{"id":140828,"date":"2024-07-03T13:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=140828"},"modified":"2024-07-03T12:49:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T17:49:03","slug":"museum-director-charles-knight-retires-after-31-years-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/museum-director-charles-knight-retires-after-31-years-of-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Museum Director Charles Knight Retires after 31 Years of Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <strong>Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks<\/strong> (MDWFP) announces that <strong>Charles Knight<\/strong>, Director of <strong>MDWFP<\/strong>\u2019s Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, has retired after 31 years of service. Knight&#8217;s leadership has significantly contributed to the museum\u2019s success and its impact on <strong>conservation<\/strong>, <strong>education<\/strong>, and <strong>tourism <\/strong>in <strong>Mississippi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knight\u2019s journey with the museum began long before his official tenure. &#8220;As a kid in the 1970s, I visited the Museum in its old downtown Jackson location and felt like it was built just for me. About 20 years later, after earning my degrees in biology and gaining experience with scientific museum collections, I jumped at the chance to work here, first as Research Coordinator, then Assistant Director, and finally as Director. Leading this incredible team has been the highlight of my career,&#8221; said Knight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under Knight\u2019s guidance, the museum has reached several milestones including earning the prestigious <strong>American Alliance of Museums<\/strong> accreditation, winning the <strong>Travel Attraction of the Year<\/strong> award from the <strong>Southeast Tourism Society<\/strong>, and, most recently, being named the \u201c2024 Best Museum\u201d by the readers of <strong>Mississippi Magazine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCharles has been instrumental in growing the museum into an award-winning attraction and research facility,\u201d said MDWFP Executive Director <strong>Lynn Posey<\/strong>. \u201cCharles\u2019 dedication to creating engaging exhibits and his commitment to <strong>wildlife conservation<\/strong> have left an indelible mark. We thank him for his decades of service, congratulate him on his distinguished career, and wish him well in his new adventure!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?resize=640%2C360\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-140830\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/24-Logo-Agency-MMNS-Horizontal.png?w=1920 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-140828_96e94f-41\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>ABOUT THE MUSEUM: MDWFP\u2019s <strong>Mississippi Museum of Natural Science<\/strong> is located at 2148 Riverside Drive in <strong>Jackson<\/strong>, MS in <strong>LeFleur\u2019s Bluff State Park<\/strong>. Museum admission: $8 adults, $6 youth ages 3-18, $7 senior citizens ages 60 and up. Visitors can plan their Museum adventure by calling 601-576-6000 or at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mdwfp.com\/museum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.mdwfp.com\/museum<\/a>. Connect with the Museum on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/msnaturalscience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/MSScienceMuseum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/MSScienceMuseum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter\/X<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14544\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) announces that Charles Knight, Director of MDWFP\u2019s Mississippi Museum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":140829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17316,17331],"tags":[29413,29133,14478,1147,366,29416,29415,28856,5,28723,17571,29132,23084,5207,29414,29417],"class_list":["post-140828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mississippi","category-museums","tag-american-alliance-of-museums","tag-charles-knight","tag-conservation","tag-education","tag-jackson","tag-lefleurs-bluff-state-park","tag-lynn-posey","tag-mdwfp","tag-mississippi","tag-mississippi-department-of-wildlife-fisheries-and-parks","tag-mississippi-magazine","tag-mississippi-museum-of-natural-science","tag-southeast-tourism-society","tag-tourism","tag-travel-attraction-of-the-year","tag-wildlife-conservation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Charles-for-newsletter-headshot.jpg?fit=615%2C815&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140831,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140828\/revisions\/140831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}