Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A former state agency leader is joining the staff of Mississippi State's widely recognized government institute.
Lydia Quarles, head of the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission since 2001, will be a senior research associate and state and local government legal and administrative specialist at the university's John C. Stennis Institute of Government.
A one-time Starkville attorney who resigned from the commission in mid-September, she begins work on campus Oct. 16. Her MSU position will be supported by grants, contracts and other resources of the three-decade-old public resource center.
The institute is named for the MSU alumnus who was a major force in the United States Senate during the latter part of the 20th century. Since being established in the mid-1970s, it has built a client constituency that includes the Mississippi Legislature and state agencies, as well as a majority of municipal and county governments, among others.
Quarles was appointed an MWCC administrative judge by Gov. Kirk Fordice in 1993. His successor, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, made her the agency's commissioner in 2001.
"Judge Quarles will have primary responsibility for leading and managing various institute project teams," said executive director William M. "Marty" Wiseman. "She also will serve as a major grants writer, as well as the institute's administrator when I'm absent."
Quarles is a cum laude bachelor's degree and a summa cum laude master's degree graduate of Mississippi University for Women. Her degrees at the Columbus institution are in political science and communication. She also holds a law degree from Samford University's Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala.
Shortly before leaving MWCC, she was honored by the American Bar Association with its prestigious Mary C. Lawson Award for Outstanding Government Service. The annual national recognition considers hundreds of nominees from the ranks of federal and state governments, as well as from memberships of the ABA's administrative law and regulatory practice section and its government and public lawyers division.
In addition to her higher education degrees, Quarles has extensive post-graduate training in specialized legal and workers' compensation areas. She also earlier completed all class requirements for a doctorate in public administration at MSU.
"As her resume clearly demonstrates, Judge Quarles possibly has been one of the most specially qualified public servants Mississippi government has seen in a long time," Wiseman said. "We were extremely fortunate to have convinced her to bring that vast knowledge and experience to Mississippi State and share it with the Stennis Institute and the government leaders and agencies with whom we work daily."
Quarles' appointment is expected to be approved formally by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning at a future meeting.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, contact Dr. Wiseman at 662-325-3328 or marty@sig.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.