Department of Educational Leadership hires new faculty

With the start of the academic year, the Department of Educational Leadership welcomed two new faculty members to its department this year.

Associate professor Dr. Myron Labat and assistant professor Dr. Paula Tharp both because of their roles in the department in July 2019. Labat and Tharp praised the transition process in coming to the university, both mentioning the welcoming and warm environment of not only their colleagues but the university community.

"I'm just thrilled with my experience here. I've at Mississippi State now since July, and I'm just thrilled with the way I have been welcomed and the support that I've received from the chair of the department and my colleagues within the department and the MSU family more broadly," said Labat. "Everybody has just really made this experience positive for employees."

These two faculty members bring expertise across the education field, including school improvement and school culture. Labat's research focuses on leadership and school culture, an interest that came about during his 12 years as an administrator in the Pass Christian school district. He explained that a lot of the success in the districts came down to developing a positive school culture with high expectations, which allow students, teachers and administers to enjoy coming to school each day.

"I brought that firsthand experience from the school setting into a research perspective as a professor, and so a lot of my responsibilities now involves around not only teaching leadership but also researching leadership as a faculty member," said Labat.

Tharp's research interests include leadership and school improvement for low-performing schools and how the administration can improve staff and student achievement. She explained her classroom experience, her position as an administrator and her role as a consultant was what led her to want to know more about how to help school districts improve.

"Trying to help schools make very difficult improvement goals in difficult situations and then actually doing the improvement work myself as a principal is why I'm very interested in these topics," explained Tharp. "Particularly schools and school systems and what they have to do to turn a school around in a very difficult situation."

In addition to their research and teaching duties, Labat is the Ph.D. program coordinator for P12 Educational Leadership, and Tharp coordinates the masters and educational specialist programs.

Dr. Labat received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Jackson State University, his master's degree in educational psychology from the University of Mississippi and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi in educational leadership and administration.

Dr. Tharp received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Delta State University in elementary education and her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi in educational leadership and administration.