A longtime member and former president of the Mississippi State Board of Health, Dr. Luke Lampton of Magnolia could get a chance to serve on another state board — of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Lampton’s nomination will be submitted to the Mississippi Senate for confirmation, MDAH officials said Friday.
Agency officials noted Lampton’s historic preservation efforts, as well as his membership on the Mississippi Historical Society board.
“Luke has a strong interest in our state’s history and has dedicated much time and effort to historic preservation,” said MDAH board president Spence Flatgard. “I am thrilled he has agreed to serve Mississippi by joining our board.”
Lampton succeeded former Gov. William Winter as president of the Foundation for Mississippi History and helped open the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.
He received an award of merit from the Mississippi Historical Society in 2004 for his efforts to promote history.
He recently donated some of his historical collection to Mississippi State University as the Lucius M. Lampton Historical Collection.
In 2018, he published a book of medical history, “Images in Mississippi Medicine: A Photographic History of Medicine in Mississippi.” Lampton also contributed a chapter on medical history to “The Racial Divide in American Medicine,” published by the University Press of Mississippi.
He has served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association for two decades and is editor and publisher of the Magnolia Gazette and Raymond’s Hinds County Gazette.
Lampton practices family medicine with an emphasis on geriatric care, hospice and palliative care, and addiction at the Magnolia Clinic in Magnolia. He is medical director of Beacham Memorial Hospital.
He also serves as Designated Institutional Official for the newly created family medicine residency program at Southwest Health in McComb.
Members of the MDAH board serve six-year terms and must be confirmed by the state senate. If appointed, Lampton would be the only board member from Southwest Mississippi.
