Southern Miss Business

a message from the dean
Greetings from the College of Business and Economic
Development at The University of Southern Mississippi.
While this report serves to celebrate and publicize the
accomplishments of our students, faculty, staff and alumni,
I know that many of you were significantly impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic, and I want you to know that we are
thinking about you as you go through this time of great
uncertainty. I would like to extend my deepest condolences
to everyone who experienced the loss of loved ones during
this time. Take care of yourself, your family, your friends and
your colleagues. It is times like these that should make us
realize how much we need each other.
I am proud to share with you the many achievements of our
students, faculty and staff, and I am certain you will agree
that the 2019-20 academic year was eventful as COVID-19
presented many unprecedented challenges. Despite these
challenges, the past year can only be described as a great
success. Students, faculty and staff demonstrated significant
flexibility and resilience as we transitioned to working
and learning remotely. I would like to express my sincere
gratitude to our faculty and staff for all that they did to help
our students successfully navigate unchartered waters
while continuing to produce impressive scholarly research
and provide service to their schools, college and university.
Because of their dedication and efforts, we have much to
celebrate in 2019-20.
You will find more information about our accomplishments
and initiatives in the following pages, and I hope you enjoy
reading about the exciting things happening in the College
of Business and Economic Development.
Should you have any questions or suggestions, please
feel free to reach out to me at bret.becton@usm.edu or
601.266.5544.
Kind Regards,
J. Bret Becton, Ph.D.
Dean
The College of Business and Economic
Development is accredited by the
Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business (AACSB). Founded
in 1916, AACSB International is the
longest-serving global accrediting body
for business schools and is recognized as
a premier process. Less than 5% of the
world’s 13,000 business programs have
earned AACSB accreditation in accounting
and in business. Dean Joseph A. Greene
led the school to membership with AACSB
in 1967 and to its initial accreditation
in 1976. The college then achieved
accreditation in accounting in 1982. AACSB
accreditation is a “gold standard” of
quality that assures a focus on continuous
improvements over time. The process of
reaffirming accreditation every five years
includes peer review, team visits and
reviews, national committee reviews, and
the development of distinctive programs
that have an impact.
Graphic Design – Kat VanSkiver, Hillary Lovinggood
Writing – Bailey Harris
Editing – J.T. Tisdale, Bret Becton, Heather Graves
Photography – Kelly Dunn, Paul Lijewski