MDAH director announces retirement

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - After more than a decade at the helm, Katie Blount is announcing her retirement as executive director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

The announcement came in a news release on Tuesday.

Her retirement will be effective June 30, 2026.

“Mississippi’s history is the central arc of American history - from the Native American experience to cotton and slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction, up to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond,” she said. “I’m extremely grateful I’ve had the opportunity to serve the people of this state and work alongside a state whose passion to preserve history runs as deep as mine.”

Blount led the organization through the establishment of the Two Mississippi Museums and, now, an adjoining green space.

[READ: Former Eudora Welty Library is gone; bookmobile on the way]

Under her leadership, the agency has begun work to create a new Civil War interpretive center in Vicksburg.

[READ: Architects hired to design $80M Civil War interpretive center in Vicksburg]

She began her career with MDAH in 1994 as a public relations coordinator. She is the agency’s seventh director since 1902 and the second woman to hold the position.

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