Contact: Kenneth Billings
Photo by: Megan Bean
STARKVILLE, Miss.--New members of the Mississippi State University Alumni Association's national board of directors are beginning one-year terms.
Leading the organization into its 125th year of service are three Mississippi residents and two from Alabama.
Officially taking office July 1, the team includes Karen Dugard Lawler of Madison, Ala., president; Jerry L. Toney of Starkville, first vice president; Camille Scales Young of Madison, second vice president; and Jodi White Turner of Montgomery, Ala., treasurer.
Charles A. Cascio of Cleveland continues on the board as immediate former national president.
"For 125 years, the leaders of our Alumni Association have worked tirelessly to promote and help Mississippi State University in whatever way possible," said Jimmy Abraham, the association's executive director. "These newly elected officers will continue that tradition and will do an outstanding job leading our association and representing our alumni."
The organization was founded June 17, 1885, by the first three graduating classes of what then was Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College. A full-service organization, it now includes 91 chapters and has nearly 118,000 alumni worldwide.
Lawler is a 1982 business administration graduate who also holds a 1994 master's degree in business administration. She is team lead for the Budget Integration and Analysis Office within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. With the Huntsville-Decatur chapter, she has served as treasurer, vice president and president.
Toney, a 1996 graduate in real estate, mortgage finance and economics, is a certified financial planner and vice president of Cadence Bank. He is a former president of the Oktibbeha County chapter.
Young is a 1994 communication management graduate who also earned a master's degree in agriculture and extension education in 1996. She is a member of the Central Mississippi Chapter's board of directors and has served on various chapter committees. She is a government affairs representative with Watkins Ludlam Winter and Stennis, P.A., in Jackson.
Turner begins her third year as national treasurer. She is a 1997 accounting graduate who went on to complete a master's degree in business administration two years later. She is chief financial officer at PrimeSouth Bank in Tallassee, Ala.
Cascio, a 1979 industrial engineering graduate, is business development manager for Baxter Healthcare Corp.-Cleveland. Prior to leading the organization last year, he served as the association's national first and second vice president, and at-large director. With the Bolivar County alumni chapter, he has been president, vice president, membership chair, secretary and treasurer.