Contact: Kay Fike Jones
Three Mississippi State graduates are new members of the fund-raising staff of the university's Office of Development.
Lori M. Smith of Starkville is directing the Fund for Excellence program, while Elizabeth A. Trevathan of Knoxville, Tenn., and Deborah S. Vaughn of Pheba are development directors for the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business and Industry, respectively.
Smith, who received a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1993 and a master's in business administration in 1997, most recently was the university's interim director of annual giving. Prior to that, she was coordinator of chapter activities for the MSU Alumni Association. She also has served as a marketing instructor at East Mississippi Community College and, while in graduate school, was telemarketing supervisor for the MSU alumni association.
In her new capacity, Smith is responsible for developing and implementing the alumni association's annual giving program.
Trevathan, originally of Starkville, comes to her new position from Knoxville's WBIR-TV, where she was an account executive. A 1994 magna cum laude graduate in economics, she earlier held a similar position at WTOK-TV in Meridian.
While an MSU student, she was a finalist for the Harry S. Truman National Scholarship, president of Mortar Board national honor society and chief of staff for the Student Association. While in Meridian, she was an officer for the local MSU Alumni Association chapter.
Vaughn joined the development office in 1998 as director of the Patrons of Excellence program.
She graduated, cum laude, in 1986 with a degree in business education, then pursued postgraduate work at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. Before returning to MSU, Vaughn spent nine years as national marketing services manager with Cincinnati, Ohio-based International Thomson Publishing Co.