Gift idea for retired man

Michael Stubblefield is a force for change at Southern University, opening opportunity by pushing the institution into marriage with private enterprises ranging from a local start-up to a Fortune 500 company.

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In the process, the 35-year-old professor is breaking Southern out of isolation, showing his alma mater how to tap into the huge pool of federal funding--several hundred million dollars a year in Department of Defense contracts alone--earmarked for historically black universities.

Of the 105 historically black colleges in the country, only a fraction have the resources to satisfy such contracts--and fewer still have cashed in to any extent. Stubblefield isn't content for Southern to wait on the sidelines while others figure out how the game is played.

The payoff isn't just for Southern: Stubblefield's vision of economic transformation also encompasses disaffected communities in Baton Rouge, struggling parishes in northeast Louisiana and, in fact, the whole state. If Southern pulls this off, the renaissance will spawn a wave of business and job growth felt well beyond Baton Rouge, he says.

But to win those coveted grants and contracts, a university must form partnerships with business, subcontracting with them to provide research, management, training--whatever is necessary.

"You have to remove those constraints that won't allow you to succeed and figure out how do you make your institution more friendly to business," he says. "One of our major goals is to encourage entrepreneurship here at the university, to encourage those professors, faculty, staff, whomever, to be private sector partners."

That ability to reach out to business, Stubblefield's admirers say, is where the young professor of mechanical engineering shines the brightest.

"Michael understands how the assets of a university can be leveraged with the local community and the business community," says Don Powers, executive director of Spire Capital Group and a former official at the Chamber of Greater of Baton Rouge. "Most university officials don't get that."

Powers adds that Stubblefield, who also serves as director of Southern's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and its Center for Information Technology, has found a way to bridge the gulf between the black and white communities.

"He's one of the few people that I know that is universally respected and trusted by both the black and white communities."

Pete Stewart, CEO of TraceSecurity, is another fan. He's working closely with Stubblefield to bring large cyber-security contracts to Baton Rouge. Cyber-security involves solving software vulnerabilities in banking, government, petrochemicals and other industries.

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"One reason we've forged the kind of partnership we have is that he sees the need at the government level for cyber initiatives," Stewart says. "The grant money that's being given out right now is absolutely tremendous in that area. Many people in Louisiana don't really care about what cyber-security is. Not only does Mike understand, but he has dedicated a tremendous amount of resources to developing it."

Stewart says Stubblefield was responsive to business propositions from his firm in a way other institutions haven't been.

"He's solid. I think there's a perception that it's hard to partner with a university. We have found it difficult. Mike's a breath a fresh of air. He drives through the politics and hierarchy of red tape and can tell you very quickly whether you've got a deal or not."

What makes a Michael Stubblefield?

His mother, Josephine Dunbar, is a retired middle school teacher who still lives in his native town of Tallulah. Michael, her middle child, was always goal-oriented, she says, and proved himself a leader early on.

"We had sort of a hard time. His father and I were divorced, so we went through a lot. But he was determined that he was going to make his goals. During that period of time he sort of took over as the head of the house. Even though he was a young man, he did that."

As for his networking ability, his contagious enthusiasm, his salesmanship? Nice guys, it turns out. don't always finish last.

"I've known him all my life, and he and his wife are two very sweet people," says Janet Clark, a member of the Tallulah city council. "He's a really, really dedicated young person--and so driven. Michael has been doing some positive things in this area for us. He loves his hometown, and I'm so happy he does."

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Stubblefield's original plan after graduating from Southern with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering was to kick around as a single guy for a couple of years, then get married, settle down and have kids.

Then he met Su-Seng Pang.

Pang, then an LSU professor of mechanical engineering teaching at Southern, is now LSU's associate vice chancellor for strategic initiatives. Stubblefield took Pang's class at Southern and was the only student to get an A. Pang realized Stubblefield was doctorate material and told him so, convincing him to go to LSU for an engineering science Ph.D.

Pang raves about his former student, with whom he still collaborates. He notes, for example, that within a year of graduating from LSU, Stubblefield won the national Dupont/Conoco Young Investigator award, worth $75,000. In all, Stubblefield has been the lead researcher on more than $10 million in education and research grants at Southern.

"That's more than many engineering faculty do in their lifetime," Pang says. "He has so much talent and potential. Every university would be lucky to have him. He can move to any place if he wants."

Which raises the question: Why choose Southern?

A fierce loyalty to place, say those who know him. Unfortunately for Southern, he has more than one place in mind. His plan, once the training wheels are off Southern's new economic development machine in a few years, ideally by 2010, is to move back home to Tallulah and build a life there with the wife and kids.

"I tell people I'm interested in going back home because I'm not trying to make a kingdom for me," Stubblefield says. "I don't want them to think it's ever about me. It's always about trying to help people. My secret is I always win if my ultimate goal is to make sure that I'm helping somebody else."

Southern administrators hope he stays for a good long while. A prolific scholar--and one of just a handful of black engineering Ph.D.s in the country--Stubblefield could write his own ticket nearly anywhere.

Mildred Smalley, Southern's vice chancellor for research and strategic initiatives, says Stubblefield has helped the university come out of its shell, which she says all historically black schools need to do. She calls him an "aggressive, progressive entrepreneur" with a mind for business, strong morals, contacts in industry and government, a gift for writing proposals--somebody any university or private enterprise would love to get its hands on.

"That's one thing we are concerned about, that some organization could come and offer him much more, and then he's gone," she says. "But we feel that his dedication to Southern University might keep him here."

There are strong family ties. His father, who died in 1986, graduated from Southern. And Stubblefield's wife, Luria, got her doctorate from Southern and is the administrator for a program whose mission is get more minority kids into bachelor's degree programs.

Stubblefield and his team are busy. Aside from TraceSecurity, they are working on a test project with St. Louis-based Worldwide Technology, the largest black-owned enterprise in the United States. He's also involved in projects with Baton Rouge-based The Shaw Group.

Stubblefield keeps aiming high.

"I always joke that I probably have the best job in the world," he says. "I get paid just to dream. The hard work comes in trying to make the dream into reality."

Part of that vision is the Southern University Business and Research Park, which could be an incubator for budding companies. Southern is waiting for word on the proposal from the U.S. Commerce Department. If given the go-ahead, the university will hire a consultant to perform an economic impact study on the idea.

But even the research park isn't enough. Not one to forget his roots, Stubblefield wants to spread the wealth created in the southern part of the state by funneling high-tech manufacturing jobs to economically arid Madison Parish, where he was born, and to East Carroll Parish to the north and Tensas Parish to the south.

He proposes the Northeast Louisiana Delta Supplier Park for manufacturing and the Northeast Louisiana Delta learning Center to train workers.