Professors Take Part in Advancing Mississippi Conference

Dr. Eric Lambert and Zachary Buckner participating in the Advancing Mississippi Conference

JACKSON, MS–A conference titled “Advancing Mississippi: A Better Mississippi for More Mississippians” took place on Thursday, June 9, 2016 at the Mississippi e-Center at Jackson State University. The conference focused on a number of topics such as employment, health, and education in the state. With over 40 submissions, the conference only chose 13 presentations to be given at the event including “Understanding the Nature of the Teacher Shortage in Mississippi” and “Early Learning Standards in Education.”

Dr. Eric Lambert, chair of the legal studies department, Dr. Linda Keena, associate professor of legal studies, and Zachary Buckner, criminal justice graduate student, gave a presentation on their research titled “An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Workplace Variables on the Organizational Commitment of Mississippi Correctional Staff.”  The study “explores how different dimensions of the workplace are associated with organizational commitment among staff at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the largest facility in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.”