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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Gov. Phil Bryant R.L. Nave

JACKSON — On July 4, Gov. Phil Bryant named four of his agency directors to a task force on state recovery projects related to the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill.

The panel members will include Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Trudy Fisher, Mississippi Department of Marine Resources director Bill Walker, Mississippi Department of Employment Security director Mark Henry and new Mississippi Development Authority director Brent Christensen.

The panel will recommend projects and priorities that promote seafood, tourism, economic recovery, ecosystem restoration, infrastructure, planning, workforce development and job creation, Bryant said in a statement.

“We will not rest until the Gulf Coast is made whole,” Bryant said.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.