Jackson Free Press

With the state unemployment rate at 10.5 percent, Les Range, newly appointed executive director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, has his work cut out for him.

Prior to his new appointment, Range served as deputy executive director at MDES and implemented strategies to improve the state's work-force system, developed resources for job training and improved customer service.

Range has served as an administrator at Tougaloo College, a consultant to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Mid-South Delta Initiative and program leader for economic development. He was also a journalist for the Christian Science Monitor and a city planner and economic development director in Mound Bayou, Miss.

He holds a bachelor's degree in English/Journalism from Northwestern University and a master's in business from Delta State University.