Longtime MSU department head to step down, take full-time faculty role
A longtime Mississippi State professor and administrator will step down from a leadership role next year to spend more time focusing on teaching, research and family.
John Forde, professor and Head of the Department of Communication, announced at a monthly faculty meeting that he would step down as department head as of July 1, 2019 and assume a full-time faculty position.
He has served as department head since 2004. Forde told the Starkville Daily News he wanted to spend more time with his family and looked forward to continuing his work teaching public relations classes in the department.
“I’ve enjoyed being department head, I’ve enjoyed the time, but I’m eager to transition to devote more time to family.”
Forde said his wife Connie retired last summer as department head at MSU for the Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development. The couple have two sons Daniel and John David, with the latter giving them two granddaughters: Three-year-old Isabella and nearly oneyear-old Emma.
“By returning to faculty, I will have a much more flexible schedule and can devote more time to family,” Forde said.
Forde has worked in the MSU Department of Communication since 1987 and is an active participant in many civic organizations, such as the Starkville Rotary Club. He also serves as past president for the Starkville-MSU chapter of the Public Relations Association of Mississippi.
He is graduate of Jones County Junior College and Mississippi State University and holds graduate degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi.
A committee formed by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences will conduct a search for a new department head.