The Southern Rural Development Center Announces New Associate Director

The Southern Rural Development Center is excited to announce Dr. Roseanne Ellison Scammahorn as the new Associate Director for the Southern Rural Development Center, housed at Mississippi State University.
 
Originally from Darke County, Ohio, Scammahorn received her bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and MBA in Management, Innovation, and Change from Wright State University in Dayton, OH. She continued her education at Mississippi State University, earning an Educational Specialist degree in Counseling and a Doctorate in Extension and Agricultural Education where her dissertation examined the attrition risk of agricultural educators in the southern region.
 
Scammahorn joined the Southern Rural Development Center as a graduate research assistant in 2010. Her research focused on understanding poverty in the mid-south Delta region, entrepreneurship, and e-commerce. In 2018, she relocated to Ohio State University Extension and served as Darke County’s SNAP-Ed Program Assistant and Family and Consumer Sciences Educator III. During her time at Ohio State, she created and taught programming on healthy relationships, finance, and sustainable communities. In 2023, she relocated to Mississippi for the role of Extension Research Associate III for the Southern Rural Development Center and supported the outreach efforts for the Understanding Heirs’ Property at the Community Level team, the National Digital Education Extension Team, and the Program Leadership Network.
 
As Associate Director, Scammahorn will lead the Center’s outreach-oriented activities as well as uphold its mission to strengthen the capacity of the region’s 30 Land-Grant Universities to address critical contemporary rural development issues impacting the well-being of people and communities in the South. “I look forward to supporting our national, regional, and local partners and educators in our collective efforts to create resilient communities, improve holistic well-being, and foster healthy collaborations. I am excited to serve others, helping them to live their best lives,” said Dr. Scammahorn.