OXFORD, Miss. – The administrative staff of the Mississippi
Small Business Development Center, located at the
University of Mississippi, has been selected as the 2007
State Star.
Pat Jones and Jo Ann Harris compose the entire state office
administrative staff. Since most staffs include eight to10
people, Jones and Harris show they are exemplary
performers, making a significant contribution to the MSBDC
program and demonstrating a strong commitment to small
business, said State Director Walter “Doug” Gurley.
“I am pleased to make this announcement, and to recognize
the smallest but mightiest support staff in the nation for
their extraordinary contributions to the work of the
Mississippi SBDC and small business through out the entire
state,” Gurley said.
“It is an honor to accept this award and to have the
opportunity to help so many people achieve the dream of
starting and succeeding in their own business,” Harris
said.
America’s Small Business Development Center Network is a
partnership uniting private enterprise, government, higher
education and local nonprofit economic development
organizations. It is the Small Business Administration’s
largest partnership program, providing management and
technical assistance to help Americans start, run and grow
their own businesses.
With about 1,000 centers across the nation, the SBDC
network assists approximately 725,000 small businesses
every year in face-to-face counseling and training, in
addition to assisting hundreds of thousands more small
businesses through fax-on-demand and e-mail.