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Director of the Southern Rural Development Center & Professor of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University

I serve as Director of the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC), an organization focused on building capacity among the 30 Land-Grant institutions located in the region. The SRDC is one of four Regional Rural Development Centers in the country arising from the 1972 Rural Development Act and operating with base support from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Additionally, I serve as Professor in the Mississippi State University (MSU) Department of Agricultural Economics, Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Sociology, and Research Fellow with the Social Science Research Center. I am an active participant in the multi-state Rural Population Research Network (W5001).

Before joining MSU, I was Director of the Center for Population Studies, founding Co-Director of the Society and Health Academic Minor, and faculty in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. Prior to UM, I worked in several capacities at Delta State University through the Center for Community and Economic Development and the Division of Social Sciences and History. I earned a BA in Political Science and MS in Sociology from MSU, followed by a PhD in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. My professional service has included terms as President of the Rural Sociological Society and Southern Rural Sociological Association, as well as terms as editor with the journal Community Development (Community Development Society) and the Journal of Rural Social Sciences (Southern Rural Sociological Association).

Experience

  • 2021–present
    Director and Professor, Southern Rural Development Center