Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Priscilla Dean Slade will be the featured speaker Jan. 16 for Mississippi State University's observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.
Slade, an MSU alumna from Yazoo City who has served since 1999 as president of Texas Southern University in Houston, will lead the annual community breakfast. Open to all, the free public program gets under way at 7:30 a.m. in the Bost Extension Center auditorium.
Slade received a bachelor's degree in business administration from MSU in 1972. She also holds a master's in professional accounting from Jackson State University and a doctorate, also in accounting, from the University of Texas.
She joined the TSU faculty in 1991 as chair of the accounting department. A year later, she was promoted to dean of the institution's Jesse H. Jones School of Business.
She currently serves on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank's Houston Branch. She is active in the Greater Houston Partnership, Houston 2012 Foundation and Houston Technology Center, among other community organizations.
Slade also is a member of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Texas Executive Women, and National Association of Black Accountants, among other groups.
During her career, she has been recognized with a number of special honors, among them the Gutenberg, Spirit of Freedom and Women of Excellence awards.
For more information on MSU's 2006 MLK community breakfast, contact Carson Cook at (662) 325-2493.