Mississippi State University appointed a graduate-turned administrator to the new position of director of federal relations Oct. 20.
Marty Fuller, who served as associate director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, will fill the position. In his position with the university, he will serve to coordinate the university’s aim to secure federal funding.
“We have had over the years, several different ways in which we managed our federal relations,” President J. Charles Lee said. “We found this position to be the most effective and efficient way to communicate our hopes and aspirations (to the government).”
Fuller further explained the effectiveness the position offers: “Congressional members and their staff will have one place to go to on the campus. That way, we can deliver a single, clear message to Washington.”
The director of federal relations will also take on the duties involving the process of delivering these messages.
“I’ll be in charge of developing the process by which the university submits requests and working with the faculty to make sure they can deliver the message in an expert way,” Fuller said.
The federal relations director will report to the president and the vice presidents for research, agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicines.
Vice president for research Jonathan Pote said that most of Fuller’s day-to-day activities deal with organization.
“If there was a group of federal legislatures coming in, he would help coordinate all of that,” Pote said.
Fuller has experience in federal relations. He worked in congressional affairs as the coordinator of special research initiatives of MAFES. He began working in federal appropriations when he was named the assistant director in 1997.
In 1997 MSU received appropriations from Washington totaling $3.7 million, and now its over $12 million.
Fuller said his experience while in agriculture at MSU, included “taking projects the faculty think have a lot of potential, packaging that and delivering it to Congress to get funding.”
According to Lee, Fuller’s experience played a large part in his selection for the position.
“(Fuller) has a great understanding of the federal relations process,” Lee said.
Fuller said the opportunities offered by the position made it worth accepting.
Fuller explained that he wanted the opportunity to “focus full-time on federal relations, to see and understand the wonderful things we’ve got going on throughout the rest of campus, and to provide continuity at MSU.”
“I want to increase funding from the federal level,” Fuller said. “I think it’s critical given the state budget that we have.”
The second objective, he said, is to “give a clear signal to the faculty that the federal funding should be seen as seed funding to serve as tools to leverage other sources of funding.”
Fuller’s roots run deep. He was a faculty member from 1984 to 1997 in the agricultural economics department. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from MSU.
Fuller grew up in Starkville, He owns three cowbells himself, along with those that have been passed down to his two sons: Brad, a junior at MSU and Drew, a junior at Starkville Academy.
He and Lisa, his wife of nearly 23 years, reside in Starkville with their youngest son, Drew.
2Reflector Newspaper2SORT U™2STR
o”