CUSEC Board Member Retires

At the June 7 CUSEC Board Meeting, Director Robert Latham announced his retirement from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, effective July 1, 2006.  Director Latham was the CUSEC Board Chairman from March 2004 to December 2005 and has played an active role in promoting earthquake mitigation, awareness, planning, and research in the CUSEC states since joining MEMA and beginning his tenure on the CUSEC Board in February 2000.  Since his appointment as State Director, Director Latham has overseen MEMA during 11 presidential disaster declarations, including Hurricane Katrina.  Latham had previously served with the Mississippi National Guard for 26 years, retiring in 1995 with the rank of Sergeant Major and was the director of Tate County Emergency Management from 1994 until his appointment as State Emergency Management Director in 2000.  David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called Latham one of the “nation’s finest emergency management leaders.”  “Mr. Latham was pivotal to the recovery goals achieved in Mississippi in the months following Hurricane Katrina,” Paulison said.  For the full news article from the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi,click here.