Northwest Celebrates Retirees and Their Accomplishments

by Sarah Smith

Senatobia, MS (05/11/2023) — Northwest Mississippi Community College held its annual Faculty and Staff Awards and Retirement Ceremony April 24 to honor the college's 2023 retirees and employees who have reached service milestones. This year, 18 retirees were honored after serving the college with a combined 341 years of experience.

Some retirees are long-term employees, spending the majority of their careers at Northwest, such as Director of Information Technology Amy Latham who has worked at Northwest for 36 years. She's looking forward to retiring to spend more time with family. Latham's fondest memories of Northwest include registration in the snow.

Student Success Navigator Julie Correro, who has worked at Northwest 20 years, is excited about teaching her precious grandson, Sanders, how to swim this summer and enjoying events. She has many fond memories at Northwest, but especially when former students come back and tell her how much they appreciated her. She said it "brings everything back full circle."

Mark Crockett, assistant director of Physical Plant, has served the college for 27 years and looks forward to spending more time with family in retirement. He is looking forward to slowing down in retirement. He said he has lots of great memories here, but is especially proud of the growth he's seen on campus.

Some of the custodial staff, like Marilyn Davis, have been a part of the Northwest community for 17 years. She has fond memories of watching students perform in the Fine Arts Auditorium, especially the jazz band concerts.

Leanna Flores, who served the college for 19 years, is looking forward to spending more time with family and grandchildren in retirement, working on her fixer upper house, and no longer setting alarms to wake up. She fondly remembers helping students overcome obstacles.

Michael Hibbler is excited to rest and travel during his retirement. He is proud that his granddaughter was elected Northwest's Homecoming Queen in 2019 and loved attending football games at Northwest. He retires after 18 years at the college.

Annie Jackson worked at Northwest for 28 years, and during that time, she enjoyed catering different events and working with her cafeteria family and visiting the Student Support Services office.

Rosie Johnson has been a part of Northwest for 11 years. She's excited for relaxing, traveling with family and friends, and continuing her creative career acting. She is a proud Northwest graduate, employee, and retiree.

Sandra Moore served Northwest for 20 years. During that time, she said she most enjoyed going to the rodeo. She's looking forward to traveling with her husband, David. She hopes to take cross country train trips and go to the beach more often.

James Neal has been a part of Northwest for 21 years, and said his fondest memories include meeting deadlines that seemed impossible to meet at the time, and even one that got rewarded by taking a trip to Biloxi.

Robert Smith worked at Northwest 22 years, and said he enjoyed working with the great team in the networking department but is looking forward to being at home with his family more often.

Other retirees include David Young, 10 years; Denise Vannucci, 19 years; Al Taylor, 10 years; Arlene Pittman, 21 years; Jennifer Lance, 13 years; David Lambert, 18 years and Anthony Elion, 11 years.

To read more about the retirees and their lives, please visit: https://www.northwestms.edu/about/foundation/retiree-honorees-2023.

Media Attachments

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Northwest Mississippi Community College President, Dr. Michael Heindl (second row, far left) congratulations to the 2023 retirees, including (first row, l-r) Marilyn Davis, Sandra Moore, Amy Latham, Leanna Flores, Julie Correro, Annie Jackson, Rosie Johnson, Arlene Pittman, (second row) David Young, Robert Smith, Mark Crockett, James Neal, Al Taylor, Michael Hibbler, and Anthony Elion. Photo by Alyssa Pirani.

Julie

Correro