Knight-Mann joins

Erwin-Penland



Melissa Knight-Mann of Meridian was recently hired by Erwin-Penland, one of the largest advertising and marketing firms in the Southeast, based in Greenville, S.C.

Knight-Mann was hired as an event marketing manager to work on the Verizon Wireless and CanalSide accounts. Her duties will include developing and implementing marketing-oriented events including product launches, product seminars, tradeshows and consumer events, grand opening events and incentive trips.

She attended George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where she studied psychology. She is part of the National Association of Catering Executives and in July 2005 she earned the Certified Meeting Professional certification.





Meridianite elected

to bankers board



Leslie W. Usher of Meridian has been elected to a three-year term on the Mississippi Bankers Association’s board of directors.

Usher will represent his area of the state on the board, which governs the 117-year-old association. MBA’s membership includes 105 commercial banks and savings institutions — representing 99 percent of the bank deposits in Mississippi.

Usher is president and chief executive officer of Great Southern National Bank in Meridian, a position he has held since 2001. He has worked for the bank for 30 years. Before joining Great Southern in 1976, Usher was a vice president and trust officer at Citizens National Bank of Meridian.

Usher graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in banking and finance. He also furthered his banking education by completing the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University.

Usher is active in Mississippi Bankers Association activities, having served on the MBA Lending Committee, MBA Nominating Committee and MBA Legislative Committee. He is also a member of the MissBankPAC Committee.



Mosley serves on

supervisors committee



Clarke County District 4 Supervisor Paul Mosley has been elected to serve on the Mississippi Association of Supervisors Executive Committee. Mosley was selected to retain his position on the committee by a unanimous general assembly vote at the Association’s 2006 Conference in Tunica County.

Mosley has held his position on the executive committee since 2003, when he was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the death of John Sims, a Jasper County supervisor.

A county supervisor since 1991, Mosley is an active member of the association and has served on several other committees, including the legislative committee.

The Mississippi Association of Supervisors Executive Committee is composed of 22 members from across the state and acts in the name of, and on behalf of, the association. The MAS is a non-political organization; its purpose is to promote the opportunities and resources of Mississippi counties and to provide continuing education for county officials.



Rawson elected

to PPMA office



Local professional photographer Wayne Rawson was recently elected vice-president of the Professional Photographers of Mississippi and Alabama at its annual convention in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Rawson also received a Distinguished Award from the PPMA annual print competition for “Portrait of a Group” for his portrait of a mother and child entitled “Sweet Innocence.”

Rawson serves this community as a member of Meridian Council for the Arts and as a 4-H leader for the 4-H Photography Club, which was recently featured in the Mississippi State Publication Mississippi LandMarks. The Photography Club meets monthly at his studio in Meridian.

For more information, call Wayne Rawson at (601) 693-1966 or Beth Randall at the Lauderdale County Extension Office, (601) 482-9764.