ANN BEARDSHALL

Dr. Ann Beardshall

In 1976, Virginian Ann Beardshall moved her husband Elmer back to Mississippi, which they had grown to love while serving a Navy tour as a military instructor in Meridian, while she settled in for continuing education in Hattiesburg.  Now, after over forty years of marriage, two more degrees, two children and four grandchildren, Ann is retired from her job as a research coordinator at the University of Southern Mississippi on the Delta Nutrition Project.  This Project is funded by the USDA and will yield long-term benefits to those in the very poorest section of the state. She now has a consulting practice in research biostatistics and has numerous active projects with USM and the Mississippi Department of Health, among others.

            Among Ann’s hobbies are reading and listening to Elmer tell war stories, comparing them to the versions he’s told over the years when his memory was fresher and truer.  Reading is her favorite pastime though; one doesn’t earn a doctorate in experimental psychology (1986) without at least some love for the written word.

            Ann has been running for many years and enjoys the fellowship of the members of the club and traveling to places she’s never been on weekend trips to races.  She’s broken the elusive four-hour mark in a marathon several times, and were she the type, would boast a personal best of 22:00 minutes in a five-kilometer race.  She competed in most every local race well into her 60's and attends all the outside functions that the club offers to promote membership.  She can always be counted on as a member of the Pine Belt Pacers.