Board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner, Belhaven Assistant Business Prof Join MC Faculty

Dr. Mary Atkinson Smith and Dr. William Elliott Tabor have joined the Mississippi College faculty.

Mary Atkinson Smith, D.N.P.

Dr. Mary Atkinson Smith, Mississippi Division of Medicaid Nurse Office director and a board-certified family nurse practitioner and orthopedic nurse practitioner, has joined the Mississippi College faculty as a professor of nursing.

After receiving her B.S.N. from the Mississippi University for Women in 1995, Smith served as a registered nurse at the University of Mississippi Medical Center from 1995 to 1996 and at River Oaks Hospital from 1996 to 1999. After earning her M.S.N. at UMMC in 1999, she served as a family nurse practitioner at the Fillingane Family Clinic in Jackson from 1999 to 2002, and cofounded the Starkville Orthopedic Clinic, where she served as an administrator and a nurse practitioner from 2002 to 2019.

Smith served as a nurse practitioner at Mississippi State University’s Longest Student Health Center from 2002 to 2008, and at Gentiva Hospice in Starkville from 2010 to 2013. She earned her D.N.P. in 2011 and her post-master’s certificate in rural case management in 2014 at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She then obtained her M.S. in health law and policy from Samford University, Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham, Alabama, in 2019. She is working toward a Ph.D. in public policy and administration from MSU.

Smith joined the MUW faculty in 2011 as an assistant professor in the Graduate Nursing Department and as D.N.P. Project chair. From 2014-17, she was an assistant professor and assistant program director for South University’s online College of Nursing and Public Health online programs. She joined Olivet Nazarene University’s Nursing Department in 2018 as an associate professor in the school’s online M.S.N.-F.N.P. Program, then spent a year as a clinical associate professor and online M.S.N.-F.N.P. faculty member for Sacred Heart University’s College of Nursing. She served as an associate professor in the Graduate Program and director of the Adult Gerontological Nurse Practitioner Track at the UMMC School of Nursing from 2019-21.

A grant reviewer for the Healthcare Resource Services Administration and director of education for the Mississippi Rural Health Association, Smith is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Medical Ethics, the National Rural Health Association and the American Nurses Association. A fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in policy and clinical practice, she has received numerous professional honors and recognitions.

A strong advocate of providing quality health care to rural, elderly, and disabled (RED) populations in Mississippi, Smith has been appointed as a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Clinician Champion for the Quality Payment Program. She has been inducted as a National Academies of Nursing Practice Distinguished Public Policy Fellow, a National Rural Health Association Policy Fellow, and an American Association of Nurse Practitioners Fellow with a focus on policy and clinical practice.

The author or coauthor of more than 30 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and two textbooks, Smith serves on the editorial board of the Orthopedic Nursing Journal. A highly sought speaker, she has given presentations or served as a panelist at more than 30 scientific meetings nationally. Smith has been an active member of Adaton Baptist Church in Starkville and has participated in numerous volunteer activities with local churches, schools, nursing homes, and nonprofit community organizations.

William Elliott Tabor, Ph.D.

Dr. William Elliott Tabor, formerly an assistant professor of business at Belhaven University, has joined the Mississippi College faculty as an assistant professor of business.

With an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in Dallas and a Ph.D. in business management from Mississippi State University, Tabor’s academic versatility is especially valuable at the Christian University, according to Dr. Marcelo Eduardo, The Anderson Distinguished Professor of Finance and dean of the School of Business at MC.

“We are delighted to have someone as accomplished and as wonderfully well-suited to our mission as Dr. Tabor,” Eduardo said. “His record as an outstanding teacher, along with a remarkable research and publication output, immediately enhances our faculty.

“Will’s joining our School of Business is another step in our quest to uphold our mission to provide our students with a high-quality business education in a Christian environment.”

After receiving his B.S. in finance from MSU in 2005, Tabor earned his M.S. in finance at Vanderbilt University the following year and was an associate financial analyst for FedEx Express in Memphis from 2006-07. He obtained his M.Div. in theological studies at Westminster in 2010 and served as campus director for Reformed University Fellowship at Tulane University from 2010-15.

He moved to Louisville, Mississippi, in 2015 to became a business manager for Environmental Response Corporation, then joined the Belhaven University faculty in 2018. He earned his Ph.D. in 2019 from MSU, where he was named the College of Business Outstanding Doctoral Student Researcher.

The coauthor of two articles in peer-reviewed business journals, two online articles for the Harvard Business Review and one refereed book chapter, Tabor has served as a reviewer for the Academy of Management and the Southern Management Association, as an ad hoc reviewer for the Family Business Review and the Journal of Family Business Strategy, and as session chair for the Southern Management Association. A highly sought speaker, he has given half a dozen invited presentations at professional conferences or associations throughout the Southeast.