Ever since she began working at Mississippi State in 1985, Lisa Clardy has felt right at home on the Starkville campus.
"Mississippi State really is a family-oriented campus. In every department I've ever worked on campus, people have been very supportive and very understanding, and I've had some fantastic bosses," she says.
A West Point native, Clardy held staff positions in the Registrar's Office, Office of College and School Relations (now Admissions and Scholarships) and the MSU Foundation before joining the MSU Extension Service in 2004.
"I left the university for a while when my kids were small, and I taught computer classes on a part-time basis at East Mississippi Community College," Clardy says. "I always said that if I was going to go back to work full-time, I was coming back to Mississippi State because I wouldn't want to work anywhere else."
When not working on campus, Clardy enjoys going on cruises and camping trips with husband Earl, also a West Point native who received an MSU electrical engineering degree in 1988.
Together, Lisa and Earl are the proud parents of two daughters and a son. Nicole Clardy Barksdale is an MSU agribusiness graduate now pursuing a master's degree in weed science at the university; Dessirrie, a senior business administration/marketing major; and Austin, a student at EMCC's Mayhew Campus. Their son-in-law, Blake Barksdale, also received his bachelor's of accountancy and master's of professional accountancy from MSU.
The Clardys also enjoy spending time with Cade, their 7-month-old granddaughter. "We're hoping she'll be a Bulldog, too," says Lisa, who recently completed her own time as an MSU student. In May, she graduated with a master's degree in public policy and administration.
"I really enjoyed my classes in Bowen Hall, and this will be the first semester in two years I haven't been in school," she says. "I was kind of worried I would feel out of place because I was so much older than everybody else, but all of the young students made me feel welcome and I had great instructors."
"I think I'm really going to miss being a student," she says. With a laugh, she quickly added, "I'm not going to miss writing lots of papers, though!"