The USM Lott National Center staff facilitated a strategic plan update for the City of Pascagoula. The City of Pascagoula is a municipal organization and one of Mississippi's largest cities. It is the county seat of Jackson County. Pascagoula is home to approximately 24,000 residents with a daytime population of perhaps twice that many. The city released a request for work to be completed to which USM responded and was chosen. 

 

Effective strategic planning consists of a set of concepts, procedures, and tools designed to help leaders, managers, and planners think and act strategically. It can be an indispensable resource for community leaders to bring together both public sector and private sector leaders to further the City of Pascagoula's mission, meet its mandates, and satisfy key stakeholders. The strategic planning process is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that make the most efficient and effective use of resources. The Lott Center staff used the 10-Step Strategic Planning Process methodology developed by John M. Bryson. This process was designed specifically for public and nonprofit organizations. 

Entergy Mississippi, Inc. has funded a two-year Entergy Scholar Graduate Assistant in The University of Southern Mississippi College of Business to conduct economic development research for the counties served by Entergy in Mississippi.

A subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, Entergy Mississippi, Inc. is the largest private utility in the state and covers 45 of the state's 82 counties, most of the western part of the state.

A student selected from the Master of Science of Economic Development program will assist Entergy Mississippi's Business Development team in conducting research that will help the company's economic development efforts to attract new businesses and support expansion of existing industries.

The Entergy scholar will be housed in the Trent Lott National Center for Excellence in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship and have access to the research capabilities of Southern Miss and Entergy to provide the information needed for data-driven economic development.

Examples of the type of projects that the graduate assistant will be working on include workforce analysis, impact studies, feasibility studies and community analysis.

Communities interested in learning more about how the Entergy scholar can help them should contact Dr. Chad Miller from the Southern Miss Economic Development, Tourism & Sports Management Department (chad.r.miller@usm.edu) or David Rose, Entergy Analyst (drose1@entergy.com).

With over 50 years combined economic development experience, Dr. Bill Smith and practitioner Robert Ingram will give students a strong understanding of marketing, business recruitment, as well as business retention and expansion in economic development.  The students will learn about the significance of collaboration and partnerships in achieving results in these practice areas. The role of websites and community branding will be explored.  In addition, students will prepare strategies and plans for actual communities.  The executive format hybrid class has a weekend in-person on August 22 and 23rd followed by eight on-line webinars on Thursday nights.  Communities interested in having students examine their websites and assist with economic development planning should contact Dr. Bill Smith (bill.smith@usm.edu) or 601-266-4657.