Bagley College celebrates academic year
Interim Dean Jerry Gilbert presents Outstanding Staff Awards to Debi Brewington (left) and Victor Latham (right).
Blue skies and barbeque helped the Bagley College wrap-up the academic year at the annual Faculty and Staff Appreciation Picnic.
More than a hundred BCoE faculty and staff members gathered on MSU’s historic Drill Field April 26 to celebrate another successful year of engineering education and to honor those who earned awards from the college.
While the crowed enjoyed catfish and barbeque from Starkville’s The Little Dooey, with Mississippi State ice cream for dessert, interim dean Jerry Gilbert kicked off the festivities.
“It is a beautiful day to be outside celebrating a very successful year for the Bagley College of Engineering,” Gilbert said.
Among the day’s announcements, Gilbert recognized those who received awards earlier this week including four student teams who won the inaugural Think Big competition, new Academy of Distinguished Teachers inductees, and the faculty research, career, and distance education award winners.
Gilbert also presented the annual staff appreciation awards.
Honorees for the staff appreciation award are selected from nominations received from across the college. Gilbert explained that appreciation awards recognize those individuals who exemplify professionalism and dedication to the college by performing beyond the call of duty to improve the service, quality and image of their office.
Victor Latham, the engineering shop supervisor for mechanical engineering, earned the 2013 Outstanding Professional Staff Award. He has been with the university for 19 years and is known for going out of his way to accommodate the needs of his department.
Those who nominated him for the honor wrote that his knowledge of equipment helps ensure its safe and proper instillation in labs. Another nominator explained that Latham was always responsive to researchers’ needs “no matter how late or weird the requests.”
Debi Brewington of the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems received the 2013 Outstanding Support Staff Award. She has been with the university for 17 years, 10 of which have been with the college.
Brewington’s nominators’ comments describe her as having a wealth of institutional knowledge and a dedication to accuracy and helping co-workers meet deadlines. One writes that she is the “first resource for questions related to administration and policy,” even with the questions are unusual.
Susan Lassetter | Bagley College of Engineering
