Ole Miss grad takes over student services
Gray will recruit, uncover opportunities; husband is a coach
By Jimmie Covington
Contact
July 17, 2006
A University of Mississippi graduate with a background in sales, advertising and public relations is the new coordinator of student services at Ole Miss at DeSoto Center in Southaven.
Ashley Gray, 24, a lifetime DeSoto County resident, will be working at acquainting students with opportunities they have in student organizations and other activities at the center and in recruiting new students.
"I am excited to be here," said Gray, an Olive Branch High School graduate. "I want to truly be passionate about what I do. Education is certainly a field that you can get into and be passionate about."
Gray also feels strongly about DeSoto County and its future. "I love DeSoto County," she said. "There is so much growth here and so much opportunity here that you are kind of sitting on a gold mine just being here."
Gray graduated from the university in Oxford in December 2003. Her degree is in marketing communications.
She worked for about a year in the advertising department at the DeSoto Times Today newspaper. She then worked in customer service and public relations with First Security Bank for not quite a year before learning that the Ole Miss post had become open.
The former coordinator, Anne Goss, resigned this summer to accept a counseling position at Southaven Middle School, where she formerly worked.
Dr. Bonnie Buntin, Ole Miss dean at DeSoto Center, said Goss built a strong foundation for the coordinator's position during her four years in the job.
"She did a great job," Buntin said. She said Gray will build on what Goss had established.
"Ashley is going to be an excellent addition for us," Buntin said. "She has a strong background in business and marketing and will be excellent with our students."
Come basketball season during the coming school year, Gray knows where she will be on high school game nights -- sitting in a high school gymnasium.
Her husband, Brad Gray, is the new basketball coach at the county's new Lewisburg Middle/High School, which will open in August. Gray, originally from Senatobia, comes to Lewisburg from Hickory Flat in Benton County, where he was a teacher and coach for about three years.
The couple met at Ole Miss and were married in January. Ashley Gray is the former Ashley Jones.
"I am really excited with him being in DeSoto County now so I can be more supportive and we are closer together," she said.
-- Jimmie Covington: (662) 996-1406
Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.
|
