A winning play for the health of Mississippi's children was announced today as Eli and Abby Manning made a personal pledge of $1 million to the Children's of Mississippi $100 million capital campaign.

The couple, who will be lending their names and faces to publicity for the campaign, are honorary chairs and will be serving on the campaign fundraising committee.

Eli, the University of Mississippi alumnus who has quarterbacked the New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories has already scored for pediatric care at the University of Mississippi Medical Center once before, raising more than $2.5 million in partnership with Friends of Children's Hospital to open the Eli Manning Children's Clinics at Batson Children's Hospital. The clinics opened in 2009.

Government programs that have benefitted those who grow food and those who process it haven't necessarily benefitted those who eat it, said Mike Espy, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, speaking Tuesday at UMMC. 

Espy, an attorney and the former U.S. Representative for the state's 2^nd District, was the distinguished guest lecturer for the third annual Marian Wright Edelman Lectureship, which focused on the ways official food policies in America can affect consumers' health. 

Espy, who was a member of President Bill Clinton's cabinet from 1993-1994, noted that more than two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight and obese, that “poor diet is a major risk for weight gain,” and that Mississippians in particular “lean toward fried foods, fat foods, sweet foods.

About 13 miles north of Monticello, Mississippi, on highway 27, sits a little town called Oma. The community wasn't included in the recent census, so it's not easy to confirm how many people live there. What the U.S. census has determined is that the three communities within a 10-mile radius of Oma contain no more than 718 souls.

Yet in 1985, Oma was home to royalty - Angus royalty - Mississippi Angus Queen Robyn Preuss, known today by her students as Dr. Robyn MacSorley, assistant professor at the University of Mississippi School of Nursing and director of the clinical skills and simulation center.

The Medical Center is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff.

A national scholastic honor society bestows an allied health education award to a Department of Psychiatry scientist, while 45 participants in UMMC's leadership program earn their diplomas.