MSU Professor Earns State Honor

STARKVILLE, Miss.–Pamela Scott-Bracey, a College of Education assistant professor at Mississippi State University, is the 2014 Mississippi Business Education Association’s University Educator of the Year.

In years prior to this award, when she was pursuing her undergraduate degree at the University of Southern Mississippi, she received the Future Business Teacher of the Year award from Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda. The award proved an accurate prediction.

Scott-Bracey said she was recording winners’ names as part of her role as MBEA’s secretary when leaders announced she won the University Educator of the Year award.

“When they called my name, I was still typing,” she said. “At first, I was completely shocked, but now I see that I’ve come full circle. Business education is my profession, and I’m preparing students to succeed in their personal and professional lives.”

In her MSU classrooms, Scott-Bracey emphasizes the importance of soft skills, like punctuality and professional dress, as well as hard skills, such as workforce readiness and technology integration. She said her membership in MBEA keeps her informed about the latest changes to certification requirements for her students.

“On the state level, certain requirements are changing, but through this organization, I am able to have discussions with people at the state level and modify my courses to best prepare my students so they won’t be behind or out of the loop,” the University of North Texas doctoral graduate explained. “When requirements change, teachers generally have a full year to get everything updated and revised, but my students are already learning the new requirements.”

She said she emphasizes the importance of technology to all her students by requiring they register for LinkedIn accounts and use social media in academic and professional settings.

In addition to her classroom role, Scott-Bracey is faculty adviser for the MSU chapter of Pi Omega Pi, a business-education honor society. Thanks to her leadership, the organization recently inducted its first distance education students who take classes exclusively online. They participate in meetings through Skype.

“In business and technology, social media is the way of the world now,” she said. “It’s not just knowing how to pitch the 30-second elevator speech; it’s also knowing how to communicate online.”

Scott-Bracey said, while she’s personally proud to receive the MBEA recognition, she’s happiest that her instructional methods are teaching students the skills they need to become teachers for the next generation of students.

“Winning the MBEA award helps me realize that the strategies I’m using in class and in the business-honor society are working,” she said. “When my students found out I won, they told me congratulations and that I deserved it.”

In addition to expressing appreciation to her MBEA colleagues, Scott-Bracey thanked other leaders at the university and the College of Education for their support. She was also recently awarded the 2014 Distinguished Alumna of the Year for the Higher Education Administration graduate program by Mississippi College faculty.

“It’s been absolutely amazing to realize that people are noticing my hard work,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons I’m going to keep finding innovative ways to teach my students.”