New Professors Join Mississippi College Family

Karen Ivie and Wanda Fisher are two new MC School of Nursing professors. They're pictured at Cockroft Hall. Classes begin on August 24.

Charles Ghany brings a unique global perspective to the Mississippi College community.

A new MC physics professor, Ghany will join other faculty and staff newcomers introduced at the Christian university’s convocation Friday. The August 19 event at Swor Auditorium kicks off another academic season with President Lee Royce delivering the keynote address at the 190-year-old university.

Thousands of miles from Clinton, Ghany earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Buea in his native Cameroon in Central Africa. After getting his master’s in physics at Umea University in Sweden, his journey led him next to the American South. He was awarded his doctorate at Mississippi State University earlier this year, while teaching physics classes on the Starkville campus.

Growing up in Cameroon that sits on the Gulf of Guinea, Charles learned to speak fluent English and French. The nation of 23 million people borders such countries as Nigeria. He’s already enjoying life this summer with his family in Clinton. He’s married to Anna Ngum, a Cameroonian, and the couple is blessed by two boys, Daniel, 5, and Samuel, 2. Outside interests stretch from music to soccer, from lawn tennis to reading.

The journey to Mississippi College wasn’t nearly as far for Stephanie Henderson, a new professor in the School of Education. The Clinton campus is a pretty familiar place. Henderson earned her education specialist and doctorate in education leadership at MC.

A native Jacksonian, Henderson worked as deputy superintendent and interim superintendent of the Brookhaven public schools. Her husband, Roderick Henderson, is also a big fan of all things Blue & Gold. He earned two education degrees at Mississippi College. The Hendersons are the parents of two sons, RJ, 7, and Michael, 5.

Agreeing to become part of the MC faculty was a “no brainer,” Stephanie Henderson says. “The purpose and passion for Christ exhibited in all aspects of the college is what guided me here and continues to fuel me each day,” she said. “I am truly blessed to be part of this distinguished faculty.”

A new professor of biological sciences, Courtney J. Haycraft took a different route before putting down roots on the Clinton campus.

Haycraft grew up in a small town south of Minneapolis, Minnesota as one of five children. “I arrived at Mississippi College by way of various states, including the last 18 years in Alabama and South Carolina.”

Her last stop before coming to the Magnolia State was teaching dental students and doing research at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Rochester in upstate New York.

A graduate of Auburn University, Mitchell Belser will serve as a visiting professor of electrical engineering on the Clinton campus. In its first year last fall, the program enrolled 25 students and more are coming when classes start August 24.

A Montgomery, Alabama native, Belser taught at Jackson State University through 2014. The Madison resident also worked in private industry at companies from 3M to Motorola and the Robert Bosch Corporation in Michigan over the years. He earned a doctorate at Louisiana Tech in engineering.

Two new professors joining the faculty at the MC School of Nursing are Wanda Fisher and Karen Ivie. A Madison resident, Fisher previously taught at the University of Mississippi School of Nursing in Jackson. Ivie was a professor at the School of Nursing at Louisiana College before coming to Mississippi College.