Box AA, Mississippi State, MS 39762-5526. Call 662.325.7000, or email cturner@advservices.msstate.edu.

Campus NEWS

FUN FOR ALL

MSU’s museums and galleries offer opportunities for endless exploration

By Sasha Steinberg, Photos by Megan Bean and Beth Wynn

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here’s always so much to do and so much to see at Mississippi State, and the reopening of more than 30 museums and galleries ensures visitors can do plenty of both on the Starkville campus.

“MSU is like a self-contained city because we have so many places here, and the Welcome Center is the front door of the university,” said center coordinator Cristi Stevens. “We’ve got upwards of 30 different museums, galleries and areas that the Welcome Center gives tours of. Most universities don’t have that.

“Places on campus like the Mississippi Entomological Museum, bug zoo and the John Grisham Room are special for our university. People also tell us how amazed they are with the Grant Presidential Library and Lincolniana Collection at Mitchell Memorial Library, especially since we’re in the South,” she continued. “It’s fun to have that kind of impact on so many people.”

Personalized individual and group tours are open to all age groups and should be scheduled two weeks in advance. Guided campus tours, as well as historical and

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children’s tours and self-guided walking tours, are among those available. During each guided tour, volunteers with MSU’s Maroon VIP program share personal MSU stories along with interesting facts about the campus and its 143-year history.

Stevens said the center can provide brochures with information about selfguided walking tours and historic buildings on campus. Visitors also can access MSU’s mobile-friendly campus map to view photos and descriptions of university buildings, monuments, memorials and special features including the Campus Tree Trail.

Patrons who would like to explore campus in their personal vehicles can request tour guide accompaniment from the Welcome Center.

The center also can provide riding tours via its six-seater golf cart. These options, along with smaller tour groups, allow for a safer, more personalized experience, Stevens said.

“MSU’s admissions office does a great job with tours for prospective students. Our primary goal at the Welcome Center is to provide tours for visitors of all ages from preschoolers to senior citizens,” Stevens said.

“We love when people ask questions about

campus or stop by for directions if they’re not familiar with the area. It’s great to see their reactions when they visit the Welcome Center and find out we have an amazing clock museum—one of the only ones in the state of Mississippi—and an art gallery upstairs where they can see art created by faculty, staff, students and local community members.”

Stevens said she enjoys working with staff and students to leave a positive impression on campus visitors.

“I remind our students that it could be the 10th time someone has been on campus or the first, but we show our welcoming spirit to each person who comes in,” she said. “I encourage students to personalize tours and talk about what they find fascinating.

“I think they enjoy giving alumni tours the most because they end up learning more than they’re teaching,” she continued. “Our alumni always have stories to tell about their time on campus, and it’s fun for the students to hear them.”

In addition to resuming in-person tours as pandemic restrictions are eased, multiple museums and galleries plan to continue hosting virtual events to engage patrons in Mississippi

and beyond. Amy Moe-Hoffman, chair of MSU’s museums and galleries committee, said technology has enabled the university’s Dunn-Seiler Museum to share its extensive collection of minerals, rocks and fossils with people across the Southeast and the country.

To celebrate National Fossil Day in 2020, the Dunn-Seiler Museum staff showcased faculty, staff and family members’ favorite fossils from the museum’s collection in a series of videos made available for public viewing. Viewers voted for their favorites, and the museum crowned an overall winner.

“I didn’t know what to expect asking people to vote for their favorite fossil by emailing me directly, so it was neat when I woke up to an inbox with 15 messages from people across the U.S., including former students and people who have never had anything to do with Mississippi State,” MoeHoffman said. “It’s neat to think that people outside of Mississippi are interested in our museum and the specimens we have here.

This virtual outreach was such an untapped resource for us pre-pandemic, so it’s been really exciting for us to embrace technology

and get the Mississippi State name out in a different way.”

Along with discussing plans for future virtual programming, the museums and galleries committee has been hard at work preparing to host Science Night at the Museums, which draws approximately 2,000 visitors to campus for a single night of science demonstrations, tours and activities.

The Feb. 19 event will be held at Hilbun Hall and the Cobb Institute of Archaeology.

Moe-Hoffman said museums and galleries committee members also are excited to host in-person visits for individuals and groups, including teachers and students from local schools.

“It’s been too long since we’ve heard the little voices of kids getting excited before they come into the museum,” she said. “If they want to bring their students and give them something new to draw or to inspire them, I encourage teachers to schedule a tour and talk with us about ways we can collaborate. There are so many hidden treasures to discover at the university, and we want to help them start that journey.” n

Most of MSU’s museums and galleries currently have limited hours of operation, so Moe-Hoffman encourages individuals and groups to visit museums. msstate.edu to view a comprehensive list of galleries and collections that are open for public viewing.

Welcome Center tours are conducted Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

To view indoor and outdoor tour options or schedule a visit, go to visit.msstate. edu, call 662.325.5198 or email visit@ pres.msstate.edu.

MSU’s art galleries regularly host rotating exhibitions, often with weekend hours. Individuals and groups interested in touring these facilities can follow on Facebook @MississippiStateUniversityArtGalleries for updated information.

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Campus NEWS

Starkville Murals ART AROUND TOWN Along with exploring Mississippi State’s museums and galleries, visitors can immerse themselves in Bulldog Country with a casual tour of Starkville’s murals and public art installations.

Many of these works of art represent a vibrant blend of creative talent and community outreach made possible through the contributions of students and faculty in MSU’s Department of Art. “From City Hall to Lee Hall: We’re in this Together” is one of many eye-catching examples of Bulldog talent that can be found in Mississippi’s College Town. The mural depicting local and MSU landmarks is located along North Jackson Street in downtown Starkville.

Critz Campbell, a professor and head of the MSU art department, said working on murals and other public art projects provides

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Marcus Williams, a senior art major from Starkville, works to paint a new mural on a concrete retaining wall next to the university's downtown innovation hub, a part of MSU's Research & Technology Corporation, on Jackson Street. Mural photos by Megan Bean.

students with opportunities for complex collaboration and public discourse.

“I hope creating public works opens students’ eyes to an unexpected avenue for their talents and careers,” he said.

MSU also is leaving its mark on the local community through the efforts of its Fred Carl Jr. Small Town Center, which in October secured a $25,000 grant to fund the University Drive Corridor Connections project in Starkville. The city is one of 26 in the nation receiving the grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative.

The local project will help connect the one-mile stretch between downtown Starkville and the Mississippi State campus at key intersections on University Drive, from Camp to Washington streets. Intersections will be painted with designs to progressively lead

pedestrians along the corridor, creating a safe and attractive means of connecting Starkville’s downtown, midtown and Cotton District.

Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill, a 1974 MSU business graduate, said MSU students and faculty are major contributors to the Starkville art community.

“Having an art department and a creative program that foster art in our community through the university is wonderful. It is important to me and to our city that we have exciting interactions with the students who are calling Starkville their home,” she said.

“When you take pride in your community, you in turn take care of your community.

Whether through music or murals, art makes our lives better, and it’s one of many attributes that makes Starkville a place we are proud to call home.” n

Hail to the King of Cowbells

Works produced by Mississippi State faculty and students complement other art installations that can be found around town, including murals on buildings, bridges and retaining walls throughout downtown and the Cotton District.

Make no bones about it, the late Paul Perry knew a thing or two hundred about cowbells. Just ask his wife Nancy.

“Paul was a collector of many things, but cowbells were a love of his. He collected over 200 in all shapes and sizes,” said Nancy, a Houston native who studied at MSU in the 1970s. “Paul would spray paint and prime unpainted ones himself or get Starkville artist Vicki Burnett or someone like that to paint them for him.

Or he may find a regular bell that a cow wore and ask his friend to weld him a handle. He liked to have a big variety.”

At her husband’s request, Nancy donated the cowbells to Mississippi State following his death in 2014. She said MSU staff did an “excellent” job with building custom display cases to showcase her husband’s cowbells at the university’s Welcome Center.

“It’s nice to give things to people who are grateful to have them, and Mississippi State was so genuinely grateful to get Paul’s cowbells,” Nancy said. “They would have been sad reminders if I kept them at

home, but now, they’re happy reminders because everyone is getting to enjoy his passion.”

Though Paul was not an MSU graduate, he was a diehard Bulldog fan.

His cowbell collection was one of many ways he showed his love for Mississippi State. Another of Nancy’s favorites is the impressive MSU-themed tree her husband put together for Christmas.

“It was awesome,” Nancy said with a laugh. “Every year, we would go to Mistletoe Marketplace in Jackson. Paul would go in and say to me, ‘I’ll talk to you later.’ He would go straight to Campus Book Mart’s booth and buy at least one of every ornament they had for Mississippi State. Then he’d go home and decorate this tree. It was so ‘him.’ He absolutely loved it.”

Visitors can view Paul’s collection at the MSU Welcome Center, 75 B.S. Hood Dr. on the Starkville campus. To schedule a visit, go to visit.msstate.edu, call 662.325.5198 or email visit@pres. msstate.edu. n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Campus NEWS

A MAN OF NOTE Honoring “Doc” Kent Sills

By Sasha Steinberg, Photos Submitted & Archive

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hose closest to Kent Sills remember MSU’s late band director as a man of many interests. By far, his greatest were family, music and his students at Mississippi State University.

“Kent was the most loving, kind and generous person. It didn’t matter if you had one dollar or a million; you were all the same in his eyes,” recalled Nora, his wife of 52 years. “He loved every single one of his students at Mississippi State and took such a personal interest in helping them become better musicians and people. I hope that’s the way he is remembered.”

Elva Kaye Lance, who came to MSU as Sills’ assistant in 1992, said that’s exactly how she remembers her former mentor.

“Every band has a personality, and I think one of the things that helped develop our

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family atmosphere in MSU’s Famous Maroon Band was Dr. Sills’ personality. He always had a good sense of humor and kept things in perspective,” said Lance, who became MSU’s director of bands in 2002. “There are many days when I see something that happens on campus or within our program, and I chuckle to myself because I think how Dr. Sills may have responded."

Nora said her husband’s personality came out best when he was in front of his students.

He became known for his funny one-liners— phrases students coined “Doc-isms.”

“For example, whenever students would finish playing, Kent would say, ‘OK, now go play in the street,’ which of course he did not mean at all,” she said with a laugh.

Nora, a pianist and organist in Starkville, said she and Kent met in high school in Attala

Approximately 40% of students in the Famous Maroon Band are enigneering majors.

“Every band has a personality, and I think one of the things that helped develop our family atmosphere in MSU’s Famous Maroon Band was Dr. Sills’ personality. He always had a good sense of humor and kept things in perspective." ~ Elva Kaye Lance

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Campus NEWS

"When Kent became a trombone player in the Kosciusko High School band in ninth grade, that was his love. He decided he wanted to be a musician and a band director.” ~ Nora Sills

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County. Kent was a multi-sport athlete, played in the band and was “Mr. Kosciusko High School.” Nora was homecoming queen during the couple’s senior year.

“He escorted me onto the field in his dirty No. 82 football uniform. That was interesting,” Nora joked.

Sills aspired in his early years to be a dentist, but Nora said her high school sweetheart always loved music. He was selected for the prestigious Mississippi Lions All-State Band in high school and eventually served as the band’s director for nearly a decade.

“Even in high school, Kent would go around and play with people in jazz bands.

Right around Kosciusko, there were people interested in jazz music, and they would get little groups together and just play in homes,” Nora recalled. “When Kent became

a trombone player in the Kosciusko High School band in ninth grade, that was his love. He decided he wanted to be a musician and a band director.”

After teaching high school band in Lumberton and Clarksdale, Sills joined the MSU faculty in 1967 as assistant director of bands and was appointed its sixth director in 1983.

He founded MSU’s Stage Band—now known as the Jazz Band—and started both the MSU Jazz Band Festival and the MSU Junior High Band Festival. As director of MSU’s Famous Maroon Band, Sills codesigned and produced the band’s first patriotic halftime show in the mid-1980s with then choral director Jerry Williams.

To this day, the Famous Maroon Band and choral ensembles honor Sills’ legacy with a performance at MSU’s annual

military appreciation football game in Davis Wade Stadium.

“This show is a neat tradition because we still present it in much the same way, and it’s one that a lot of the kids remember most fondly when they graduate from the band,” Lance said. “Dr. Sills had the big flag constructed by a manufacturing plant here in town, and we still use that same flag today. We’ve had to resew it several times,” she admitted with a laugh.

Sills retired as MSU’s director of bands and a professor of music education in 1999.

Band alumni, current members, university employees, retirees and friends paid tribute to Sills during a September 2021 building dedication for MSU’s Kent Sills Band Hall.

The MSU Foundation sponsored the event, with special guests including Sills’ wife Nora and their son, Dr. Allen Kent Sills Jr., who

serves as the National Football League’s chief medical officer.

Like his father, Al was a trombone player and member of the Mississippi Lions All-State Band. He later became a member of the Famous Maroon Band at MSU, where he earned a bachelor’s in biological engineering in 1986.

“Kent was so proud and always wanted Al to be his best,” Nora recalled. “He also was a father figure to so many band students. They loved him because they knew he truly cared about them. He wanted them in church. He wanted them in school.

If they had a problem, they felt free to come to him. He would sit down and talk with them any length of time they needed because he wanted them to do well. It was a lot of hard work and practice, but he made band fun.” n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Campus NEWS

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MS U F ILM S UNIVERSITY TELEVISION CENTER TACKLES ‘STORIES THAT CAN’T BE TOLD IN SECONDS’

By Susan Lassetter, Photos by Robby Lozano and Beth Wynn

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s much as everyone loves the quick videos that populate social media, some stories need more than 60 seconds to unfold. That’s a gap the MSU Television Center hopes to bridge with its newest, award-winning venture: MSU Films.

“MSU Films focuses on in-depth, rich storytelling, while providing a testbed for TV Center producers to develop new skills that enhance the department’s production capabilities,” explained David Garraway, director of the University Television Center.

Focused on documentary-style filmmaking, MSU Films aims to tell the stories that affect Mississippi and showcase the impact of Mississippi State and Bulldogs across the country.

Recently, MSU Films brought home a 2021 Edward R. Murrow Award for “The Last Supermarket,” an installment of the television center’s series “The Hungriest State,” which looks at food insecurity across the Mississippi. The Radio Television Digital News Association presented “The Last Supermarket” with the award for Best News Documentary in the small market category.

Garraway co-produced the documentary with James Parker, senior documentary and special projects producer at the TV Center. Hal Teasler, creative manager, served as graphic artist for the film.

“Our team’s creativity and skill in creating the ‘The Last Supermarket’ has set a new standard for university production,” Garraway said. “This is the first national Edward R. Murrow Award for the center, but I don’t think it will be the last.”

The MSU Television Center also earned four Southeast Emmy Awards in 2021 for MSU Film projects.

With 12 nominations, the team brought home an Emmy in Environment/Science-Long Form Content for “It’s a Journey,” a documentary that explores land conservation efforts on the rapidly urbanizing Gulf Coast. Parker earned photographer and editor Emmys in the long form content categories, while Teasler earned a prize for graphic arts in the motion graphics category.

“The University Television Center staff is an important part of Mississippi State’s storytelling apparatus,” said Sid Salter, MSU’s chief communications officer and director of the MSU Office of Public Affairs, which administers UTC. “The Television Center has evolved from simply producing video content for clients to producing unique films that enable MSU to share our research and service missions with the world. These multiple awards represent professional recognition that is richly deserved. I’m very proud of the work our Television Center does for the university.”

To learn more about MSU Films or to view full videos or trailers for upcoming productions, visit www.films.msstate.edu. n

TOP: L-R: James Parker, David Garraway, MSU President Mark E. Keenum and Hal Teasler. BOTTOM TWO: The TV Center’s studio and control room facilities have recently been updated to provide for the growing digital production needs of the university community.

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Campus NEWS

MSU officials cut a ribbon on Oct. 27 to mark the completion of the Richard A. Rula Engineering and Science Complex. Standing behind the ribbon are, from left, Interim Rula School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Director Isaac Howard, project benefactors Sherry and Richard Rula, MSU President Mark E. Keenum and Bagley College of Engineering Dean Jason Keith.

MSU celebrates opening of

RULA ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE COMPLEX

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ississippi State University is celebrating the completion of the state-of-the-art home for the Richard A. Rula School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

University leaders held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in October 2021 to mark the official opening of the $34 million, 70,000-squarefoot Rula Engineering and Science Complex in the James Worth Bagley College of Engineering. Located at the corner of Hardy and Morrill Road, the facility contains classrooms, offices, research and chemistry labs, and high bay areas. The research portion of the new structure will help faculty stay on the leading edge of new technologies and support economic development in Mississippi, while training future engineering leaders in key fields to provide clean water, safe roads, proper sanitation and quality buildings.

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By James Carskadon, Photo by Robby Lozano The building and academic school are named after MSU 2019 National Alumnus of the Year Richard A. Rula of Ridgeland, an education advocate and leader in the construction industry. Rula is the owner of Hemphill Construction Company and also serves on the Bagley College of Engineering Advisory Board, MSU Foundation Board and the Bulldog Club Board. In addition to his service and leadership, he has made significant gifts to the university, including the lead gift for the Engineering and Science Complex. In 2020, the 1970 MSU civil engineering graduate provided the university with a cornerstone endowment gift for the Rula School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The MSU Foundation has raised approximately $14 million in support of the

new facility, including gifts of $25,000 or more from 45 different donors. Four $1 million contributions to the project have been provided by Rodger and Jill Johnson of Atlanta, Georgia; Tommy and Terri Nusz of Houston, Texas; Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Charitable Foundation, Inc. of Brandon; and Ergon in Jackson.

Jackson-based Eley Guild Hardy Architects was the design professional for the building, while Columbus-based West Brothers Construction was the general contractor.

The dedicated research and teaching labs will support the school’s technical strengths in the areas of construction, environmental, geotechnical, materials, structural, transportation and water resources engineering, along with space to support the chemistry instructional needs of the university. n

Donovan M. Andrade, a senior communication and kinesiology double major, was personally selected for the exclusive BSMS Charlie Blackwell Scholarship by Kenneth J. McGee, an active Broadway stage manager who has worked on productions such as "Rent," "The Mountaintop," "Tarzan," "Once on This Island" and "The Lion King," among others. A native of Manama, Bahrain, he was one of one five students chosen nationally for the honor.

Mayukh K. Datta of Kosciusko, a senior chemical engineering major in the James Worth Bagley College of Engineering and the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College at Mississippi State University, received the Humanity in Action Fellowship. He is the second MSU student to win the prestigious award.

Vincent L. Young, a longtime academic coordinator in Mississippi State’s College of Business is now an assistant dean overseeing the college’s Academic Advising Center. Young is a graduate of East Mississippi Community College and earned bachelor’s degrees in finance and real estate finance from MSU in 2013. He is a 2015 MSU Master of Public Policy and Administration graduate and currently is pursuing a Ph.D. Nicole Ponder, a professor of marketing, is now an associate dean for graduate programs and assessment in the College of Business. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Marketing, Quantitative Analysis, and Business Law since joining the university in 2001. From 2015-2021, she served as director of the college’s graduate studies.

Ashli Brown has been named associate vice president of Mississippi State University’s Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine. She has served since 2013 as Mississippi’s State Chemist and since January 2021 as interim head of MSU’s Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion. She also serves as a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology.

Dominique A. Quarles has been named assistant vice president for access, diversity and inclusion at Mississippi State University. Quarles earned a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Georgia, where he has served as director of diversity and inclusion since 2017. He also holds a Master of Education in higher education and a bachelor’s in biology, both from Georgia Southern University.

Expansion of the Animal Emergency & Referral Center, a Flowood satellite clinic of the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, officially began with a groundbreaking ceremony in May 2021. The $5.6 million, 14,000-square-foot addition will include a much-needed increase in clinical space for staff and students to render emergency and referral services, as well as shelled space for a future residential area for students. A conference room for teaching and outreach programs for the local veterinary community also is part of the plan.

Dianna Wilson, a food science master’s student from Norfolk, Virginia, and Lauryn Heidelberg, a senior microbiology major from Laurel, placed third in the Research Chefs Association 2021 National Student Culinology Competition with their plantbased pizza pocket.

Mississippi Blood Services awarded the MSU Athletic Department and Bulldog Sports Properties the 2020 Outstanding Achievement Award for going “above and beyond” to help maintain a healthy blood supply in the state. Pictured (from left) are Bulldog Sports Properties staff members Alex Sheffield, Jeremy Ward, Justin Sendelweck, Ann Brett Strickland and Tyler Downs.

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Discoveries

FINDING THE ROOT OF THE FAMILY TREE Biological science researcher explores biodiversity among microscopic lifeforms

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n a world of vast and wondrous sights, Matthew Brown finds fascination all around—in the cracks of sidewalks, scummy pond water or the soil around a barn. An associate professor in Mississippi State University’s Department of Biological Sciences, he’s made a career out of identifying the microscopic life that surrounds us.

Through the Brown Laboratory of Social and Evolutionary Protistology, he and other Mississippi State scientists, faculty and students are exploring the highly diverse group of eukaryotic organisms known as protists.

“We’re looking to understand biodiversity," Brown explained. "We want to understand what is present in the environment around us

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By Susan Lassetter, Photo by Logan Kirkland & Submitted and, the thing is, a lot of that biodiversity has yet to be discovered.”

Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells contain a true nucleus. This includes all plants, animals and fungi, as well as the lesserknown protists. Many of these protists exist as single-celled organisms.

“There are lots of organisms that are really closely related to animals, really closely related to plants and really closely related to fungi that are all unicellular eukaryotes,” he explained. “My lab is focused on seeing how these organisms are all related to one another.”

These evolutionary ties are known as the tree of life, or the family tree, of all eukaryotic organisms.

“If you think of it like a tree, the parts that have been really well studied—the plants, animals and fungi—are just the tips of the branches,” Brown explained. “Most of the actual diversity is in the unicellular organisms that make up the trunk and roots. And that hasn’t been studied nearly as thoroughly.”

To fill that gap, Brown and his fellow researchers have perfected ways to study these protists without the need of culturing— collecting them directly from the environment rather than growing them in a laboratory for study. A recent National Science Foundation grant of $1.1 million is supporting Brown’s efforts to study Amoebozoa, a vastly diverse type of eukaryotic protist.

Discoveries

“Amoeboid microbes are fascinating both ecologically and evolutionarily, but they are severely under-studied and poorly sampled,” Brown said. “They are important players in nearly all ecosystems, but very little is known about the true biodiversity of amoeboids that exist in nature.”

The goal of the NSF-funded project is to examine the diversity in a broad variety of habitats from land to sea. This will provide a better understanding of how these organisms reside in the environment, how they evolved and what their developmental processes are.

Brown said the group has already identified organisms previously unknown to science, including one collected from the sidewalk in front of the Colvard Student Union that will likely bear an MSU-themed name in the future.

“By identifying and studying these organisms, we are actively figuring out what the diversity of life is on our planet,” Brown said.

While Brown said his lab primarily focuses on promoting the scientific understanding of the natural world, there are opportunities for this expanded understanding of microbial life to be applied to other fields. For instance, a more thorough grasp of the biodiversity of soil and how those organisms interact could help agricultural researchers improve soil quality and crop yields.

“How can you improve or manage the biodiversity of soil if you don’t know what its biodiversity is in the first place?” Brown asked.

“We are identifying organisms that are not known to science, and we’re finding new things that could be of scientific and human importance,” he continued. “There are a lot of pushes for maintaining biodiversity in animals, and we recognize the loss if, say, a bird goes extinct. But what if the same thing is happening to microbial taxa? And what impact is it having on life on Earth? Well, we won’t know until we know what exists.” n

Matthew Brown, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, specializes in the evolutionary history of single-celled eukaryotes called protists. He heads the Evolutionary Protistology Laboratory in Harned Hall, home of MSU's Department of Biological Sciences.

"By identifying and studying these organisms, we are actively figuring out what the diversity of life is on our planet." ~ Matthew Brown ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Discoveries

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One Health

Veterinary medicine professor helps lead worldwide efforts to battle disease spread Story by James Carskadon, Photo by Megan Bean

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hen Dr. Margaret Khaitsa thinks globally, she sees that the health of humans is closely intertwined with the health of animals and the environment. A professor of veterinary epidemiology, the Uganda native has been learning about the One Health concept since she was in veterinary school at Makerere University.

One Health is an approach to public health that emphasizes the connections between the health of people, animals and the environment.

The idea of connecting humans’ shared health is not new, but it has taken on a new importance as urbanization, climate change, international trade and biodiversity

700 applicants, Khaitsa is the only representative of a U.S. university on the panel.

“I’m passionate about international work, and this topic fits well with my research area and interest in leadership,” she said. “I was really hoping in my later years to be working at this level, so it’s really a dream come true."

Khaitsa is no stranger to international collaboration in areas of One Health. After all, diseases can spread across government borders in the same way they spread across different species. For more than 15 years, she has been involved in international One Health workforce development initiatives, working on federally funded projects to bolster

“The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the need for this kind of approach. . . So a big part of the One Health concept is making sure there is collaboration between disciplines to address these unique challenges.” ~ Dr. Margaret Khaitsa loss all change human interaction with different ecosystems. Approximately 75% of infectious diseases originate in animals, a statistic that takes on heightened meaning as the world battles new diseases such as COVID-19.

Khaitsa is now part of a distinguished group of experts working on recommendations for implementing One Health practices at an international level with the goal of reducing the risk of zoonotic pandemics. In May 2021, Khaitsa was named to the Global One Health High-Level Expert Panel, a group of 26 experts that is advising the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Organization for Animal Health.

Chosen from a pool of more than

transboundary disease management capabilities in Africa and the United States. She also leads a study abroad program in Uganda that incorporates One Health principles. At MSU, she teaches case studies in Global One Health for veterinary medicine students during their clinical population medicine rotation.

One aspect that Khaitsa said is key to improving global health is breaking down silos in medicine and other sciences. When she was in veterinary school, she took some core science classes with students in the doctor of medicine program, helping to facilitate collaboration and discussion across disciplines. In education and in practice, especially at the global level, collaboration plays a key role in mitigating zoonotic diseases, she said.

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Discoveries kind of approach,” Khaitsa said. “You need behavioral scientists to work with people about wearing masks. You have all this science behind the vaccine, but if people are hesitant to take the vaccine, it’s not going to control the outbreak as fast. Politics plays a big role as well. So a big part of the One Health concept is making sure there is collaboration between disciplines to address these unique challenges.”

With the expert panel’s work getting underway this past summer, Khaitsa is part of a working group focused on using early detection, surveillance and rapid data sharing to prevent emerging zoonotic diseases. The group is tasked with defining One Health surveillance, surveying existing monitoring systems, and developing a framework for implementing best practices. The panel’s other working groups are tackling topics such as conditions that cause spillover diseases between animals and humans, as well as compiling current research focused on preventing new zoonotic diseases.

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Khaitsa is serving a two-year term on the panel before rotating off. She also continues her ongoing projects, which include leading a team that facilitates scientific exchanges and implements new standards for the safe trade of agricultural products across the eight Regional Economic Communities of the African Union.

After being selected as one of the winners of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, Khaitsa is spending this academic year at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In Nairobi, she teaches epidemiology and conducts applied research on empowerment of female poultry farmers in Kenya. Continuing her work of growing female leaders in East Africa, she leads an academy focused on women in leadership.

She also uses the travel opportunity to develop new partnerships, including expanding MSU’s collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Nairobi is home to FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases.

“We are exploring opportunities for student and faculty exchange programs,” Khaitsa said.

“The scientists there are interested in some of Mississippi State’s work, including the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish and our antimicrobial resistance research, for example.

Those are opportunities we're exploring, and we are looking for ways students and faculty can engage as well.”

As her work with the expert panel moves forward, Khaitsa said she is excited about seeing their work implemented at the international level as the group directly advises some of the world’s most influential organizations.

“Typically, when we have a bigger outbreak like COVID-19, avian flu or Ebola, that’s when we have more resources,” Khaitsa said.

“So we expect to have some resources to go along with action plans that will elevate One Health at the global level and institutionalize it. It’s exciting to be a part of that.” n

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish at Mississippi State University awarded $1.15 million in grants, expanding its portfolio of research in addressing global food security challenges through reliable and inclusive provisions of fish. As part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future program and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Fish Innovation Lab works to reduce poverty and improve nutrition, food security and livelihoods in developing countries by supporting research on sustainable aquaculture and fisheries systems.

The Tennessee Valley Authority and a Mississippi State flight research laboratory have agreed to collaborate on expanding the company’s use of unmanned aircraft systems for inspections in order to improve safety and lower costs. The partnership between TVA, which supplies electricity to nearly 10 million people across seven southeastern states, and Mississippi State’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory draws from the flight lab’s expertise in evaluating unmanned aircraft systems, known as UAS, and its associated technologies.

Research on public procurement in the wake of COVID-19 is the focus of a Mississippi State University faculty member’s paper now featured in a recent edition of the Journal of Emergency Management. Sawsan Abutabenjeh, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, co-authored the article as part of a multi-university collaboration investigating how the government’s pandemic response to assembling and allocating resources was impacted by emergency conditions, existing systemic problems and value conflicts.

Mississippi State University—in collaboration with two other U.S. universities and more than 30 industrial partners—is leading a $2.2 million National Science Foundationfunded initiative to explore the use of insects as food and feed in agriculture as a response to overpopulation, climate change and a shrinking food supply. The Center for Environmental Sustainability through Insect Farming—led at MSU by Heather R. Jordan, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences—is funded by the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center to partner with business to advance the use of insects as a food source for animals and people.

Vicky Montiel-Palma, an assistant professor of chemistry, received a three-year $411,200 grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry Chemical Catalysis Program to investigate catalysts that add silicon to hydrocarbons to form non-toxic building blocks for chemical synthesis.

Meilun Zhou, a 2020 computer engineering graduate now employed with the university’s Geosystems Research Institute, has received a prestigious Department of Defense Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation Scholarship.

Ryan A. Folk, an assistant professor of biological sciences and herbarium curator at MSU, is using a $432,781 three-year National Science Foundation grant to automate the data collection process by using a combination of unique object identifiers, QR codes and citizen scientists, or non-biologists, recruited to help with data acquisition.

Bin Liu, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has earned a National Institutes of Health research award to explore possible therapies for calcium-dependent diseases. The three-year award worth more than $400,000 is part of the NIH R15 program to support faculty research, expose students to research and strengthen the research environment of educational institutions.

Kun Wang, an assistant professor with joint MSU appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Chemistry, is the recipient of $750,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Early Career Research Program. He is one of 51 university-employed scientists from the

U.S. to receive DOE early career awards for “mission-critical” research.

Bruno da Silva, an assistant research professor in Mississippi State’s Department of Forestry and scientist with the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center, is leading a team in creating a precision tool to help increase profits for timber producers and wood-mill consumers. The team is studying timber supply modeling as part of a $100,000 grant awarded by International Paper, one of the world’s leading producers of fiber-based packaging, pulp and paper.

Jean MohammadiAragh, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has earned a Faculty Early Career Development award from the National Science Foundation. She is receiving nearly $1 million to develop better ways of teaching programming and other computing skills to undergraduate students across the country.

Steve Demarais, a professor in the College of Forest Resources, has received the Caesar Kleberg Award for Excellence in Applied Wildlife Research from the Wildlife Society. This Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Foundation award, endowed in 2007, distinguishes wildlife researchers whose body of work translates to real-world application of conservation and management.

Janice Chambers, a Mississippi State William L. Giles Distinguished Professor with a long history of chemical antidote research is leading a newly funded $3.3 million project aimed at identifying better therapeutic medical countermeasures to protect the brain against chemical threats. The director of MSU’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine is receiving the new U01 grant, which is the university’s third award through the National Institutes of Health CounterACT program.

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STADIUM TOUR: Renowned stadium architect Janet Marie Smith, a 1981 MSU graduate who is executive Vice President for planning and development for the Los Angeles Dodgers, tours Mississippi State’s Polk-DeMent Stadium with fellow alumni Michael Boerner (left) and Jamie Wier (right). Boerner, who earned a bachelor’s in architecture in 2002, and Wier, who earned his in 2003, co-founded the Jacksonbased firm Wier Boerner Allin which led the design for the stadium’s most recent renovation. Photo by Megan Bean ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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WHEN BULLDOGS HEAL MSU DELIVERS HEALTH CARE TO RURAL COMMUNITIES - PART 1

By Vanessa Beeson, Photos by Beth Wynn & Submitted

Rural America accounts for 97% of the U.S. land area but only 20% of the population. In Mississippi, however, that number jumps to more than half of the residents, making it the fourth most rural state in the country. While those wide-open spaces make for a bucolic setting, they make access to health care a challenge.

While the risks of chronic disease and injury-related death are higher in rural communities, physicians are fewer. Youth suicide is twice as likely and mental health access is lacking. Compounding the issue, per capita income is less and fewer people have health insurance.

MSU alumni, faculty, staff and students are committed to assisting rural Americans in overcoming these statistics in a quest for better health access and outcomes. Beginning with a look at alumni practicing rural medicine, this two-part series focuses on what MSU Bulldogs are doing to combat these issues and improve access to quality care in rural Mississippi and across the South.

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RONSHEKA PALMER

Leland native Ronsheka Palmer knew at a young age that she’d dedicate her life to health care.

“As fifth grade student of the week, I said I wanted to be a doctor,” she recalled. “Later, when I realized the shortage of rural health care providers and saw people in my own community who received minimal care, I had to act.”

Her mother, a licensed social worker, encouraged her to follow her dreams.

“My mom helped countless people in her career, instilling in me the capacity to help others,” Palmer said.

The MSU food science, nutrition and health promotion alumna is now chief operating officer and deputy medical director for Delta Health Center at its flagship Mound Bayou campus.

“Mound Bayou has a rich background,” Palmer explained. “Our organization’s founders realized the need for primary care here. The rationale was to help combat the many socioeconomic health disparities that have long been a fact of life in the Delta.”

“We’ve helped generations of families build and maintain healthy lives,” she continued. “Our mission is to provide comprehensive, high quality primary health care in a successful, culturally sensitive manner regardless of patients’ ability to pay.”

Recent initiatives Delta Health Center implemented include opening a wellness center on the Mound Bayou campus and a residency program.

“We’re focused on preventative care. At our wellness center, patients receive an interventional plan based on their individual needs,” Palmer said.

“MOUND BAYOU HAS A RICH BACKGROUND. OUR ORGANIZATION’S FOUNDERS REALIZED THE NEED FOR PRIMARY CARE HERE. THE RATIONALE WAS TO HELP COMBAT THE MANY SOCIOECONOMIC HEALTH DISPARITIES THAT HAVE LONG BEEN A FACT OF LIFE IN THE DELTA.” ~ RONSHEKA PALMER Palmer oversees day-to-day operations for the organization’s 19 centers across six counties and directs patient services, quality and compliance, policies, procedures and more.

“I help patients behind the scenes by creating policies that enhance care,” she said. “Combining clinical and administrative perspectives is advantageous. I care for patients and ensure our providers have the tools to provide great care as well.”

In 1965, DHC became the nation’s first federally qualified rural health center. It serves as a model for a system that now includes nearly 1,400 urban and rural health centers with more than 13,500 delivery sites across the country, providing care to one in 11 people across the U.S. Founded by former slaves in 1887, Mound Bayou flourished early in the 20th century as a cultural and economic center for Black Americans, functioning as a safe haven during the Jim Crow era. DHC, which sought to improve the social determinants—or socioeconomic factors—that impact health, such as poverty, access to food and clean water, racial and class disparity and more, found a place in the town.

“In the residency program, providers work in our clinic as part of their education and hopefully when they complete the program, they’ll remain in the Delta.”

Palmer said increased access to health care services and strengthening care coordination are imperative in rural communities.

“I develop trust with patients, helping them navigate access to care many of them cannot afford,” she said. “I’m always promoting access because it helps improve health outcomes and quality of life in rural communities.”

While Palmer seeks to increase health care literacy, she also works to reduce patient visits to the emergency room.

“Our providers educate patients on potential risks associated with chronic conditions, in addition to dietary and behavioral issues,” she said. “Many patients in the Delta frequent the emergency rooms. Often, that’s due to chronic uncontrolled conditions that may be a result of inability to afford medication. We offer programs to help these patients, which results in decreased ER visits, hospitalizations and decreased mortality.”

Palmer’s early interest in health care led her to Mississippi State. After MSU, she earned a ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Master of Science in Nursing, an MBA with a healthcare administration focus, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

“MSU prepared me for a productive future, equipping me with practical skills and knowledge needed in a health care setting.

Those skills and that knowledge, combined with a strong work ethic and commitment to community, were imperative to my success,” she said.

Along the way, Palmer has been steadfast in her commitment to serve the community where she grew up.

“I love that I’m directly serving on the front lines seeing patients but also developing initiatives in the background to make sure they receive quality care,” she said.

Palmer said it has always been essential to her to practice at home.

“You need heart to serve in the Mississippi Delta, and you must be here for the right reasons,” she said. “I returned to the Delta because of the need here, which is why I went into health care in the first place.”

ANGELITA DUGAS

Angelita Dugas began a new job two weeks before the world changed.

On March 1, 2020, she became the infection preventionist for CHRISTUS Ochsner SWLA, which includes both CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick and CHRISTUS Ochsner Lake Area Hospital in

“We were able to implement changes quickly with support from our larger system directing new policies and guidelines, but people would turn to me for guidance as far as how to customize those changes for our facility,” she recalled.

The 1999 MSU human sciences alumna solved space issues, planned for surges, obtained additional personal protective equipment and planned for diagnostic and treatment changes in an ever-changing landscape.

“I volunteered as part of the team who initiated administering monoclonal antibody infusions to COVID patients, which was rewarding," she said. "I heard patient stories and communicated with families.”

Dugas said she’d sometimes wonder what her job would have been like under normal circumstances.

“It was definitely a whirlwind jumping into that position at that time,” she said. “People asked me if I was going to stay, and I was like, ‘Of course.’ Despite the many challenges, we excelled with a great team, which helps tremendously.”

Six months later, as the team grappled with a difficult COVID surge, another force of nature bore down as Category 4 Hurricane Laura struck the town on Aug. 27.

The strongest storm to hit Louisiana in nearly 165 years caused more than $19 billion in damage and 81 deaths. The hospital, which sustained significant damage, was forced to

“WHEN EVERYONE IS IMPACTED, PEOPLE HELP EACH OTHER, AND YOU HAVE A HUGE SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND PRIDE. . .

WE PERSEVERE BECAUSE OUR COMMUNITY NEEDS HEALTH CARE SERVICES. JUST BECAUSE A HURRICANE OR FLOOD HITS DOESN’T MEAN PEOPLE DON’T NEED HEALTH CARE.” ~ ANGELITA DUGAS Lake Charles, Louisiana. Immediately, she began navigating the facilities through the unchartered waters of a global pandemic.

“It was chilling for me starting out in infection control right before COVID hit,” she said. “I’d been a director and nursing administrator, so this was an exciting change for me, but I had no idea a pandemic was coming.”

After two weeks of orientation, it was evident the pandemic would reach Louisiana, and Dugas’ entire focus shifted to the virus.

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temporarily close. Less than two months later, Hurricane Delta made landfall following the same path. It flooded the storm-weary region and stymied efforts to rebuild.

“With Laura, the hospital experienced significant damage, and we all had damage to our homes,” she said. “It was a struggle, but we supported each other because many people completely lost their homes, which made COVID-19 even more difficult.”

The hospital reopened quickly after the first storm and evacuated for a day

“I DEVELOP TRUST WITH PATIENTS, HELPING THEM NAVIGATE ACCESS TO CARE MANY OF THEM CANNOT AFFORD. I’M ALWAYS PROMOTING ACCESS BECAUSE IT HELPS IMPROVE HEALTH OUTCOMES AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES.” ~ RONSHEKA PALMER

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during Delta, as staff continued caring for the community.

“Our doctors, nurses and staff continued to work every day, most of the time heading home with no water or electricity or living in a temporary place,” she recalled.

Dugas emphasized that the disasters drew an already close-knit community closer.

“I cannot describe the challenges we’ve faced,” she said. “During the devastation, however, I witnessed community strength.

Many organizations demonstrated an outpouring of generosity.”

two CHRISTUS hospitals, Ochsner Lake Area Hospital where she started and Ochsner St. Patrick Hospital, overseeing quality directives of approximately 1,200 health care professionals.

She said COVID has brought the health care team closer together.

“What the hurricanes demonstrated of our community, COVID demonstrated for our hospitals,” she explained. “It creates a stronger bond. We think, ‘Wow, we made it through that,’ and it sets your roots a little deeper. It’s rewarding to look back and see how well we’ve managed, and it makes me appreciate the people I work with.”

“THE RURAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 HAS BEEN A CHALLENGE. IN AUGUST 2021, WE WERE HIT EVEN HARDER THAN PREVIOUS SURGES. WE HAVE LESS RESOURCES AND OUR POPULATIONS ARE STATISTICALLY LESS LIKELY TO BE VACCINATED, SO THAT MAKES IT DIFFICULT. THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN UNPRECEDENTED FOR EVERYBODY IN HEALTH CARE. OUR HOSPITAL RESPONDED WELL AND TEAMED TOGETHER TO MAKE IT THROUGH, BUT IT IS LIKE LIVING THROUGH HISTORY.” ~ ANNA WRIGHT While Lake Charles has about 75,000 residents, Dugas’ health care system serves five parishes, most of them rural with little access to localized health care. The hurricanes exacerbated a lack of housing in the area and led to the displacement of between 3,000 and 5,000 residents who have yet to return.

Places like Cameron Parish, south of Lake Charles, experienced a nearly 20% population decline in the last decade alone.

Dugas noted that living in a storm-prone area fosters a sense of fervent self-sufficiency.

“We are a life line. We can’t cut off elective surgeries. We’ve tried to continue on as much as we can despite the challenges that may come our way,” she explained.

Dugas said the silver lining between the pandemic and natural disasters is the steadfast sense of community that has emerged.

“When everyone is impacted, people help each other, and you have a huge sense of community and pride,” she said. “The people who stayed feel like we’re working together and staying strong. We persevere because our community needs health care services. Just because a hurricane or flood hits doesn’t mean people don’t need health care.”

Within the whirlwind of the past year and a half, Dugas has learned to stay calm and strong like a hurricane’s eye. She thrived in her position, having been promoted to director of quality over

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“You have to love what you do,” she continued. “We may get discouraged when our ICU is full and the community is still struggling to rebuild, but every day, we are here for each other and the community. It’s a blessing to be able to serve your community, and in health care, it truly is a service.”

ANNA WRIGHT

While Dr. Anna Wright recently accepted a position in Kernersville, North Carolina, on the outskirts of Winston-Salem, she spent the past several years in rural health. Most recently, she served as an emergency room physician at Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in Elkin, North Carolina–a town of 4,000 people in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

She understands that life as an emergency room physician is a marathon, not a sprint, aptly true in the age of COVID-19.

“The rural impact of COVID-19 has been a challenge. In August 2021, we were hit even harder than previous surges. We have less resources and our populations are statistically less likely to be vaccinated, so that makes it difficult,” Wright said.

“The entire experience has been unprecedented for everybody in health care. Our hospital responded well and teamed together to make it through, but it is like living through history.”

The 2002 MSU biochemistry alumna said triathlon training helps her in the ER. “Being active and strong fuels the energy and endurance I need during my shifts,” Wright explained. “The commitment and focus I gained through marathon training helped me throughout medical school and as a physician.”

In 2019, Wright completed a Half Ironman, which included a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run. That same year, she began working to improve an epidemic sweeping her community.

“We are a peak opioid addiction area, so we started a bridge program in the emergency department and simultaneously launched a peer support program,” Wright said.

If someone presents in the ER with symptoms of an opioid addiction, doctors are able to prescribe suboxone, a drug used to treat it, while also referring the patient to a peer support group specialist— someone who has recovered from an opioid addiction.

“That pairing allows a person to receive a prescription that helps with opioid withdrawals while also getting close, personal follow-up,” she explained.

“The beauty of a peer support person is they have also struggled with addiction, and this process is a more honest, palatable option for some patients who benefit from connecting with someone who has been through a similar struggle.”

Wright said this partnership is so effective because much of medicine is tied up in the social determinants of health, which include the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

“Where someone lives, their educational and socioeconomic status, mental health and more affect their health, so it feels great to have this partnership and offer so much by working with another organization,” she said. “Peer support specialists offer a lot of expertise and are able to direct that person to the right location where they would be best served. It’s so much better than just giving someone a number to call.

“As simple as that sounds, often it’s not, and you can miss the opportunity to make a difference if the barriers are too great,” she added.

Efforts are paying off.

“The program is gaining momentum as we link patients to treatment services while giving them temporary treatment to keep them from overdosing before they have a chance to enter recovery,” she said.

Wright said she enjoys rural medicine but is realistic about its challenges.

“Access to care can be tricky for patients and providers,” she said. “Resources are often dependent on location. Outcomes can be different based on ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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geography. When someone comes in with a life-threatening condition, distance to a transfer hospital is still a variable even if everything goes well.

“Also, depending on the area, socioeconomic differences play a role,” she continued. “Being face to face with inequity and working to help that in a small way is rewarding but there are also larger issues that can’t be immediately addressed.”

Wright said she felt connected to the area despite its challenges.

“Elkin is close-knit. I was an outsider, but these were neighbors and often for our staff, their family,” she said. “The community has a family atmosphere with the chance you know the patient. Treating all patients like family is not only an ideal but a reality.”

That family atmosphere is something Wright remembers about MSU. “My MSU experience made me who I am today. My freshman speech class with Dr. Zacharias influences me each time I give a presentation,” she noted. “That personal investment made all the difference in me becoming a confident, competent and caring professional.”

Wright said serving rural patients is a deeply fulfilling aspect of her career.

“For me, it was about trying to deliver the same quality of care patients would get in a larger area, pushing for quality, access and equity,” she said. “I didn’t want to accept a lack of excellence because we are a rural site. I did everything I could to give my patients the same access to high quality care.”

IMPROVING HEALTH OUTCOMES FOR RURAL CITIZENS

Beyond producing alumni who go on to practice rural health care, Mississippi State is home to faculty, staff and students who are addressing the gap in rural and urban medicine head on. Through a variety of programs and services dedicated to assisting rural Americans in a quest for better health access and outcomes, Bulldogs are working to change the health paradigm for rural residents in Mississippi and beyond.

Look for the spring 2022 issue of Alumnus magazine for more on how Mississippi State University is helping people overcome rural health disparities. n

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BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE

Tips for managing personal health care One of the most important tools for health care providers is having a complete and accurate picture of a patient’s health history. However, medical professionals can only work with the information they are given and, often, it is up to the patient to provide these details.

This is especially true in rural settings where connectivity issues can limit access to digital records and where primary care doctors and specialists might not be working within the same system or even the same state.

“We’ve made a lot of progress with electronic health records, but we still have a long way to go,” said David Buys, an associate professor and state health specialist with the MSU Extension Service. “Patients seeing health care providers in different health systems may get better outcomes if they keep their own records and take them to their appointments.”

Buys recommends keeping a file or notebook with the following information and updating it with each appointment or health change. A separate file should be kept for each person whose health care you help manage including yourself, any children and any older adults.

• Complete health history including: • family medical history, which is a list of the health conditions of parents, siblings and grandparents; • personal medical history, a complete picture of the patient’s past and current conditions, as well as information on how they are being treated, how well each is controlled, current prescriptions and overthe-counter medications, and a listing of any surgeries, accidents and hospitalizations.

• Summaries and notes from all doctor visits and hospitalizations, as well as all test results.

• Ask for these notes at each visit and file them by date in your records so the most recent information is easily accessible.

• Copies of insurance cards, a living will and medical power of attorney.

• Contact information for health care providers, insurance companies, pharmacies and hospitals.

• It can be helpful to also make note of who to speak with at each location, as well as their direct contact information, and to keep a record of who was spoken to and when in case you need to reference past conversations.

Buys says it is also important to ask specialists to share visit notes and records with the patient’s primary health provider and to stay in touch with them. This requires signing a form to allow medical information to be shared but is essential for keeping everyone on the same page and ensuring all physicians can see the whole picture of a patient’s health.

FROM STATE TO WORLD'S STAGE School-record six former Bulldogs competed at Tokyo Olympics, representing their countries and MSU

By Joel Coleman

A casual viewer of last summer’s Tokyo Olympics likely wouldn’t have noticed the tie.

In the men’s 800m, there stood Marco Arop and Brandon McBride representing Canada. Marta Pen Freitas of Portugal competed in the women’s 1500m. Over in the men’s javelin, Anderson Peters threw for Grenada

while Curtis Thompson sported the red, white and blue of the United States. Fellow Team USA member Erica Bougard was in the heptathlon.

All told, it simply looked like six individuals competing and wearing the colors of four different countries. A deeper look showed six athletes bound by two colors–maroon and white.

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Erica Bougard (USA) in the women's heptathlon 800m during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Olympic Stadium.

Photo by Kirby Lee–USA TODAY Sports

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Arop, McBride, Pen Freitas, Peters, Thompson and Bougard are all former Mississippi State track and field athletes. Together, they made up the largest contingent of former Bulldogs to ever compete in a single Olympic Games.

Sure, the six were ambassadors for their home countries. However, it can’t be ignored that they all proudly carried the banner of MSU athletics, as well as three of State’s academic colleges: six Bulldogs toting the torch for themselves, their countries and their school half a world away from their Mississippi home.

What Woods didn’t do though was reach the Olympics, so it was special for him to be in Tokyo to see and follow along with so many Bulldogs.

“There’s a whole new meaning to the word elite in my eyes,” Woods said of his trip to the games. “To see the best of the best in the entire world, it really opens your eyes as to what things you must do both on and off the track in order to be successful at that level. It was a great personal experience for me, but it was an even better experience to watch Erica, Anderson, Marta, Marco, Brandon and Curtis compete. That was extremely special to me because all of

“I think it shows that Mississippi State is a place where you can come, and if you work hard, you can achieve your dreams. Every track and field athlete’s dream is to one day reach the Olympics, and we’ve proven over the last few Olympics that this is a place to help you reach those goals.” ~ CHRIS WOODS “I think it shows that Mississippi State is a place where you can come, and if you work hard, you can achieve your dreams,” said Chris Woods, MSU’s head track and field coach.

“Every track and field athlete’s dream is to one day reach the Olympics, and we’ve proven over the last few Olympics that this is a place to help you reach those goals.”

For Woods, it was certainly a point of pride to see so many Bulldogs giving it their all on the world’s stage.

Outside of being MSU’s head coach, he is a Mississippi State alumnus himself. He starred on the track for the Bulldogs as a middle-distance athlete from 2005-08, garnering two All-America honors and four AllSoutheastern Conference accolades.

Woods was once the school’s indoor 800m record holder before he was passed by a trio of Bulldogs, including Arop and McBride.

those athletes wore the same jersey that I once wore. I kind of get goosebumps talking about it now.”

Not only did the Mississippi State contingent compete in Tokyo but many also found success to varying degrees.

Bougard had perhaps the strongest showing of any Bulldog. In the first day of the heptathlon, she held the silver medal position before falling off that pace later in the day. On the second day of competition, Bougard struggled in what is traditionally a pair of her stronger events–the long jump and 800m.

Still, Bougard finished among the top 10 in the world. She settled for ninth place, 211 points shy of the podium and 412 points short of Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium.

Two other former MSU athletes advanced to semifinals in their events.

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Competing in her second Olympic Games, Pen Freitas emerged from the qualifying round of the 1500m, even if it did take an interesting twist.

She was in ninth place in her heat as she attempted to qualify, however Morocco’s Rababe Arafi pulled up and stopped on the track in front of Pen Freitas, disrupting her stride. She ended up missing a qualifying time by only 1.11 seconds. However, Pen Freitas was reinstated for the semifinals following an appeal by the Portuguese Olympic Committee.

“I feel I was in incredible shape,” Pen Freitas told The Record, a Portuguese-language news outlet in

off the final turn and finished seventh in his heat to end his stint in Tokyo.

Still, it was quite an experience for Arop. He got to compete in his first Olympics, and he got to do it with his fellow former Bulldog, fellow Canadian, good friend and role model, McBride.

Arop was still in high school when he got the chance to watch an older McBride run for the first time at an event in Canada. Arop said he had never witnessed anything like it.

McBride was already a student-athlete at Mississippi State at the time, and he left quite an impression on the young, up-and-coming Arop.

“I’d sort of use him as motivation. For the longest time, I’d be training at home. If I had a really hard practice session, my teammates would be like, ‘Oh, what do you think Brandon McBride would do?’ Just little things like that to get in my head. It would just motivate me.” ~ MARCO AROP her home country. “I have done a lot of work to come back here five years later, working with the right people.

This generates, and often demands of me, some sacrifices, which are worth it to be able to come here. And (at the Olympics) nothing is deserved; it is conquered! Unfortunately, ... I was not able to conquer what I was capable of.

Sport is like that. It costs a little bit, but I’m super proud. I’m lucky to do what I love.”

The appeal gave Pen Freitas renewed hope, but she couldn’t quite advance past the semifinals. She did, however, post a season-best time for herself, crossing the finish line in 4:04.15.

In the 800m, Arop also advanced to the semifinal. It looked as though he might go even farther as he led from the gun until the final 100m in the semifinal round, but he ultimately faded

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“Seeing his stride, it was almost like, ‘I can’t believe this is real,’” Arop recalled. “This is what a world-class runner looks like.”

McBride immediately became a huge influence on Arop’s life.

“I’d sort of use him as motivation,” Arop said. “For the longest time, I’d be training at home. If I had a really hard practice session, my teammates would be like, ‘Oh, what do you think Brandon McBride would do?’

Just little things like that to get in my head. It would just motivate me.”

It’s funny how life works out.

Arop would eventually follow the trail blazed by McBride. Coach Woods wanted Arop to become a Bulldog, and Arop wanted the same.

“Whatever Brandon did to be successful, it definitely worked, so I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t take the same path,” Arop said.

TOP: Team Portugal's Pen Freitas runs in the middle of the pack in round one of the Women's 1500m heats on day 10 of the Toyko 2020 Olympic Games.

Photo by Rob Carr–Getty Images.

BOTTOM LEFT: Team Canada's Marco Arop leads the field as he competes in the second heat of the first round of the men's 800m during the 2020 summer Olympics. Photo by James Lang– USA TODAY Sports.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Brandon McBride competes for Canada in the third heat of the first round of the men's 800m on day eight of the Tokyo Olympics. Photo by Christian Petersen–Getty Images.

ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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McBride’s Mississippi State career had already ended by the time Arop arrived in Starkville. The two did eventually begin competing against each other in world events though, building a bond along the way.

Fast-forward to Tokyo where Arop and McBride ran together for Team Canada. McBride didn’t make it out of the qualifying round, but he did get to experience the Olympics

Now it bears asking: As good as Tokyo was for MSU, could the future be even better?

“We took six current or former student-athletes to Tokyo, and I really believe those six individuals have another opportunity to make it in 2024,” Woods said. “I think we have kids on our team right now who could represent their countries in the 2024 Olympics. I am certainly expecting

“We took six current or former student-athletes to Tokyo, and I really believe those six individuals have another opportunity to make it in 2024. I think we have kids on our team right now who could represent their countries in the 2024 Olympics. . . We certainly have talent on our team so that in 2024, we could have a few more Olympians in Paris.” ~ CHRIS WOOD with Arop, the guy he once set an example for.

While Arop and McBride brought MSU flair to the 800m, Peters and Thompson did so in the javelin, a sport in which Mississippi State has developed quite a reputation—so much so that MSU has become known as JavU. Ever since Thompson won an individual national title in 2016, javelin success has kept coming for the Bulldogs. In Tokyo, JavU was on display for the whole world to see.

MSU was the only school in the U.S. that could boast multiple javelin throwers at this year’s Olympic Games. Unfortunately, neither Peters– the reigning world champion–nor Thompson qualified for the final. Still, it was a groundbreaking moment for JavU, as well as Mississippi State’s track and field program as a whole.

additions to that group. We’ve got to keep people healthy and keep people focused. We certainly have talent on our team so that in 2024, we could have a few more Olympians in Paris.”

But that’s the future. In the moment, MSU can at least briefly celebrate making history in Tokyo.

Like a crowd clanging cowbells, this year’s Olympics proved Bulldog track and field athletes are being heard loud and clear around the globe.

“That kind of shows what can come out of the great program we came through,” Thompson said. “You have two jav throwers. You have two 800 runners. You have Marta in distance, then you’ve got Erica in the multi. So it kind of covers all the bases and all the events in track and kind of says, ‘Hey, if you go to Mississippi State, you can get to that level as well.’” n

TOP: Anderson Peters competes for Grenada in the men's javelin throw qualification at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium in August 2021. Photo by David Ramos–Getty Images. BOTTOM: Team USA's Curtis Thompson competes in the men's javelin throw qualification at the Toyko 2020 Olympic games. Photo by David Ramos–Getty Images.

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Recognized as the second-oldest on-campus football stadium in NCAA Division I, Davis Wade Stadium, home of Scott Field, takes its name from the late Floyd Davis Wade Sr. of Meridian. Financial gifts from the longtime Bulldog supporter spearheaded the stadium’s 2000 expansion, its first major renovation since the 1980s. Photo by Beth Wynn.

SCOTT’S LEGACY LIVES ON

Bulldog football team plays on field named after school’s first Olympian Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field.

In the fall, no other place is so loud. No other place is so electric. No other place is so special.

Put simply, there’s just nothing like it.

And that’s only fitting, given the ground’s namesake–a man who will forever stand among the greatest athletes in Mississippi State history.

In 1920, students at then-Mississippi A&M thought so much of Don Magruder Scott, they named their new athletic facility after him.

Why would a track and field standout with limited football experience get bestowed such an honor? A quick glimpse at the Scott resume has all the answers.

He was MSU’s first-ever national champion, winning in the half-mile back in 1916. Soon, Scott would take his success to the world’s biggest stage.

He qualified for the 1916 Olympics.

Yet, because World War I canceled the games, it’d be four years before Scott would finally compete as an Olympian.

In 1920, Scott officially became Mississippi State’s first-ever Olympian.

He’d return to the Olympics once again four years later.

Scott competed in both the 800-meter sprint and the modern pentathlon over the course of his Olympic career.

And while he made a name for himself globally, back in Starkville at MSU, it was

cemented that Scott’s legacy would live on.

A 1920 column in the school newspaper, The Reflector, asked, “Why not name our new athletic field ‘Scott Field’ in appreciation of Don’s untiring efforts to bring athletic fame to his alma mater?”

That’s precisely what happened. Now at one of the country’s most exciting athletic venues, the name Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field carries with it the legacy of a trailblazer, a champion and Mississippi State’s first-ever Olympian.

There can be only one first. So as six MSU athletes made their mark in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, they did so in a path that was paved by Don Scott. n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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www.kylecavan.com/collections/mississippi-state-university

318 Howard St • Greenwood, MS 662.453.2114 • thealluvian.com ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Our PEOPLE

Ben Bailey was the first student to complete all parts of the Shackouls Honors College’s Cursus Honorum curriculum.

THE BUSINESS OF GRATITUDE Student experiences translate into professional success for MSU alumnus

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By Sasha Steinberg, Photo by Beth Wynn

en Bailey is a firm believer that new technology opens the door to new opportunities to solve new problems in new ways. The Starkville native said he explored this concept as a Mississippi State student, and those lessons prepared him for his current role as manager of content marketing for one of the world’s leading software companies.

Bailey works for Frame.io, a video review and collaboration platform designed to help creative teams work together securely and in real-time from anywhere in the world. He said he enjoys “wearing a lot of hats,” from working on the company’s industry publication and automation projects to helping internal departments tell technical stories of all kinds.

“Frame.io is the perfect intersection of all of my professional and creative interests—technology, cinema, filmmaking, storytelling, incredible design, and attention to detail and quality,” Bailey said. “It is fortune and providence that the opportunity to work here opened up to me, and I’m incredibly grateful that it did.”

Bailey joined Frame.io in 2018, fresh out of graduate school at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity in ethics. Nine years prior, he was a bright-eyed Mississippi State freshman, hungry for opportunities to explore his interests in international culture, language, business and problem solving. He found just what he was looking for in MSU’s College of Business.

“Pursuing a management major in the international business program was a natural melding of those two interests,” said Bailey, who also earned bachelor’s degrees in foreign language and philosophy/religion.

“Dr. Allison Pearson and Dr. Melissa Moore were really good at teaching concepts, making lessons memorable and bringing up case studies to flesh out what we were talking about,” he said. “Dr. Jon Rezek was tenacious in the way he helped students with what they wanted to accomplish.”

Bailey was an early member of the university’s entrepreneurship club and received support from the Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board to start a video production business while an MSU student. Now living

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some 1,000 miles away, he serves as a member of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach’s Peer Review Entrepreneurship Panel, advising current students eager to create their own startups.

“Becoming an entrepreneur or being involved with entrepreneurs allows you to do things that you couldn’t have imagined. I never would have imagined that by the time I was 31, I would be at this stage of my career, running a sizeable team at a major company,” Bailey said.

“My involvement with the E-Center taught me it’s OK to fail and to keep looking for that pathway to success.”

Bailey attributes his open mindedness as a young entrepreneur to his student years in MSU’s Lab Rats Comedy troupe.

“I never would have guessed how relevant the skills of improv are in the professional world,” Bailey said. “Lab Rats taught me how to think fast on my feet and adapt to new scenarios, and that has been super helpful to me.

Being able to iterate, learn new things and take correction from other people who know a lot more than you is important.”

Bailey said he also highly recommends for current students to consider the Shackouls Honors College’s University of Oxford study abroad program, as well as the college’s Cursus Honorum curriculum. He said studying abroad taught him the importance of “discovering what other people have done, what they can do, who they are and how they live.”

“There’s nothing that can prepare you for the future in a rapidly changing world quite like a genuine, humane education,” he said. “Learning how to ask questions, look for deeper insight, and use reason, logic and rhetoric to explore new ideas—that was by far the most beneficial part of my MSU experience.”

His parting advice to current students and soon-tobe-graduates?

“Drink the chocolate milk in Perry cafeteria.

Every time I think about it, I regret not having it at every meal,” he said with a laugh. “I’m serious; you will regret it. You will turn 30 and will say, ‘Why didn’t I drink the chocolate milk? It was free, it was there, and it was delicious.’” n

"Becoming an entrepreneur or being involved with entrepreneurs allows you to do things that you couldn’t have imagined. I never would have imagined that by the time I was 31, I would be at this stage of my career, running a sizeable team at a major company." ~ Ben Bailey

ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Our PEOPLE

“You’ve got to start somewhere, and I’m glad I started there because it helped sharpen my writing and skill

as a reporter.”

CHANGING COURSE

Financial struggles helped alumna find direction in life

By Susan Lassetter, Photo by Jared Wickerham

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rowing up in Jackson, Lacretia Wimbley always considered Mississippi State her school, so when it came time to start her pre-med education, becoming a Bulldog was a no brainer. What required more thought was how to pay for that education once she was accepted.

“I love learning about health and consider myself a science geek. Naturally, I always figured I’d go into the medical field,” Wimbley said. “By the end of my sophomore year, I wasn’t really enjoying my classes, and I was having trouble paying for school. I didn’t have enough grants and loans to sustain me.”

Wimbley said she made the only decision she could at the time. She dropped out of school to focus on paying off past-due tuition and finding support to ultimately finish her undergraduate degree.

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“I was so sad to leave,” Wimbley recalled. “You hear stories of people leaving school and never returning.

I was scared that would happen to me, especially since I was working two jobs. I was terrified I would get used to not being in school, but knew I wanted to finish what I started.”

Wimbley moved back home for what would ultimately be a yearlong break from her studies. During that time, she worked day shifts at Taco Bell and nights at Walmart to begin chipping away at her debt.

“I was keeping track of how much I needed to pay off so I could register for classes again,” Wimbley explained.

“By the grace of God, I managed to get it all paid off the week before fall classes were to start. I didn’t have a place to stay, but I got my classes locked in and was officially a student again.”

First published in 1884, Mississippi State's student newspaper, The Reflector, is the oldest college newspaper in the Southeastern Conference.

Though she made headway in finding additional support to cover her tuition, Wimbley admits to still feeling a little lost at the time.

“There’s something about working hard to pay tuition out of pocket that just gives you extra drive,” Wimbley said.

“I started thinking about my biological science classes and asked myself, ‘Is this something you really enjoy?’”

“My mother asked, ‘Why don’t you try something writing focused?’ But I wasn’t sure,” she continued. “I’ve been a writer my whole life—short stories, poetry—but because I enjoyed writing so much, it didn’t cross my mind as a career choice. It was more of a hobby to me until my mom mentioned the idea.”

Wimbley said once she re-enrolled at State as a communication major, things just started to click. With an emphasis in journalism, she immediately joined the staff of

also compiling national and international news briefs and designing pages.

“You’ve got to start somewhere, and I’m glad I started there because it helped sharpen my writing and skill as a reporter,” she said. “Writing and reporting is my passion. It’s where my heart is.”

Within two years, Wimbley was hired full time with the Post-Gazette. For the past three years, she has covered breaking news, including accidents, crime and courts, and social justice issues for the Pittsburgh area. She is currently a columnist for the paper’s features department and covers a beat focused on entertainment and the city’s underserved communities.

“I’ve enjoyed breaking news since I got a taste for it with The Reflector,” Wimbley said. “There is something so humbling about being a reporter and covering the human

“Journalism is truly a service. There are stories everywhere, and everyone has a story. How we handle people as journalists is equally as important as the meticulous work that goes into our research.” ~ Lacretia Wimbley the twice-weekly student newspaper The Reflector. By her second year, she was promoted to news editor and ultimately became the paper’s first African American editor-in-chief.

During her tenure on the staff, she won awards for writing, editing, reporting and page design.

Frances McDavid, a longtime communication instructor and 20-year adviser to The Reflector, said Wimbley displayed an impressive ability to manage people and high-pressure situations.

“She brought maturity to her leadership,” McDavid recalled. “Her ability to listen and understand a variety of perspectives and her willingness to make hard decisions became one of her greatest strengths.”

Wimbley still uses those skills daily as a reporter and editor with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which she joined as an intern following her graduation in 2016.

She found the position through the MSU Department of Communication and, with a push from her adviser, took a leap into uncertainty, much like when she left school after her sophomore year.

“I was absolutely nervous,” Wimbley said. “I had no connections in Pittsburgh—no family, no friends. It was a brand new start for me. But for all my nerves, I was also extremely excited.”

She started on the copy desk—fact checking and editing stories for grammar and style. Soon, Wimbley was

experience. I’ve cried with parents who have lost their children to gun violence while covering these stories, and I’ve gotten to know all kinds of people in the community. Journalism is truly a service. There are stories everywhere, and everyone has a story. How we handle people as journalists is equally as important as the meticulous work that goes into our research.”

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily changed how reporting is done and limited some of the faceto-face interaction Wimbley enjoys, her passion for journalism hasn’t waned since her first day at The Reflector. And she’s using that passion to benefit her fellow Steel City journalists.

After a midterm resignation left a vacancy at the top of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, Wimbley successfully ran to fill the elected position. She is the union’s first Black president and represents its more than 200 members from the PostGazette and Point Park University.

“I never envisioned I’d be doing the work I do today as a journalist and labor union leader,” Wimbley said. “I give all the glory to God. Sometimes while following your passions, you can stumble into your calling. I’m a huge advocate for student journalists, and I always credit my experience working at The Reflector, along with the help of wise advisers and teachers at MSU, with preparing me for professional journalism. There is much work to be done in the world, so whatever our passions are, we must work to be the change the world needs.” n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Our PEOPLE

ALUMNA LEADS DOD EFFORTS TO BOOST U.S. MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES

By James Carskadon, Photo Submitted

From the War of 1812 jumpstarting the Industrial Revolution in America to the unprecedented industrial effort required for World War II, U.S. manufacturing has always been vital to military efforts and economic security.

With the Department of Defense conducting ever-more technologically advanced operations, a Mississippi State alumna is working to ensure U.S. industry is prepared for a changing military and economic landscape.

Adele Ratcliff is spearheading Department of Defense efforts to meet military needs and create well-paying jobs in the country’s manufacturing sector. The McComb native is director of Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment, or IBAS, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

“Being involved in this work since 2004 drives home the important role that manufacturing plays in underpinning our economic security and being available when called upon for national security needs,” said Ratcliff, a 1988 MSU graduate. “It’s been hugely rewarding to be able to walk across the many manufacturing floors of this country to see how they contribute to their local communities as well as to the defense of our nation.”

Ratcliff initially trained to be part of U.S. manufacturing, majoring in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in marine engineering at MSU. She worked at a Florida shipyard in her last

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Learn more about what is currently happening with Project MFG on Twitter and Instagram @projectmfg.

summer before graduation, which led to a full-time job after graduation. She soon found an opportunity to join the research and development taking place at Elgin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle.

While at Elgin Air Force Base, Ratcliff was test manager for the Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispenser program, one of the first Air Force programs to convert highaltitude bombs into guided weapons.

The guided weapons became part of the Air Force’s arsenal not long before the September 11 attacks and the beginning of the War on Terror. The R&D project she worked on was put to use as U.S. forces launched the war in Afghanistan.

Her efforts earned her the Air Force Material Command Test Engineer of the Year Award.

“That was a big lesson learned,” Ratcliff said. “You never know what’s going to happen. We faced a lot of obstacles with that program, but if we had not persisted in making the deadlines the Air Force set in front of us, you don’t know whether that weapon would have been available.”

Interested in broadening her career opportunities, Ratcliff moved to Washington, D.C. and began working in the Secretary of Defense’s Foreign Comparative Test Program. Later, she would serve in the Department of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program. In that role, she took the lead in establishing the DoD’s Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, now known as Manufacturing USA Institutes. The institutes, a national effort to grow manufacturing in the U.S., were a presidential priority and outlined in former President Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address.

In her current role, she is wellversed with the challenges facing America’s manufacturing sector. As more manufacturing moved overseas in the latter half of the 20th century,

career and technical education was often de-emphasized by schools. Now, with an aging workforce, there are an estimated 2-2.5 million manufacturing jobs that need to be filled. At the same time, the manufacturing process and the products being manufactured use increasingly advanced technologies, making it difficult for schools and community colleges to prepare students for current jobs.

"Decades ago, people thought we could continue to innovate here and make somewhere else and maintain our global leadership in innovation. And we know that’s simply not true. So now the race is on, to revitalize and to restore our manufacturing prominence in this country." ~ Adele Ratcliff “When we de-industrialized, chasing lower cost instead of quality, we began to erode our ecosystems of innovation and manufacturing in this country, and the relationships between them,” Ratcliff said. “Decades ago, people thought we could continue to innovate here and make somewhere else and maintain our global leadership in innovation. And we know that’s simply not true. So now the race is on, to revitalize and to restore our manufacturing prominence in this country.”

A large part of Ratcliff’s efforts have focused on getting youth to recognize the promise and opportunities of careers in manufacturing. To that end,

her office launched Project MFG, a competition that brings together teams from across the country to compete in trade skill challenges. It has become a video series titled “Clash of Trades” on the Project MFG YouTube page. Ratcliff said that with Mississippi’s growing manufacturing base, she would love to see a team from her native Magnolia State win the national competition.

As the U.S. seeks to grow manufacturing capabilities, Ratcliff said research and land-grant universities like MSU can play a major role by facilitating connections across the states they occupy, filling research gaps and solving problems collectively.

“I think there’s a special leadership role in manufacturing workforce for the land grants when you go back and look at their history of why they were established,” Ratcliff said. “It goes beyond agriculture. It is to help provide the people of their state a practical education, and these jobs in manufacturing are supported by a practical education that can pay dividends for the state and for the community.”

An alumna of MSU and the Army War College, Ratcliff said that even though her education at MSU focused on a specific engineering discipline, it gave her a solid foundation for tackling national problems and working with public and private sector partners across the country.

“I got a sound engineering degree that taught me critical thinking,” Ratcliff said. “In our role and mission space for the industrial base, we’re exposed to a broad range of technology, with a lot of depth that we have to grasp in terms of understanding the state of that technology, the value of it, and how to continue to develop it in this country.

I feel like my degree at Mississippi State gave me a solid foundation to continue to build on.” n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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Visit our website for the most current information.

The MSU Alumni Association annually sponsors trips across the globe through the Traveling Bulldogs program. Itineraries are booked through 2022. Explore our website for more information at alumni.msstate.edu/travel or contact the Alumni Association at (662) 325-7000.

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ALUMNI News

MSU RECOGNIZES 2021

Alumni Fellows

A

group of Mississippi State University’s notable alumni are selected each fall as Alumni Fellows.

They are honored in recognition of the ultimate measure of a university—the quality of its alumni.

Sponsored by the MSU Alumni Association and the university’s eight academic colleges, the program recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves in their respective careers. It also provides an opportunity for honorees to share their extensive knowledge and real-world experience from their

CAMILLE SCALES YOUNG Madison, Mississippi College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

With more than two decades of experience in state and federal government affairs and a wealth of issue expertise, Camille Scales Young is helping to lead change through her personal and professional endeavors. The Shannon native currently serves as principal and director in the Jackson office of Cornerstone Government Affairs, a full-service, bipartisan consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. Young first discovered her love for politics during her time as a student at Mississippi State University when she participated in a summer internship on Capitol Hill. She earned

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respective fields with MSU students and faculty.

Through the years, the Alumni Fellows program has served as a means for enriching students’ MSU experiences by exposing them to outstanding alumni who are willing to talk about specific competencies, attitudes and efforts needed to succeed.

The MSU Alumni Association welcomed the 2021 class of Alumni Fellows to campus in September. They are among the university’s more than 155,000 living alumni worldwide. The newest honorees include:

both a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s degree in agriculture and Extension education from MSU in 1994 and 1996, respectively.

After graduating, Young worked with the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation in various positions, including communications specialist, director of media relations and government relations specialist, which enabled her to spend time on Capitol Hill and in the Mississippi Capitol providing support for the agricultural community. She then spent 10 years as a government affairs representative with Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A. before assuming her current role.

In addition to her MSU education, Young also holds a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University and has been very involved in both workplace and community diversity and inclusion activities. She was

honored to serve as national board president of the MSU Alumni Association and, during her tenure, she increased participation of many diverse factions of the alumni base.

Young is involved in community activities like the boards of directors for BankFirst, Cal-Maine Foods, Mississippi Power Company, the Woodward Hines Education Foundation, Mission Mississippi and the Mississippi 4-H Foundation. She is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. At MSU, she is also involved with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Department of Communication advisory boards.

She has been honored for her professional accomplishments and service to the community as a member of the Mississippi Business Journal’s Top 50 Business Women and as a Woman of Distinction by the Girl

Scout Council of Middle Mississippi. In 2017, Young was recognized in the inaugural class of Top 50 Most Influential People in Mississippi.

JANET MARIE SMITH

Baltimore, Maryland

College of Architecture, Art and Design

Renowned architect and urban planner Janet Marie Smith is well-known in the sports world for her work on some of America’s most classic venues. Named one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in sports by Adweek.com, she joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012 after working with other Major League Baseball teams, including the Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox. She currently serves the organization as executive vice president of planning and development.

Smith began her big-league career in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1989. There, she made a name for herself through her work on Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which set the standard for a new wave of ballparks after its opening in 1992. From there, she also helped transform Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic Stadium into Turner Field, oversaw the preservation and expansion of Fenway Park and the development of the Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena), home to the NBA Atlanta Hawks and NHL Atlanta Thrashers.

Outside of baseball, Smith has worked on urban development projects, including Battery Park City in New York and Pershing Square—downtown Los Angeles’s oldest park. She worked on the concept design for the renovation of the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California, and was a member of one of the two final teams in the competition for the World Trade Center site in New York City in 2002.

Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Mississippi State University in 1981 and later received a master’s degree in urban planning from City College of New York. At Mississippi State, she took an interest in civic buildings and cities. She was always interested in architecture on a larger scale and the impact spaces could have on cities.

The School of Architecture helped grow that passion for her through field trips to New York and Chicago and lecture series that brought renowned architects to campus to speak.

The Jackson native credits MSU with serving as a launchpad for her career and has remained connected to her alma mater over the years. She delivered the keynote address during MSU’s 2013 commencement exercises and was a champion for the recent renovation and expansion of Dudy Noble Field, which has earned rave reviews nationally since opening. She also has extended support to the School of Architecture, student scholarships and faculty awards in the College of Architecture, Art and Design.

Smith’s work is recognized at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in its “Diamond Dreams” exhibit honoring the historic involvement of women in baseball. She was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2020 and was earlier recognized by Sports Business Journal as both a Power Player for Design and Development and as a member of their 2017 Class of Champions.

BRUCE THOMAS Lenexa, Kansas

College of Arts and Sciences

Bruce Thomas is a distinguished meteorologist better known as the “Weather Radio King” among audiences in the Midwest. His career in weather began during his time as a student at Mississippi State University in the early 1980s, and today he continues his work as chief meteorologist for the News-Press Gazette TV station in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and a consultant for predictive weather modeling platform Weather2020.

Before his current role, Thomas served as a marketing meteorologist and national spokesperson for Kansas City, Missouri-based Midland Radio Corporation. His television and radio broadcasts promoted weather safety across America’s tornado-prone areas and helped position Midland Radio as a leader in sales of early-warning weather products, including NOAA Weather Radios for home and business use.

A native of Mississippi, he spent most of his childhood between Jackson and Biloxi.

Thomas enrolled at MSU at the age of 16 and began pursuing his studies in geosciences.

The geology field trips to Big Bend National Park and the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas were among his favorite student experiences.

Thomas was also proud to serve as the first student weather forecaster on campus, sharing his weekly forecasts in MSU’s student-run newspaper, The Reflector.

Thomas also credits the mentorship he received at Mississippi State for much of his success. Last year, he created the Dr. Charles L. Wax Endowed Climatology Faculty Fellowship at MSU in honor of Wax, a professor emeritus and former geosciences department head who greatly influenced Thomas’s education and passion for meteorology.

While Thomas’s educational career began at MSU, he completed his bachelor’s degree in broadcast meteorology from Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado. He also pursued postgraduate studies at Texas A&M University while serving as the local television weatherman for nearly a decade in central Texas. After receiving recognition for his television coverage during a tragic tornado outbreak in Jarrell, Texas, Thomas’s career skyrocketed, and he was hired as a severe weather expert by KCTV5 CBS station in Kansas City.

Thomas is a member of the American Meteorological Society, where he earned the designation of Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, and is a past president and lifetime member of the National Weather Association. His dedicated service and career spanning more than three decades has garnered several honorable distinctions, including the National Weather Service Weather-Ready Nation Champion Award in 2019 and the prestigious U.S. Department of Commerce NOAA/National Weather Service Mark Trail Award in 2006.

KATHY ST. JOHN Madison, Mississippi College of Business

Kathy St. John believes her Mississippi State University student experience gave her the tools to lead and work with others in accomplishing goals for the betterment of all—an attribute she continues to uphold each day. As a proud advocate for her alma mater, she is grateful for the honor and opportunity to represent the College of Business as its Alumni Fellow.

The Brookhaven native graduated from MSU with a bachelor’s degree in marketing in ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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1979. She later pursued a graduate degree in secondary education from the University of Southern Mississippi before beginning her career.

St. John employed her MSU degree primarily in the landscape, property management and health care industries over the years. She was a co-founder of St. John & Associates, a commercial and residential landscape business in Hattiesburg before assuming the role of marketing director and sales lead at Hillenmeyer Nurseries in Lexington, Kentucky. In 2005, she transitioned into health care. She served as managing director and contracts consultant for senior-living health care group purchasing organization NAPA HealthCare Connection, Inc. in Lexington for nearly a decade, retiring in 2015.

Of all her professional endeavors, St. John is most proud of an entrepreneurial venture that she started in 1988 while living in Memphis, Tennessee. The business, which began as a small property management operation intended for homeowner associations in planned unit developments and single-family neighborhoods, grew to encompass 11 developments with 750 homes. St. John used her MSU education to successfully navigate the business, managing communications and financial operations for each development’s board of directors. A competitor offered a profitable buyout and St. John agreed to sell her self-made business in 1994.

Outside her professional pursuits, St. John is also passionate about giving back, particularly through her service and commitments at MSU. Inspired by her father, a fellow Bulldog graduate, she established the Kathy Moreton St. John Endowed Fellowship in Marketing in 2011 and was an early investor in the Market Innovation Lab and Observatory, enabling the college to purchase necessary equipment to kick-start the innovative program. Over the years, she and her husband, Drew, have generously contributed to areas across the university including athletics and student and faculty support. They also created the St. John Family Endowed Professorship in Wildlife Management in 2017.

St. John is a member of the marketing advisory board, which she earlier chaired for several years, and was recently nominated to chair the executive advisory board for

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the College of Business beginning in 2022.

She also serves as president of the Jackson alumnae chapter of Delta Gamma Fraternity and chaired the capital campaign for renovations of the Delta Gamma house on the MSU campus. The second-generation Bulldog believes that giving back to MSU is a continuation of a heritage instilled in her by her dad and considers the nomination to chair the executive advisory board to be the “icing on the cake” for her retirement years.

RONA JOHNSON-BELSER

Birmingham, Alabama College of Education

Rona JohnsonBelser is an inspiring educator who dedicated her career to helping others. Although she retired from her role as a childhood teacher with the Jefferson County School System in Birmingham, Alabama, she continues to make a difference in students’ lives at Mississippi State through her involvement.

A native of Burnsville, Johnson-Belser attended Northeast Junior College before transferring to MSU in the fall of 1971.

She graduated from the MSU College of Education in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in special education and began her longtime career in the special education field, working with children and adults with special needs in Mississippi and Alabama. She strived to meet and ensure the individual needs of each of her students and their families were met. Through her work, she became a recognized advocate for people with special needs.

Johnson-Belser believes her student experience at MSU gave her the confidence and training needed to become a successful special education teacher. Moreover, she is grateful for the fond memories and lifelong friends made on campus, which set the foundation for her lifelong love and support for her alma mater.

As a result, Johnson-Belser and her husband, Dan, have proudly given back to MSU in various ways for four decades.

Among the areas they generously support are student scholarships, Bulldog athletics, the T.K. Martin Center and the Steinway Piano Fund. The couple also actively contribute to the advancement of the College of Education and the College of Veterinary Medicine and

have established endowed scholarships bearing their names in both colleges.

In addition to financial commitment, Johnson-Belser also shares her expertise and time. She is a member of the College of Education’s dean’s advisory board and continues to serve as an inaugural member of the College of Veterinary Medicine’s dean’s council. For her contributions, Johnson-Belser was honored by the veterinary college with the Vice President’s Pegasus Award in 2019.

A loyal and dedicated alumna, JohnsonBelser is also an active member of the MSU Alumni Association through involvement with her local Birmingham chapter. She previously served as an officer of the chapter and helped lead the greater association as a member of the Alumni National board of directors.

JOHN D. DAVIS, IV

Flowood, Mississippi

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

John D. Davis IV was drawn to the medical field from an early age, and today, he is addressing issues that impact the health and lives of Mississippians as a renowned neurosurgeon and founding partner at NewSouth Neurospine. Born in Starkville and reared in Jackson, the third-generation Bulldog graduated Summa Cum Laude from MSU’s James Worth Bagley College of Engineering with a degree in biological engineering in 1988. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, elected as Mr. MSU and president of the Student Association, and was named the university’s Outstanding Student.

Davis earned his professional degree in 1992 from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed residency in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1999, during which time he earned a master’s degree in health finance and management, also at Johns Hopkins. It was that training that spawned his vision for a spine center of excellence.

After years of planning, NewSouth NeuroSpine, Mississippi’s only comprehensive, multispecialty spine-focused practice, opened for patient care in 2008 in a new, state-ofthe-art facility in Flowood. Davis, who has a

particular interest in cervical spine or neck disorders, practices there with twelve other surgical and non-surgical spine care physicians representing four specialties.

Davis has completed terms on the board of directors and the nominating committee for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and as president of the Mississippi Neurosurgery Society and chairman of the board of directors for NeurosurgeryPAC, organized neurosurgery’s only political action committee in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on neurosurgery’s Washington Committee and as a delegate from Mississippi to the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies, where he was previously elected chairman of the Southeast Quadrant. Additionally, Davis is a member of the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission Advisory Council and a certified peer reviewer for World Neurosurgery.

Through his esteemed career, Davis was chosen in 2017 as a substitute unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant for the National Football League, where he oversees evaluations of players who may have suffered concussions. He also was recently appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves to serve on the Mississippi State Board of Health.

Outside his profession, Davis also actively contributes his time and support to his alma mater by serving on the board of directors for the MSU Foundation, where he chairs the directors and governance committee. For his loyalty and service, he has been recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the Bagley College, the MSU Biological Engineering Alumnus of the Year and the Central Mississippi Chapter of the MSU Alumni Association’s Alumnus of the Year. In 2017, he was a keynote speaker at the university’s fall commencement exercises.

GLYNN PITTMAN

Walker, Louisiana College of Forest Resources

George G. “Glynn” Pittman is a 45-year veteran of the forest products industry who has managed facilities from Texas to New England. The Memphis, Tennessee, native attributes his love for forestry to his father, who often told stories about the work he did with the Civilian Conservation Corps

to expand conservation efforts during the Great Depression. Eager to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a secondgeneration forester, Pittman studied forestry at Mississippi State and graduated from the College of Forest Resources in 1976.

He began his career with International Paper Company as a field forester in central Mississippi and later advanced to more progressive roles. Over the years, he supervised logging operations and assumed plant management responsibilities at treated wood products facilities.

In 2012, he joined Stella-Jones Corporation, where he serves as vice president of utility pole operations, overseeing multiple facilities across the southern and southeastern U.S. Before his current role, Pittman helped establish the company’s Southern Yellow Pine Division, which now encompasses 12 facilities across the South. As director of operations, he led the hiring and training of the division’s management team.

An active member of the Louisiana Forestry Association, Pittman is past president of the Southern Pressure Treaters Association and has chaired several of the industry’s key standard-setting committees through the American Wood Preservers Association. He also was recently appointed to a five-year term on the board of directors for the Louisiana Forestry Commission by Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Pittman has been an active adviser in other civic organizations and at his alma mater.

He volunteers his time and support on the advisory boards for the College of Forest Resources and its Department of Sustainable Bioproducts. He also served on interview committees to assist the university in filling the positions of the sustainable bioproducts department head and the dean of the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine.

CAMILLE HOPKINS

Washington, D.C.

College of Veterinary Medicine

Camille Hopkins has always been fascinated by nature and is passionate about the wellbeing of wild animals. Accordingly, after graduating from the Mississippi School

for Mathematics and Science and earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Cornell University, she graduated from Mississippi State University’s DVM program in 2004.

She continued her studies, receiving a master’s in veterinary medicine science focusing on wildlife epidemiology from MSU in 2005 and a doctorate in disease ecology from Virginia Tech in 2014.

As a student, Hopkins was awarded a prestigious National Institutes of Health Graduate Research Fellowship in 2009. The award provided enhanced support for her study of forest disturbance and its ecological impacts on the La Crosse virus, a mosquitoborne disease that can cause seizures, coma, paralysis and permanent brain damage in severe pediatric cases.

Additionally, Hopkins interned in the Republic of South Africa and at the Wildlife Center of Virginia. She gained clinical veterinary experience at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park and completed arboviral diagnostics and surveillance training at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Arboviral Diseases Branch. A veteran officer of the U.S. Army Reserves Veterinary Corps, Hopkins also cared for military working dogs during two overseas deployments.

After completing her graduate studies, she joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Virginia, where she could apply her clinical and research experience as the wildlife disease coordinator in the Ecosystems Mission Area. In her current role, she oversees the national aquatic and terrestrial wildlife disease portfolio and represents USGS in interagency efforts to respond to wildlife diseases, including zoonotic diseases. She also participates in international discussions and meetings and contributes to Department of the Interior emergency management activities related to wildlife diseases.

Hopkins’s passion for her work, matched by an impressive resume, has propelled her successful career over the years. Beginning in individual animal wildlife medicine, she is now engaged in efforts with regional, national and international implications.

More importantly, because several diseases she studies can be transferred from wildlife to humans, her work has made significant contributions to the health and wellbeing of animals and humans alike. n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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ALUMNI TAILGATE RETURNED FOR 2021 After being sidelined for the 2020 football season, the MSU Alumni Association was eager to welcome alumni and friends back to the Hunter Henry Center for the official alumni tailgate.

At the event, guests were able to visit with fellow Bulldogs while enjoying food, drinks and other special entertainment features.

Visit alumni.msstate.edu/tailgate in 2022 to purchase tickets to join the fun and cheer on the Dawgs with alumni and friends before home football games.

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WRAP YOUR RIDE IN

Maroon & White!

For more information about purchasing a Mississippi State University car tag, visit our website: alumni.msstate.edu/cartag

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ALUMNI News

Franklin named MSU assistant athletic director for development

Alvin Franklin of Jackson has joined the Mississippi State University Foundation staff as assistant athletic director for development.

In his new role, Franklin serves as a liaison between MSU Athletics and the MSU Foundation as he works to secure major gifts for both organizations. He began his duties on July 1 alongside veteran fundraisers and associate athletic directors of development Stephen Foshee and Rob Jenkins.

Franklin served as a graduate assistant for Bulldog Athletics while pursuing a master’s degree in kinesiology and sport administration at MSU from 2015-16. Prior to attending MSU, he played collegiate baseball at Meridian Community College and Jackson State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in economics in 2015. He also holds a second master’s degree in higher education with a focus in college administration and leadership, which he earned from Purdue University Global earlier this year.

In 2016, Franklin began his career in athletics at Hinds Community College.

Employing his former experience in baseball as a student-athlete, he held a joint role as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Hinds baseball program and as the sports information director for the school’s athletic department.

He later transitioned into progressive roles in athletic fundraising and development, serving first as athletic development associate at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and later as assistant director of athletic development at the University of South Alabama. Before returning to MSU, Franklin managed a large major giving portfolio across the southeastern U.S. and assisted with external revenue and communication strategies as director for athletic development for major gifts at Purdue University.

Adding to his resume and MSU connections, Franklin also has been an active member of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors since 2015 and became an inaugural member of the NAADD Diversity Working Group sub-committee upon the group’s creation in 2020. Through this, Franklin is helping to build a support network for minorities in collegiate athletics development through education, advocacy and awareness. He also was selected to attend the NCAA Emerging Leaders Seminar in 2016.

“Alvin’s experience as a student-athlete combined with his fundraising skills makes him a perfect fit for this role,” said Jack McCarty, executive director for development for the MSU Foundation. “We are so proud to welcome him back home to Mississippi where he will be working with the generous alumni and friends of MSU Athletics.”

A second-generation Bulldog, Franklin is the son of Alvin and the late Quoinsetta Watts Franklin, who met on campus in the 1970s

and maintained strong connections with the university over the years. His father is a 1979 graduate of the MSU College of Business and a current Bulldog Club board member.

Upon his mother’s death, Franklin joined his father and sister in creating a gift to support MSU Athletics, which also carried a naming opportunity. As a result, a banner bearing his mother’s name now hangs in Davis Wade Stadium near the season-ticket seats the Franklin family has occupied for many years.

“Having the opportunity to pursue my career at the university that means so much to my family and me is such a blessing,” he said. “I love what I do because of the positive impact it has on student-athletes, and I’m proud to be a part of growing that impact at Mississippi State.”

Franklin’s office is located in the Bryan Athletic Administration Building, and he can be reached at 662.325.1244 or afranklin@ athletics.msstate.edu. n

ALUMNI DELEGATES

The MSU Alumni Association announced four new leaders of its student organization known as the Alumni Delegates. Founded in 1980, the organization serves as a link between MSU students and the Alumni Association. The 53-member group helps the association maintain strong ties with the university’s more than 155,000 living graduates.

Alumni Delegate officers for 2021 include: Rohan Fisher of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a senior mathematics major, serving as president; Daniel Bond of Lumberton, a senior mathematics major, serving as vice president of member education; Bailey Dean of Spring Grove, Illinois, a senior kinesiology major, serving as vice president of public relations; and Christopher “Alex” Rial of Tupelo, a senior biochemistry major, serving as secretary.

MSU Alumni Delegate officers for 2021 from L-R: Alex Rial, Daniel Bond, Bailey Dean and Rohan Fisher.

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To learn more about MSU Alumni Delegates and see a complete list of current members, visit www.alumni. msstate.edu/delegates.

RICHARDSON AND SMITH JOIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION STAFF The Mississippi State University Alumni Association is welcoming Ava Richardson of Flowood as coordinator of young alumni programs and alumni outreach and Leanna Smith of Starkville as assistant director of alumni partnerships and business development.

Richardson, a 2021 communication graduate of MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, began her role with the division in July. As coordinator for young alumni programs and outreach, she is organizing and implementing programs for the association to engage alumni ages 35 and under and providing support for furthering outreach efforts on behalf of MSU. As a student, Richardson was a marketing and public relations intern for Starkville Academy, served as a student worker for the communications director of the College of Arts and Sciences and as a tutor at the MSU Writing Center. She also was an ambassador for her college and active with MSU Roadrunners and New Maroon Camp. During the fall 2020 semester, she was part of a student group whose coursework involved creating a strategic public relations plan for the association to enhance its messaging and increase young alumni participation.

“We are pleased to welcome Ava to our team of alumni professionals,” said Jeff Davis, executive director of the MSU Alumni Association. “She brings a fresh perspective and a strong skill set, and we look forward to her elevating our young alumni programs, expanding our outreach and launching our Bulldog Network platform, which will provide

Ava Richardson

Leanna Smith

tremendous opportunity for mentoring, sharing career opportunities and putting the power of the MSU alumni network at the fingertips of Bulldogs everywhere.”

Smith, a fourth-generation Bulldog and Aberdeen native, is a 2009 graduate of MSU’s College of Business, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in business administration and French. She later earned a Master of Public Policy and Administration from MSU in 2016. Smith began her role with the association in October, where she is responsible for growing existing Alumni Association affinity partnerships and creating new revenue streams through official partnerships, event sponsorships and advertising opportunities with the association.

Smith has served in multiple roles within the Division of Development and Alumni over the past 10 years, most recently as stewardship

coordinator. She is a graduate of the MSU Leadership Excellence for Accomplished Professionals (LEAP) Program and serves as a mentor for the MSU B.R.I.D.G.E.S. Program.

“We are thankful to keep Leanna in the division and welcome her to our Alumni Association team,” Davis said. “She brings a wealth of divisional and MSU knowledge, and a strong base of skills and experience.

We look forward to her making an impact on our association by capitalizing on new opportunities to leverage the Alumni Association’s brand and reach, and by connecting the association with the community and industry for mutually beneficial partnerships.”

Richardson can be reached at 662.325.3349 or arichardson@alumni.msstate.edu. Smith can be reached at 662.325.3360 or lsmith@ alumni.msstate.edu. n

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GIVING Back

Alumna Sets the Stage FOR FUTURE THEATRE MSU STUDENTS WITH ENDOWED GIFT By: Ashleigh Lee, Photos Submitted

M

yna Dickerson Sowell’s love for theater came from a single question asked when she was 9 years old. Her father David heard about auditions for a production put on at the local community theater and asked if she wanted to try out for a show. Little did she know that by saying “yes,” she would start a lifelong involvement in acting, communication and theater.

Sowell continued participating in theater in high school, which led her to compete in competitions at Mississippi State.

The Greenville native graduated from MSU in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in communication and inherited her love for the Maroon and White from her father, a 1964 social studies education graduate.

Her Bulldog heritage and experiences with theater competitions at the university put Sowell in a position to thrive academically and eventually professionally while exercising creativity and practicality. She works to instill these characteristics and love for Mississippi State in her daughters Ann Morgan and Alena Read.

“The memories created at Mississippi State and theater are so special,” she said. “I experienced a range of classes that taught me classical work, technical skills, communication methods and so much more.

I tell my children all the time that you cannot go through life thinking that you won’t have to speak and that no one will look at you. You must learn how to properly and efficiently express yourself.”

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LEFT: John and Myna Sowell. RIGHT: Myna Sowell in a 1991 Theatre MSU production of “The Matchmaker” by Thornton Wilder. She played the role of Dolly Levi.

Now, Sowell works at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a standardized patient.

In this role, she uses her acting background, interpersonal skills and empathy to help medical students practice real-life diagnostics and communication simulations. The students get to apply their knowledge while practicing talking to and treating patients.

“It’s not just being an actor on a stage; it’s about the life-lesson skills that I learned in the department that set me up for success,” she said. “I now get to work with these medical students to practice a range of conversations and give them feedback. In these situations, there is no room for misunderstandings.

Interpersonal skills and nonverbal cues all enhance good communication.”

When COVID-19 began shutting down inperson events around the world, Sowell and her husband John knew that they wanted to help struggling creatives. They established the John and Myna Dickerson Sowell Endowed Theatre Fund for Excellence to help Theatre MSU and student participants with various needs, like production upgrades, travel support and equipment enhancements. Sowell wanted to see

Theatre MSU and its students thrive, especially in difficult times.

“People often look to art and artists to help get us through slumps,” Sowell said. “We need storytelling, music, plays, movies. Anything that can take us away from our current reality, even if it’s for a little bit. Not only did I want to contribute to keep arts alive due to my strong belief in giving back and strong desire to see theater stay afloat during a pandemic, but I also believe that the arts are an excellent vehicle for the expression of social commentary.”

The Sowells’ gift funded two studentdirected shows during the spring 2021 semester: “Pipeline,” a story about the schoolto-prison pipeline that also spotlights a mother’s fight to give her son a future without turning her back on the community that shaped him, and “Red,” a play about artist Mark Rothko and his challenges with ambition and vulnerability. Both plays portrayed social commentary that Sowell believes is vital for students to experience firsthand through the performing arts.

“There needs to be more stories told on the stage,” she said. “We need empathy, common

ground and education. The stage is a perfectly marvelous place for that to take place. You never know how broadening the horizons of audience members might manifest itself.

Someone might aspire to be a painter after watching a play or decide to be a writer or teacher. Helping keep the arts alive provides unknown outlets to throngs of people who might not otherwise be exposed or realized.”

Sowell hopes her gifts will continue to inspire student performers and communicators as they discover their passions and get realworld experience. No matter where they end up after graduation, she knows Theatre MSU will give them the proper foundation.

“My hope is that when people think of premier theater programs, Mississippi State is on their short lists,” she said. “I can’t wait to see how this program evolves and the work the students will do.”

For more information on creating endowed scholarships for Theatre MSU in the College of Arts and Sciences, contact Sara Frederic, director of development for the college, at 662.325.3240 or sfrederic@foundation.msstate.edu. n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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GIVING Back

MSU welcomes Holley Muraco AS THE 2021 WALDORF LECTURER

By Addie Mayfield, Photos Submitted

With more than 25 years of experience in the field of wildlife conservation, Holley Muraco has held many titles—zookeeper, animal trainer, stage performer, TV personality and researcher— just to name a few. The two-time Mississippi State graduate has dedicated her career to saving endangered species, and MSU was proud to welcome her back to campus earlier this year to serve as the 2021 Waldorf lecturer.

A native of Potts Camp, Muraco is a marine mammal reproductive expert. She currently serves as the director of research for Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport, a position she has held since its launch in 2019. But she hasn’t always been stationed in her home state.

Muraco has worked internationally in more than 10 countries, helping conserve endangered wildlife. She has employed her skills to advance the livelihood of animals in various ways over the years, including performing the first successful artificial inseminations (AI) of a dolphin in Europe and a polar bear in China.

Muraco is an accomplished author of numerous scientific publications on wildlife species ranging from killer whales and penguins to spotted eagle rays. She enjoys the problem solving involved in the field of animal reproduction and also sees the benefit advanced

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reproductive technologies like AI present.

“The welfare of animals in zoos and aquariums can be greatly enhanced with the opportunity to reproduce and raise young, so every baby born is rewarding all around,” she explained.

While working at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California, Muraco turned her attention to walruses—one of the least studied species with a complex reproductive biology adapted to life in the Arctic. She led the facility’s groundbreaking research efforts that helped shed light on the mysterious mating patterns and hormonal levels of Pacific walruses.

Her award-winning research caught the eye of renowned British broadcasters and landed Muraco a leading role in a BBC Natural World series documentary. The film, “Walrus: Two Tonne Tusker,” followed Muraco’s journey

to the remote island of St. Lawrence in the Bering Sea, where she studied the breedingground habits of wild Arctic walruses.

“The production company pitched the idea, got the greenlight and next thing I knew I was on a plane to Alaska to film the documentary,” she said. “I viewed that opportunity as a wonderful chance for science communication in a fun, educational and exciting way. People from all over the world have contacted me about how they now love walruses and want to help save the Arctic.”

Muraco began her studies at MSU as a pre-veterinary medicine student in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, where she learned about animal breeding and assisted reproductive technologies.

“My fondest memories in my undergrad experience come from taking Dr. John Fuquay’s course on the physiology of animal

reproduction, where we used the textbook that he wrote. I initially dreaded the lab, which required us to palpate cows for pregnancy checks, but the first time I felt a tiny cow fetus kick my hand, I was hooked,” she said. “It was there where I learned about the amazing field of reproduction. It ultimately led me to my career.”

During that time, Muraco also participated in an internship at Walt Disney World. The experience enabled her to work with dolphins, sharks and other species of marine life—an opportunity that would prove life-changing.

and dolphins and then at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with African elephants and lowland gorillas.

After several years of real-world experience in the care and training of zoological animals, Muraco followed her passion for research back to her alma mater and enrolled in a doctoral program. In 2015, she earned a Ph.D. in life sciences with a specialized focus on marine mammal reproductive biology.

Last spring, Muraco returned once again to MSU, in the role of instructor rather than student. As the Waldorf lecturer, she led a seminar that offered an inspiring perspective

MSU Libraries, among other opportunities, to enhance the study of environmental sciences at Mississippi State.

The Waldorfs shared a passion for environmental conservation. David, a physicist and native of Montana, and Elizabeth, a zoologist and Mississippi native, received doctoral degrees from The Ohio State University. After postdoctoral research at the University of Nottingham in England, they conducted research and taught at LSU, Lasell College, Northeastern University and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. David and Elizabeth retired from

“I realized the value of internships and volunteering for not only gaining experience, but also building my reputation. After Disney, I volunteered at the Memphis Zoo doing anything and everything they needed, and ultimately, that turned into a seasonal, paid position working with the giraffes,” she said.

After that internship experience, Muraco changed her major to biology. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1998 and began putting her knowledge to work, gaining hands-on experience with exotic animals.

She first worked as a dolphin and sea lion trainer at the now closed Marinelife Oceanarium in Gulfport, before moving to Orlando, Florida, where she worked as a shark and fish biologist at Disney’s The Living Seas at Epcot. While living in Orlando, she also worked at Sea World with beluga whales, walruses, polar bears, harbor seals

into the life and responsibilities of a Gulf Coast marine biologist.

“I feel so privileged to be able to work closely with MSU on research projects, assisting students and getting to lecture on campus,” she said. “Being from Mississippi, I feel an obligation to cheer our students on and show them that they can accomplish anything they set their minds on. The world needs more Mississippians out there solving problems and making a difference.”

The lectureship opportunity was made possible by an endowment created by Elizabeth Waldorf and the late David Waldorf of Corvallis, Oregon. Established with a gift of land, the endowment provides support for the lecture series and the David and Elizabeth Waldorf Endowed Scholarships. The Waldorfs’ contribution also affords additional textbooks for the

the MGCCC Jeff Davis Campus in Gulfport in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

Continuing to uphold their passion, the Waldorfs chose to invest in environmental science scholarships and learning opportunities at MSU to help students attain educational backgrounds that will aid in fighting critical environmental issues. The couple’s generosity encourages students studying environmental science to become scholars with a commitment to protect and preserve the Earth.

“I always feel a sense of pride when saying I graduated from Mississippi State University,” Muraco said. “MSU serves the students, and that is so incredibly important.

I was grateful for the opportunity the Waldorf lectureship afforded me to return to MSU to help inspire other students along their journey.” n ALUMNUS.MSSTATE.EDU

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CLASS Notes

1970s

William “Bill” Gardner (B.S. finance, ’74) is one of 20 key contributors to Geneva Learning Foundation’s Learning and Leadership Dialogue, a global leadership program. A seasoned executive leadership coach, Gardner is founder and managing partner of Noetic Outcomes Consulting, LLC. Jim Koerber (B.S. banking and finance, ’74) authored two chapters on personal injury and wrongful death, employment discrimination and wrongful termination for Business Valuation Resources’ recently published sixth edition of “The Comprehensive Guide to Economic Damages. He is a director of the Hattiesburg office of Postlethwaite and Netterville, APAC, and is part of the firm’s forensic and valuation services team.

Glenn LaRue Smith (B.A. landscape architecture, ’74) was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

He is co-founder of the landscape and urbanism design firm PUSH Studio where he aims to uplift communities and upand-coming Black landscape architects. In 2021, he established the Black Landscape Architect’s Network. He earned the 2020 ASLA Outstanding Service Award.

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William A. “Lex” Taylor III (B.S. general business administration, ’77) testified before the Senate Commerce Committee during a hearing on implementing supply chain resiliency.

Taylor is chairman of the board and CEO of the Louisville-based Taylor Group of Companies Inc., one of the only privately held manufacturers of industrial lift trucks operating in America. A member of the MSU Foundation board of directors and WINT ER 2021

the College of Business Alumnus of the Year in 2007, he has served as chair of the Mississippi Economic Council, the Mississippi Manufacturers Association and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.

Starkville natives Barbara Alexander (B.S. zoology, ’79) and Robert Hester (B.S. biological engineering, ’75) were named Billy S. Guyton Distinguished Professors at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The award is one of the university’s highest honors.

Alexander is credited as the driving force behind the center’s reputation in women’s health research. She is director of basic research for the Mississippi Center for Excellence in Perinatal Research and director of the UMMC Analytical and Assay Research Cove.

Hester is a professor of physiology and biophysics and orthopedic surgery and the interim chair of data science. He also leads the Center for Computational Medicine in the development of integrative physiological models used for education, research and clinical trials.

1980s

Michelle Keever (B.S. banking and finance, '84) was appointed to the national board of directors of the Voluntary Protection Program Participant’s Association as the Department of Energy representative to provide support and guidance to safety and health professionals at more than 2,200 Voluntary Protection Program worksites. She is a senior safety and health programs specialist with UCOR, the DOE’s primary cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Reservation site.

John McDill (B.S. petroleum engineering, ’86) was promoted to senior vice president of utility operations Atmos Energy. A 34-year veteran of the company, he is now responsible for operations of six utility divisions in eight states, as well as gas supply.

Former U.S. District Judge Debra M. Brown (B.Arch. ‘87) is now Mississippi’s first Black female chief federal judge.

She presides over the Northern District of Mississippi and succeeds District Judge Sharion Aycock (B.A. economics, '77).

Brown has served as a district judge since being nominated by former president Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2013. She worked professionally as an architect before pursuing law school. She practiced law at Wise Carter Child & Carraway and Phelps Dunbar law firms in Jackson.

Dr. John Daniel Davis IV (B.S. biological engineering, ’88) was appointed to the Mississippi State Board of Health by Gov. Tate Reeves. He will complete the six year term of the late Dr. Ed “Tad” Barham. Davis is a graduate of both the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and School of Public Health, and he currently works as a neurosurgeon at NewSouth NeuroSpine in Flowood.

1990s

Isaac Johnson (BBA, banking and finance, ’92) was named president and CEO of TDECU, the largest credit union in Houston, Texas.

Know a Bulldog who has news or a recent promotion? Send an email to alumnus@msstate.edu.

He most recently served as senior vice president, chief administrative, legal and diversity officer for the organization, which manages more than $4 billion in assets.

A native of Gulfport, he earned an MBA from Jackson State and a juris doctor from Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Lady Cox (B.A. communication, ’98) co-authored “College Ready 2021: Expert Advice for Parents to Simplify the College Transition.” She is associate vice president for student affairs at Auburn University and previously worked at Mississippi State where she created the Office of Parent and Family Services in 2007.

Cashenna McCullough Cross (B.A. political science, '98) was sworn in as the 18th mayor of Glenarden, Maryland Aug. 18, 2021. She is a decorated retired veteran of the U.S. Air Force and accomplished Department of Defense and community leader with more than 30 years of experience in government, planning, project management and philanthropy.

Girish K. Panicker (Ph.D. horticulture, ’99) was named inaugural Fellow of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences. This was the first time the organization has awarded this honor in its 85-year history. A professor and director of the Conservation Research School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences at Alcorn State University, he is a certified professional agronomist.

2000s

William S. Belko (Ph.D. history, ’02) edited “Contesting the Constitution: Congress Debates the Missouri Crisis, 1819-1821,” recently released by the

University of Missouri Press. He is director of the Missouri Humanities Council and the author of several other books exploring American history.

Emily Marshall (B.S. human sciences, ’04) was promoted to principal of HBG Design, a hospitality design firm based in Memphis, Tennessee. Since joining the firm in 2010, she has led projects including the 227-room Hyatt Centric Beale Street Hotel; the $180 million, 459-room Cache Creek Resort Hotel in California; and the $400 million Desert Diamond West Valley Casino in Arizona among others.

She is a licensed interior designer and active member of the International Interior Design Association.

Jane Anna Waide (B.A. political science, ’04; MBA, ’12) received the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute, the country’s largest professional association for real estate appraisers. This designation is recognized by courts, government agencies, financial institutions and investors as a mark of excellence in the field of real estate valuation and analysis. A Starkville-based commercial real estate appraiser and a Mississippi Business Journal Top 50 under 40 honoree, she is one of only 12 women in Mississippi with the MAI designation.

Leslie Tally (B.S., M.S. elementary education, ’07, ’09) was named Mississippi Teacher of the Year.

A Corinth native, she teaches second grade English language arts at Lawhon Elementary in the Tupelo Public School District. As MTOY, Tally is receiving a $5,000 stipend from the Mississippi Department of Education and is in the running for National Teacher of the Year.

2010s

Paige Watson (B.A. communication, ’13) was named director of the Main Street Program by the Starkville Main Street Association. She was previously special events and projects coordinator for the Greater Starkville Development Partnership.

In addition to her MSU degree, she holds a master’s from the University of Alabama.

Sarah Avera Thrower (B.S. biological engineering, ’19) is the 2021 recipient of the Mississippi Vision Foundation’s Helen Allison St. Clair scholarship for students of optometry. A native of Lauderdale, she is a third-year student at the Southern College of Optometry. While at State, she earned a Spirit of State award and was part of the Montgomery Leadership Scholarship program.

Harish Kumar (M.S. computer science, ‘20) and his team earned the grand prize from the IBM Spot Challenge. PeriscopeAI, the project that earned the $15,000 prize, allows construction teams to have an unobstructed view of visual communication.

He is an artificial intelligence and machine learning data scientist with Potentia Analytics Inc.

Birth

Announcements Harrison Barrett Chandler born Sept. 5, 2020, to Allison Barrett Chandler (’07) and Grant Chandler (’07) of Madison, Alabama.

Cole Simmons Estess born March 10, 2021 to Regan and Andrew Estess (’11) of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Benjamin Conner Estess born June 9, 2021 to Paige and Conner Estess (’15) of Petal.

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Forever MAROON William Earnest “Bill” Allen Jr. (B.S. risk management, insurance, financial planning; ’62) 81, Greenville – He began a career with the Social Security Administration in Tupelo following his graduation. After working in other offices in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, he was promoted to district manager for the offices of Greenville, Clarksdale and Cleveland.

He retired after 48 years. He was an active member of the Bulldog Club, which he served as president, and the Washington County Alumni Association. In 2001, the Alumni Association presented him with a Distinguished Service Award. He was part of the Greenville Rotary Club, which he served as president; the United Way of Washington County, including its board of directors; Boy Scouts of America; Exchange Club and the YMCA. In 2010, he was honored by the Greenville Junior Auxiliary as King of the Ball for his civic work and community involvement. — June 28, 2021 Dr. Craig Bradford (B.S. biology, ’77) 65, Natchez – After earning a Doctor of Dentistry from the University of Mississippi, he completed a residency in pediatric dentistry at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a longtime member of the Natchez Rotary Club, the Mississippi and American Dental Associations, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, and was a Fellow Diplomate of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. He provided dental care to the children of Natchez and the surrounding communities for 37 years. — June 19, 2021 Wythel E. “W.E.” Boggs (B.S., M.S. education administration, ’59, ’63) 84, Saltillo – He was a basketball standout at Northeast Community College and a veteran of the national guard.

He served as principal at high schools across north Mississippi before joining the staff of Itawamba Community College where he held positions as professor, administrator, dean of instruction, dean of students, vice president and interim president before retiring after 40 years. During his career, he earned numerous awards including the 2001 Bennett Lifetime Achievement Award from Phi Theta Kappa, a fraternity of community college scholars.

He was a member of the Itawamba County Development Council; founder and co-leader of Leadership Itawamba; and past member of the Citivan Club and the Kiwanis Club.

— May 30, 2021

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Jack M. Carlisle (B.S. history, ’54) 91, New Albany – Following his graduation from State, he earned a master’s in education leadership from Mississippi College. He spent more than 61 years as a teacher and football coach, accumulating a high school record of 262 wins, 70 losses and 17 ties. He coached at Ethel, Lula Rich and Nettleton, Murrah High School, Jackson Preparatory Academy, Ole Miss, East Tennessee State University, Madison Ridgeland Academy and Louisiana College. He is a member of seven halls of fame including the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and those of the Mississippi Association of Coaches, Jackson Prep, Mississippi Community College, MAIS, MRA and the North Mississippi Coaches Association. Nettleton High School’s football stadium was dedicated to his honor in 2010.

— July 27, 2021 James W. Chiles (B.S. entomology, ’57) 94, Tupelo – He was a U.S. Navy serviceman in WWII before graduating from Mississippi State. He was an entomology consultant and pecan grower. He also developed a cotton seed treatment and researched new varieties of pecan. He was owner of Chiles Entomological Service and president of the Mississippi Delta Pecan Co. He was also a member of the American Legion, Delta Council, Masonic Lodge and a deacon in the Baptist church.

He served as director of the Mississippi Entomological Association and was a member of the Entomological Society of America, Southeastern Pecan Growers Association and the National Cotton Council. He was appointed to colonel on the staff for Gov. John Bell Williams and served as chairman of the state welfare board. — July 25, 2021 Boyett Graves (retired staff ) 83, Starkville – After earning a master’s from Louisiana State University, he moved to Virginia to work at the Virginia Truck and Experimental Station where he spent 16 years working on potato varieties.

He moved to Beaumont in 1981 to work for Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

Prior to his retirement in 2001, he worked at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs. He spent his free time working with Boy Scout Troop 140 in Richton where he served as an assistant troop leader. He also served on the Eagle Scout committee for the Pine Burr Area Council. — June 6, 2021

Jerry Speed Lee (B.S. accounting, ’68) 74, Madison – A national guard veteran, he spent 28 years as a certified public accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick in Jackson where he oversaw the tax practice. He then served as CEO of Southern Lumber Company until his retirement. He served as chairman of the deacons at First Baptist Church Jackson, president of the Rotary Club, delegate to Leadership Mississippi, chairman of the Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy, president of the Estate Planning Council of Mississippi and chairman of the Mississippi Tax Institute. An Eagle Scout, he was a board member of the Andrew Jackson Council of the Boy Scouts of America and those of Community Bancshares of Mississippi, Mississippi Children’s Home Society, Mississippi Lumber Manufacturers Association and Southern Forest Products Association.

— June 20, 2021 Dr. Robert “Bob” Myers (B.S. general science, ’75) 69, Ridgeland – He earned a medical degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1978. He practiced with the Mississippi Urology Clinic for 30 years and served as chief of staff at Baptist Medical Center. — June 13. 2021 Ted W. Norris (B.S. entomology, ’66) 77, Marks – He retired from the U.S. Postal Service as a rural mail carrier, having previously been a farmer and entomologist. He was a past president of the Quitman County chapter of the MSU Alumni Association and a past president of the Mississippi Beta chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon. He was a member of Marks First Baptist Church where he was a deacon and Sunday school teacher. — Sept. 5, 2020 Henry Randle (B.S. business information systems, ’09) 50, Aberdeen – A native of Aberdeen, he attended Mary Holmes College in West Point, earning an associates degree before attending Mississippi State.

He joined the Aberdeen Police Department in 1997 and the Army National Guard in 2001, reaching the rank of Sergeant First Class. He was elected chief of police in 2008 and served in the position until his death.

— May 16, 2021

Know someone who should be remembered in Forever Maroon? Send an email to alumnus@msstate.edu.

William “Gene” Stevens (Ph.D. agronomy, ’92) 63, Portageville, Missouri -A native of Tennessee, he began a 26-year career at the University of Missouri’s Delta Research Center following his graduation from Mississippi State. An active researcher, he published his work in leading scientific journals and academic books, in addition to penning short stories for his grandchildren.

His patented innovations and pioneered approaches to agriculture have been used around the world. — Jan. 17, 2021 Harold S. “Tommy” Thompson (B.S. business administration, ’39) 103, Westminster, Colorado – A native of Egypt, Thompson arrived at Mississippi State with an athletic scholarship. He played football for legendary coach Dudy Noble, who disliked the name Harold and gave Thompson the lifelong nickname “Tommy.”

During a particularly memorable game against Southwest Louisiana, he caught a deflected pass and headed for the end zone.

His roommate, future Brigadier General Edward W. Scott Jr., tackled Thompson on MSU’s 10-yard line to prevent him from scoring a safety for the opposing team.

He worked for GM Fisher Aircraft in Memphis, Tennessee, supervising the salvage repairs on fuselages and wings on B-21 and B-26 bombers. He then returned to Egypt to farm and operate a general store while raising a family. He later became general manager for Meadow Sportswear, a multifacility plant with 750 employees. He was a longtime member of the Chickasaw County Draft Board, the Okolona Lions Club, the Okolona School Board, the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the Knights of Columbus. Thompson retired from the Mississippi Department of Agriculture. — April 20, 2021 Steve Wallace (B.S. electrical engineering, ’73) 70, Columbus – Following his graduation from Mississippi State, he earned an accounting degree from the Mississippi University for Women and a law degree from the University of Mississippi.

He practiced law in Columbus for 17 years, serving 15 as a public defender. He was recently elected Lowndes County Prosecuting Attorney. — May 27, 2021

In Memory of Krishnaprasad G. “Krish” Bhansali Distinguished former Mississippi State University Political Science Professor Krishnaprasad G. Bhansali, 93, died at his Starkville home May 27.

A native of Mahudha, India, Bhansali was a highly respected political science professor at MSU from 1967 until 2011. He came to MSU from the faculty of Texas Southern University.

After earning his undergraduate degree at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal in India, Bhansali came to the U.S. to pursue his dream of teaching. He worked from 1951-61 at the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. while attaining his master’s and doctoral degrees from American University in Washington.

Bhansali was an active member of the Starkville Rotary Club from 1985 until his death. While a proud American and Mississippian, he maintained a lifelong love of the culture and history of his beloved India. Memorial gifts, may be directed through the MSU Foundation to the MSU Krish Bhansali Endowed Scholarship in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration in the College of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State.

Remembering Kenneth E. Miller Kenneth E. Miller, a Columbus native who enrolled at Mississippi State University at age 15 among the first group of African Americans admitted to the university, died Aug. 17 in Arlington, Virginia. He was 69.

Miller became the second African American to graduate from MSU’s aerospace engineering program, and later received a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California. He served his country for more than 30 years in civilian service to the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force and retired as one of the highest-ranking civilians in the Department of Defense. He also founded KEM and Associates, becoming a recognized strategist and trusted adviser to a broad range of national and international defense, security and aerospace firms.

Miller was the recipient of the Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award in 1996 and 2001, and the Nathaniel Stinson Award. He was also honored as an MSU Bagley College of Engineering Distinguished Fellow. Throughout his career, he earned the respect and admiration of peers, colleagues, and leadership in both government and industry.

Memorial donations in honor of Miller’s legacy of mentorship, generosity, and gratitude and his unwavering commitment to supporting future MSU Black engineering leaders may be made to the MSU Kenneth E. Miller Excellence Endowment with the MSU Foundation.

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In Memory of Robert B. Deen

Remembering Beth Swalm

Longtime Meridian philanthropist, retired attorney and Mississippi State University-Meridian benefactor Robert B. ‘Bobby” Deen Jr. died Dec. 13. He was 96.

Beth Swalm, a longtime friend and benefactor of Mississippi State University, died on Dec. 2, 2021 in New Ulm, Texas, at the age of 84.

Deen’s work as president and chairman of the Riley Foundation and his work with the Phil Hardin Foundation greatly impacted education and opportunity in the state’s East Central region, specifically as it related to the transformation of Downtown Meridian and MSU-Meridian.

The university recognized his long record of public service to the local community and the university in 2012 with an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service.

In 2015, the Newberry Building at the MSU-Meridian Riley Campus was designated the Robert B. Deen Jr. Building.

The 20,000-square-foot building is home to the MSU-Meridian Campus' Division of Business, with six state-of-the-art classrooms, a computer laboratory, two conference rooms, faculty offices and student study spaces.

Deen was one of four founding members establishing the Riley Foundation in 1998, and served

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Beth and her husband of 29 years, Dave, were active philanthropists through their non-profit foundation and made generous private contributions to MSU, including the lead gift for the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering. as its director, officer and general counsel. He was presently serving as president and COO. He also was a founding member of the Phil Hardin Foundation, as well as the Mississippi Bar Association Foundation.

A 1950 Vanderbilt University Law School graduate, Deen was a Lauderdale County attorney in general practice for 55 years.

Deen served in the Pacific Theater during World War II after his 1943 graduation from Starkville High School. In 1946, he entered Mississippi State after three years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, studying electrical engineering until the summer of 1947, when he left for law school.

Beth was a longtime president of the Swalm Foundation, which provided millions in financial support to charitable organizations, focusing primarily on helping the homeless, hungry, and abused, as well as disadvantaged youth.

In her professional career, Beth worked for Sinclair and Arco Chemical Company. She was valedictorian of her graduating class at Katy High School in Texas and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston. She was a member of First United Methodist Church in Columbus, Texas.

The Swalms’ generous contributions to MSU supported scholarships for hundreds of students, faculty development, lab and research equipment, as well as the 100,000-square-foot chemical engineering building on the Drill Field that bears the Swalm name.

The couple also provided a $5 million scholarship endowment for students from Brookhaven to come to MSU to pursue technical fields. They also provided $3 million for African American students to pursue MSU graduate degrees in engineering with a preference for students from Jackson State University.

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Back STORY WITH ANN CARR I often ask myself what has kept me in Starkville at Mississippi State for over 30 years, and I have to say it has been the people.

As I sit in now my sixth office in that span, I have to say this is the best one yet. I say “yet” because I’m not finished. I am one blessed individual, I come to the office every day, and I get to be with the people I love. Who are those people? They’re MSU athletes.

I came to MSU as a student-athlete on a basketball scholarship. I can remember Coach Brenda Paul and Coach Akins yelling to run to the line. There may have been some other great things that happened, but that is what I remember the most—the running, which I didn’t like. I always looked forward to when it was time to play. When it was game time, the craziness in my head settled down, or maybe I could block out my coach more. What I remember the most from the games was looking in the bowl of Humphrey Coliseum and not seeing a lot of people. I came from a high school that packed the gym for basketball, so I did not like seeing empty seats, but I loved basketball. Although there were some tough days in basketball, the thing I could never get out of my head was what my mother said, “If you don’t give your all in all that you do, sit in the stands and cheer for the folks on the floor.” So, I gave it everything I had every day.

Now as the sport administrator for MSU women’s basketball, I look around the bowl, and I say “Yes!” I knew in my heart that women’s basketball could fill the seats. I have had the best people around me, from athletic directors, coaches, academic advisers and, most of all, student-athletes who have pushed and pulled me in every direction and challenged me to see that you never give up on people. If you show them you care, the walls they have built to keep people out will start to fall. They will slowly start to let you in, so you can show them the world around them.

I have been an academic adviser, I am the director of student-athlete development,

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I am the chief diversity officer, I am the senior woman administrator, I am the sport administrator for women’s basketball and more. But what I am truly is a Bulldog!

Hail State!

A native of Brookhaven, Ann Carr was a four-year letter winner in basketball at Mississippi State where she earned a bachelor’s in educational psychology in 1990 and a master’s in counseling in 1992. She joined the athletic department staff in 1993 as an assistant academic adviser. She currently serves as deputy athletic director, senior woman administrator, chief diversity officer and director of student-athlete development. In her more than 25-year career with Bulldog athletics, she has been instrumental in shaping players on and off the field through her work in academic advising, life-skills development, M-Club support, and other aspects of MSU sports. Her daughter Khristian, who earned a bachelor’s in communication and master’s in workforce education leadership from MSU, was a fouryear member of MSU’s volleyball team. She currently serves as coordinator of student-athlete development.

This undated photo from the University Archives shows an under-construction Humphrey Coliseum next to a Dudy Noble Field that is unrecognizable as the world-class stadium we know today. Share your memories of The Hump and Bulldog Athletics by submitting your remembrances to Alumnus magazine. Please include your major(s) and graduation year(s) as some responses may be published in print or online with the next issue.

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Art Around Town “From City Hall to Lee Hall: We’re in this Together” is one of many eye-catching examples of Bulldog talent that can be found in Mississippi’s College Town. The mural depicting local and MSU landmarks is located along North Jackson Street in downtown Starkville. The project is the result of ongoing collaborations between the Department of Art and the Starkville Area Arts Council. These installations, as well as the more than 30 campus museums and galleries, provide endless opportunities for exploration in Mississippi's College Town.

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