Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--The head of a federal agency that oversees a major national scholarship program will speak Nov. 21 at Mississippi State.
Louis Blair, executive secretary of the Washington, D.C.-based Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, will be featured at a 3 p.m. public program in the John Grisham Room of the university's Mitchell Memorial Library.
Blair's talk is part of the ongoing Morris W.H. Collins Speaker Series, which invites prominent figures to discuss their lives and careers. The series is a memorial to the founding executive director of MSU's John C. Stennis Institute of Government.
The official U.S. memorial to the 33rd president, the Truman Foundation provides annual merit-based scholarships to approximately 75-80 college students planning to attend graduate school in preparation for careers in government or the nonprofit sector.
Since 1980, 14 MSU students have been selected for the prestigious honor. As a result, the institution was named a Truman Honor Institution in 1998, both for its success in helping students win the highly competitive awards and prepare for public service careers.
The Collins Speaker Series is a joint effort of Mitchell Memorial's Congressional and Political Research Center and Stennis Institute of Government, along with the federal Stennis Center for Public Service in Starkville, and the student John Stennis-G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Association, a political interest organization.
"Mr. Blair was a personal friend of the late Dr. Collins, and we are thrilled that he will share his insights in this series focusing on public service leadership," said Frances N. Coleman, dean of MSU Libraries.
Blair supervises a selection process that regularly involves some 600 candidates from colleges and universities around the nation.
"Because of the many Truman Scholars MSU has produced, we have come to know Mr. Blair very well," added Stennis Institute executive director Marty Wiseman. "We again are honored to have him on campus, this time to share his life experiences with our students, faculty and guests."
A longtime public administrator and former mayor of Falls Church, Va., Blair held political appointments in the White House during the Ford and Carter administrations. He also has worked for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and was a consultant for the Environmental Protection Agency and Appalachian Regional Commission.
In addition to Truman Foundation duties, Blair is a member of selection committees for the national Marshall and Gates Cambridge scholars, as well as the Stennis Congressional Staff Fellows program that is an arm of the Stennis Center's operations.
For more information about the Nov. 21 program, telephone the library at(662) 325-7661 or Stennis Institute at 325-3328.