Director
Southern Rural Development Center
Box 9656
410 Bost Extension Building
Mississippi State, MS 39762
Phone: (662) 325-3207
Fax: (662) 325-8915
ljb@srdc.msstate.edu

Lionel J. "Bo" Beaulieu has been director of the Southern Rural Development Center since August 1997 and also is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University. Prior to joining the SRDC, he served on the faculty of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida faculty for 20 years. Dr. Beaulieu's professional efforts have been devoted to human and social capital resource issues in the rural United States and the South; the educational success of rural youth; and the expansion of civic engagement in rural areas.

During his tenure at the SRDC, Dr. Beaulieu has introduced a number of innovative activities to the region and beyond. They include the: (1) launching of rural development policy briefs that have helped bring focus to the host of challenges facing rural areas of the South; (2) establishment of strong work partnerships between land-grant universities and rural community colleges that have resulted in joint efforts to address educational and economic development needs of local people and places in targeted sites; (3) launching of the Extension E-Commerce National Demonstration Project that has facilitated the adoption of important e-commerce strategies by small businesses in rural America; (4) spearheading a national effort to strengthen the quality of web-based resources available to rural people via the eXtension rural entrepreneurship initiative; and (5) creation of the Food Assistance Small Grants Program in partnership with the Economic Research Service -- an effort that has resulted in over a million dollars being invested in approximately 100 social science researchers located in nearly 30 institutions of higher learning. Since joining the SRDC in 1997, Dr. Beaulieu has garnered extramural funds in excess of $5.1 million.

He is the author of numerous publications, including edited book volumes, book chapters and articles, that address rural development, education and labor force issues in America. Dr. Beaulieu received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology from Purdue University. He completed his term as president of the Rural Sociological Society (RSS) in August 2004. He currently serves as Editor of the newly launched Rural Realities policy/information series sponsored by the RSS.

Vita, Adobe PDF file, 82 kb