Northwest Mississippi Community College recently hired Ellen Brewer of Hattiesburg as a counselor at the college’s Lafayette-Yalobusha Technical Center in Oxford.

Growing up, Brewer lived in Clinton. After high school she attended college at Belmont University in Nashville to obtain bachelor’s degrees in English and history. She earned her master’s degree from Mississippi College in secondary education with an emphasis in social science, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in education at the University of Mississippi.

After 24 years in public education, she is excited to take on this new role. Brewer said the first 16 years of her career was teaching 11th grade U.S. History, and for the last eight years she was an instructor at the University of Mississippi.

“In both positions, I started out as simply a classroom teacher,” Brewer said. “I was fortunate that did not remain my only role. Very quickly I evolved into a form of counselor-mentor. I’ve always loved my students and welcomed them into my life. During the last eight years, my college students have frequented my home, often sharing a meal with my family.”

Brewer said it has been a privilege to get to know these students, and she appreciates the outreach that this has created in her life.

“From these experiences and many others, I began to understand how, for those of us in positions of influence in education, it is our duty to create safe places for our students as well as provide support outside just the material presented as part of the course curriculum,” Brewer said.

“In today’s educational environment, most students crave a deeper connection to feel the security required to succeed, and it is a joy for me to provide that for them.”

Brewer said she hopes to instill in all Northwest students that they are valued, and she hopes she can help create an environment to prove to them that they are. She has also spoken in Oxford about effective note-taking skills, time management, mental health and ways to interact with instructors which she said can be essential parts of succeeding in college.

Outside of work, Brewer is self-described as “energetic,” “ambitious,” “quirky” and a “collector of fantastic shoes.”

“I come from a family of antique dealers, junk collectors, musicians and storytellers,” Brewer said. “I love filling my home with unique pieces. I crave the thrill of the chase in rummaging through junk and finding treasure.”

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