Lydia Quarles John C. Stennis Institute of Government, Mississippi State University Starkville, Mississippi

Analyst & Judge

Lydia Quarles is a Senior Policy Analyst at the John C. Stennis Institute of Government, Mississippi State University. She joined the Stennis Institute in 2006, following 13 years of service to the Mississippi Workers Compensation Commission, including five years as the Commissioner of the Mississippi Workers Compensation Commission and eight years as an Administrative Judge. Prior to her tenure on the Workers Compensation Commission, she spent more than a dozen years in private practice in Alabama and Mississippi.

Mediator & Arbritrator

She is recognized by the Mississippi Supreme Court as an approved civil trial mediator and is qualified by the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi as a mediator. She is also recognized as a licensed arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Award-Winning

Quarles has been honored by the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section, receiving the Mary C. Lawton Award for lasting contributions to the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission in the areas of alternative dispute resolution and access for Hispanic workers.

Quarles is a Graduate of the National Judicial College, Reno, Nevada (administrative hearings curriculum). She received her Juris Doctorate in 1975 from Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, and her MA and BA from Mississippi University for Women.