Contact: Sammy McDavid
Ann L. Bell
Ann L. Bell of Starkville is the new director of human resources management at Mississippi State University.
Assistant director since 1994, she will lead a campus-wide service department that includes the offices of affirmative action/equal employment opportunity, employment compensation, employee benefits and accounting services, employee relations and development, and human resources systems.
Bell's appointment becomes effective April 1, pending formal approval of the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning. She replaces the late Milburn Gardner III, who died in March of 1998. MSU General Counsel Charles L. Guest has served as interim director.
A Moss Point native, Bell is a 1976 Mississippi University for Women graduate who has completed MSU prerequisites toward a master's degree in business administration.
She joined the university staff in 1984 as a marketing specialist in the office of auxiliary services. After moving to human resources management four years later as an employment services coordinator, she held successive positions as employee benefits counselor and employee benefits manager before becoming assistant director.
Prior to coming to Mississippi State, she worked for six years as a regional training coordinator for Weyerhaeuser Co. operations in Columbus.
In addition to her administrative duties at the university, Bell has chaired the state College Board's Human Resources Committee. She also is a member of the College and University Personnel Association.