FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

Dora Nickey, a well-known dressmaker, sews outside of the Choctaw cultural center in Choctaw, Mississippi, on March 15, 2016. Nickey is in her 80s and speaks only her native Choctaw language, but she knows the word “dress” in English.

Katrin McMillan, an 11th-grader at Choctaw Central High School in Choctaw, Mississippi, practices her flag routine March 17, 2016.

Roger Stolle, owner of Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and also the creator of the Juke Joint Festival, checks the register before attending the festival with friends and family.

Amanda Maner and Mallory Robinson enjoy the waves during a Spring Break trip to Panama City, Florida.

By Elizabeth Blackstock Photo by Alex Edwards

The humble product of a red brick house on a big yard in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Charlie Mitchell stood out early in life.

“My father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, a brother-in-law, a stepbrother, two uncles, and probably a bunch of others are all medical doctors,” Mitchell said. “And I’m a lawyer.”

Although he said he was not always the most popular person at Thanksgiving dinner, Mitchell’s family never pressured him or his siblings to follow in any footsteps.

“Our parents never wanted anything for us but happiness,” he said.

For Mitchell, the search for happiness led him to a bachelor’s degree in communication from Mississippi State University in 1975.

Similarly, Mitchell cares about the happiness of his children.

“My wife and daughters have supported me in everything I’ve wanted to do, and I’ve tried to support them in everything they’ve wanted to do,” he said. “You get great satisfaction at my age from seeing that your children are happy in their lives. That’s the greatest happiness you can have as a parent, to have happy children.”

He finds comparable happiness in watching his students at the University of Mississippi.

“I like the students,” he said. “I like being around people who are energized about life.”

This feeling is amplified on graduation day.

“I love graduation day more than anything. You get to see people who are very pleased with themselves and see some manifestation of the work they’ve put in over the last four years or so.”

Some people argue that graduation day is just about receiving a piece of paper. Mitchell sees it as so much more.

“People who want to diminish its importance would say that it’s just a piece of paper. But it is really a culmination and the beginning of the next really important part of students’ lives.”

Leading students to that point is something Mitchell got a taste for many years ago.

After working as a reporter and photographer for the Vicksburg Post from 1975 to 1983, he enrolled in law school at the University of Mississippi, where he was given an opportunity to teach.

“I had a dose of teaching early on,” Mitchell says. “I taught here as an instructor for a couple of years before I went back into the industry. I liked it and I always felt that eventually I would come back.”

In 1986, Mitchell earned his juris doctor degree. He returned to the Vicksburg Post for several years, working as managing editor and as executive editor.

In August 2010, he transitioned back into the University of Mississippi faculty as assistant dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

Layne Bruce, executive director of the Mississippi Press Association, said that seeing Mitchell leave the Vicksburg Post was bittersweet. However, Bruce was encouraged by the fact that Mitchell was moving on to a position at the university. “I was very happy that when he left Vicksburg, it was to join the new Meek School,” Bruce said. “I knew print journalism would have a strong advocate there in Charlie.”

Mitchell was promoted to associate dean in July 2016.

Will Norton, Jr., dean of the Meek School, has been with the university during Mitchell’s multiple roles.

“I completely trust Associate Dean Mitchell, no matter how big the project or how minute the detail,” Norton said.

In addition to serving as associate dean, Mitchell teaches classes and writes an award-winning newspaper column.

“Conversation,” featured in newspapers around the state, discusses issues of public policy ranging from education to Medicare reform.

While writing this column, Mitchell has learned lessons about being aware of priorities.

“We may live in the moment, but while we are living in the moment, we are creating ripples that will last,” he said. “I think that is especially true as a columnist, as a media practitioner, as a news reporter.”

According to Mitchell, it is important to know what effect you may have on others, or to at least know that you will have some effect, even if the specifics are a mystery at the time.

“I have no idea once I put it out there what effect it’s going have or when it’s going to have it,” he said. “But every once in a

while, I’ll hear from somebody who says, ‘I read what you wrote about such-and-so and it caused me to think about this.’ That’s what you want to have in life — a conversation. An ongoing conversation where people are thinking about the challenges they face, where people are thinking about the public issues. As that happens, you hope society improves.”

In all of Mitchell’s endeavors — as an associate dean, a professor, a parent, a writer and more — it is clear that he cares about his work and those it touches. Although his success can be attributed to that trait, he is much more humble about his accomplishments.

“Not to overuse the word, but I think that I’ve been blessed in so many ways that I’ll never be able to think about even starting to count,” Mitchell said. “I’ve had good colleagues everywhere I’ve been and good bosses everywhere I’ve been. I’ve had good friends everywhere I’ve been. I’ve always had work that I’ve enjoyed.”

He turned and looked out his office window, down Sorority Row.

“Nobody can say that there aren’t mornings when you wake up and say ‘I just don’t want to do it today,’” he said wistfully, “but overall I can’t imagine a different path that would have been more fun, more fulfilling, or more challenging.”

The author is a sophomore, integrated marketing communications major from Marietta, Georgia.

Photo by Mark K. Dolan

When Kristen Alley Swain first enrolled at the University of Mississippi, her field of study was biochemistry. She had loved doing science fair projects in high school and wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father, State Chemist Earl Alley, at Mississippi State University.

After a couple years in pre-med, however, she was pretty sure she didn’t want to be a doctor. Then a new program in the journalism department, Samir Husni’s magazine program, piqued her curiosity. Even though she had already taken intensive science courses, she was excited to start communicating about the things she had learned about science.

Husni helped her land an editorial internship in the building and remodeling department at Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Des Moines, Iowa, and she later interned as a writer for Southern Living magazine’s travel department in Birmingham, Alabama. She also served as a reporter for The Daily Mississippian and The Oxford Eagle while at Ole Miss.

After graduating from UM, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo hired her as a reporter; then, after two years, she was named senior reporter at the Tuscaloosa News. One of

her trusted sources, neighborhood association representative and journalism professor DeeDee Riffe, lured her into teaching writing courses at the University of Alabama journalism school. She went on to receive a master’s in journalism there, then a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Florida.

Swain fondly recalls serving as a managing editor and instructor for the world’s first online campus newspaper, SUN.One, in Gainesville, Florida.

“The readers had to use floppy disks to log on, and dial-up was painfully slow,” she said. “But it was the first time those residents got to read local news on their computers. Then a couple years later, along came the internet like a tidal wave.”

Her dissertation identified innovative ways to promote AIDS prevention through black churches. She plans to apply for a grant for a follow-up project in the Mississippi Delta, to find out what has changed during the last two decades. She then wants to draw on both studies to write a book about overcoming barriers to HIV prevention in high-risk African-American communities.

After leaving UF, she went on to teach in science journalism programs at Texas A&M University and the University of Kansas. She also taught health communication at the University of Arkansas Medical School and directed a science journalism center at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg.

While at USF, she was an investigator on a multi-university NIH grant that prepared different kinds of communities for bioterrorism threats. She then led a second NIH grant about how the news media framed the anthrax attacks.

Today, Swain is an associate professor in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She teaches news reporting, integrated marketing communication writing courses, media ethics, health communication, and communication theory and research methods.

Swain also is passionate about sustainability issues, and lives in an experimental, passive solar house her architect husband Brent designed for them and their two children, Madeline and Gabriel. She received the university’s first Sustainability Leadership Award in 2010. Over the last six years, she has coordinated student production of more than 300 sustainability videos for PlanetForward.org and serves as the UM coordinator for the international Planet Forward University Consortium.

At Ole Miss, Swain won a teaching grant to develop a local social media sustainability campaign and a second teaching grant to develop a new health communication course and a set of explanatory writing assignments for three core journalism writing courses in the Meek School.

“No matter what environmental, science or health topics they choose to write about, journalism students should be able to effectively explain ideas, concepts and numbers about things they are unfamiliar with — and people in the sciences should be able to explain their work in language the public can understand,” Swain said.

“Both sides have a responsibility to help bring their two worlds together, because many Americans don’t understand how science is ultimately a life-and-death story that permeates every aspect of our society,” she said.

Swain said health communication is her favorite course because she helps students apply their journalism and IMC skills to in-depth, community health campaign design and explanatory multimedia stories about complex medical and science issues.

“It also gives me the chance to introduce students to our sister field of public health and the numerous exciting career opportunities it offers,” she said.

In her other writing classes, Swain enjoys using social media for sharing and service learning activities. For instance, her IMC students develop creative campaigns for local businesses and organizations. She said that she is seeing more IMC students who are entrepreneurial or want to be, and who are using her class to build their own businesses.

Risk communication, especially risk framing in the news, is the central focus of Swain’s research. Her grant projects have examined health communication campaigns, crisis communication about bioterrorism and transportation toxic spills, and environmental justice.

During the last three years, she has served as the sole investigator on research grants totaling $133,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The first project explored how transportation companies respond to serious toxic spills through social media and the news media.

“I was shocked to discover that only 3 percent of the 5,555 most serious spills in a decade received any news coverage, and none of the transportation companies involved communicated anything directly through social media,” she said. “The ‘invisible’ accidents included fatalities, explosions, poison gas, radioactive waste, and other localized threats the public never heard about.”

She is completing a second grant, a national survey of journalists and transportation officials, to identify reasons for this extreme dearth of coverage.

“She is making a difference in her scholarship on media and science and in her work with Planet Forward,” said Will Norton, Jr., dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. “It is encouraging to have a professor who is intrepid in pursuing grants. She has been a bridge for the Meek School with the research efforts of the sciences.”

Norton also was a professor of Swain’s, and he recalled her being a hardworking student with life ambitions that she worked diligently to achieve.

Swain also serves as assessment coordinator for the Meek School. Swain facilitates evaluations by university and international accreditors by gathering and distilling data on what students are learning in Meek School classes. Assistant Dean Charlie Mitchell works closely with Swain on outcome assessments.

“The most important aspect of this essential work is that it allows faculty to ‘assess’ strengths and weaknesses in the instructional program and make needed adjustments,” Mitchell said.

In reflecting on all her efforts, Swain said, “Years from now, I want to be able to look back and see that my work has made a real impact – not just on the public’s understanding of science, but also an enduring impact on the lives of my family, students and colleagues.”

Marlen Polito contributed to this story. Polito is an integrated marketing communications graduate student from Green River, Utah.

By Hayley Ramagos Photo by Ji Hoon Heo

Associate Professor Debora Wenger faces the dynamic environment of journalism with an enthusiastic energy. She not only embraces this new world, she spearheads it with her design of curriculum and educational writing.

“My husband calls me a change junkie,” Wenger said. “He says that if there isn’t change going on, I manufacture it.”

Part of her excitement for change comes from her love of learning. Wenger said the best thing about being in higher education is that she constantly learns new things.

“I worked in television, and now I get to think about television,” Wenger said. “When you’re working, you’re getting the job done — you rely on instinct and reflex. Now I get to think about ‘what made this story powerful?’”

While getting an English degree with a minor in mass communications at Minnesota State University, Wenger was involved in newswriting and broadcast reporting. She planned to go to law school after she graduated, but instead she got her first job in broadcast television. Wenger later went on to obtain a Master of Arts in English language and literature/letters from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte in 1995. She continued her career as an executive producer for WSOC-TV in Charlotte, and her last job in the industry was assistant news director for WFLA-TV in the Tampa, Florida, area.

Now Wenger is a broadcast and multimedia educator and the head of the undergraduate journalism department at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She began teaching as an assistant professor of new media at Virginia Commonwealth University, and then made her way to Mississippi after her husband was hired in the School of Accountancy.

At the University of Mississippi, she teaches a broad range of classes from freshman Journalism 101 to the capstone course. Wenger said she enjoys having a range of courses and that it keeps her grounded in understanding what the students of her department need.

Wenger, a veteran of the media industry, brings first-hand knowledge into her classrooms. Kelly Savage, a senior student of the Meek School who took Wenger’s Media Management course and sees Wenger for advising, said she is thankful to have a mentor and professor who is helpful and patient.

“She is extremely knowledgeable about new approaches within media and has demonstrated her ability to possess years of experience and knowledge that is still relevant to broadcast and print media today,” Savage said.

The Media Management course is technology-based, with many of the assignments being mock Facebook posts and things pertaining to social media, as well as required interviews with media managers who are directly involved in today’s market challenges. She appreciates that Wenger structures her course that way because it prepares students for a career in the field.

Not only does Wenger educate those students who take her classes, she has input into classrooms throughout the nation. To help her in teaching, Wenger co-authored a textbook, Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World. It is now in its third edition and has been adopted in about 150 universities.

“‘Advancing the Story’ is a direct result of the teaching that I was doing,” Wenger said. “At least on the broadcast side, there wasn’t a book at the time that truly looked at the multi-platform role that broadcast was playing.”

As head of the journalism department, Wenger encourages faculty members to infuse the latest practices of the media industry into their classes. Today, almost all of the courses offered at the Meek School incorporate social media, she said, and faculty now include mobile devices in the curriculum.

Most recently, Wenger has added audience analytics to her curriculum. This new way of knowing the audience, powered by data gathered from systems such as Google Analytics, is the framework for her newest coauthored publication, Managing Today’s News Media: Audience First.

“The amount of instant feedback that we get from our audience has never been greater,” Wenger said. “You get into kind of a controversy in the world of journalism when you say that you are going to let audience data drive your decisions. My view is I think we can use what we learn about our audience to tell important stories better.”

Even though this approach may be controversial, it is just another way Wenger stays on top of current practices in media.

Scott Fiene, head of the Meek School’s integrated marketing communications program, said that Wenger is not afraid to share her opinions. He described her as resilient.

“She always pushes forward and makes things happen even if they hit snags,” Fiene said.

Wenger, who expects to have her Ph.D. in journalism completed in the next year, continues the conversation on mass media’s new approaches and techniques on her blog, advancingthestory.com. She hopes that above all, her students maintain an enthusiasm for learning what’s next and new, and that they use their knowledge and understanding as a tool to tell better stories.

The author is an IMC graduate (’16) of the Meek School. She is from Winona, Mississippi.

By Anna McCollum Photo by Ji Hoon Heo

Curtis Wilkie (’63) wouldn’t trade his career in journalism for anything. The past 50 years are more valuable to him than any amount of money in the bank.

He always knew it was what he wanted to do. When he was in the third grade in the late 1940s, Wilkie lived on the campus of Southwest Mississippi Community College with his mother, who was an instructor there. With her constant encouragement to pursue his interest in writing, Wilkie created his own newspaper, which he named The Southwest Times .

“I enjoyed writing,” Wilkie said. “But it was also reporting, finding out information. And as I later learned in journalism, it enables you to become a ringside spectator in very interesting events, whether they’re in your hometown and you’re writing for a small paper, or, if you get on a bigger scale, you are able to see history develop before your very eyes.”

There was no doubt, then, what Wilkie would do in college nearly a decade later. He came to Ole Miss in 1958, where he stayed for four-and-a-half years getting his journalism degree. Ironically, he failed a feature writing class — one he now teaches 50 years later. His extra semester meant that Wilkie was on campus for the 1962 Ole Miss riot, the first of many groundbreaking moments in history that he would witness.

Soon after graduation, Wilkie got a job with the Clarksdale Press Register. Coincidentally, the civil rights movement was picking up steam in the Mississippi Delta at the time, and fresh out of college, Wilkie found himself plunged into major drama and nationally newsworthy stories.

“That became, and still is, a frame of

reference for my life and my work,” Wilkie said. “I think, in many ways, it was the most important period in the 20th century in America. It completely changed the landscape, certainly in the South. I consider myself very, very fortunate that I was there, albeit I was working for a very small, insignificant paper, but I was covering very significant events.”

Wilkie worked in Clarksdale for six years before moving to Washington, D.C., for a congressional fellowship given to him by the American Political Science Association. Then, after two years in the capital city, Wilkie got a job with The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, where he served as both a reporter and an editor.

“It was an independent paper with a lot of money,” Wilkie said. “And in ’72 they turned me loose to cover the presidential campaign. I think we were the smallest paper covering it.”

But only three years later, after Wilkie and several other staff quit the Journal, he was hired by one of the largest papers in the United States: The Boston Globe. Within a year, they had assigned the Southern journalist to cover the presidential campaign of a certain Southern candidate: Jimmy Carter. For Wilkie, the timing couldn’t have been better.

“I was in the process of getting a divorce, and I literally did not have a home,” Wilkie said. “So it was very fortuitous that I lived in hotels for about a year, compliments of the ‘Globe.’”

At one point, a hotel room in Americus, Georgia, (about 10 miles from Carter’s hometown of Plains), became Wilkie’s mailing address.

Living with and around Carter and his family throughout the campaign, Wilkie got to know them well. A photograph hangs in Wilkie’s office of him and the soon-to-be president playing softball together.

“That’s one of the great things about journalism,” Wilkie said. “You get to meet — and in some instances, know — some very interesting people. When Carter was elected, I said, ‘Jesus, I can’t believe that not only am I going to know the president of the United States, but he’s going to know me.’ It’s kind of a crazy thing to think about, but as a result, I got to know and had a good, professional relationship with every president from that time, with the exception of [Ronald] Reagan.”

After Carter’s election, Wilkie became a member of the Globe’s Washington bureau. He served as White House correspondent from 1977-1982, covering all four years of Carter’s presidency and two of Reagan’s. Then, a growing unrest in the Middle East made the Globe rethink their plans for Wilkie.

“They basically had decided, without telling me, that they were going to turn me into a foreign correspondent,” he said. “I was going overseas a lot on presidential trips, but the idea of becoming someone who lived overseas had never really occurred to me.”

An unexpected and abrupt assignment in Jerusalem marked the beginning of Wilkie’s time in the Middle East. After war broke out in Lebanon and he was sent on many more weeks-long assignments overseas, it became clearer to Wilkie that the Globe intended for him to be there, and he had no reservations.

“I’d always wanted to cover a war,” he said. “I didn’t cover Vietnam, and I felt that I had missed something.”

In 1984, the Globe had Wilkie establish a Middle East bureau in Jerusalem, and the native Mississippian wound up living in Jerusalem for four years. While there, Wilkie

enjoyed submersion into a new culture and invited his three children to spend their summers with him in Jerusalem, an experience he thinks benefited them all.

“You have to make adjustments, which is a challenge as a journalist, but one that I enjoyed.”

That time in the Middle East, as well as covering eight presidential campaigns, are highlights, according to Wilkie. “I treasure my years in the Middle East.”

But in 1993, Wilkie was ready to settle down a bit.

“That’s when I convinced them to let me go to New Orleans,” he said.

That year, he established the Globe’s Southern bureau and worked until 2000, when he retired. He began spending time in Oxford, reconnecting with old friends and attending football games. It wasn’t long before he was offered a teaching position on the Ole Miss journalism faculty.

“I thought, ‘Why not?’” Wilkie said. “I don’t play golf, so what else would I do in retirement?”

Wilkie was still teaching five years later, when Charles Overby was developing what is now the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics and invited Wilkie to be a fellow.

“It was clear that the main focus would be journalism and politics with a Southern slant,” Overby said. “And Curtis is the embodiment of that. It’s like, you look up ‘Southern politics and journalism’ in the dictionary, and there’s a picture of Curtis. And he was right here on campus; we didn’t even have to go find him.”

According to Overby, Wilkie is one of the best ambassadors Mississippi has ever had because of his vast network of friends all over the world. In addition, Overby believes that Wilkie contributes a special expertise because of his illustrious career.

“There are two people in my life who have had extraordinary insight into politics and journalism,” Overby said. “One of them was John Seigenthaler, who worked for the Kennedys and was the longtime editor and publisher of The Tennessean, and the other is Curtis. He is extraordinary in every way.”

Former Chancellor Robert Khayat, a longtime friend of Wilkie’s, is also proud to have him working for the university.

“I think that he learned a lot and developed a lot of sophistication in his work,” Khayat said. “And he’s real smart — real smart — and lots of fun, and fun to be with. Ole Miss is very fortunate to have Curtis Wilkie working on our campus.”

When he’s not teaching, Wilkie is working on adding yet another book to a list that includes Dixie and his bestseller, The Fall of the House of Zeus. He and one of his best friends, Tom Oliphant, a fellow journalist, are in the process of writing a book about the years leading up to John Kennedy’s presidential election.

“To this day — and I’m 75 — I still enjoy writing very much,” Wilkie said.

And although he’s still at work, he reflects on his career thus far with a love for journalism he’s had as long as he can remember.

“You get to go to important events, you get to know important people, and if you keep going, you get to travel the world and go places that you never would as a normal citizen,” Wilkie said. “It’s a great, great job that I would not have traded for running a Wall Street hedge fund and being a multimillionaire. I’d much rather have done what I did.”

The author is a journalism graduate (’16) of the Meek School from Corinth, Mississippi.

faculty Dr. Kristen Alley Swain completed two research studies funded by the updates U.S. Department of Transportation that examined communications about toxic transportation spills. The studies were funded for a total of $133,000. She accompanied three students to Dr. Brad Schultz published Washington, D.C., to represent Ole Miss at a three books last year: a new Planet Forward summit and to present grant edition of his textbook on ideas at the National Science Foundation. She led sports broadcasting, an the school’s assessment efforts, created a health edited volume on sports communication course and published work in and religion and a sports Bill Rose’s spring 2016 class Health Security, Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis history book. His classes has produced an in-depth Response, Online Journal of Communication and produced two television documentaries, one of magazine on the struggles Media Technologies, and Handbook of Climate which aired on statewide public television and and accomplishments of Change Adaptation. Swain also presented at the received an Associated Press award. Another was Mississippi’s Indians. They National Conference on Health Communication, received at several film festivals. Schultz also made are looking primarily at Marketing and Media and at a University two presentations at the national convention of the Choctaws, who have Transportation Center conference. journalism educators. a reservation just outside Philadelphia, and the Chickasaws, who are now in Oklahoma, but are Dr. Robert Magee In late 2015, Meek School building a cultural center/museum in Tupelo, delivered five lectures at the instructor R.J. Morgan which they consider the tribe’s homeland. The Universidad San Francisco earned his Certified class spent Spring Break reporting at the Choctaw Xavier de Chuquisaca in Journalism Educator reservation. Sucre, Bolivia, in October (CJE) status from the 2015. The Spanish-language Journalism Education Dr. Kathleen Wickham lectures were part of the Association (JEA). Morgan spent Spring Break lecturing inaugural Kjell Einar Barreth Memorial Lecture is the director of the Mississippi Scholastic Press at Rennes University and Series organized by the university’s Department Association, housed at Ole Miss. To earn his CJE, the Nouvelle Sorbonne in of Social Communication and sponsored by Morgan passed a written exam at the JEA national France on the murder of Norway’s Stromme Foundation and NLA convention in Orlando last November. He and Paul Guihard during the University College in Bergen. Also presenting the other new CJEs were honored at a luncheon 1962 Ole Miss integration were Dr. Franklin Cornejo, director of the last spring in Los Angeles. The CJE program riot. While in France, she visited Brittany to do School of Journalism at Universidad Antonio recognizes educators who have demonstrated an additional research about Guihard in his home Ruiz de Montoya, in Lima, Peru, and Dr. Geir advanced body of experience and skills in working province. Wickham also presented research related Magnus Nyborg of NLA University College. The with high school journalists. Before joining the to civil rights and the press at the National Civil Universidad San Francisco Xavier is one of the Ole Miss faculty, Morgan was an award-winning Rights Conference, where she was named to the oldest in the Americas. high school journalism teacher for six years. planning committee for the 2016 conference. She co-produced, with Dr. Brad Schultz, the student documentary “Atomic, Joe Atkins is editor of and contributing writer to The Strangers Mississippi,” which attracted national Among Us: Tales from a Global Migrant Worker Movement, slated for attention. In addition, Wickham publication in June 2016 by London-based LabourStart. The book is served as a judge for the National a collection of essays from 10 writers around the world on the migrant Headliner Journalism Awards. worker issue. The writers include former University of Mississippi journalism graduate students Nancy Yan Xu, now chief editor/ general manager of the U.S. edition of Global Times, one of China’s top daily newspapers, and Takehiko Kambayashi, who is a Tokyo-based correspondent for the German Press Agency (DPA). For Atkins’ three essays in the book, he used original reportage he did during recent trips to Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Buenos Aires. The book was highlighted at the May 6-8 LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference in Toronto, during which Atkins and publisher Eric Lee held a workshop discussing the migrant worker issue. Atkins’ novel, Casey’s Last Chance, was published by Sartoris Literary Group in February 2015, with readings and signings at major bookstores in Mississippi and good reviews in publications such as the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Mud & Magnolia magazine, and Southern Literary Review. Set in the South in 1960, the novel deals with a racially suspect small-time hustler caught in the vortex of a rising civil rights movement and fierce resistance to it.

Associate ($1,000 to $2,499) Ralph B. Braseth, Jr. Juanie and Charles Fuqua Laurie A. Heavey Virginia T. and William J. Hickey III Hotty Toddy News, LLC Elizabeth B. and Stanley E. Mileski Dennis E. Moore Stephen M. Riley Stephanie M. and Sellers Shy Keyana R. and Cedric J. Washington Tracy and Larry D. Weeden, Sr. Wells Fargo Matching Gift Cntr. Nancy R. and Curtis C. Wilkie, Jr. William Randolph Hearst Fndn. Benefactor ($10,000 to $24,999) Hearst Service Center Imagination Publishing Magazine Information Network LLC Andrea G. and Charles L. Overby Ygondine W. Sturdivant Steward ($500 to $999) Mary E. and W. Randy Boxx Maralyn H. Bullion Lisa C. and Larry M. Burr, Jr. Clarcor Foundation Brian M. Folk Craig M. Geno Melissa Hamilton Alma Jackson-Flowers Lachie M. Jennings Janene Jones Marcia Logan and C. D. Goodgame Executive ($5,000 to $9,999) Nancy H. and Richard B. Akin Democrat Printing & Lithographing Company Dotsie G. and John D. Glass Albert Hamilton James G. Elliott Co., Inc. Mary L. and Nick Kotz Becky W. and Edwin E. Meek Morris Communications Susan L. and H. W. Norton, Jr. Publishers Printing Company

Dana S. and Joel R. Wood Nancy A. and Charles D. Mitchell Regina and Ulen Moffett Tamika Montgomery-Reeves Robert F Kennedy Center For Justice & Human Rights Ethel Young-Scurlock and Carlo Scurlock Mary Lou and Norman H. Seawright, Jr. Pamela P. and Jerome W. Smith Total System Services, Inc. Edward J. Webb, Jr. Advocate ($2,500 to $4,999) Greg Brock Delta Magazine Susan S. and Eric T. Epperson Lucius M. Lamar and Kerry W. Hamilton Rebecca T. and Joseph W. Hurston Medtronic Foundation James E. Prince III Trend Offset Printing Services Inc.

Senior Partner ($250 to $499) Aileen Ajootian Tom Bearden Christina U. Douglas Courtnay and Mark S. Elias Tammy S. and Eric A. Folk Legert Hamilton LeVaughn Hamilton Gale S. and Allen R. Houk Jennifer B. and Scott A. Janus Suzanne Molock Elizabeth A. Payne and Kenneth A. Rutherford Gina W. and Gregory L. Smith

Partner ($100 to $249) Abbeville Bank Melinda L. and Thomas S. Alford Tenecia Allen Andrew D. Anglin Cindy P. and E. E. Aune Tia M. Beasley Clinton Booker Catherine G. Boone Christin G. Calloway Daniel K. Carpenter Grathan B. Christian Candies N. Winfun-Cook and Jeremy M. Cook James K. Cooper Brandie T. and M. C. Course III Hadley H. and Will Creekmuir Katherine K. Crook Bianca Davis David N. Duhe Pamela C. and Roger D. Franck Susan M. Glisson Thomas A. Grier Dot W. and Paul W. Hale, Jr. Deborah K. and Kenneth B. Hallman Luther Hamilton Otis H. Hamilton Friend ($1 to $99) Carmelita Allen Farah Allen Aimee B. Arrington JoLynn Ashley Barbara E. Austin Jessie J. Austin Angela A. Avery and Goodloe T. Lewis Jessica N. Ayers BancorpSouth Brandy A. Barnett Mary A. and W. Patrick Harkins Theresa and William D. Harrell Robert L. Harter Hogue Hodge, LLC dba Crye*Leike Oxford Jesse J. Holland, Jr. Lloyd A. Holmes Hopewell M. B. Church Mary H. and Beckett Howorth III Teresa A. Hubbard Laquitta Hughes Melva T. James Tonya Jenkins Mildred H. Jennings Loretta Jones John Joseph IV Dorothy W. and John F. Laurenzo Sharman Lawrence Barbara L. and Jeffrey T. Lawyer Andrekeus Lee Frison Johanna Littlejohn Kathy Z. and Jimmy Long Henry Marable Josephine Martin Shellye V. McDonald

Monique Mclaurin Monica L. Barnett Dereck and Corey Barr-Pulliam Rodney E. Billingsley Keshra Blackman Tancia L. Boone Teneeshia Boyd Martha M. and Paul S. Briscoe Dennis Bronson III Brown Insurance Agency Keena D. Brown Kaye H. Bryant Rhonda Mclaurin Rodrick Mclaurin William E. Miller III Amanda G. and Adam C. Minichino Susan S. and Guy W. Mitchell III Michael L. Morgan Shaquinta and Markeeva A. Morgan Tessa T. Mosteller Dana F. Murphy LaPorshia Newell Mary R. and Edward A. Phillips James Pierce Ruth Pipes Verlena F. Porter Myrt Price Rebel Bookstore Inc. Carlton M. Rhodes, Jr. Hannah B. and James R. Rigby Tory L. Robertson-Susac Norman H. Seawright III W. C. Shoemaker Candace L. Simmons A. Brooks Smith Gerald A. Smith, Jr. Lu Ann H. and Thomas G. Smith Catherine M. Cartwright Jacqueline E. and Michael Certion LaToya F. Cherry April Clark Christina Clarke Pamela B. and Bradley J. Clasgens Jean M. Clinton Suzanne L. Cockroft Mariah Cole Robin H. Smith Vicki L. and Harry A. Sneed Sharon Steele August L. and Scott A. Sweeden Patricia R. and Ben P. Tatum M. Sue Tettleton Faye N. Thomas Marlyn Thomas Christopher S. Thompson Patricia Thompson UPS Foundation Patrick R. Vivier Andrea S. Wallace Waller Funeral Home Zandrea Ware Alexa R. and L. Kenton Watt, Jr. Rebekah and William A. Watts Kenneth M. Weightman Amanda Welch Mary B. and Thomas G. Weller Debora R. and Mitchell R. Wenger Elaine S. Williams Nikita S. Wilson Allison P. and Smith M. Wyckoff Joseph R. Wysor

Debra B. Young Jeremy K. Coleman Teresa A. Coleman Vanessa C. Cook Kimberly Craig Emma F. Crisler Hastings F. Crockard Elizabeth M. Curlee James F. Curlee Lakesha Davison Terae DeWitt Zenovia Dewitt

Friend ($1 to $99) LaTanya L. Dixon Virgie S. and Charles M. Dunagin Valencia Edochie Karla L. Edwards Mahnaz Faroqui Alicia Faucette Rose J. and Richard L. Flenorl Aimee L. and Timothy M. Fyke Hope Goins Jawanda S. Grant Crystal R. Grayson Susan Grayzel and Joseph P. Ward Ann V. and Jim M. Greenlee Lolita L. Gregory Ravonda L. and Dorian R. Griffin Virginia B. and David K. Hale Deborah W. Hall Jacinta A. Hall Lakeisha V. Hall Darbara Hamilton Diann Hamilton Dillard Hamilton Krystle Hamilton Lindsey M. Hammond Jontarius C. Haywood W. David Hitt Deborah L. and David W. Houston III Shelley B. and Trent L. Howell Tarhonda Hullaby Lena Irish Deidra F. Jackson Enos L. Jackson Carissa Jamison Michael W. Johansson Erica R. Johnson Tara Johnson Chris Jones Ebony A. Jones Judy and Augustus R. Jones Judy B. and Tony E. Jones Betty-Gail and Timothy A. Kalich Turmel Kindred Veronica H. Knowles Timothy F. Kriehn Ann Malburne Meredith Malburne-Wade Torie Mario-White Brian K. Martin Patricia F. and Scott T. Matlock Caroline S. and Cal Mayo, Jr. Yolanda B. and Edwin D. McCain Jermaine McCaskill Joshua L. McIntyre Renee McLaurin-Walker Neely L. and Tarrus D. Metcalf Tieryaa C. Metcalf Stacy L. Miers Jarijion Minnett Jasmine A. Minor Sidna B. Mitchell Katherine S. Morrison Donique N. Muhammad Frederick Murphy Byrle S. and Thomas D. Murry Jomonique B. Neal New York Life Foundation Kaneshia Newell Rhonda Newell Emery C. and Michael M. Newsom Travis D. Newson Donna Nunnally Charlotte B. and Robert E. Oakley Uju Onyekwere Ted M. Ownby Sherigo Page Yvonne C. Parrish Jamekia Phillips Deborah A. Pierce Regina L. Pitts Jayna Powell Christopher K. Presley Tammie Quinn Revida Rahman Tiffany C. and Brian K. Ray Ashley K. Reed Rhonda M. Reed Lisa Roberts Artair J. Rogers LaShaunda Rogers Brandon S. Ross Christopher D. Ruple Alix Sanders Laura H. Santhanam Sarah C. Sapp Martha M. and Jonathan D. Scott Kendra Shell Cora B. and F. D. Shields Alexandra Shockey Susan Smiley Laura B. and R. Brent Smith Susan H. Smith Kelvonna R. Stanfield Swetland Cook, PLLC Becky B. and H. G. Taylor Kaleshia B. and Sovent Z. Taylor Jake C. Thompson Justavian D. Tillman Tiffany Tillman Kathryn J. Tompkins Shakendra Toombs Kendrick Triplett Ciara N. Turner Karrye Tynes Jesimine Vaughan Sharon W. and Jeffrey S. Vitter Raymond C. Wade, Jr. Maura M. Wakefield Katy P. Wallace Joseph P. Ward Gregory Ware Erika A. Webster Elizabeth Wells John G. Wheeler Colleen R. White Alicia Williams Portia Williams Stephanie R. and Ryan J. Williams Teri Williams Amanda D. Wilson Wanda Woods Meridith C. Wulff Sue P. and David A. Ziegenhorn