MSU College of Arts & Sciences Vision Magazine 2023

DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

Wow! Just wow! That was my first reaction when I read the synopses of the stories featured in this edition of Vision. Highlighting some of the wonderful people that are a part of the College of Arts and Sciences family, the scale, scope and amazing success of the people and their accomplishments display intellectual achievements, important leadership roles and deep investments in improving the lives of people. This issue is replete with stories about individuals who raise our collective conscious about what is possible in and through the College of Arts and Sciences at MSU.

This issue features stories about several of our students and alumni who are making a difference far and wide. From providing mental health care in Alaska to presenting accurate weather information to people in central Oregon, to literally flying through the eye of hurricane in the Mexican Gulf, our alumni and students are located worldwide. Such is the reach of students from a world-class university.

Those students were inspired and equipped by remarkable faculty. This issue highlights faculty who are working on new ways to invest in students. The work of Dr. Eric Dornshuld to develop a chemistry instructional site that enables students to engage in information in different ways provides students the tools they need to study, reflect on, and refine their efforts. Similarly, Dr. Kelly Moser’s efforts at training and inspiring the next generation of world language educators are remarkable. She understands that our children and our children’s children will live in a world where they will routinely encounter diverse individuals and it is important they are prepared to meet basic linguistic and cultural challenges.

We also highlight several faculty who have achieved amazing academic accomplishments or are playing important leadership roles beyond their departments. Whether it is leading a national organization of English faculty or directing the Ulysses S. Grant Association, the stories about Dr. Jervette Ward and Dr. Anne Marshall draw attention to faculty who have been recognized for their abilities and commitments to improving their

professions. Similarly, stories about the Mississippi Poet Laureate, about a world-renowned expert in neuroscience who happens to be a philosopher, and about seven young scientists who have received highly competitive CAREER awards for their research also introduce you to just a portion of the faculty who have been recognized by their peers as the best of the best.

I have been at MSU for almost 30 years now and have been in the dean’s office in different roles for a decade. I have witnessed many changes over that time. My duration here gives me deep insight into the goings-on in our college. Still, when I first read these stories, I gasped because in one rather quick look, the scale of the transformation regarding the accomplishments of our faculty and students was astounding to me. One of the articles quotes Leonardo da Vinci … “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

As the dean, given these soaring accomplishments of our people, students, faculty and alumni, my gaze always will be turned upward, expecting to see soaring new breakthroughs, new discoveries, new ways to give back, new ideas for improving our society and our world. In my role, I get to see so many wonderful things and work with so many amazing people, often very closely. Sometimes, though, when I’m able to step back and catch a glimpse of the larger picture of the accomplishments and outcomes of the A&S family, I just have to say WOW!

Thank you for your support of A&S and its students and faculty. Please keep in touch and come visit when you can.

Hail State!

Rick Travis Dean, College of Arts & Sciences

DEAN&LEADERSHIP:

DR. RICK TRAVIS DEAN

DR. GISELLE THIBAUDEAU (MUNN) ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH

DR. MELANIE LOEHWING ASSISTANT DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

DR. KATHY SHERMAN-MORRIS ASSISTANT DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

ALISA SEMMES ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT TO THE DEAN

ACADEMICAFFAIRS:

DIANA NEAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

EMILY CAIN ACADEMIC COORDINATOR

HANNAH COLEMAN ADMISSIONS COORDINATOR

KASONDRA HARRIS ACADEMIC COORDINATOR

KATE SAWAYA ACADEMIC ADVISOR

RESEARCH:

SILAS KNOX CONTRACT & GRANT SPECIALIST

ASHLEY MILLER CONTRACT & GRANT SPECIALIST

SAM KEALHOFER COORDINATOR, COMMUNICATIONS & RESEARCH SUPPORT

KEISHA KNOX BUSINESS COORDINATOR

COMMUNICATION:

KELLI ANTHONY GRAPHIC DESIGNER

KARYN BROWN DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATION

SAM KEALHOFER COORDINATOR, COMMUNICATIONS & RESEARCH SUPPORT

SARAH NICHOLAS WRITER

CALLIE SIMONTON STUDENT WORKER

DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS:

SARA FREDERIC DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

NIKKI ROBINSON

ALUMNI AND DONOR ENGAGEMENT COORDINATOR

REAGAN RUFF STUDENT GRAPHIC DESIGNER

ALENA READ SOWELL STUDENT WORKER

Direct comments or questions to: KARYN BROWN | 662.325.6650 kbrown@deanas.msstate.edu

P.O. Box AS | Mississippi State, MS 39762

BUSINESS AFFAIRS:

SHERYL KINARD BUSINESS MANAGER

LATOYA ROGERS BUSINESS COORDINATOR

CAMERIA “CAM” YARBROUGH ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

WRITERS FOR VISION:

JOHN BURROW

JOLEE CLARK

SAM KEALHOFER

SARAH NICHOLAS

CARLY PIPPIN

MADISON SESSIONS

REAGAN YOUNG

EDITORS FOR VISION:

KARYN BROWN

SARAH NICHOLAS

PHOTOGRAPHERS FOR VISION:

MEGAN BEAN

JOHN BURROW

GRACE COCKRELL

BETH WYNN

DORNSHULD BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS, INCREASES STUDENT SUCCESS

By Sarah Nicholas

Eric Van Dornshuld’s top priority—and main passion in his career—is teaching his students with methods that effectively help them gain understanding and growth.

“If I can help one student learn to take their education more seriously—even if they make a C in my class but leave my class with a better approach to education—I consider it a win,” said the assistant clinical professor in Mississippi State’s Department of Chemistry.

Raised by a mother who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam when she was 16, Dornshuld was taught early on to value education.

“Education is always worth it,” he said. “While you are here at a university—something not everyone has an opportunity to do—take it seriously.”

When COVID-19 shut down the university in spring 2020, Dornshuld stepped up in a big way for his students, revamping his teaching module to eliminate barriers between students and academic success.

“I was seeing anxiety and fear in the students, and apathy. More important things were happening in the world than just school,” Dornshuld said. “But even before COVID-19, I was seeing barriers. COVID-19 just exasperated them.”

Seeking a way to give his students further aid in Chemistry II, Dornshuld developed an instructional website.

“The original motivation for it was to find a way to best support students when COVID-19 hit and we all went online. Nobody knew just how long we would exist in an online format, and I wanted something sustainable. I wanted to implement a system that would minimize the barriers—no matter how big or small—between a student and course content,” he said.

With no background in website design, Dornshuld learned the “ins and outs” of webpage creation. The end result, located at dornshuld. chemistry.msstate.edu, has been viewed thousands of times by people throughout the world.

“It was complicated, but I had to learn how to do it for the students,” he said. “Students love the website because it is accessible and fast. It allows me to get over traditional approaches to teaching, such as printing handouts, because it’s all right there and ready to go.”

Teaching directly from his website, rather than using PowerPoint in class and then directing students to a different website later for homework, helps eliminate barriers created by technology issues.

“I walk into class, pull up the website and say, ‘Here’s the lesson, and here are the problems,’” said Dornshuld, who walks students directly through his lessons. “Before COVID-19, students would tell me they needed more practice problems. This website gives them every practice problem possible.”Another barrier Dornshuld perceived prior to the pandemic was a reluctance by students to use a textbook. To alleviate this issue, he created an online document used during each class period. This interactive document is embedded with videos and problems, along with their solutions, and can be accessed by students at any time.

“If you miss a class, the notes are there in the handbook. I’m now seeing my students more engaged with listening to me. They aren’t getting hand cramps trying to furiously write down everything I say,” he said. “The notes are already there in the handbook, so they can follow my lectures and really listen to what I’m teaching. After class they can reference the handbook to reinforce what I’ve taught.”

He also created hyper-focused, quiz-like exams that go live immediately after his lecture ends. Students have 14 days to take the exam and can take it as many times as needed. Canvas grades the exams immediately after submission, so students know if they are on the right track or if they need to drop back and study more.

“This exam format encourages retention of the materials and helps students to gradually master each topic discussed, rather than attempting to cram everything in before a comprehensive exam,” he said. “This is a perfect example of engaging the material. I encourage people to take the Canvas exam within 48 hours of class ending. I see a direct correlation between taking the test immediately after class and finding success rather than waiting until the end of the two-week period. Students who wait aren’t doing as well.

“If I did my job—if you leave my class with a better approach to education—then I consider it a win. If you are passionate, you’ll be successful. That’s how I was raised,” Dornshuld added.

“Expectation—I’m always trying to set a high standard for students in a supportive way. I’m trying to show students there is worth and value in working hard. Education is always worth it.” l

DR. ERIC VAN DORNSHULD

Eric Van Dornshuld has been at MSU since 2014. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2014 from the University of Mississippi and his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2009 from the University of North Florida. Dornshuld is the faculty advisor to ChemDawgs, the student members of the American Chemical Society. In 2020, Dornshuld received the ChemDawg Recognition Award for outstanding effort and contributions to the Department of Chemistry.

MSU ALUMNUS BRAVES ‘EYE OF THE STORM’ TO GATHER LIFE-SAVING INFORMATION

By Sarah Nicholas

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

–Leonardo da Vinci

“Though slightly altered over the years, most aviators have heard this quote,” said Capt. William R. Simmons of the U.S. Air Force. “It’s true to heart for me. I simply love being among, or above, the clouds. Every time I ‘[slip] the surly bonds of Earth’ I think how amazing it is to be in that position and appreciate the centuries of research and effort that went into making powered flight possible. Whether it is collecting critical weather data that can help save lives or transporting anything from birthday presents to life-saving medical equipment, I am proud that something I love to do can be combined to, ultimately, help people, too.”

Simmons, a 2011 Mississippi State University graduate, is a pilot with FedEx and a traditional

reservist with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron “Hurricane Hunters”— a component of the 403rd Wing located at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi and one of only two operational units in the world routinely flying weather reconnaissance.

The Hurricane Hunters recruit, organize and train personnel to perform aerial weather reconnaissance, and, since the 1940s, they have provided surveillance of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the central Pacific Ocean for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“Although my goal as a kid was to be an airline pilot, I started as the morning-midday on-air meteorologist at WCBI-TV in Columbus the day after I graduated from MSU,” said Simmons, who earned his bachelor’s degree from MSU in geoscience with a concentration in professional meteorology and emphasis in broadcast.

“During my two years at WCBI, I helped cover several severe weather events to include the historic April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak and multiple snow events. I knew my first passion of aviation was calling my name, though. I remembered while I was at State someone from the Hurricane Hunters was the guest speaker at a club meeting I attended. I coldcalled the unit, told the person that answered about my background with aviation and meteorology, and found myself down there a couple of weeks later for an interview. I was offered a pilot position and left for USAF Officer Training School in the summer of 2013.”

Simmons said Hurricane Hunters are tasked with flying WC-130J Super Hercules planes into the eye of the storm to collect “invaluable data” used to improve forecasts. After the 2021 season, Simmons had clocked 129 total hurricane eye penetrations.

“We are the only Department of Defense unit authorized to fly intentionally into storms for our

weather reconnaissance mission,” Simmons said. “We fly a large ‘X’ pattern through tropical storms and hurricanes, usually with legs extending just over 100 miles from the eye and can stay airborne over 12 hours. Using 10 planes, we are responsible for covering an area from Hawaii to the Gulf and Caribbean, to the mid-Atlantic. If an area of interest is in the forecast to intensify and, ultimately, affect U.S. territory, assets or installations, the National Hurricane Center wants us in the storm, collecting critical data.”

Simmons said satellites are good for providing forecasters a starting point and big-picture view of the systems; however, they cannot provide the “fine details” and radar imagery the Hurricane Hunters collect by flying into, and around, the storm, such as temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, and pressure.

“Within minutes of our plane receiving those details and weather officers verifying the data, we use satellite

communication to send the data to the National Hurricane Center,” Simmons said. “Ultimately, the information is put into supercomputers that help fine-tune forecast models and issue advisories and warnings based on forecast storm track and intensity. This leads to emergency managers and various agencies being able to more confidently make evacuation decisions which could have significant impacts on lives and property.”

Though his plane is typically flying at 200 mph through intense storms, Simmons said he has never been scared on a mission.

“I suppose all of us must be a little bit of a thrill seeker. On my first hurricane penetration in 2015, I remember being inbound toward the eye, the turbulence started, and feeling a little uneasy. I looked over at the experienced aircraft commander, and he was peeling a banana. That’s when I realized what my new normal was,” Simmons said.

“In hurricanes with a strong low-pressure center, we can descend from our normal 10,000 feet down to 8,000 feet above the water because we fly a constant pressure gradient. It can feel unnatural to be descending into the eye. Flying at night adds another element as well. That, coupled with some intense updrafts and downdrafts in developing cyclones that can cause some uncomfortable airplane bank angles, causes me to tighten my seatbelt just a little bit more. At the end of the day, though, we all have families we

want to get back home to, so we train throughout the year and mitigate risks as much as possible. Safety is a top priority.”

Outside of hurricane season, Simmons said Hurricane Hunters fly into winter storms on the East Coast and high-altitude atmospheric rivers hundreds of miles across the Pacific that have significant rainfall and flooding implications along the West Coast.

After working fulltime with the Hurricane Hunters for seven years, Simmons now flies fulltime for FedEx. He is a first officer on the Boeing 767.

“Growing up in Pontotoc, I can remember going to Memphis several times with my family, and I would look up to find airplanes with purple tails (part of the FedEx paint scheme) to clue me in that we were getting close to the city,” said Simmons, who obtained his private pilot certificate in high school. “I was flying a plane by myself before I could legally drive a car.”

Simmons’s career in aviation, from hurricane expeditions to FedEx flights, provides “newness” every day.

“No one flight is the same,” he said. “I may fly the same plane multiple times, the same route, or fly with the same crew, but every flight presents some new or different variable that makes it unique from the last one. I love the challenge, constantly learning and becoming a better pilot, and the pure enjoyment I find in aviation.” l

Capt. William R. Simmons and his wife, Ashley, reside in Ocean Springs with their 3-year-old son Gridley and golden retriever Jake. In addition to his MSU bachelor’s degree, Simmons has a 2018 Master of Business Administration from Louisiana State University. Simmons said current MSU students need to be flexible and “take advantage of opportunities” as they are provided. “I knew as a kid I wanted to be a professional pilot, but the way I got there was far from what I had originally mapped out. Have at least one mentor and multiple people you can go to for advice. Those people should help keep you motivated and celebrate your successes with you. Keep the

end goal in mind, be prepared to put in the work to reach that goal, and don’t forget to enjoy the ride—or flight—along the way.

“The instructors and professors I had in the Department of Geosciences and the Department of Communication at MSU were top-notch,” Simmons said. “I felt invested in as a student and knew I could reach out to any of my teachers for assistance in the classroom or advice on my professional journey. Ultimately, that enabled me to leave as a confident graduate, ready and eager to go be successful in whatever profession I chose. To this day, I still keep up with several of those teachers and am proud to be part of the Maroon and White family.”

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES FACULTY MEMBERS RAKE IN NEARLY $5 MILLION IN NSF CAREER FUNDS

Faculty members in Mississippi State’s College of Arts and Sciences currently are managing the largest amount of competitive federal funding in recent history, celebrating multiple major awards which are elevating research productivity and prestige.

Since 2020, faculty members in the biological sciences, chemistry, and physics and astronomy departments have received nearly $5 million through the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program awards.

The CAREER program supports faculty who have potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, and lead advances in the mission of their department. CAREER awards are presented to assistant professors. Many of MSU’s winners of these have since been promoted to the associate professor rank.

In the Department of Biological Sciences, Assistant Professors Matthew J. Ballinger, Amy L. Dapper and Andrew K. Lawton, have secured CAREER awards totaling more than $2 million.

In the Department of Chemistry, Associate Professors Xin Cui, Vicky Montiel-Palma and Colleen N. Scott are recipients of more than $2 million for their work in the NSF’s chemistry division.

In the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Associate Professor of Physics Ben Crider received more than $600,000 from a CAREER award for his work in nuclear physics.

“In essence, these are the gold standard for NSF awards at the pre-tenure level. Generally large awards, they also are targeted at integrating some aspect of research with teaching and outreach,” said Angus L. Dawe, professor and head of the biological sciences department.

“This unprecedented success in recent years shows that we have been able to recruit, develop and retain world-class faculty, raising the bar for expectations and operational norms at Mississippi State and placing us as the preeminent location for

biology-related research in the region. I couldn’t be prouder of the faculty and staff and their efforts to continue moving the department forward even in the midst of the challenges everyone has faced in the last couple of years.”

Additionally, two biological sciences graduate students are among three MSU current students chosen to receive fellowships from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the country’s oldest fellowship program directly supporting graduate students in STEM fields.

MSU biological sciences graduate students Felicity Kleitz-Singleton and James “Jimmy” Walter Wehsener received the prestigious fiveyear fellowship, awarded to approximately 2,000 students nationally out of a field of 13,000 applicants. Other students with MSU connections awarded this fellowship include David Emmanuel Korba, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, and alumnae Emily Chappell Sumrall and Laura Olive, who received their undergraduate degrees in 2021 from MSU’s Department of Chemistry. Sumrall now is in graduate school at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, and Olive is in graduate school at the University of Georgia.

The award includes three years of financial support, an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 designated for the institution.

“These are very competitive awards that provide for significant student support,” said Dawe. “It demonstrates that the elevated research productivity we have observed in recent years now is being reflected in a talented and high-achieving graduate student pool who set high expectations. I hope that other current and prospective students will be inspired by these successes.”

MSU is classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an R-1 “Very High Research Activity” doctoral university, the highest level of research activity in the country.

Assistant Professor Matthew

J. Ballinger, a native of Lakewood, New Jersey, and an MSU faculty member since 2018, received a $805,682, five-year CAREER grant to study a beneficial bacterium, Spiroplasma, that protects its fruit fly hosts against infection by parasites.

“This award lets investigators build bridges between our research programs and our classrooms with the aim of enhancing both,” Ballinger said. “My award will bring handheld genome sequencing technology to a new undergraduate laboratory course, where students will learn to apply cutting-edge research methods toward important questions in microbial symbiosis.”

initiate research on brain development— specifically how the amount and pattern of brain folding is set within and between species, how tissue tension is regulated within the folding cerebellum and how it shapes the folds as they are created. Lawton’s research also will investigate how the fluidity in the outer layer of the cerebellum shapes the folds and directs the compartmentalization of the circuitry.

“People study many types of tissue folding, but the brain is unique being both globular and fibrous—including cell bodies and axons and dendrites,” Lawton said. “We are developing the mouse cerebellum as a less expensive and more tractable model to discover how the human brain folds itself. The cerebellum processes all of our motor movement and proprioception and motor memory. It is also involved in processing some of the higher cognitive functions more associated with the cortex.”

Assistant Professor Amy

L. Dapper, a native of Blacksburg, Virginia, and an MSU faculty member since 2018, received a $740,645, five-year CAREER grant to research how traits associated with reproduction can shape patterns of genetic diversity within and between species.

“It feels absolutely terrific to receive such a prestigious grant. I think it reflects very positively on the quality of research being done in my lab and the overall strength of the Department of Biological Sciences here at Mississippi State,” Dapper said.

Assistant Professor Andrew

K. Lawton, a native of South Carolina and an MSU faculty member since 2019, received a five-year, $870,000 CAREER grant to

Associate Professor Vicky Montiel-Palma, a native of Mexico and an MSU faculty member since 2018, received a five-year, $691,886 grant from the NSF Division of Chemistry Chemical Synthesis Program for her proposal which investigates catalysts that remove nitrogen from aromatic compounds commonly present in gasolines and petroleum feedstocks. Aromatic compounds containing nitrogen are responsible for severe adverse effects to the environment and human health, including acid rain and asthma.

“Current industry standards for removing aromatic compounds containing nitrogen are inefficient and developing catalysts able to break the aromatic C-N bonds of these compounds

is a huge challenge,” Montiel-Palma said. “It is an incredible moment for me and a great honor to receive this prestigious CAREER award. This is a milestone in my professional career which will allow me to consolidate my research in a highly competitive area with broad societal relevance. I am humbly thankful to the students in my group and my colleagues in the Department of Chemistry.”

everyday devices such as TVs, cell phones and medical devices, among others. She said her success is fundamental to the advancement of technologies used to improve and promote human health, prosperity and welfare.

Associate Professor Xin Cui, a native of China and an MSU faculty member since 2016, received a five-year, $650,000 NSF Division of Chemistry award to help develop new ways to access organic molecules and effective approaches to fill the long-standing gap in the chemistry of stereoselective carbon–hydrogen bond functionalization.

“With pharmaceutically important and biologically active molecules as targets, our research investigates threedimensional behavior of chemical transformations, which is key to stereoselective production of drug candidates and bioactive molecules,” said Cui, whose work could open practical and step-economic pathways to new optically active bi- and polycyclic molecules he said are “pharmaceutically and biologically important.”

“This award is a validation of my ideas and professional work, as well as a reward for patience, hard work and perseverance,” Scott said. “I hope it will allow me to pursue my research ideas to develop materials to be used in all different areas of organic electronics such as sensors, organic magnets, electromagnetic interference shielding and electrochromic materials.”

Associate Professor

Ben Crider, a native of Mechanicsville, Virginia, and an MSU faculty member since 2017, received $680,000 in a project jointly funded by NSF’s Experimental Nuclear Physics Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR. His research seeks to gain a better understanding of the atomic nucleus’s structure and work toward a predictive model of the atomic nucleus as a function of proton number, neutron number and energy.

Associate Professor Colleen

N. Scott, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, and an MSU faculty member since 2015, received a five-year $675,000 CAREER award to extend the longevity of materials used in common,

“I study the properties of exotic nuclei by performing experiments that observe the decays of nuclei using a wide variety of radiation detectors whose data can culminate in inferences about nuclear structure,” said Crider, whose work is based in experimental nuclear physics. “These exotic nuclei can exhibit multiple shapes, but they are highly unstable and exist for a short amount of time before decaying, so producing them for study is difficult.”

“Almost every state in the country currently reports a shortage of K-12 language teachers including both world language—or WL—and English as a Second or Other Language—or ESOL,” said Kelly M. Moser, an associate professor in Mississippi State’s Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures.

“Sadly, this is a historical challenge that has been reported by the U.S. Department of Education for decades. Many scholars, including myself, refer to this as a crisis. Either we increase the number of K-12 language teachers or we fail to prepare our children for a global world in which they are increasingly likely to interact with diverse individuals.”

Moser, a Knoxville native who has been at MSU since 2012, said today’s language teacher supply crisis is “truly complex.”

“Reports by the Learning Policy Institute underscore that ESOL and WL teachers leave the field at higher rates than others, and these numbers are typically worse in the South,” Moser said.

MSU’S MOSER SEEKS TO SUPPORT, RETAIN ‘WORLD LANGUAGE’ EDUCATORS AMID TEACHER SHORTAGE

By Sarah Nicholas

“My research related to WL teacher supply began in 2020 when everything related to how we live and work evolved at the start of the pandemic,” Moser said. “I already knew that WL teachers were in short supply before COVID-19.”

Moser said communication is at the “heart” of language study and that all students deserve an education “that teaches them to interact respectfully within and across cultures.” However, less than 20% of K-12 students have access to a WL class. In Mississippi, even fewer students are enrolled in language study.

Moser and her colleagues—Devon Brenner, director of MSU’s Social Science Research Center, and Associate Professor Elaine Wei—initiated a survey study at the onset of COVID-19, using $105,000 funded by the U.S. Department of Education through Mississippi’s Governor’s Emergency Education Response (GEER) to support language study.

Hundreds of K-12 and post-secondary WL teachers took time to complete the

survey, which revealed K-12 educators were significantly less prepared to teach online and in emergency conditions than their post-secondary counterparts.

“In summer 2021, I worked alongside two colleagues in my department, Dr. Sol Pelaez and Dr. Karina Zelaya, to design a fully online workshop to support ESOL and WL teachers. The goal of the workshop was to provide educators with strategies and resources to interact with learners via distance as well as in hybrid, blended and in-person classrooms.

“I think one thing that we often forget is that just because we have access to certain tools and we’ve been flooded with technological resources in the past two years—well, that does not mean that we should always use them. Rather, I remind teachers to reflect: What are my instructional objectives? How do I expect to measure those objectives? And, do I need technology for that purpose?”

Moser said experts across the country worked with her to meet 50 language teachers (25 ESOL, 25 WL) through

Zoom to provide assistance to K-12 teachers.

“In just one year, I have heard from so many of these teachers who have chosen to share new knowledge and skills with others in their schools. They’ve attended conferences together, sought additional professional development through books and workshops, and continued to engage in dialogue with one another. That is especially meaningful—it has a ripple effect.”

Having a close WL and ESOL community is important, Moser said, because language teachers are typically a “jack-of-all-trades.”

“As cultural mediators, they work with content teachers, advocating for their learners’ linguistic or cultural needs,” Moser said. “They serve frequently as tutors.”

Other areas creating roadblocks for language teachers include legislation, which sometimes can create a hidden curriculum that prioritizes science and mathematics over the humanities, Moser explained.

“As a non-tested area, WL teachers are less likely to receive financial support for professional development than their STEM colleagues. They are more likely to have their instructional time interrupted because of their elective status and are more likely to rotate

classrooms or not have a room of their own.”

Although language teachers leave the field at a higher rate than other teachers, Moser said she is always looking for ways to help.

“I think change starts with advocating for language study. Students should be required to take another language to graduate from high school. Those students who enter our schools and need support with English should be seen as assets, as ‘emergent bilinguals.’ Many states, including our own, now have programs in place to reward students for demonstrating proficiency in at least two languages—for example, the Seal of Biliteracy. These are steps in the right direction. Language instruction should also begin much earlier, but there are far fewer programs designed for younger learners,” Moser said.

She also advocates for colleges and universities to require all learners to complete at least two years of language study. “There is no career that could not be enhanced with language study.”

Another avenue Moser said can help retain WL teachers in Mississippi is advocating for teachers’ working conditions and helping teachers to engage professionally in their discipline in their schools, region and beyond.

“Even with initiatives aimed at

increasing the number of K-12 language teachers in today’s classrooms, the data reveal that professional attrition is largely to blame for the shortage. Recognizing these pre-pandemic challenges, I knew that we needed to focus on teacher support, particularly when COVID catapulted our educators into unfamiliar modes of instructional delivery,” Moser said.

“I would say that everyone has the important responsibility to support their local teachers and schools.

Teaching is a challenging profession; however, when community members value their work, it can become much easier and more rewarding,” Moser said.

“I love everything about my job. I get to teach a language that I love— Spanish—and without leaving my building, I can overhear conversations in German, French or Japanese, among others.

“I work with dedicated, collaborative colleagues who are committed to improving language education throughout the state,” Moser said. “On a personal level, this is really the goal of my work—to improve language teaching, to increase access to quality language programs, and to support the most dedicated teachers in our state— our language teachers.” l

DR. KELLY M. MOSER

Kelly Moser joined the faculty in MSU’s Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures in 2018. She earned her Ph.D. from MSU, and two master’s degrees and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 2020, she was named an America’s Languages Fellow in the Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received a 2020 Educator of Excellence at the Southern Conference on Language Teaching, and was named a Mississippi Educator of Excellence in 2019 at the Mississippi Foreign Language Association Conference. At MSU, her research includes world language teacher development, teacher cognition and practice, world language teacher shortage and rural world language teacher preparation.

FORGING A NEW PATH, MSU PROFESSOR’S CAREER BEGAN ON ‘GROUND FLOOR OF NEUROSCIENCE’

By Sarah Nicholas

On an uncharacteristically pleasant July morning, John Bickle, a Mississippi State professor of philosophy, sat on the steps of MSU’s George Hall and explained his specialty—philosophy of neuroscience.

“Neuroscience was called psychobiology when I first started studying it at UCLA in the early 1980s,” said Bickle. “It’s the intersection of behavior and cells and molecules—the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in things like learning and memory.”

“When neuroscience gained steam in the second half of the 20th century, it was no surprise that philosophers of science would start to look to it. Neuroscience was an especially intriguing science from the perspective of philosophy since it investigates the basic engine of human behavior. The human brain investigating the human brain! But the brain is complicated, and it took science a while to really start finding its way into that tangle,” Bickle said.

The Texas native started at UCLA in 1979 and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1983, studying philosophy and psychobiology. By 1989 he had finished his master’s degree and his Ph.D. in philosophy with a scientific concentration in psychobiology, both from the University of California-Irvine.

Around that time, he began working in the new field of “neurophilosophy”—the idea of using contemporary discoveries in the neurosciences to address long-standing philosophical issues about the mind, knowledge, and even rationality and ethics.

“Sometimes in one’s life, ‘the stars align,’ as they say, and one simply gets lucky. That was southern California for me in the 1980s. For someone interested in state-of-the-art cellular neuroscience, but also in the broader lessons that emerging

neuroscience held for our basic picture of human-being-inthe-world, there have been very few times or places on this planet to entice and develop those interests more than southern California in the 1980s,” he said.

“To study psychological phenomena neuroscientifically, generally we figure out behavioral tests that can be performed in a lab setting,” Bickle said, pointing to a complex process doctors created in the 1950s and 1960s to help patients with epilepsy that could not be treated with medication. These patients are known as “split brain patients.”

“Doctors cut the axons that connect nerve cells across the cortex of the brain—severed the cable, so to speak. It didn’t stop the seizures, but it did stop the seizures from spreading across to the other side of the cortex,” Bickle said.

Roger Wolcott Sperry, a neuropsychologist and neurobiologist, won the 1981 Nobel Prize, along with David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel, for experimental work with these patients.

With their left and right cortexes separated and unable to communicate directly with each other, it was amazing, Bickle said, to discover how “normal” these patients were—carrying on conversations and retaining memories.

However, Sperry and his graduate student Michael Gazzaniga discovered something interesting about these patients. With a shield blocking their vision, split-brain patients were given objects to hold in each hand. In the brainstem, between the hands and the cortex, sensory information swaps—the right hand is recognized by the left side of the brain, and vice versa. When asked what they held in their right hand, the split-brain patients could verbalize the correct shape because the left ‘speech’ side of the cortex aligns with the sensory receptors of

the right hand. However, they could not verbalize what was in their left hand because the connections from the right cortex to the left cortex had been severed by the surgery, cutting their ability to verbalize what their left hand held. However, they could draw what had been in their left hand with their left hand, because the right side of the brain controls the left side motor movements.

“This brought into question ‘seats of consciousness,’” Bickle said. “Did this mean that humans had two seats of consciousness, but only one can talk? And we don’t notice this normally because of our intact cable connecting our two sides of the cortex? That’s how philosophers first got involved in the science of brain research.”

The challenge in the philosophy of neuroscience that most interests him, Bickle said, is the attempt to find explanations of psychological phenomena in terms of cell-biological and molecular-biological activities that take place in the nerve cells and other tissues that compose the subjects’ physical bodies— the nervous system, muscles, hormones, and even the immune system and gut microbes.

When asked if Bickle thought philosophical study should remain traditional or embrace the “hard facts” of science, he said, “Ask any 10 current philosophers this question and you’ll get 10 different answers.

“But for me, I see no alternative to merging philosophy with science, to the extent possible. Philosophers and scientists ask different questions. And philosophers’ methods are broader than scientists, because as prominent 20th century philosopher Wilfrid Sellars so aptly put it, in philosophy, ‘no intellectual holds are barred.’ All methods of rational inquiry are in the philosopher’s tool box. And even when I’m working on a project with a neurobiologist collaborator, we’re usually focusing on different aspects of what we’re investigating.

“We live in the age of science and, more specifically, in the age of the life sciences. And I think philosophers are remiss if they don’t engage with that sociological fact and investigate those sciences with all the methods of rational inquiry at their disposal, and with the unflinching goal of providing a synoptic vision on human-being-in-the-world based on the findings of 21st-century science.

“It has been a joy to have been part of the rise of neurophilosophy from the earliest days of the field—to witness the separation of neurophilosophy from the philosophy of neuroscience as separate philosophical endeavors, and to now be among the recognized handful of senior faculty worldwide as leaders of this fascinating development over the past 35 years.

Bickle said one fascinating feature of his field is that one never knows which new topics are coming around in the near future, because neuroscience itself moves quickly and unpredictably.

“Today’s neuroscience fantasy is tomorrow’s neuroscience reality. And not surprisingly, one can find philosophical relevance in some strange places in this fast-moving early21st century scientific endeavor that attracts so many smart scientists and a wealth of research funding,” Bickle said.

“What an exciting time to be a philosopher.” l

John Bickle brought his expertise to MSU in 2009 as the then-department head for the Department of Philosophy and Religion, where he served until 2019 when he stepped back to conduct research and teach. Currently, he teaches Introduction to Philosophy and Honors Neuroscience within the university’s Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College. He also is a scientist-educator in the University of Mississippi Medical Center Department of Advanced Biomedical Education.

He was appointed a Visiting Senior Researcher in 2019 at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Klosterneuburg, Austria. He gave the Bar-Hillel Lectures in the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 2017 and received the MSU College of Arts and Sciences Annual Research Award for academic year 2014-2015. He was elected fellow of the Graduate School at the University of Cincinnati in 2005 and has been an associate of the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh since 2004. Bickle spent five months visiting the Department of Philosophie, Logik und Wissenshaftstheorie (Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Theory) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, in 1997. He has published four academic books and approximately 100 articles and book chapters in philosophy and neuroscience journals and collections and edited two major volumes of essays, including The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Neuroscience. He has presented invited lectures in 23 countries worldwide.

DR. JOHN BICKLE

MSU FACULTY MEMBER LEADS NATIONAL LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION

By Sarah Nicholas

Jervette R. Ward, a Mississippi State University associate professor of English, now serves as president of a national language association devoted to serving the academic, scholarly and professional interests of African American scholars in the collegiate community.

Last spring, Ward was installed as the 42nd president of the College Language Association, which was founded in 1937 in her hometown, Memphis, at LeMoyne College, now LeMoyneOwen College. Ward, a lifetime CLA member, will serve as president until April 2024 and previously served two years as vice president.

“Leading a national organization can be a challenge. My team is spread throughout the country. We are all navigating various time zones, college and university obligations, plus our own personal responsibilities,” she said, “yet it is an honor to help shape the legacy of an organization that has supported and shaped Black language and literature for more than 80 years.

“I know that I have been entrusted with a great responsibility, and I don’t take it lightly,” Ward added. “Navigating this role during COVID-19 and serving as the vice president and program chair for the first and hopefully only virtual convention was a huge undertaking in 2020, but I also learned so much. The skill sets that I have been able to build will serve me for the rest of my career. I am looking forward to using them as I continue my leadership journey as president.”

Dan Punday, professor and head of MSU’s Department of English, said, “Having a Mississippi State faculty member serving as the president of the CLA is an incredible honor. The CLA is incredibly important to the history of Black literature and literary studies in the U.S.

and around the world. In particular, Professor Ward has shown incredible leadership at a time of uncertainty and change, and her ability to guide the association through years of disruption around COVID-19 is remarkable.”

Ward said the CLA has evolved to become the largest organization of Black scholars of languages and literature in the country.

“The CLA was initially created to improve the teaching of English at historically black colleges and universities, and it has expanded to include predominately white institutions,” Ward said. “The CLA has also existed as a space or haven for Black professors of languages and literature who have often been excluded from white academic spaces. The CLA exists to support Black scholars while also welcoming scholars of all backgrounds.”

Ward said historically many organizations have excluded Black scholars.

“This exclusion isn’t a new idea. CLA was founded by Black faculty in Memphis in 1937,” she said. “If one considers the segregation and racism that was happening in Memphis, the South and the United States in 1937, one can imagine how unwelcoming a space that was for Black academics, Black Ph.D.s and Black people seeking higher education.”

CLA is beneficial for scholars because the association offers opportunities to publish in a professional journal, network, present scholarship and receive feedback at the annual convention and to participate in professional development events such as writing workshops, she said.

“I remember when I joined CLA right as I finished my Ph.D., one of my biggest regrets was that I hadn’t joined sooner because I truly found

a space that supported me as a scholar and as an individual,” Ward said.

A supportive relationship she credits to the CLA—and a connection that has helped with her career—is with Sharon Lynette Jones, a Wright State University faculty member, who impacted Ward early in her profession.

“One year, I was lucky enough to sit next to Dr. Jones [on a bus ride during a CLA convention]. She had recently sent out a call for papers on an edited book on the Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, and my dissertation was on Hurston. We chatted, and I told her about my project. We exchanged information. I ended up working with her on that book,” Ward said. “We also struck up a friendship because I later learned that she is a reality TV fan—in particular, she loves ‘Basketball Wives.’ She also is a fan of Krispy Kreme Donuts. At another CLA convention some years later, we ended up taking a break from the convention to get Krispy Kreme Donuts together and from that outing we started discussing reality TV.

“That conversation became the foundation for

my 2015 edited book, ‘Real Sister: Stereotypes, Respectability, and Black Women in Reality TV’ with Rutgers University Press. Dr. Jones has a chapter on ‘Basketball Wives’ in the book,” she added. “CLA is truly a unique space where one can go from the Harlem Renaissance to Krispy Kreme to Basketball Wives with a University Press—and all of it is okay and celebrated.”

Ward said mentoring and networking support are key tenants of the CLA.

“We now have a standing committee dedicated to undergraduate and graduate student issues. Watching seasoned and new scholars interact and support each other in the CLA spirit is beautiful,” she said. “Senior scholars will ask for help with social media and they will assist younger scholars with publication feedback. The care and support that happens in the CLA community is wide and far-reaching—it constantly amazes me.

“CLA is a space where Black scholars are able to be fully and unapologetically themselves as individuals, teachers, scholars and leaders,” Ward added. “I am honored that I have been blessed to lead the organization at this time.” l

DR. JERVETTE WARD

Jervette Ward received her 2011 Ph.D. from the University of Memphis in literary and cultural studies. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Memphis in 2004.

Ward is the editor of a 2015 Rutgers University Press publication, “Real Sister: Stereotypes, Respectability, and Black Women in Reality TV.” She has a new book, “Black Women vs. Errbody: An Intellectual Tradition of Great Debates,” under contract with Ohio State University Press.

Ward also is a member of the Modern Language Association, the largest and most prominent organization for English, where she serves as immediate past chair for the MLA Languages, Literatures and Cultures African American Literature Forum. Ward has served as president of the Anchorage Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., one of the oldest Black service organizations in the country. Her research and teaching areas focus on American literature with an emphasis in African American women’s literature.

The College Language Association publishes the peer-reviewed College Language Association Journal, established in 1957, available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/779. Issues prior to 2017 are available on JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/journal/claj.

This year, the 81st Annual College Language Association Convention will be hosted April 5-8, 2023 at Emory University. Jericho Brown will serve as the keynote speaker.

MSU FACULTY MEMBER HELPS OTHERS RECLAIM THEIR LIVES FROM HOARDING DISORDERS

By Sarah Nicholas, with research help

Jazell Ladner

Mary E. Dozier, an assistant professor in Mississippi State’s Department of Psychology, is conducting research to help older adults overcome their struggles with hoarding.

A psychiatric diagnosis characterized by difficulty discarding possessions and excessive household clutter, hoarding is a major public health issue that has been largely overlooked due to stigma, Dozier said.

“The public tends to have less empathy for someone with hoarding disorder because it is so often portrayed

in the media as a personal failing. In reality, individuals, especially older adults with hoarding disorder, often feel trapped in their situation and don’t know where to begin to dig themselves out,” she said, explaining that hoarding is similar to anxiety or depression in that it exists on a continuum. “For someone who is diagnosed with hoarding disorder, the urge to hold on to objects extends to the point that it has become debilitating.”

To help, Dozier currently is managing two intervention studies. The first is Project RECLAIM,

from MSU alumna

a pilot study for intervention funded by the American Psychological Foundation, in which a clinician goes into a volunteer’s home once a week for six weeks and uses motivational interviewing to facilitate behavioral change and, ultimately, reduce clutter.

The second project is a clinical trial targeting older individuals and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

“We are recruiting individuals aged 60 and over and randomizing them to either receive 16 sessions of the RECLAIM intervention or 16 sessions of what I am calling ‘sorting practice,’” Dozier said, “where a clinician still comes to your home once a week to work with you on decluttering, but there is less of an emphasis on the motivations underlying the behavioral change.”

Both studies have a catchment area of one-hour driving distance from Starkville and take place exclusively in participants’ homes, a key to making the intervention more accessible to individuals without access to reliable transportation. They are free for participants and provide up to $100 in gift cards for participating in monthly assessments to measure progress in the treatment.

Dozier said the preliminary results from the pilot study show even as little as six sessions of the intervention may be enough to enact behavioral change.

“It was only relatively recently that the National Institutes of Health started mandating the inclusion of individuals over the age of 65,” Dozier said. “Older adults are often more motivated for treatment than younger or middle-aged adults because they are more likely to have experienced the consequences of having a psychiatric disorder, such as difficulty with interpersonal relationships leading to divorce. This is, in part, why I am calling my current intervention study Project RECLAIM. In addition to being a fun acronym—REduce CLutter And Increase Meaning—when individuals reclaim their home, it can feel like they are reclaiming their lives.”

Hoarding is a relatively common problem among older adults, Dozier said, and older adults often are overlooked in research.

“As we age, there is a natural accumulation of stuff that we must actively fight against in order to maintain order in our homes,” she said. “This is true for everyone. For example, imagine all the items that have entered your home just within the last year. This includes Christmas cards, school papers, reminder letters from the doctor and so forth. If you have difficulty making decisions about what to keep and what to discard as things enter the home, it can very quickly become overwhelming to go back and sort things at a later time.

“The consequences for living in a hoarded house can be dire. For example, you are twice as likely to die

DR. MARY E. DOZIER

An MSU faculty member since 2019, Mary Dozier’s broad research interest is studying evidence-based methods of assessment and treatment for psychopathology across the lifespan. Her current research focus is on hoarding disorder in older adults. Hoarding disorder has historically been categorized as an obsessive-compulsive disorder with its etiological roots based in avoidance of anxiety. However, recent research suggests not all hoarding is fear-based, and this may be particularly true for older adults. Her MSU lab currently is working on several projects to disentangle the etiological factors at play in the development and maintenance of hoarding disorder.

Dozier received her Ph.D. in 2019 and her master’s degree in 2015 from the University of California, San Diego/San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Rice University in 2011. In 2021 her work was recognized for “distinguished scientific merit for a paper by a new and emerging professional published in Clinical Gerontologist,” for her co-authored paper, “The Association between Age and Experienced Emotions in Hoarding Disorder.” (Dozier, M. E., Wetherell, J. L., Amir, N., Weersing, V. R., Taylor, C. T., & Ayers, C. R. (2021). Clinical Gerontologist, 44(5), 562-566.)

in a house fire if it has a high level of clutter. Although we currently have evidence-based treatments for hoarding disorder, they are often lengthy in duration— more than six months—and may not be suitable for wide-spread implementation,” Dozier added. “My hope is to develop brief behavioral interventions that focus on hoarding as a health behavior similar to how we talk about diet and exercise.”

Dozier said even people without hoarding problems often have boxes in attics of old clothes that don’t fit or toys from when their children were young.

“For most individuals, we hit a certain threshold of clutter level that prompts us to sort through our possessions and determine what we can let go of and what we need to keep,” she said. “In contrast, individuals with hoarding disorder don’t experience that same internal cue to declutter and instead continue to accumulate clutter until it becomes impairing.”

Her current study relies on a newer, evidence-based treatment.

“There are treatments that patients enjoy, and there are treatments that work, and the two groups don’t always overlap,” Dozier said. “As an example, let’s consider treatment for insomnia. Having a warm glass of milk before bed might be enjoyable for the patient, but there isn’t scientific evidence to show that it will decrease symptoms of insomnia. In contrast, there is a treatment called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for

Insomnia, or CBT-I, — an evidence-based treatment that involves a combination of cognitive restructuring and sleep restriction. CBT-I is a lot harder to do than drinking a glass of warm milk; however, research shows it is an effective way to help people get back to having a good night’s sleep.

“Treatment for hoarding disorder is similar,” she added. “There are a lot of ‘get organized quick’ schemes out there. In fact, I generally find at least two or three books on organization in every hoarded house I go to, but these techniques aren’t based in science. My area of research focuses on the development, validation and implementation of evidence-based treatments for hoarding, particularly for rural-dwelling older adults.”

Dozier’s almost decade-long research into hoarding is helping change lives, including her own. Dozier said she learned about the stigma society places on the concept of hoarding and even approaches gift-giving differently now by thinking about items’ usefulness.

“I’ve become a big fan of giving gifts that are consumables, like baked goods or a bottle of wine,” she said. “That way I can rest assured that I haven’t contributed to the clutter of another person’s house.

“Object attachment is a natural phenomenon, and hoarding is a behavior we all engage in to some extent,” Dozier added. “My hope is to dedicate the next few decades of my research to refining and implementing this intervention across the state of Mississippi.” l

Dr. Mary Dozier will recruit participants for Project RECLAIM throughout the next three years. Anyone interested in receiving help with decluttering—and who lives within a one-hour drive from Starkville—is encouraged to call her at 662-325-0523 for information about participating in the study.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES WORK NETS COMPETITIVE EDGE IN RESEARCH ARENA

By Sam Kealhofer

Experiencing significant growth this year in research, from the natural and physical sciences to the behavioral and social sciences and the humanities, the College of Arts and Sciences provides a strong contribution to MSU’s research enterprise.

Throughout the last several years, award dollars credited to CAS faculty have more than doubled from $6 million in fiscal year 2014 to more than $16 million in fiscal year 2022. The percentage of these funds that are fiscally managed by CAS units also has increased from approximately 50% to more than 75% during that same time.

Associate Dean for Research Giselle

Thibaudeau serves an integral role in the college’s research efforts, parlaying commitment, experience and passion to give faculty the competitive edge to be productive, successful researchers and helping make the college a place where solutions are discovered.

“The mission, charge and goal of our team is to do whatever we can to help faculty to be research productive

and research successful,” Thibaudeau said. “We encourage faculty to reach out to us early and often so we can add as much value as possible to the final product.”

The research support team provides general research support during the project planning and proposal processes and performs behind-the-scenes efforts to track sponsor requirements and the CAS faculty research needs. Thibaudeau and the research support team work collaboratively with other support units on campus to facilitate success and promote a strong research environment in the college.

Andrew Lawton, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, said he contacted the support team when first applying for a grant to support his laboratory research.

“They met with me to discuss my research and places for me to find support. They talked with me continually through the process and handled all of the tedious bits leaving me to focus on my science,” Lawton said. “Yet they did even more as they read my proposal and suggested critical edits and adjustments. I am under no illusion that

From

Ashley Miller, Silas Knox, Giselle Thibaudeau, Keisha Knox, Sam Kealhofer (Photo by John Burrow)

Thibaudeau

my success wasn’t directly tied to their work.”

As soon as they are hired, faculty can begin submitting proposals to sponsors who might fund their research. However, securing competitive awards is a complex task, and it can be difficult to navigate the innerworkings of various funding agencies and foundations and their submission processes.

CAS research support members Silas Knox and Ashley Miller, both contract and grant specialists, provide faculty with services to help their research endeavors. The team meets with faculty to understand their research goals and identify funding opportunities. As contract and grant specialists, Knox and Miller review funding agency guidelines, check compliance, develop checklists of required documents, and serve as liaisons between the faculty and other MSU research administrative units. Knox and Miller also help faculty develop proposal budgets so funds are clearly planned and justified to achieve specific research goals. By creating transparent and practicable budgets, the contract and grant specialists ensure that funds awarded to CAS faculty provide the exact support needed.

“I consider Ashley to be an integral part of the success that I have had with grant writing here at Mississippi State,” said Mary Dozier, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. “I have been fortunate to work with her on a variety of proposals, including my current clinical trial funded by NIH. In addition to helping me stay in compliance with funding organizations’ esoteric requirements, Ashley will read through each component of a proposal for clarity and consistency. Working with Ashley has definitely led to an increase in my grantsmanship skills.”

“Silas played a critical role in the success of my application,” said Hossein Karimi, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. “He was there whenever I needed him. He provided help, guidance and feedback with different aspects of my application, and made sure that everything was done accurately and on time.”

The CAS research support team also includes Business Coordinator Keisha Knox and Communication and Research Support Coordinator Sam Kealhofer. In addition to coordinating business functions of the research team, Keisha Knox coordinates a number of internal funding opportunities for faculty and students. She also helps the college support the “best and brightest scholars” from around the world by helping the CAS Dean’s Office and other business coordinators complete visa paperwork and the onboarding process of international researchers, which requires a special knowledge of the federal immigration policies and procedures.

Kealhofer, whose time is split between the CAS research and communication teams, works daily to translate CAS faculty research and scholarly activities to broader audiences beyond the university community through articles, interviews, podcasts and strategic social media engagement.

“We are fortunate at MSU to have attracted some amazing top-notch scholars, participating in research that could change how we perceive, experience and engage the world,” Thibaudeau said.

Thibaudeau and the Research Support Team continue to work hand-in-hand with the college’s outstanding faculty, helping to turn their expertise into researched-based solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. l

Editor’s note: Sam Kealhofer, a member of the Research Support Team, also works with the Arts and Sciences Communication Team and contributed this piece to Vision magazine.

Kealhofer

Knox

Knox Miller

Mississippi State Department of History Associate Professor

Anne Marshall—a Civil War historian, researcher and author—is the newly named executive director of Mississippi State University’s Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, a role in which she helps visitors and scholars alike understand the importance and impact of the 18th president.

Named in March 2022, Marshall also became executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. Both are housed in the university’s Mitchell Memorial Library, where she manages Grant’s papers and preserves a vast array of artifacts and memorabilia.

“MSU is one of only six universities in the U.S. to host a presidential library, which puts us in an elite group of institutions,” Marshall said. “It increases our visibility and gives people around the world who have no connection to MSU in other ways a reason to know us and to visit our campus.”

MSU HISTORIAN PROVIDES NEW LEADERSHIP AT MSU’S GRANT PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

By John Burrow

The organization has published 32 volumes of Grant’s writings; collected many original letters written by Grant, his associates and family; and has more than 200,000 photocopies of every known letter written by Grant, as well as other documents.

“The fact that we have all of this information in one repository has made us indispensable to recent Grant scholars, including Ron White and Ron Chernow. Both have written excellent biographies of Grant in the last five years, and they benefited greatly from our extensive holdings,” Marshall said.

“On a smaller but more consistent level, we field questions every day from average Americans trying to research or answer specific questions about Grant.”

The USGA celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012 with the creation of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, though it didn’t have an official home until 2017 when it moved to the fourth floor of Mitchell Memorial Library.

The papers are owned by the USGA; however, the MSU library manages and conducts research and work with the collection.

Marshall said her transition from the classroom to the role of executive director “required the refinement of skills that aid in communicating public history and spreading the word about the library.” Parts of her job as executive director are to oversee the functioning of the library and its materials, and to promote the repository.

“Traveling and giving talks, spreading the word and helping the public understand the importance and function of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library are major parts of the job,” Marshall said. “Letting the public know how the library came to MSU and the on-going projects it does alongside the museum here remain just as important as overseeing the library’s operations.”

Marshall, whose research focuses on the American Civil War and Reconstruction

periods, said she was honored to be named the executive director.

“I am personally invested in MSU, and knowing how much this library means to the university makes the appointment all the better,” she said.

While many understand the importance of having such a resource at MSU and what the library provides to scholars, Marshall has plans to create more visibility for the library.

“We would love an even more experiential museum for visitors,” Marshall said. “The museum and the library are great ways to tell the stories, not just of President Grant but also those around him whose voices are often overlooked.”

While many visit the library to conduct research and visit the museum, Marshall said the library functions well with Mississippi’s Civil War tourism industry. Marshall said she hopes when visitors tour some of the battlefields of Mississippi, they choose to stop by the library and museum.

“President Grant did more in Mississippi than just wage war,” she says. “He played a pivotal part in reconstruction. We want to emphasize that as well.” l

DR. ANNE MARSHALL

A faculty member at MSU since 2006, Anne Marshall is a Phi Beta Kappa cum laude graduate of Kentucky’s Centre College. She holds both master’s and doctoral degrees in history from the University of Georgia.

Marshall currently is working on an upcoming biography of anti-slavery activist Cassius Marcellus Clay, a founding member of the country’s Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln’s ambassador to Russia.

ABOUT THE ULYSSES S. GRANT PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library contains 15,000 linear feet of correspondence, research notes, published monographs, artifacts, photographs, scrapbooks and memorabilia by and about the 18th president, covering his early life, Civil War triumphs, presidency and beyond. The library contains the collections of the USGA, the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana and the Mississippi Political Collections.

In 2017, the USGA and Presidential Library staff edited “The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant: The Complete Annotated Edition” (Harvard University Press, 2017).

Among Southeastern Conference universities but aside from MSU,

only the University of Tennessee has presidential papers—those of Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson—and Texas A&M is home to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library. MSU hosts one of only 10 projects publishing the papers of U.S. presidents.

The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library is open to visitors and scholars, typically Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Marshall at 662-325-4552 or usgpresidentiallibrary@library. msstate.edu

For more information about the U.S. Grant Association and Presidential Library visit https:// usgrantlibrary.org.

In 2010, she penned “Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State” (University of North Carolina Press), which received critical and popular acclaim. She also has published articles in several scholarly publications including the Journal of the Civil War Era, Slavery & Abolition, Agricultural History and Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.

She is a contributor to several books, including “Reconstructing Appalachia: The Civil War’s Aftermath (University Press of Kentucky, 2010), “Reconstruction: The Unfinished Business of the Civil War” (Fordham University Press, 2010), and “Master Narratives: Storytelling, History, and the Postmodern South” (Louisiana University Press, 2013).

SESSIONS FAMILY FINDS SERVICE, DEDICATION AND COMMITMENT WITH MSU’S ROTC PROGRAM

By Madison Sessions

If William Sessions’ children experience war, he at least knows they received the best training offered by the U.S. Army via Mississippi State’s Army Reserve Officer Training Program.

“Soldiers prepare for battle,” Sessions said. “We hope that day doesn’t come, but, inevitably, wars come. Speaking as a dad, I am thankful—and comforted— that my children each had outstanding leadership by cadre who took the time to make sure they were prepared. The MSU ROTC cadets have received the best training offered by the Army. I know that in the event one of my children is involved in a conflict, they have been taught by the best how to lead and bring everyone back.”

William and Boo Sessions of Memphis, Tennessee, watched all four of their children attend MSU and become commissioned military officers through the school’s Army ROTC program. Boo Sessions, an alumna, attended MSU from 1982-87 and played on the women’s tennis team.

The Sessions’ multigenerational history with MSU’s ROTC program began when Bill Hildebrand, Boo Sessions’ father, attended MSU from 1942 to 1947. As a student, Hildebrand played on the football team for four years and was a cadet captain, physical training instructor and rifle champion in the university’s Army ROTC battalion. Medical reasons prevented him from commissioning into the U.S. Army, but he enjoyed a career as a college and pro football coach that included a brief stint on MSU’s coaching staff from 1966 to 1967.

The military history in the Sessions family is largely comprised of veterans who served in various military branches during multiple conflicts. Many relatives served in World War I, World War II and Vietnam. William Sessions II served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1952 to 1955.

obvious choice for both, but their father was a strong supporter. Alexis Sessions joined the program her freshman year, while Madison Sessions joined her junior year. Their brother, Zachary Sessions, joined the MSU ROTC his freshman year in 2015, followed by their younger sister, Peyton Sessions, in 2017.

Now a first lieutenant, Alexis Sessions was commissioned into the Army in 2018. She said her reasons for joining were to pay back what so many before her had sacrificed through service and to experience the world. Her siblings followed suit. Now also a first lieutenant, Zachary Sessions was commissioned in 2019, and 2nd Lts. Madison and Peyton Sessions were commissioned in 2021.

As each new sibling joined the program, Madison Sessions said the bond they shared grew stronger.

Taylor Moore, Sophomore

The Sessions family legacy includes 26-year-old twin daughters Alexis, a 2018 MSU graduate, and Madison, a 2021 MSU graduate; son Zachary, 25, a 2019 MSU graduate; and daughter Peyton, 23, who attended MSU for two years before transferring to Mississippi University for Women and graduating from nursing school in 2021.

Madison Sessions said the bond created by military service often leads to multiple generations of service members within families. While it is not rare for siblings to serve in the military, she said her family took this trend a step further—all four Sessions siblings are commissioned officers in the Army.

The twins started at MSU as freshmen in 2014, citing the university’s proximity to home, its great reputation and their family history as the primary driving forces behind their decision. However, joining the ROTC program was not an

“One could say it became a family affair,” she said. “To serve one’s country is a great honor. It is an honor that ties one person to many individuals and creates bonds that are oftentimes familial.”

MSU’s Army ROTC program provides a nationally known leadership course and has graduates serving at the highest levels in the military and corporate and public sectors, where they provide a lifetime of service to the nation. In the program, students learn how to build competent and cohesive teams and provide purpose, direction and motivation to groups in

The Sessions family. L-R: William, Alexis, Madison, Payton, Boo and Zachary.

any type of competitive environment. Participants gain valuable skills, and they develop friendships, relationships and memories lasting a lifetime.

Throughout their time in MSU’s ROTC program—spanning eight consecutive years—the Sessions siblings participated in every event the program had to offer, including Ranger Challenge, Bulldog Battery, Color Guard, the Egg Bowl Run, German Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency and the 18.6-mile Norwegian Foot March.

Commissioned as an active-duty field artillery office, Alexis Sessions, a psychology major, serves in the 82nd Airborne Division. She rapidly deployed twice in the last two years—first to Kuwait and Iraq in 2020 and then to Afghanistan to support evacuating refugees in 2021.

“Being a part of the program was a great experience,” she said. “I gained great friends and had experiences that set me up for success inside and outside of the Army.”

Commissioned as an active-duty infantry officer, Zachary Sessions, a political science major, also serves in the 82nd Airborne Division. He attended Airborne School as a cadet and graduated from Ranger School in 2021.

“I joined because I wanted an experience that no other program could offer,” he said. “Through my time so far, I’ve been tested and discovered a resiliency that would have never surfaced had I pursued anything else.”

Madison Sessions, a double major in fashion design and marketing, was commissioned into the Mississippi National Guard as an aviation officer. She worked as a gold bar recruiter with the MSU Army ROTC program before beginning flight school in October. She

said she joined the Mississippi Aviation Brigade because it offered her more flexibility with service in the Army and the ability to pursue a civilian career.

“MSU’s ROTC program allowed me to challenge and test myself beyond what I thought I could achieve,” she said. “Not only were the challenges rewarding, but the people who went through those challenges alongside me made the experience more impactful.”

After her graduation from MUW, Peyton Sessions was commissioned into the nursing corps. She recently graduated from the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence’s Basic Officer Leadership Course in 2021 and serves at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

“I joined MSU’s ROTC program because my sister, Alexis, motivated me to join. She told me that I could be an Army nurse and that ROTC would pay for nursing school,” she said. “I joined to become a nurse, and, in the end, I commissioned from the program with lifelong friends and not only as a nurse but also as an officer.”

All four Sessions officers and their parents said they are grateful for the siblings’ time at MSU and with university’s ROTC program.

“Our four children have become part of a rich military tradition at MSU. Completing the program took dedication and determination, but because of the excellent leadership and training the cadre provided, they all succeeded,” Boo Sessions said. “The ROTC program prepared them to pursue various branches of the Army. I could not be prouder of them, and I’m thankful for the strong foundations they have acquired through their completion of the MSU ROTC program.” l

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Madison Sessions, a May 2021 graduate of MSU with bachelor’s degrees in fashion design and marketing, wrote this article as a tribute to her family. Today, Madison is stationed at Fort Rucker in Alabama attending Flight School. She will learn to fly two airframes, the UH-72 Lakota and CH-47 Chinook. After flight school, she will return to her National Guard unit in Mississippi.

Zachary, Madison, Peyton and Alexis Sessions

Peyton Sessions

Zachary Sessions

MISSISSIPPI POET LAUREATE FELLOW BRINGS WRITING FESTIVAL TO MSU

By Carly Pippin

Mississippi State Professor of English Catherine Pierce, named Mississippi’s Poet Laureate in 2021, has craft, creativity and community at the focal point of her initiative to educate students on the power of reading and writing poetry.

As one of 22 people nationwide appointed as a 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow, Pierce will use the award to support her public project—The Mississippi Young Writers Poetry Festival.

“In addition to being a tremendous honor, it’s an incredible opportunity to bring to fruition a project I’d been thinking about since even before becoming Poet Laureate. The funding and resources provided by this fellowship will allow me to make this poetrywriting initiative and festival a reality,” Pierce said.

“The goal of this project is to help students experience the joy and accomplishment that can come from writing poetry, and from amplifying their own voices, words and experiences. I believe that if people experience poetry early in life as something relevant and enjoyable, then they’ll carry that with them always,” she said.

Aimed at celebrating and recognizing the art of reading and writing poetry, Pierce’s project comes as

Duncan Stanley, Junior

communities worldwide are continuing to navigate the world-altering events since the spring of 2020.

“We’ve seen again and again how people turn to poetry in times of suffering—I’m thinking of Maggie Smith’s ‘Good Bones,’ which went viral in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting, or Warsan Shire’s ‘Home’ in connection to refugee crises, or W.H. Auden’s ‘September 1, 1939’ following 9/11, or Langston Hughes’s ‘Tired,’ which I’ve seen passed around whenever the news cycle gets particularly maddening,” she said.

As the winner of the 2021 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award for her book “Danger Days,” a collection of poems addressing the beauty of the world, as well as destruction created by climate change, Pierce demonstrates poetry is not exclusively for times of conflict and sorrow. It can address varying topics on a multitude of themes to communicate feelings of success, gratitude and more, she said.

“We also see poetry reflecting hope and fortitude, like Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb,’ which experienced tremendous popularity following her reading at the Presidential inauguration, or, on a very

different note, the short poem ‘The Tiger,’ written by a six-year-old identified only as Nael, that exploded on Twitter because of its sheer joy and chaotic energy,” she said.

Through the Mississippi Young Writers Poetry Festival, Pierce is bringing back to Starkville the same sense of community that she began developing during her professorship at MSU. The day-long event promotes a creative community for students of all ages to join for sharing and supporting writing achievements.

“My time at MSU has really underscored for me the importance and wonderful fruitfulness of community—a community of colleagues and students, and also the community of the creative world,” she said.

Pierce believes the importance of reading and writing poetry lies in its ability to bridge these communities together in the same way all forms of art can.

“Poetry—like all art—makes us more human, connects us to ourselves and to others, reminds us that we’re not alone. Poetry can delight, entertain, startle, comfort, or challenge us. Poetry can teach us. I want everyone to feel that they have access to this particular art form—that they can read it, enjoy it, and, if they want, write it,” she said.

For the festival, several winners per grade from each school will be hosted at MSU on April 28, 2023, in partnership with the Mississippi Center for the Book, helping to facilitate the statewide poetry-writing initiative.

Judges will be looking for writers exhibiting specificity, sensory imagery and creativity. “This last is obviously a subjective category, but poetry is subjective, and we want to allow room for all interpretations of the writing prompt,” she said.

“Poetry is a wonderful way to learn about and experience the concentrated power of words. Writing and reading poetry teaches us to find and use the most precise, most interesting, most original language we can. It teaches us to pay attention to our senses and to specific detail. It’s an excellent tool for developing writing skills in a creative and individual way. It can also be deeply meaningful and a lot of fun,” said Pierce. l

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DR. CATHERINE PIERCE

Catherine Pierce earned her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri in 2007 and her M.F.A. in poetry at Ohio State University in 2003. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2000 from Susquehanna University. As a professor at MSU, Pierce specializes in creative writing, poetry and 20th- and 21st-century American literature. She is the co-director of the Creative Writing Program in MSU’s English department.

Pierce has authored three additional books of poetry. They include “The Tornado Is the World” (Saturnalia 2016), winner of the 2017 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award and a 2015 national Sustainable Arts Foundation Award; “The Girls of Peculiar” (Saturnalia 2012), winner of the 2013 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award; and “Famous Last Words” (Saturnalia 2008), winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize.

Pierce also has received a 2020 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Artist Fellowship for her poetry, a 2020 Pushcart Prize for her poem “Entreaty,” and a 2018 Pushcart Prize for her poem “I Kept Getting Books about Birds.”

A native of Delaware, Pierce received a 2019 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Pierce’s 2019 poem “How Becoming a Mother Is Like Space Travel” was published in The Nation magazine, considered the oldest continuously printed weekly magazine in the U.S. Her chapbook “Animals of Habit” was published in 2004 by Kent State University Press. Her poems also have appeared in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, Slate, Boston Review and The Cincinnati Review, among many other publications.

Carthage native Carly L. Pippin earned her bachelor’s degree in communication in May 2020, and after a gap year, is pursuing a master’s degree in English. She currently is taking classes and serves as a second-year graduate assistant at the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College and as a Composition I instructor. She is a teacher’s assistant for President Mark Keenum’s Honors Forum III Leadership class. Anticipating graduating in May 2023, Pippin hopes to continue teaching composition or English at the collegiate level.

THE LAST FRONTIER SETS STAGE FOR MSU ALUMNA’S CAREER PATH

By Reagan Young

Alaska—known as the Last Frontier—boasts impressive and awe-inspiring sights.

The state’s coastlines span more than 6,600 miles, and Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America, dominates the Alaskan landscape at an elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level.

For many, Alaska is mysterious and beautiful. Yet, it also holds a record that puts people in shock rather than awe.

Ranked as the second highest state in annual suicide rates by population according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alaska averages annually 204 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people.

A 2022 Mississippi State University doctoral graduate wanted to learn about the cause of these high numbers and help those who inhabit the Last Frontier.

Born in Michigan, Erica M. Szkody received her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Eastern Michigan University. After responding to an open call for applications for MSU’s graduate program in clinical psychology, Szkody met with Cliff McKinney, an MSU psychology professor. That meeting solidified her decision to attend the university.

“He stood out from others I had interviewed with by a mile,” said Szkody,

who graduated from MSU in August 2022 with her doctorate in psychology.

“He seemed like a great researcher and was enthusiastic about my career and research goals. I knew I wanted to work with him.”

To fulfill the last requirement of her doctoral program, Szkody headed to Nome, Alaska, for her clinical internship

the U.S. Census Bureau and is only about 170 miles away from the Russia town of Uelen. It is not in Alaska’s road system and is only accessible by air or water.

Quite literally, no roads lead to Nome.

Gold is still sought after in Nome and has been for the past 65 years. Szkody said is it common to see miners working with dredges in the summer. Szkody said she enjoyed watching the mushers come in during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, something not everyone has the opportunity to do.

Nome also is filled with kind people who have smiling faces and helping hands, Szkody said. Some of these individuals made up the clinical population she worked with during her residency.

year in 2021, where she accepted a position with Norton Sound Health Corporation as a postdoctoral psychology intern.

Located in western Alaska, Nome has a population of 3,869 people according to

During her internship, she went on rounds with the staff at the behavioral health clinic and attended daily trainings, which included didactics on interventions, client populations, assessments and testing, and professional development classes. She also attended group and individual supervision sessions to discuss client concerns with a licensed supervisor. Szkody saw clients one-on-one every day and helped facilitate group therapy sessions.

After spending a year in Alaska, Szkody returned to the continental U.S. this past summer and now resides Coram, New

“I am passionate about finding ways to capitalize on social support to improve mental health outcomes across different populations.”

~ Erica M. Szkody

York, where she collects data remotely with Psi Chi, an international honor society for psychology, and its Network for International Collaborative Exchange to examine the role of culture and socioeconomic status on individual social support behaviors worldwide.

“I am passionate about finding ways to capitalize on social support to improve mental health outcomes across different populations,” she said.

Her current research with Psi Chi factors how different cultures and economic backgrounds impact mental health support all around the world. After receiving her Ph.D. and alongside her remote work with Psi Chi, Szkody began a postdoctoral research position at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, under the leadership of Jessica Schleider and the Lab for Scalable Mental Health. There, she will help set up a mental health clinic in the hospital aimed at helping prevent burnout among health care workers.

Szkody said she hopes to continue to facilitate research focused on improving interpersonal relationships and applying research to help improve mental health outcomes worldwide.

“I love that I can apply what I learn in my research to my clinical work and make a difference in people’s lives,” she said. l

The Psychology Clinic is a service within Mississippi State’s Department of Psychology helping community members access mental health assistance virtually.

The Psychology Clinic is a training site for students enrolled in MSU’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program within the Department of Psychology. The program is accredited by the American Psychological Association. Graduate student clinicians provide therapeutic and assessment services to individuals of all ages across the state. Graduate clinicians are supervised by licensed mental health professionals.

Clinic services include in-person and telehealth: adult intake, adult individual therapy, adult assessment and feedback, adolescent intake, adolescent therapy, adolescent assessment and feedback, child intake, child therapy, child assessment and feedback, parent/guardian consultation, couples’ therapy, group therapy, family therapy and consultation.

In the past 12 months, the clinic provided a total of 3,057 direct care service hours to 339 clients, a 64% increase from the previous 12 months. Of these, 709 service hours (23%) were conducted via telehealth.

To initiate services, individuals can call the clinic at 662-325-0270. A graduate clinician will return the call and gather basic information about the type of service desired.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Reagan Young, a native of Chelsea, Alabama, is a senior communication major with an emphasis in public relations and minors in marketing and print and digital journalism. After graduation in May 2023, Young hopes to teach English abroad and write and photograph journalistic pieces about the people she meets and the places she travels.

Reagan Young during her trip to Alaska.

KATIE ZUNIGA BROADCAST AND OPERATIONAL METEOROLOGY

By JoLee Clark

One might wonder how a successful wedding planner and full-time mom became an on-air meteorologist, but for Katie Zuniga it was a simple progression.

Zuniga started a wedding business after a college student asked for help planning her wedding.

“You are so organized, and you’ve planned your own wedding—can you help me with mine? My family is driving me nuts!” Zuniga recalled. Afterward, one of the bride’s friends approached Zuniga, and then another. Her business flourished.

As word spread, she opened an office rather than meeting clients at the local Starbucks. The business grew into two offices in Portland and Salem, Oregon. Later, Zuniga began discussing wedding planning during monthly appearances on KATU’s AM Northwest in Portland. A couple years later, she closed her business to focus on family.

Zuniga, who married her high school sweetheart, was now a mother of two and began focusing fulltime on them. Once both children were in school, she sought something to occupy her time.

“My husband, seeing the sparkle in my eye while I planned wedding segments for AM Northwest, suggested I seek a degree in journalism,” Zuniga said.

With her husband’s encouragement, Zuniga began classes at a local community college with an eye on an Associate of Applied Science focusing on digital media communication and journalism. The degree required an

internship, and Zuniga landed one with KTVZ in Bend, Oregon. The station offered her a job, and she finished the final semester of the degree remotely.

“When you work at a small market news station, you get a chance to try all the positions,” Zuniga said. “I thought it would be fun to learn to fill in for weather when the weather people were

broadcast and operational meteorology, her children were sent home from school because of the pandemic.

“In January 2020, I was offered the evening weather position at the station. The next 2.5 years, I was teaching my kids at home, doing my classes at MS State Online, and working fulltime at KTVZ,” she said.

While her online journey was atypical, Zuniga found the process rewarding.

“The highlight of the program for me was the relationships I built with classmates and teachers from a distance. I have at least half a dozen friends I’ve made from the program—which I haven’t actually met face-to-face yet— who I consider good friends. They have been extremely supportive and walked the last several years with me. I created a bond I did not think was possible with an online program.”

sick or on vacation. It took maybe a month before I realized this was what I was really here to do!”

Zuniga knew becoming a meteorologist required another degree. She sought advice about how to obtain a degree without moving her family and quitting her job.

“Every single person I asked said, ‘Mississippi State,’” recalled Zuniga.

In fall 2019, one semester into her online pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in

When discussing the calling she felt as an on-air weather personality, Zuniga said, “One of the main reasons I love my job is that I help people daily. The weather impacts everyone, and to be able to reach everyone is not a job many have. Now that I am a meteorologist, I better understand the ‘why’ behind what’s happening, and I believe I can give more effective and accurate forecasts to help my community be prepared and possibly save lives.”

Zuniga graduated with her meteorology degree in August 2022. She plans to continue her career at KTVZ and said she knows her degree prepared her for additional opportunities. l

“One of the main reasons I love my job is that I help people daily. The weather impacts everyone, and to be able to reach everyone is not a job many have.“

~ Katie Zuniga

ARTS & SCIENCES FACULTY MEMBERS SHED LIGHT ON RUSSIA & UKRAINE CONFLICT

By Sam Kealhofer

When the Russia-Ukraine war erupted in early 2022, confusion surrounding the conflict led to worries for the waring countries and unanswered questions for many throughout the world.

Faculty members in Mississippi State’s College of Arts and Sciences stepped forward to diligently disseminate knowledge and create well-informed citizens.

In the war’s wake, faculty members Stephen Brain and Vasabjit Banerjee used their expertise to help the American public understand and think critically about the war.

Brain, an associate professor in the Department of History, studies war, power, international affairs and Soviet/ Russian history, providing him keen insight into the world event. Since the war’s onset, Brain has presented multiple public lectures providing historical context. He lectured to undergraduate students through the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College, to high school students through the summer MSU Humanities Camp, and to general and open audiences through the Institute

for the Humanities and Vision podcasts.

“Despite the unfortunate circumstances, I’ve been pleased to have the opportunity to reach out to the community and provide some historical context about the war in Ukraine,” said Brain. “It’s a complicated situation with more than a thousand years of backstory, and I hope I’ve been able to help interested listeners understand what motivates the Russians and the Ukrainians a bit better.”

Vasabjit Banerjee, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, also has provided his professional insight, backed by years of study into comparative politics and international relations.

Banerjee participated in an interview with MSU’s Office of Public Affairs shortly after the start of the war, sharing his critical insights on what caused the conflict, possible military strategies, end goals of each country, and potential long-term effects on Russia, Ukraine and the world. The British Academy’s September 2022 conference on the Russo-Ukrainian War featured Banerjee

speaking on public narratives and global opinion.

“As Russia’s President Putin attempts to annex parts of Ukraine just because a majority of these areas’ population are ethnic Russians, as President Biden peremptorily warns Russia not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, as NATO expands to include Sweden and Norway, we witness the continuing relevance of studying why territorial integrity of countries was made a core norm after World War II, the dangers of nuclear crises akin to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and why international alliances are a cornerstone of a peaceful world order undergirded by the American values of liberty and prosperity,” said Banerjee.

CAS faculty research often is positioned to help “real people understand real life.” MSU faculty strive to be unbiased experts, sharing lectures on multiple topics yearly to provide needed public information. By sharing knowledge with MSU students, local residents and the state of Mississippi, the College of Arts and Sciences gives the public tools to help make sense of the complex world around them l

DR. VASABJIT BANERJEE

An MSU faculty member since 2015, Vasabjit Banerjee earned his 2012 doctoral degree in political science at Indiana University; a 2004 master’s degree in political science from Miami University, Ohio; and a 2002 bachelor’s degree in political science and English from Indiana’s Wabash College. He authored the 2019 Temple University Press book, “Undoing the Revolution: Comparing Elite Subversion of Peasant Rebellions.” Fluent in four languages—English, Spanish, Hindi/Urdu, and Bengali—he coordinates MSU’s international studies minor. A faculty member of the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College, Banerjee received the 2017 Outstanding Undergraduate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration.

DR. STEPHEN BRAIN

An MSU faculty member since 2007, Stephen Brain co-edits Environmental History, the journal of the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society. He earned his 2007 doctoral degree in history from the University of CaliforniaBerkeley; his 2000 master’s degree in humanities from California State University, Dominguez Hills; and a 1994 bachelor’s degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Florida. Brain authored the 2011 University of Pittsburgh Press book, “Song of the Forest: Russian Forestry and Stalinist Environmentalism, 1905–1953 (Russian and East European Studies). As a Fulbright grant recipient for the 2013-2014 academic year, he participated in research at Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia. In 2010, Brain served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian Studies.

Newest Grisham Master Teachers honored at MSU

Mississippi State University recognized three distinguished faculty members with the university’s highest academic teaching award during a May 2022 campus program.

Mike Breazeale, Deb Mlsna and Jacob Tschume are this year’s John Grisham Master Teacher Award recipients.

“You exemplify the very best of what it means to be a scholar, a teacher and a mentor,” said MSU President Mark E. Keenum in remarks to the honorees. “Students want to be here because of the excellent teaching and research opportunities you and your colleagues provide.”

First presented in 1993, the Grisham Master Teacher honor is a tribute to classroom and instruction excellence and is named for the MSU accounting alumnus and internationally recognized best-selling author who provided funds to endow the award.

Breazeale is an associate professor in the College of Business’s Department of Marketing, Quantitative Analysis and Business Law.

Mlsna is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Tschume is an instructor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

MSU President Mark E. Keenum, left, and MSU Provost and Executive Vice President David Shaw, right, are pictured with the university’s 2022 John Grisham Master Teacher Award recipients Deb Mlsna, Jacob Tschume and Mike Breazeale.

Wolverton Legacy Awards, research and teaching awards presented in ‘recognition of excellence’ for College of Arts and Sciences

Mississippi State’s College of Arts and Sciences honored three individuals with the Robert E. Wolverton Legacy Award and presented six additional research and teaching awards to faculty members for their research and scholarly commitments during the spring 2022 faculty meeting.

Created in 2014 in honor of Wolverton, a professor of classics at MSU for more than four decades, the Wolverton Legacy Award recognizes faculty, staff and friends who have made long-term contributions to the College of Arts and Sciences and have advocated the ideals of liberal arts education.

The 2022 Robert E. Wolverton Legacy Award winners include:

Tracy Fulgham Britt, an academic advisor for the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office, who retired last year.

Mark A. Novotny, professor and head of MSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Ann C. Spurlock, a veteran instructor for MSU’s Department of English who retired last year.

Given to faculty whose work contributes significantly to increasing awareness of the university’s research programs and capabilities, the annual research awardees include:

Stacy Hoskins Haynes, a professor in the Department of Sociology, who earned the research award in social and behavioral sciences.

Kelly M. Moser, an associate professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, who earned the research award in the humanities.

Colleen N. Scott, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, who earned the research award in natural and physical sciences.

For outstanding teaching service, the annual teaching awardees include:

Cody Fondren, an instructor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, who received the teaching award in the humanities.

Veronica Knowles, an instructor in the Department of Sociology who received the teaching award in social and behavioral sciences.

Amber Robinson, an instructor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics who earned the teaching award in natural and physical sciences and mathematics and statistics.

L-R: Amber Robinson, Stacy Hoskins Haynes, Kelly Moser, Cody Fondren, Tracy Britt, Veronica Knowles, Rick Travis, Ann Spurlock, Colleen Scott. Not pictured: Mark Novotny.

College of Arts and Sciences 2022 Fall Faculty Award Recipients

Mississippi State’s College of Arts and Sciences announces four new recipients of the Dean’s Eminent Scholar Awards honoring “exceptionally meritorious faculty who have achieved national recognition and enhanced the quality and stature of academic programs.”

Honorees Include:

Anna Osterholtz, an assistant professor of anthropology, is this year’s W.C. Shoemaker Dean’s Eminent Scholar.

Vicky Montiel-Palma, associate professor of chemistry, is this year’s Sanderson Dean’s Eminent Scholar.

Shalyn Claggett, associate professor of English, is this year’s Beverly B. and Gordon W. Gulmon Dean’s Eminent Scholar.

The Phil and Kari Oldham Faculty Mentor Award was presented to Kimberly Kelly, an associate professor of sociology.

CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. ADELE CRUDDEN & DR. ANGELA SAVAGE

ADELE CRUDDEN, a professor in MSU’s Department of Sociology, is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award presented at the 2022 National Association for Social Workers annual conference. The award is presented to individuals for outstanding contributions throughout their careers.

Congratulations to Dr. Angela Savage for being named Social Worker of the Year.

ANGELA SAVAGE, director of the MSUMeridian social work program and an assistant clinical professor, received the 2022 Mississippi Social Worker of the Year Award for exemplifying “the best of the profession’s value and achievements through specific accomplishments,” presented at the 2022 National Association for Social Workers annual conference.

Based in Washington, D.C. and founded in 1955, NASW is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with more than 120,000 members. It promotes, develops and protects the practice of social work and social workers and seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families and communities through its advocacy.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MSU’S TODD MLSNA—CHEMIST OF THE YEAR FOR MISSISSIPPI

Professor TODD MLSNA is the 2022 Chemist of the Year for the state of Mississippi, an honor awarded by the American Chemical Society. Mlsna has garnered more than $19 million in external funding throughout his career, including grants from the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security.

Kimberly Kelly, Shalyn Claggett, Anna Osterholtz, Whitney Nettles, accepting the award on behalf of Vicky Montiel-Palma, Rick Travis

INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES ANNOUNCES NEW FACULTY FELLOWS

By John Burrow

Scholarship in the humanities may conjure concepts of isolated academics working on projects within the confines of their field. Rarely does the general public view the humanities as interdisciplinary or part of collaborative process. Mississippi State’s Institute for the Humanities, a part of the College of Arts and Sciences, is changing this perception by creating an “Institute Fellowship” for MSU faculty whose work sits within or directly connects to the humanities.

“The Institute for the Humanities Fellowship is tremendously useful to people at the university,” said Julia Osman, institute director and associate professor of history. “It is designed to give the fellows time to process research and produce work from that research.”

“Unlike other disciplines which report on collections of data, humanities scholars have to not only report and interpret but also weave analysis together which takes a tremendous amount of time,” said Osman.

The humanities fellowship offers the selected faculty a course credit for the semester which opens a block of time needed for research and work. However, it also incorporates frequent meetings for fellows to discuss, aide and present their work. “The meetings provide a small community for the fellows to discuss their ideas,” said Osman.

The 2021-2022 academic year was the inaugural term for the humanities fellowship, which was awarded to Alix Hui, associate professor of history, and Pete Smith, associate professor of communication. Hui’s work titled “The Naturalization of Muzak: how background music became ubiquitous and silence became awkward” and Smith’s “Birddogs and Tough Old Broads: Women Journalists of Mississippi and a Century of State Politics, 1890s-1990s” were presented before an online and in-person audience as part of their fellowship.

Now in its second year, the humanities fellowship has been awarded to three MSU professors: Ted Atkinson, associate professor in the Department of English; Sol Pelaez, associate professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures; and Anne Marshall, associate professor in the Department of History and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association and Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library.

“We had many more applicants this year. Though the projects differ from one another, each tries to look at difficult problems and uses the humanities to unpack those problems. They were chosen for this reason,” Osman said.

She hopes to garner additional funding to expand the program to continue to display the importance of the humanities to the public and to scholars because of its interdisciplinary nature.

“The Institute for the Humanities sees itself as an advocate for this field,” said Osman. l

Julia Osman

Ted Atkinson

Sol Pelaez

Anne Marshall

BULLDOG ACHIEVERS

Congratulations to Mississippi State’s College of Arts and Sciences majors and recent graduates on their outstanding achievements!

JAVAD A’ARABI, Starkville, 2022 MSU graduate with a degree in political science

Selected for the U.S. Department of State-sponsored Critical Language Scholarship Program and also selected as a Fulbright finalist

MADISON E. BRODE, Memphis, junior biological sciences major

Received the Barry Goldwater Scholarship

TANNER DEYOUNG, Clinton, 2022 MSU graduate with a biochemistry degree and a minor in political science

Selected as a Fulbright finalist

JOHN “TYLER” DICKERSON , Starkville, senior business economics and foreign language double major

Selected to participate in the Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute Fellowship

CHANCE LOWE, Columbus, senior German and criminology double major

Selected as a David L. Boren Scholarship recipient (At the time of publication, Lowe was studying abroad in Estonia and was unavailable for a photo.)

MIA ROBERTSON, Starkville, senior political science and philosophy double major

Selected as a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship

A’Arabi

Brode

DeYoung

Dickerson

Robertson

Our Students Tell Our Story.

COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AMBASSADORS

Abby Oosterling, Anahi Altamirano, Anna Hathcock, Anna Katherine Cooper, Ariah Smith, Ashley Sivik, Audrey Moak, Breelyn Davenport, Bridget Aycock, Carly Ferrell, Caroline Makamson, Emma Crouch, Gabbi Ferreri, Haley Palmer, Hannah Whalum, Haylee Morman, Jacob Woods, Jehlian Wright, Jordan Burns, Kasia Williams, Kathryn Slaughter, Laura Alvarez, Lauren Arceneaux, Lauren Moore, MacKenzie Paul, Madigan Stevens, Mary Grace Paganucci, Max Pinson, Meredith Owen, Natalie Plourde, Noelle Patterson, Paige Perryman, Rileigh Campbell, Samantha Gregore, Sarah Johns, Sarah Labbe, Sarah Turnipseed, Teri Anna Jackson, Tyreek Jones, Zoie Henson

CASA OFFICERS

PRESIDENT Breelyn Davenport

VICE PRESIDENT

Gabbi Ferreri

SECRETARY Paige Perryman

Coleman, Admissions Coordinator, College of Arts and Sciences Mississippi State University

The College of Arts and Sciences ambassador organization continuously makes the College of Arts and Sciences proud. The ambassadors represent diverse areas in the college and they each bring such unique experiences to the table. The passion these extraordinary students have for their education is inspiring. The goal of the College of Arts and Sciences is to mold students into being the best they can be so that they can positively impact the world, and that is exactly what these ambassadors are accomplishing through their research, internships and extracurricular activities. The ambassadors represent the mission of the college and the university, and they are the true spirit of Maroon and White. I am honored to serve as their advisor.

FUN FACT

The CASA team won second place in the inaugural ambassador kickball tournament this year.

Hannah

Phi Beta Kappa

The Gamma of Mississippi Chapter of The Phi Beta Kappa Society inducted 48 new members during the 2022 ceremony at Mississippi State University.

The Gamma of Mississippi Chapter of The Phi Beta Kappa Society at Mississippi State University inducted 48 new members for 2022 last April. Phi Beta Kappa inductees are among the top 10 percent of their graduating class who have completed a broad range of liberal arts and sciences coursework, including foreign language study and mathematics.

The Phi Beta Kappa Society was founded in 1776 and is the nation’s most prestigious academic honor society. Only 10% of U.S. colleges and universities have PBK chapters, and these chapters select only 10% of their arts and sciences graduates to join. Noteworthy members include 17 U.S. presidents, 42 U.S. Supreme Court justices and more than 150 Nobel laureates.

2022 Phi Beta Kappa, Gamma of Mississippi Chapter student inductees (by hometown):

ALEXANDER CITY, Alabama—Ginni Gray, communication

BALDWYN—Elizabeth Howell, Spanish/marketing

BATESVILLE—Victoria Hartman, biological sciences

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana— Lauren Arceneaux, economics/political science; and Michael Bourgeois, English/history

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama— Anna Balzli, Spanish/ marketing

CARY—Joseph Newell, English

CHESAPEAKE, Virginia— Shardonnay Nichols, criminology

COLUMBIA, Tennessee— Mattie Mason, anthropology

EDWARDS—Dixie Tucker, psychology

FLORENCE—Rheagan Case, English; and Laura Duncan, communication

FRANKLIN, Tennessee— Katherine Norris, criminology

HATTIESBURG—Caroline Simpson, biological sciences

HILTON HEAD, South Carolina—Sydney Stockwell, biochemistry

HOOVER, Alabama—Emily Baker, Asian studies/finance; and Eleanor Holt, psychology

JACKSON—Jennings Duncan, English/philosophy (religion concentration)

JACKSON, Tennessee—Holeh Heydari, microbiology

JONESBORO, Arkansas— Baylee Seeman, English

LAKELAND, Tennessee—Teri Jackson, Spanish/social work

MADISON—Kalli Hedgepeth, Spanish/marketing

MARIETTA, Georgia—Mitzi Roukoski, English

MARION, Alabama—Sofia Nail, biological sciences/ Spanish

MCLEAN, Virginia—Ruby Titus, English/French

MEMPHIS, Tennessee—Jared Pish, psychology

MERIDIAN—Laurel Garrett, Spanish/marketing

METAIRIE, Louisiana—Grace Troutman, psychology

MONTGOMERY, Alabama— Katherine Albrecht, history

NAVARRE, Florida—Lakin Ricchuito, classics

PEACHTREE CITY, Georgia— Amanda Kronenberger, political science

PELAHATCHIE—Hailey

Reeder, English/secondary education

PRATTVILLE, Alabama— Andreana Durham, psychology

PRENTISS—Virginia Daughdrill, English

RIDGELAND—Anna Cranford, psychology

RINGOES, New Jersey—Julia Clemente, communication

SALLIS—D’Mechriea Landfair, political science

SHREVEPORT, Louisiana— Emily Hurst, English/political science

STARKVILLE—Jonathan Franz, classics/history; Lily Grado, English; Anne-Marie Ross, microbiology/biochemistry; Josephine Shanahan, German/microbiology; and Jacob Wubben, political science

STEENS—Cheryl Zant, English

VICKSBURG—Jon Bantugan, microbiology; Ryan Jarratt, philosophy/political science; and Emily Phillips, political science

WEST POINT—Kathleen Elliott, philosophy (religion concentration)

For a list of 2023 inductees, please check www.msstate. edu this summer.

2022-2023 COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES

Dean’s Executive Advisory Board

LAURIE WILLIAMS (CHAIR)

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN COMMUNICATION, ‘79

The mission of the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Executive Advisory Board is to provide leadership and support to the dean by utilizing individual skills, financial resources, teamwork, and diversity to strengthen the academic infrastructure, faculty, and facilities of the College of Arts and Sciences and Mississippi State University.

MYNA DICKERSON SOWELL

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN COMMUNICATION, ‘91

DR. RALPH ALEWINE

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN PHYSICS, ‘68

DR. FRED CORLEY

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CHEMISTRY, ‘68

DR. WILLIAM “BILL” HULETT

FRIEND OF THE COLLEGE

HANK JOHNSTON

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN MATHEMATICS, ‘65

MALCOLM LIGHTSEY

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN MATHEMATICS, ‘61 MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MATHEMATICS, ‘63

DR. KATRINA POE

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, ‘92

CINDY STEVENS

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE, ‘83

DR. RANDY WHITE

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CHEMISTRY/PRE-MED, ‘66

DR. DAVID WIGLEY

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN SOIL SCIENCE, ‘77 BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CHEMISTRY, ‘79

TOMMIE CARDIN

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE, ‘83

PAUL KINSEY

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, ‘87

DR. JOHN RADA

FRIEND OF THE COLLEGE

The College of Arts and Sciences would like to thank Mr. Ticket Henry and Dr. Larry Grillot for their dedication and support throughout the last several years as members of the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Executive Advisory Board. Though now retired from this position, your impact remains infinite and we are grateful for your service, commitment and loyalty.

LEADING Through Extraordinary Times

Dear Alumni and Friends,

This year, the College of Arts and Sciences continues to make an incredible impact on the lives of students, faculty, staff and alumni, and we are pleased to showcase through this magazine the tangible ways A&S is working to navigate our tumultuous world. Throughout 2022, the College of Arts and Sciences pushed forward with various speakers, events, ceremonies, campus visits and much more.

We were thrilled to host the College of Arts and Sciences’ Scholarship Ceremony in October after a two-year hiatus. It was a special afternoon celebrating the students who have worked hard to earn financial support for their academic journeys at MSU. It is always a special day to celebrate our students, but most importantly to have the opportunity to connect the students with the loyal supporter(s) who so generously lowered the financial burden so students can focus on their career aspirations. It is a true testament of the devotion and compassion of our alumni and friends who support students without even knowing them by establishing scholarship support.

On the alumni front, in this issue we get to see the ‘up close and personal’ side of a hurricane hunter and how his MSU education led directly to work that helps keep us safe. We also get an in-depth story of how one MSU alumni family is making a vital sacrifice of personal safety on our behalf, with all four children in their family joining MSU’s Army ROTC program because of their dedication to our country.

Another special ceremony held in the fall was the Smith Family Courtyard recognition. Llana Smith, alumna and daughter of A.B. Smith, was proud of her Smith Family heritage, especially her closest cousin, Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, for whom Gene’s Freedom Tree on the Drill Field was planted. Llana and her husband, Dr. John Rada, wanted to do something to honor Llana’s father and the Smith family incorporating the Freedom Tree that so proudly marks Gene’s heroism, patriotism and love for family—thus the creation of the Smith Family Courtyard. Llana passed away in May of 2022 and was not present at the courtyard’s dedication in October of 2022. However, her favorite flowers, sunflowers, surrounded the area in remembrance of her vision—love, freedom and unwavering loyalty to MSU.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the various student experiences. Many value-added experiences were awarded this year because of the kindness of you, our alumni and friends.

From a faculty member rewriting lesson plans and pivoting when he saw a way to help students to another faculty member using her skills to help the elderly cope with their hoarding tendencies, from students who are recognized for receiving the most prestigious external scholarship to staff members working behind the scenes to help secure grant funding for researchers, I see passionate and dedicated faculty, staff and students as difference makers in all 14 departments.

Through the generosity of alumni like you, the College of Arts and Sciences is able to offer the finest education, engaging this generation as they are trained in areas that will benefit us all in the future. Your continued support provides valuable resources, allowing our students and faculty to thrive through all stages of their academic journeys.

Through your vision and selflessness, you are changing the lives of our students, faculty and all those who step on this beautiful campus. I look forward to another year of academic excellence and success for the College of Arts and Sciences. I want to thank each of you, because the path to our success begins with you! I want to continue to extend my sincere condolences to all of our alumni family who we have lost this past year. Please know we think of them often and continue to pray for peace for all. Please come visit us on campus soon. We cannot wait to welcome you back home!

Hail State and all my sincere gratitude,

Sara Jurney Frederic ’08, ’10, ’11 Director of Development College of Arts & Sciences

COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES DONOR LIST

The following list includes our generous alumni and friends who support the college

Mr. Boyce Elkin Adams, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael L. Agee

Dr. and Mrs. Ralph W. Alewine, III

Mrs. Virginia L. Alexander

Alpha Psi Omega National Theatre Honors Society

Ms. Eugenia O. Alsobrook

American Advertising Federation of Tuscaloosa

American Chemical Society

American Endowment Foundation

American Heart Association

Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Foundation

John and Ginger Arledge

Mrs. Roxene H. Atkinson

Colonel and Mrs. Robert L. Barnes, Jr.

Governor Haley Barbour and Mrs. Marsha D. Barbour

Mr. Jonathan K. Barden

Mr. and Mrs. Anderson W. Barham

Mr. and Mrs. Greg J. Barker

Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Barnett

Dr. and Mrs. Kyle S. Bateman

Mrs. Brandilyn M. Bates-Langley

Mr. Herman K. Beebe, III

Dr. Christopher L. Behr

Mr. Joel W. Belles

Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Bell

Ms. Mary E. Benincasa

Dr. and Mrs. James A. Bennett

Dr. Mitchell E. Berman

Bezos Family Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. John M. Black, Jr.

Boehringer Ingelheim

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Bograd

Dr. Crystal E. Boudreaux

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Boutwell

Lt. General (Ret.) Ted F. Bowlds

Mrs. Jeanne R. Boykin

Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Braddock, Jr.

Dr. Gary L. Bradshaw

Mr. Earl B. Brand, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard R. Brann

Dr. Bobby N. Brewer, Jr.

Mr. Samuel F. Buchanan

Mrs. Christina L. Burton

Mr. Kenneth A. Bush

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Byrd

Mr. Stephon D. Calhoune

Mr. and Mrs. Tommie S. Cardin

Mrs. Eileen Y. Carr-Tabb

Dr. Kermit L. Carraway

Dr. Ferita P. Carter

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

ChildrenÆs Foundation of Mississippi

Dr. and Mrs. Michael T. Christensen

Mr. and Mrs. Gene E. Clark

Mr. J. Edgar Clark

Thomas Clay and Sarah M. Wadlington Family Ltd. Partnership

Dr. and Mrs. Edward J. Clynch

Mr. and Mrs. Gus Colvin, Jr.

The Community Foundation of Louisville

Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey B. Conrad

Dr. and Mrs. David Cooper

Dr. Fred G. Corley, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Brent J. Cox, III

Dr. Mary Jo Craine

Ms. Wendy L. Creel

Dr. Sidney Creutz

Dr. and Mrs. W. Lawrence Croft

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Crosby, Jr.

Dr. Xin Cui

Mr. Everett T. Culpepper

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Lee Curtis

Dr. and Mrs. Jerry W. Dallas

Mrs. Megan T. Daly

Dr. Joseph Davenport, III

Dr. and Mrs. John D. Davis, IV

Honorable and Mrs. Jerry Davis

Brig. General Duane W. Deal

Mrs. Page D. Dickerson

Dr. and Mrs. Paul G. Dixon

Col. and Mrs. Jeffery L. Donald

Mr. Byron R. Dong

Dr. and Mrs. Philip Doolittle

Mr. Sean K. Dunn

Mr. and Mrs. Durward Dunn, III

Education Development Center, Inc.

Ms. Hannah Ellerbeck

Mrs. Carol R. Elliott

Mr. John W. Elliott

Mr. and Mrs. John P. Elliott

Mr. Nathan H. Elmore

Dr. Joseph P. Emerson

Dr. and Mrs. Gerald A. Emison

Mr. Andrew D. Evans

Ms. Nancy P. Farmer

Dr. Rachael W. Faught

Dr. Joe L. Ferguson

Fidelity Charitable

Mr. and Mrs. Tom H. Fisher

Ms. Julie S. Fleming

Florence Dental Clinic

Ms. Lisa B. Flowers

Ms. Heidi Flynn

Dr. John E. Forde

Dr. John D. Forrest

FOX News Network, LLC

Mrs. Nancy C. Frederick

Mr. and Mrs. William A. Friday

Frontier Strategies, LLC

Mr. Brian L. Fuller

Dr. and Mrs. John Fuquay

Dr. Mahesh K. Gangishetty

Mr. and Mrs. Alan C. Geolot

Col. Debbie L. Gibbs

Ms. Lillie Gibb

Dr. and Mrs. Jerome A. Gilbert

Mrs. Cynthia R. Greeley

Ms. Suzanne L. Greer

Wenner Gren Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Theron V. Griffin

Dr. and Mrs. Larry R. Grillot

Mr. and Mrs. Steven L. Grizzle

Ms. Gretchen Gulmon

Ms. Nina Gutin

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel P. Guyton

Mr. Stephen L. Guyton

Dr. and Mrs. Charles Guyton

Ms. Amber L. Guz

Dr. and Mrs. Steven R. Gwaltney

Mr. Anthony O. Hagey

Mrs. Barbara J. L. Hamilton

Mrs. Angela K. Hammack

Ms. Laura Hardin

Mr. and Mrs. Danny Earl Hardin

Mr. Jeffrey W. Hardy

Dr. and Mrs. William Harris, III

Dr. Ruth J. Haug

Mr. George M. Henry

Mr. and Mrs. John C. Henry

Ticket and Elaine Henry

Mr. and Mrs. F. Ewin Henson, III

Miss Lee M. Hilliard

Mr. Elbert R. Hilliard

Mr. and Mrs. David A. Holden

Mr. Wesley J. Holland

Dr. and Mrs. Jeremiah Holleman

Dr. and Mrs. T. Keith Hollis

Mr. Robert G. Holloway

Dr. Erin Jaye Holmes

Dr. Everette I. Howell, Jr.

Dr. and Mrs. Henry C. Hudson

Mr. and Mrs. John E. Hughes, III

Drs. Karen and William Hulett

Dr. and Mrs. Donald Hunt

Mr. Frank Imbruglia and Mrs. Elaine Akers Imbruglia

Dr. and Mrs. David H. Irwin, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. John P. Jaap, Jr.

Mr. James E. Jackson, III

Dr. and Mrs. Donald W. Jackson

Jackson Family Dentistry of Vicksburg PLLC

Raymond James Charitable

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Jaudon

Mr. and Mrs. White Gan Jee

Mr. and Mrs. John P. Jenkins

Mr. David A. Jobes

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Johnston

Dr. and Mrs. Gordon E. Jones

Mr. Chad M. Jones

Mrs. Rebecca Harbor Jones

Mr. and Mrs. Louis M. Jurney

Ms. Barbara P. Kelley

W. K. Kellogg Foundation

Mr. Lincoln Kern

Mr. and Mrs. Steven Killen

Ms. Cheryl A. King

Mr. Herbert A. King

Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Kleckley

Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Klein

Mr. and Mrs. Neal A. Konstantin

Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Lake

Mr. Carl H. Lam

Mr. and Mrs. Norman L. Lanier

Mrs. Amy L. Latham

Dr. Sue C. Lauderdale

Dr. and Mrs. Richard J. Lenz

Ms. Carol J. Levy

LGTBQ Fund of Mississippi

Ms. Zheng Li

Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm B. Lightsey, Sr.

Mr. Yan Liu

Mr. Chris G. Loschiavo

Mr. Daniel G. Luter

Mrs. Paula C. Mabry

Mr. Luke A. Mackay

Mr. Ryan O. MacKie

Maggie Clark Media Services

Mr. Jamie L. Mahne

Ms. Nadine Marshall

Ronnie and Joy Martin

Lt. Col. and Mrs. John H. Matthews

Mr. and Mrs. Cinclair May

Dr. and Mrs. Byron Clay May

Mr. Steven L. Mayo

Dr. and Mrs. Robert T. McAdory, Jr.

Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Olin McBride, Sr.

McClaren Resources Inc.

Lt. Col. Daniel P. McCutchon

Mr. Claiborne McDonald, IV

Dr. Yancy B. McDougal

Mr. and Mrs. John J. McGeehan

Mr. and Mrs. Archie P. McKinnis

Mr. and Mrs. Julius McIlwain

Mr. Barry G. McMullan

Mr. and Mrs. Eddie McNeal

Mr. and Mrs. James A. McPhail

Dr. and Mrs. Alan Meierhoefer

Dr. and Mrs. Charles Menifield

Mr. and Mrs. Terry Miller

Mr. Paul and Kimi Minor

Mr. and Mrs. Todd Misna

Mississippi Public Health Institute

Mississippi TV, LLC

Ms. Margaret W. Molleston

The G. V. Sonny Montgomery

Foundation

Ms. Blanche Moore

Mr. and Mrs. Kris Moore

Ms. Monica R. Moore

Mr. and Mrs. Drue B. Moore, Jr.

Dr. Sara E. Morris

Dr. Michael W. Morris

Ms. Patricia G. Moseley

Dr. and Mrs. George G. Murphy

Mr. R. David Murrell

Dr. and Dr. Michael Robert Nadorff

National Academy of Sciences

Mr. and Mrs. R. David Necessary, Jr.

Rev. Dr. Richard C. Nourse, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Marcus E. Oswalt

Mr. and Mrs. Kent Overmyer

Mr. Kyle T. Overmyer

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley S. Owen

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Owens, Jr.

Mr. Michael C. Pace

The Paleontological Society

Ms. Susan C. Palmer

Dr. and Mrs. Hubert H. Parker IV

Mr. and Mrs. James Patton, Jr.

Patton Law Office

Dr. Gary L. Permenter

Ms. Mary Perry

Petroleum Experts, Inc.

Mr. Joel L. Pettit

Mr. Paul A. Pickett

Dr. and Mrs. Charles U. Pittman, Jr.

Dr. Daryl G. Pitts

Ms. Margaret E. Pitts

Mr. and Mrs. Charlie M. Pleas, III

Mr. and Mrs. Ernie Plummer

Dr. Katrina N. Poe-Johnson

LTC and Mrs. Jason Posey

Mr. and Mrs. Michael L. Presley

Psi Chi International Society in Psychology

Dr. Brian A. Pugh

Dr. Deborah D. Rabinowitz

Dr. John Rada

Mr. Julio C. Rangel

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ratcliffe

Dr. and Mrs. Richard C. Raymond

Dr. Dale G. Read, Sr.

Mr. and Mrs. Bryant A. Reed, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Reese

Mrs. Mitcie Reid

Mr. and Mrs. James B. Renicker

Research Corporation for Science

Advancement

MG John M. Rhodes

Ms. Peggy Rice

Mr. Michael E. Richardson

Dr. and Mrs. Edward E. Rigdon

Mr. Robert R. Roberts, Jr.

Mrs. Patty A. Robertson-Gajewski

Dr. John C. Rodgers

Dr. Jack Rowland

Mr. James H. Rule

Ms. Mary S. Runions

Dr. and Mrs. Steven K. Rushing

Mr. Chess Rybolt

Dr. Svein Saebo

Mr. and Mrs. Peter C. Salvatore

Mr. and Mrs. Larry E. Sanders

Mr. and Mrs. Tommy G. Sanders

Dr. and Mrs. Ben Sanford, Jr.

Mrs. Jennifer D. Schroeder

Col. and Mrs. Steve Schrum

The Schwab Charitable Fund

Mrs. Rosemary Seago

Mr. and Mrs. Lee B. Seago

Dr. and Mrs. Donald L. Seago

Mr. and Mrs. William D. Seagrove

Mr. Brian R. Sells

Ms. Madison N. Sessions

Mr. and Mrs. Jason L. Shelton

Dr. Howard E. Shook, Jr.

Mr. Eric B. Shows

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Shurlds, III

Silver Wings MSU

Mr. Jonathan R. Simon

Simons Foundation

Mr. Mark Sivik

Ms. Annie M. Sizer

Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson P. Skelton

Mr. and Mrs. Jud Skelton

Mr. Arville O. Slaughter

Dr. Dennis W. Smith, Jr.

Mrs. Ann Ardahl Smith

Mr. Hunter R. Smith

Ms. Sabrina A. Smith

Mr. Jim Sneed

Society for Personality and Social Psychology

John M. and Myna Dickerson Sowell

Dr. and Mrs. Jesse Sowell, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Speyerer

Lt. Col. and Mrs. Marc D. Staats

Mr. Gerald F. Stafford, Jr.

Ms. Cynthia M. Stevens

Mr. James R. Stogner

Drs. Randolph and Gwen Stone

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Mrs. Franceska Kyle Sybil

Mr. Chester A. Tapscott, III

Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Tartt

Ms. Barbara H. Taylor

Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Thames, Jr.

The U.S. Charitable Gift Trust

Dr. Timothy N. Thomas

Lt. Col. Richard Joseph Thomas, Jr., Ret.

Dr. and Mrs. Michael Thorne

Paul Kinsey and Gavin Thompson

Mr. and Mrs. Dexter T. Thornton

Dr. John L. Tilley

Mr. John J. Trenkle

Ms. Amy Tuck

The University of Memphis Foundation

Mr. Ronald H. Upton

Mr. and Mrs. John M. VanHorn

Dr. and Mrs. Don Vaughan

The Vermont Community Foundation

Mr. Bryant T. Vinson

Mrs. Amy L. Walker

Mr. Robert H. Walker, V

Mr. and Mrs. Clint E. Walker

Mrs. Alice M. Walters

Dr. and Mrs. Alex G. Waterson

Mr. and Mrs. William S. Watkins

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Webb

Dr. and Mrs. Charles E. Webster

Drs. Richard and Patricia Weddle

Mrs. Stacy A. Weiss

Mrs. Dia L. Welch

Dr. and Mrs. A. Randle White

Dr. David E. Wigley & Dr. Dana L. Fox

Major and Mrs. Frank Wilkerson

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph T. Wilkins, III

Mrs. Laurie R. Williams

Mr. Alan L. Williams

Ms. Pat L. Williams

Dr. James F. Williamson, Jr.

Mr. Homer F. Wilson, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Turner A. Wingo

Dr. and Mrs. Richard B. Wolf

Dr. Robert E. Wolverton

Dr. Mirae C. Wood

Mr. Mark A. Worthey

Dr. Xue Xu

Dr. Zhangjin Xu

Mr. Fuchang Yin

Keith and Camille Young

Dr. Cheng-Li Zu

DEPARTMENT HEADS & DIRECTORS

Aerospace Studies

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Evans

African American Studies

Director Donald M. Shaffer, Jr.

Anthropology & Middle Eastern Cultures

Department Head Hsain Ilahiane

Biological Sciences

Department Head Angus Dawe

Chemistry

Interim Department Head Giselle Thibaudeau

Classical & Modern Languages and Literatures

Department Head Robert West

Communication

Department Head Terry Likes

English

Department Head Daniel Punday

Gender Studies

Director Kimberly Kelly

General Liberal Arts

Advisor Melanie Loehwing

General Science

Advisor R. Torsten Clay

Geosciences

Department Head John C. Rodgers

History

Department Head Alan I. Marcus

PROMOTIONS

Department Name

Anthropology & James Hardin

Middle Eastern Cultures

Anthropology & Anna Osterholtz

Middle Eastern Cultures

Anthropology & Molly Zuckerman

Middle Eastern Cultures

Chemistry Xin Cui

Chemistry Virginia Montiel-Palma

Chemistry Xue Xu

Communication Holli Seitz

English Megan Smith

Geosciences Athena Nagel

Interdisciplinary Studies

Academic Coordinator Kasondra Harris and Academic Advisor Kate Sawaya

Mathematics & Statistics

Department Head Mohsen Razzaghi

Military Science

Lieutenant Colonel Jason R. Posey

MSU Meridian

Division Head of Arts and Sciences Richard V. Damms

Philosophy & Religion

Department Head Robert Thompson

Physics & Astronomy

Department Head Mark A. Novotny

Political Science & Public Administration

Department Head Brian Shoup

Psychology

Department Head Mitchell Berman

Sociology

Department Head Nicole Rader

Cobb Institute

Director Jimmy Hardin

Institute for the Humanities Director Julia Osman

John C. Stennis Institute of Government Executive Director Joseph “Dallas” Breen

Promotion

Promoted to Professor

Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Promoted to Professor

Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Promoted to Associate Clinical Professor

Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Promoted to Associate Clinical Professor

Geosciences............................ Kimberly Wood ................Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

History Courtney Thompson Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Physics & Astronomy ............ Ben Crider ...........................................

Political Science & Julius Nukpezah

Public Administration

Political Science & Brian Shoup

Public Administration

Psychology (Meridian) Vicki Gier

Psychology Carolyn Adams-Price

Promoted to Associate Professor

Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Promoted to Professor

Promoted to Professor

Promoted to Professor

Psychology ............................. Braden Leap......................Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

RETIREES

Tracy Britt, Academic Coordinator

Dr. Michael Clifford, Associate Professor

Dr. Adele Crudden, Professor ........................................................................

Jo McKenzie, Business Manager

Dr. Mehrzad Netadj, Instructor .....................................................................

Ann Spurlock, Instructor

As the largest college on campus, it is our privilege to showcase all that it has to offer. In order to do that, we need your assistance. Past issues have featured outstanding accomplishments of faculty, students, alumni, and organizations—their accomplishments, awards, and how each is making a difference on campus and in the community. If you have something that should be included, please send it to us!

College of Arts & Sciences

Department of English

Department of Sociology

Department of Physics

Department of Sociology

Department of English

Karyn Brown

Director