Contact: Sammy McDavid
Thirty high school and community college teachers and administrators from around the Southeast are recent graduates of the first Insurance Education Institute at Mississippi State University.
Available at no cost to qualified educators, the four-week curriculum is designed to enhance the instruction of business education courses by providing participants with an increased knowledge of insurance and its social and economic importance. Three hours of graduate credit are awarded upon course completion.
Like four similar programs at other institutions in the Eastern United States, the MSU institute involves three weeks of online assignments at home that precede a concluding week of classes on campus. The institutes are funded by the Insurance Education Foundation of Indianapolis, Ind., a non-profit organization devoted to improving the public's understanding of the role of insurance in society.
Other summer institutes were held this year at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa; University of Central Arkansas in Conway; Illinois State University in Normal; and St. John's University in New York City.
At MSU, the institute is a collaborative effort between the College of Education and the risk management, insurance and financial planning program of the College of Business and Industry. Finance professor Edwin H. Duett, holder of the college's Peter K. Lutken Chair of Insurance, is program leader.
"In addition to increasing their general knowledge of insurance, the training is designed to improve skills in reading and interpreting insurance policies and provide practical applications for relating the material into their curricula," Duett said. "Among other topics, we also introduce them to numerous resources available for business classrooms, as well as a variety of lesson plans."
Duett said campus experience also included a field trip to Jackson that included a tour of the Mississippi Department of Insurance and meeting with Commissioner George Dale and other administrators. First elected to the state office in 1975, Dale is the nation's longest serving insurance commissioner.
Participants in the inaugural MSU Insurance Education Institute include (by hometown):
BILOXI--Christine Philley, a family and consumer sciences teacher at Ocean Springs High School.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--Barbara G. McQueen [ZIP 35218], an accounting, business and marketing teacher at Woodlawn High School.
BOGUE CHITTO--Deborah Smith, mathematics teacher at Bogue Chitto High School.
BOONEVILLE--Susan M. "Mitzy" Johnson, associate vice president for planning and research, and John Yarber, economics instructor, both at Northeast Mississippi Community College.
CAMDEN, Ala.--Brenda T. Autry, a business education teacher at Wilcox Central High School.
CARTHAGE--Doris Jones, a social studies and history teacher at Thomastown Attendance Center.
COLUMBUS, Ga.--Sonja V. Lewis [ZIP 31907], a business education teacher at Kendrick High School.
ESTILL, S.C.--Tonya R. Beckett, a business, marketing and computer technology education teacher at Estill High School.
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.--Robert E. Carman [ZIP 33334], a mathematics teacher at Boynton Beach High School.
GERMANTOWN, Tenn.--Frances D. Galloway, a marketing education teacher at the Kingsbury Career Technology Center.
JONESBORO, Ga.--Hillery Goodgame, a business education teacher at South Atlanta High School.
LAKE WORTH, Fla.--Gertrude Joseph [ZIP 33463], a mathematics teacher at Boynton Beach High School.
LITTLE ROCK--Ruth H. Gregory, a business and computer teacher with the Union Public Schools, and Shelia McDill, an accounting and information processing teacher at West Lauderdale High School.
LOUISVILLE--Tomeka Walker, a mathematics teacher at Noxapater Attendance Center.
McHENRY--William K. "Bill" Westling, an algebra and computer engineering teacher at Harrison Central High School.
MADISON--Jane N. Brown, a family and consumer science teacher [school not listed], and Brenda Thompson, an administrator [no specific title listed] with the Madison County School District.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.--Anita C. Cothran [ZIP 38114], a marketing teacher at Trezevant Career and Technology Center; Joyce E. Downey [ZIP 38109], a marketing education teacher at Fairley High School.
MOSS POINT--Janet H. Beatty, a business technology teacher at Ocean Springs High School.
PASCAGOULA--Steve Simmons, principal at the Pascagoula Opportunity Center.
ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla.--Donald R. Persson, an algebra teacher at Boynton Beach High School.
SAVANNAH, Ga.--Patrice N. Everson, a business and information technology teacher at Sol C. Johnson High School.
TUTWILER--Robert Barnard Jr., a cooperative education teacher at South Panola High School.
TYLERTOWN--Paul Stalcup, a computer applications teacher at Moss Point High School.
UNION--Wanda Hurley, an economics/legal environment of business teacher at East Central Community College.
VANCLEAVE--Anita Reddix-Augustin, a family and consumer science teacher at Gulfport High School.
WIGGINS--Wendy Rogers, principal at Stone County High School.