State college board pays $330,000 to settle discrimination lawsuit over 2023 Jackson State presidential search 

Mississippi’s college board paid $330,000 to Debra Mays-Jackson, a former Jackson State University administrator, to resolve a sex discrimination lawsuit that challenged the 2023 presidential search process and decisions trustees used to select former President Marcus Thompson. 

The college board did not admit any liability as part of the settlement, and Mays-Jackson, the former JSU vice president and chief of staff, agreed not to apply for another job at Jackson State or any other public universities governed by the college board. 

Mississippi Today obtained the six-page agreement through a public records request. 

“Dr. Mays-Jackson is pleased to have this lawsuit behind her,” her attorney Lisa M. Ross said. “There is more work to be done” to protect public employees from discrimination and retaliation, she said. 

John Sewell, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, said the college board authorized the settlement with Mays-Jackson in closed session at its Aug. 20 meeting. 

Mays-Jackson sued IHL for sex discrimination in 2023, the same day trustees selected Thompson as Jackson State’s president. Thompson resigned as president in May 2025 after a little more than a year in the position. 

The Mays-Jackson agreement is the latest settlement stemming from employment disputes during Thompson’s tenure. In June, Jackson State agreed to pay Linda Rush, former interim vice president of enrollment management, $150,000 to resolve a sex discrimination lawsuit. Rush alleged that Thompson passed her over for a promotion and that she was later fired because of her age and sex. 

Rush also agreed not to seek employment at Jackson State or any other public university. Jackson State and Thompson did not admit any wrongdoing. 

The IHL board, Thompson and JSU also settled a lawsuit with former faculty senate president Dawn Bishop McLin after she was placed on leave pending termination in fall 2024. The settlement agreement returned McLin to her job as a tenured professor, restored roughly $38,000 in research grants McLin lost after her termination, and paid her $10,000 for summer school courses she would have taught while she was on leave.

Another lawsuit from Thompson’s tenure remains pending. Jerome Tinker, an alumni engagement officer in JSU’s Alumni Affairs office, sued Thompson and the university in federal court in December after he was passed over for the office’s director position. 

In his lawsuit, Tinker accuses Thompson of retaliating against him because he had reported alleged misconduct involving former JSU President Thomas Hudson, who resigned in 2023. 

Ross, who is also Tinker’s attorney, declined to comment on his lawsuit. Pope S. Mallette, Thompson’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.