Contact: Sammy McDavid

STARKVILLE, Miss.—A College of Business teaching veteran and computing authority and the current Mississippi State student body leader are the university’s selections for an annual statewide higher education tribute.

Professor Rodney A. Pearson of the management and information systems department and senior Roxanne L. “Roxie” Raven of Okemos, Michigan, are among nearly three dozen faculty members and an equal number of students to be honored Tuesday [Feb. 21] at the 30th annual HEADWAE luncheon at the Mariott Hotel in downtown Jackson.

HEADWAE is the acronym for Higher Education Appreciation Day—Working for Academic Excellence. A recognition program established by the Mississippi Legislature, it salutes both individual achievement and the overall contributions of the state’s public and private senior institutions and community and junior colleges.

At 10 a.m., Pearson, Raven and the other honorees will assemble at the state capitol for a welcome by Gov. Phil Bryant, followed by the formal acknowledgement of Senate and House of Representative members.

At noon, this year’s group will be joined at the luncheon by, among others, MSU President Mark E. Keenum and event chair Blake Wilson, president and CEO of the Mississippi Economic Council. Rod Paige, former U.S. education secretary and current interim Jackson State University president, will be the featured speaker.

Pearson, a Clarksdale native and Harvard University Business School doctoral graduate, came to MSU in 1987 after teaching at Boston University. Previously, he served on the faculty at Harvard and, before that, the University of Mississippi, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting and computer science.

At MSU, he has received numerous academic and related honors over the years, including designation as a John Grisham Master Teacher. In 2003, he was given a special citation by the Legislature for his long service on the board of the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services.

Beyond the classroom, Pearson is program manager and leader of an MSU faculty team administering a more than $800,000 grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to the local Veterans’ Business Outreach Center. In addition to Mississippi, the center serves clients in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Raven, Mississippi State’s fourth female Student Association president, is a Starkville native whose parents once worked at the university. She resided in the city of her birth until middle school and the family’s relocation to the Wolverine State.

A political science/pre-law major and President’s List Scholar, she is a former SA vice president who has been active in student government and other campus organizations since her freshman year.

For additional information on the annual higher education tribute, see www.mississippi.edu/headwae. The complete list of this year’s honorees is found at www.mississippi.edu/headwae/downloads/headwaehonorees2017.pdf.  

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