Contact: Bethany Shipp

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State’s World Class Teaching Program is celebrating 19 teachers who have achieved the prestigious National Board Certification and four who have renewed the credential.

Representing school districts across the state, teachers who earned or maintained the certification through the university’s WCTP in 2023 recently were honored during a campus pinning ceremony.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or NBPTS, ranks Mississippi State No. 14 nationally for total number of National Board Certified Teachers, or NBCTs, with 1,086 MSU graduates who have earned the certification. The Magnolia State ranks seventh in the U.S. for total NBCTs with 4,818.

“MSU’s World Class Teaching Program is excited to welcome these teachers into the ranks of NBCTs from around the nation,” said WCTP Director Stephanie McGee. “We applaud them for their dedication to the teaching profession and all the work they put into earning this honor.”

Established in 1996, the WCTP recruits and mentors teachers seeking advanced certification through the NBPTS process. Candidates are supported in a variety of ways including component preparation sessions and certificate area support cohort meetings. According to the NBPTS, the National Board Certification is the “highest certification a teacher may obtain in addition to being the most respected one.”

Teachers certified through the WCTP (by school district) include:

Choctaw Tribal Schools—Michael Wilson, career and technical education

Columbus Municipal School District—Darcel Brandon, exceptional needs specialist; and Bridgett White, exceptional needs specialist

Enterprise School District—Jacqueline Lewis, career and technical education; and Amber Smith, English language arts: adolescence/young adulthood

Greene County School District—Denise Jones and Chris Turner, both career and technical education

Lee County School District—Erin Rowland, mathematics: early adolescence

Lowndes County School District—Emily Ballard, mathematics: early adolescence; and April Downey, literacy: reading-language arts

Monroe County School District—LaShae Brown, mathematics: early adolescence

Pearl Public School District—Laura Jo Ferguson, early childhood generalist

Rankin County School District—​Kim Minshew, mathematics: early adolescence

Scott County School District—Amanda Richardson, exceptional needs specialist

Starkville Oktibbeha School District—Karis Cobb, literacy: reading-language arts; Denesha Howell, mathematics: early adolescence; Erica Johnson, English language arts: adolescence/young adulthood; and Amy Barrett Lee, music: adolescence/young adulthood

Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District—Regina Ballard, mathematics: adolescence/young adulthood

Teachers who maintained their certification through the WCTP (by school district) include:

Choctaw Tribal Schools—Dawn Harrell, literacy: reading-language arts

Itawamba County School District—Lacie Edge Snider, social studies​: early adolescence

Starkville Oktibbeha School District—Pamela Everitt, literacy: reading-language arts 

Webster County Schools—Dawn Tabb, early childhood generalist

Learn more about MSU’s World Class Teaching Program, housed in the College of Education, at https://www.wctp.msstate.edu/.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.