Contact: Sammy McDavid

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Four Mississippi State administrators are new Fellows of the Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program.

Now in its 10th year, ALDP was created to help prepare and advance academic administrators within the SEC’s 14 member universities—and beyond. In addition to individual campus development programs, the initiative involves two conference-wide workshops and a competitive fellowship program.

MSU’s 2017-18 Fellows include:

—Kari Babski-Reeves, associate dean of research and graduate studies and professor of industrial and systems engineering in MSU’s Bagley College of Engineering;

—L. Wes Burger Jr., associate director of both the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and Forest and Wildlife Research Center and Dale H. Arner Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management;

—Will Evans Jr., professor and head of the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion in MSU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and

—Leslie Hossfeld, professor and head of the Department of Sociology in MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

The Fellows took part in this school year’s first workshop Oct. 23-25 at Louisiana State University; the second is set for Feb. 21-23 at Auburn University.

In announcing the new Fellows, Commissioner Greg Sankey said “helping to prepare administrators for the next phase of their careers has the potential to impact all of higher education, both now and in the future.

“Our universities make a significant investment in these individuals, and we are proud to work with them through this program,” he added.

Babski-Reeves is a three-degree graduate of MSU who joined the industrial and systems engineering faculty in 2008. Her research is focused in the areas of human factors, ergonomics and safety.

Burger, a University of Missouri-Columbia doctoral graduate, is a Grisham Master Teacher who also is a research fellow at the campus’ Geosystems Research Institute.

Evans, who came to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2015, also holds joint appointments with MAFES and the MSU Extension Service. He is a University of Alabama doctoral graduate.

Hossfeld, a North Carolina State University doctoral graduate, also is founder and director of the Mississippi Food Insecurity Project and an associate director with the MSU-University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities. She came to Starkville in 2015.

Since ALDP’s creation in 2008, more than 300 SEC faculty and academic administrators have completed the program and gone on to become deans and provosts, among other senior-level positions.

For the complete list of new Fellows, see https://www.thesecu.com/news/sec-academic-leadership-development-program-celebrates-10-years/.

MSU is the state’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.