Board Members

A message from the Board President

I am honored to be the incoming President of the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors. I want to acknowledge and commend the leadership of last year’s President, Ms. Sarah Tracy, PE, the commitment from the 2021-2022 Board, and our hard-working agency staff.

Ms. Tracy’s term as President marks a milestone for the Board as it was the first term of a female President. Women are rapidly increasing their numbers in the Engineering and Surveying professions. Notably, on June 23, 2022, we celebrated International Women in Engineering Day. I want to encourage all women with an interest in STEM to investigate engineering and surveying degrees and their associated professions. I have a daughter and son who have both been served well by their respective engineering degrees. We need more women engineers so that Ms. Tracy’s term as President of the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors is not the last one for a female.

As the incoming President, I want to continue improving our services to the Professional Engineers and Surveyors licensed and practicing in the State Mississippi as well as better assist enrollees as they work to become licensed professionals in the State. To that end, I’d like to highlight some items that directly impact our services:

Decoupling: Graduate engineers from ABET EAC programs and who have passed the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE) are now allowed to take the Professional Engineers Exam (PE) prior to having four years of engineering experience. The details are available at the following link.

Anonymous Complaints: Our website now allows for filing an anonymous complaint provided sufficient detail is provided. The complaint form can be accessed at the following link.

Computer Based Testing: Of the 27 Professional Engineering exams administered by NCEES, all tests except Structural Engineering (ST16) are computer based which allows for more ease of scheduling for the applicants and the availability of rapid exam results.

Communications: One silver lining of the pandemic has been the improvements with our ability to conduct virtual meetings and communications. Agency staff accomplished this task and we are able to successfully complete Board business when Board members are unable to attend meetings in person.

During the pandemic, we were also able to establish our footprint on social media via our pages on both LinkedIn and twitter; to be more readily available to a growing demographic that uses these tools in their daily lives. If you are not doing so currently, I encourage to follow us on these platforms as well as to take stock of the plethora information available here on our website.

Biennial Renewal: We are working towards establishing licensure renewal every other year for the convenience of our licensees. Stay tuned to our social media platforms and website for more information once a program has been established. We will also notify all registrants with details prior to implementation.

Recently, Governor Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1351 establishing the Mississippi Architects and Engineers Good Samaritan Act which impacts registered Architects and licensed Professional Engineers aiding authorities in emergency situations. The law can be viewed on the Mississippi legislature website at (http://www.legislature.ms.gov/).

Lastly, I would like to encourage all engineers and surveyors to have a working knowledge of our rules and regulations but specifically the code of conduct and ethics. Chapter 17 of our Rules and Regulations, “Professional Code of Conduct” can be accessed and /or downloaded from this website. When ethics questions arise, please review these rules first and then contact the agency if additional clarification is necessary.

We are working on behalf of all Mississippians to aid both engineers and surveyors and to protect and safeguard the health, welfare, and safety of the residents of Mississippi. Please feel free to call on us as needed.

Thank-You,

William C. “Bill” Mitchell PE, PLS, CCM

Board President 2022 - 2023