Funeral Service set for Oct. 1 for USM Alumna Melody Musgrove, Former State Director of Special Education and director of the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs

Tue, 09/28/2021 - 04:16pm

Dr. Melody Bruce Musgrove, a University of Southern Mississippi (USM) alumna who formerly served as State Director of Special Education and as director of the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), died Sept. 27 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She was 61.

A funeral service for Musgrove is set for Friday, Oct. 1 at 11 a.m. at Parkway Hills United Methodist in Madison, Mississippi.

A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Musgrove grew up in Mendenhall, Mississippi, where she graduated from Mendenhall High School in 1976. She began her career as a classroom special education teacher before pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees from USM.  She rose to the position of Assistant Principal of Mullens Elementary School in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and Assistant Superintendent of Lawrence County Schools. While serving as Assistant Superintendent at Lawrence County, Musgrove was named the Director of Special Education for Mississippi.

After six years as Director of Special Education, Musgrove became an advisor and policy consultant to LRP Publications, one of the foremost special education publishers in the country.  In 2010, she accepted a Presidential Appointment as director of the OSEP for the U.S. Department of Education. In that role, she led the transformation of the direction of special education in our country, as was the second-longest serving director in the history of the OSEP. 

Upon retiring from OSEP, Musgrove joined the University of Mississippi School of Education as a faculty member to teach special education and to become the co-director of its Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning.