Sept. 27, 2023
In recognition of her outstanding contribution to the field of educational public relations and her continued dedication to East Central Community College, Harriet Vickers Laird of Starkville has been selected the college’s 2023 Alumna of the Year and will be recognized during Homecoming festivities on Thursday, Oct. 12, on the Decatur campus.
Laird expressed both shock and excitement when notified of her selection.
“I have such a long and memorable history with East Central and it just was thrilling to get that call from Dr. Gregory,” she said.
Laird currently serves the Office of Public Affairs at Mississippi State University as senior associate director within the Division of Strategic Communications, having previously served as associate director since 2008.
In her role at MSU, Laird helps lead and coordinate projects across the office, providing guidance to the branding, news, social media, graphic design and photography units, and monitoring adherence to the university’s visual and verbal identity standards.
Sid Salter, Vice President for Strategic Communications and Director of Public Affairs at Mississippi State University, said, “I can think of no one more deserving of this honor than Harriet Laird. Her family’s investment in ECCC has been phenomenal and her work at Mississippi State reflects the lessons she learned watching her parents serve at East Central. Harriet is the consummate professional and none of the success we have enjoyed in our part of the university administration would have been possible without Harriet’s strong influence. I count on her. She is my good right arm, and she and her husband Jim are an integral part of the MSU administration.”
In addition to her MSU duties, Laird has been an active member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, serving as a CASE District III board member for many years and as a conference chair and committee member. She also is serving the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi as its 2023-24 vice president.
Laird’s longtime relationship with East Central Community College began when her parents, the late Ovid and Carol Vickers, brought her home from the hospital to the Decatur campus where he was an English instructor and Carol was a junior high school teacher.
She and her mother become just the second mother and daughter duo to both be named Alumna of the Year, something Laird admitted made this award extra special.
Having grown up with parents who were both writers, Laird said she felt she was born with an innate ability to write. She said it took many years to realize that writing is truly a gift.
“I had to work and improve over the years, but I think I’ve always had that gift,” she said. “When choosing a career, news writing appealed to me so I majored in journalism at USM (University of Southern Mississippi). Then I discovered public relations was an option and stayed to complete my master’s with that focus.”
While completing her degrees, Laird participated in internships with Mississippi Power’s headquarters in Gulfport, The Laurel Leader-Call newspaper, and East Central Community College. She said she was fortunate to have had great teachers and role-models who enhanced her writing and PR knowledge.
She said, “To be a good public relations practitioner, you must be willing to be in the background. Your job is to put others or the institution in the spotlight while you stand back and watch them have success, all the while taking pride in your work as a support system and promoter. There is a satisfaction in being the person who works behind the scenes to make institutions and other people be the best they can be.”
She began her career in 1988 as a copywriter at McRae’s Department Stores’ headquarters in Jackson before accepting a director position at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson, which would be the catalyst for a longtime career in educational public relations.
“Education was familiar to me because I had grown up on campus at East Central and it was just a natural fit. Mother taught in the public school system for years, and I was constantly around educators and instructors.”
Beginning in 1992, following four years at Co-Lin, she served 13 years as public relations director for Hinds Community College. She followed that with a move into the corporate sector as communications coordinator for Nissan North America in Canton where she said she “gained immeasurable experience in internal communications” before joining MSU in 2008.
Laird said, “With educational public relations, I had mostly focused on external communications. My almost three-year term with Nissan taught me so much about employee communications and getting accurate information to those in the workplace.”
She said she has been blessed with exceptional mentors during her career, surrounded by administrators and co-workers who have truly enriched her life.
One such advisor, teacher and friend is Jackie Granberry, retired Executive Director of the Hinds Community College Foundation, who said, “Harriet is the total package—wife, mother, ultimate professional. I admire her greatly and she is so very deserving of this amazing honor. She is the posterchild for Mississippi community colleges. No matter what college signed her check, she was an advocate for all community colleges wherever she went, and I am sure she continues to advance community colleges in her role at MSU. However, it was always evident that East Central held her heart.”
Laird said attending East Central was a natural progression, having spent her entire childhood on campus. She thrived as an active and engaged student and some days it was difficult to fit all her activities in her schedule.
“I played intramural basketball and Dan Sullivan from Louisville was our coach. I looked forward to those games every week. I was also in the musical that year, ‘Man of La Mancha.’ At basketball practice one day Dan told us when the next game was going to be, and I had play practice on the same night. I had to go to play practice, but it bothered me so much that I had to choose.”
She was a member of the Warrior Corps student ambassadors, student council, theater productions, intramural sports and Spring Fling committee. Her sophomore year, she was selected for the Student Hall of Fame, the highest honor one can receive.
“I think I’m one of just a few people who have been able to experience a community college the way I did. EC was home to me. Not only did I complete my associate’s degree and later an internship at East Central, I spent my childhood and grew up there. I did everything on campus, from ‘playing house’ as a little girl to riding my bicycle and playing hide-and-seek to gathering on the old tennis courts with my high school friends.”
Having a parent as instructor might have been difficult for some, but Laird happily signed up for her father’s legendary English and literature classes which she said were akin to watching a theatrical production.
“I loved my dad’s class and I felt about it like others did. He made the information so vivid and brought it to life,” she said.
After the death of her parents in 2020, Laird, along with her sister, Nona, and additional family members spearheaded an event in memory of the Vickers that raised thousands of dollars designated for the Founders Gymnasium Renovation project.
What would the Vickers think about their daughter’s ECCC honor and her continued commitment to the college? She said, “I think they would just be beside themselves. Nothing meant more to them than East Central besides their family.”
Laird is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Starkville and is involved in the church’s Oktoberfest that raises money for the underprivileged in the Starkville area.
Laird and her husband, Jim, have two daughters. Hannah is a first-year resident in the Internal Medicine Residency Program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Harper is an admissions counselor at Mississippi University for Women.
