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Jackson State University recently received a $2 million grant from the Entergy charitable foundation to create the Critical Power Grid Security Power Lab Project, a program aimed at supporting the cybersecurity workforce in Mississippi and beyond.
In a press conference Monda, Wilbur Waters, Dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, told a crew of JSU students, faculty and state lawmakers that JSU is proud to continue a strong relationship with Entergy. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson was also in attendance.
“The establishment of this cyber-based facility will focus on preparing a workforce that will combat the ever-growing cyber threats to our critical energy infrastructure and our national security,” Waters said. “This facility will support solutions to a societal threat and contribute to the energy infrastructure, security and community resilience.”
Entergy and JSU have partnered before to create the Entergy Power Systems Lab, another program in College of Science, Engineering and Technology.
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Entergy CEO and Chairman Drew Marsh spoke on the importance of a diverse workforce and said partnerships with HBCU’s such as JSU to help facilitate a company that better serves its client base.
“We need an employee base that reflects our customers and our communities in order for us to be successful as a company,” Marsh said. “With that in mind, we have very specific and pointed programs around diversity, inclusion and belonging… it’s not just an investment in education, it’s an investment in the future for our stakeholders, an investment in our communities, an investment in our future customers and, of course, an investment in our employees.”
Marcus Brown, Entergy executive vice president, expressed similar sentiments on the importance of partnerships between global companies like Entergy and HBCU’s like JSU.
“This kinship is born out of a shared commitment to do the important work of developing the Black professionals and leaders that are so vital to our nation’s workforce,” Brown said. “These schools cultivate the very Black excellence that produced Congressman Thompson, President Marcus Thompson and so many of us here today.”
Entergy will provide the $2 million grant over the next five years. Specifics of the courses taught in the new program have yet to be announced, but Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, said “the lab will train a workforce on the function of the energy grid system and the management of cyber risk and mitigation.”
JSU President Marcus L. Thompson said he is honored to receive the grant on behalf of the university.
“As we address growing global concerns about cybersecurity, we are preparing our students to lead the charge in securing the power grids and infrastructure that fuel our nation,” President Thompson said. “This lab will be a hub for innovation… and creating solutions that meet the needs of a rapidly evolving digital world.”
The new program will help JSU students start cyber security careers in fields including nuclear, energy and natural gas companies, as well as electrical cooperatives. The program also aims to combat Mississippi’s brain drain and keep skilled students in the state after graduation. Students who go through this program will have the skill set needed to obtain jobs at Entergy Mississippi and Amazon Web Services, a company building two data centers in the state.
Bennie Thompson, a JSU alum, emphasized this effort to keep skilled workers in the state.
“When I run into people all over the country, they tell me, ‘I left (Mississippi) because there was nothing to do.’” Bennie Thompson said. “So now, there’s something to do.”
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Bennie Thompson was one of the law makers who joined the Ayers v. State of Mississippi lawsuit as an appellant in the case originally filed in 1975 in an effort to end discrimination of the state’s HBCU’s. In 2001, Thompson created and signed the lawsuit’s settlement which resulted in $500 million in funding for Mississippi’s HBCU’s.
That settlement included funding for JSU’s school of engineering. This new partnership with Entergy continues to strengthen those efforts started in 1975 to improve the state’s HBCU’s.
Got a news tip? Contact Mary Boyte at mboyte@gannett.com.
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