Marcus Thompson, the newly appointed president of Jackson State University, has finalized six key administrative hires as his tenure reaches the two-month mark.
That includes Alla Jeanae Frank, a former assistant commissioner of operations at the Institutions of Higher Learning, who will now serve as a special assistant to the president. Another familiar face is Van Gillespie, a former assistant commissioner of legal affairs at IHL, who is now Thompson’s chief of staff.
Gillespie started Dec. 1. He graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law and served as general counsel to the board of trustees during the same years that Thompson worked at the higher education agency as chief administrative officer.
Both men came to IHL under the aegis of former commissioner Hank Bounds. Together, Thompson and Gillespie have significant insight into the inner workings of the often-opaque governing board that oversees Mississippi’s eight public universities, including Jackson State.