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Contact: Paige Watson

STARKVILLE, Miss.--The leader of Mississippi State's College of Education is ranked among the 30 most influential deans of education in the United States.

Richard L. Blackbourn was selected for the honor by Mometrix Test Preparation, a Beaumont, Texas-based company that created the honor to recognize administrators who "have had an invaluable impact not only on the field of education as a whole, but also on the lives of the future teachers of America whom they have shepherded."

Dean since 2005 and a three-degree alumnus of the land-grant university, Blackbourn is the only Mississippi higher education administrator on the 2015 list.

As current president of the Mississippi Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, he long has worked to enhance public policies that help prepare education professionals at all service levels.

Blackbourn also has led in development of the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program, a joint project with the University of Mississippi designed to provide enrichment and scholarship opportunities to the top teacher candidates in the Magnolia State.

After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in elementary education in 1974 and 1976, respectively, he went on to complete a doctorate in educational leadership in 1983. His father, the late Joe M. Blackbourn, was a longtime member of the Ï㽶ֱ²¥education faculty.

Established in the early 1900s as the School of Education, the college has a proud history of preparing many of the state's leading educators and, as a result, having a major positive impact in every area of the state.

For more about the Mometrix recognition, visit .

Other information about the College of Education is available at about Dean Blackbourn, by contacting Paige Watson at 662-325-2252 or opw4@msstate.edu.

MSU, Mississippi's flagship research university, is online at , facebook.com/msstate, instagram.com/msstate and twitter.com/msstate.