March 21, 2025

Members of the 2025 EMCC LEO Leadership class visited Mississippi’s state capitol building in Jackson Tuesday where they met with state representatives and senators in the college’s six-county district.

The LEO Leadership program is a year-long leadership development program titled the LEO Project that offers selected EMCC faculty and staff a series of interactive sessions on the dynamics of leadership in the context of working in the community college environment.

During the visit, the LEO Leadership members met briefly with state legislators, toured the capitol building and watched floor debates on proposed bills.

“This was a really good opportunity for our LEO Leadership members to learn how the legislative process works,” EMCC President Dr. Scott Alsobrooks said. “Working with the state government is such an important part of our process and it is good for our leaders to understand that. We are very grateful for the support of the Mississippi Legislature and for those legislators who were able to spend a little bit of time with us during what was a busy day for them.”

The LEO group was accompanied by EMCC Vice President of Instruction Dr. James Rush and EMCC Vice President of Career Technical and Workforce Education Dr. Michael Busby, who oversee the LEO Leadership program.

While at the capitol building, the group met with District 37 House Rep. Andy Boyd, District 32 Sen. Rod Hickman, District 16 Sen. Angela Turner-Ford and District 15 Sen. Bart Williams.

They also met with Mississippi Community College Board Executive Director Kell Smith and visited with Southwest Community College President Dr. J. Steven Bishop, William Carey University President Dr. Ben Burnett, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College President Dr. Mary Graham and Hinds Community College President Dr. Stephen Vacik, who, along with Alsobrooks, attended a luncheon with legislators to discuss the work and accomplishments of Mississippi’s community colleges.

Members of the 2025 EMCC LEO Leadership class are Mary Ann Latham, assistant director of Adult Education and a college and career navigator; Howie Manley, a skilled maintenance worker on the Scooba campus; Tenitra Smith, a navigator at The Communiversity; mathematics instructor Dr. Subhash Subedi; Jeremy Tate, a recruiter on the Golden Triangle campus; Career Step Navigator Latrice Triplett; Susan White, an academic advisor on the Scooba campus; Elanthus Wicks, director of Administrative Computing; humanities instructor Matthew Wiggins; and assistant football coach Cade Wilkerson.