Nick Walters

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Nick Walters was the third State Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Rural Development in Mississippi (formerly known as the Farmers Home Administration). President George W. Bush appointed him to this position in March of 2001. He served until August of 2006.

Walters stood out from other state directors in large part due to his work in the wake of the devastation brought to Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina. Walters moved quickly after the hurricane to put his agency at the forefront of the relief effort.

Walters initiated and spearheaded USDA Rural Development’s efforts in Mississippi to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, including: transporting FEMA personnel into rural areas for assessments of damage and debris; making thousands of vacant USDA multi-family apartment units available for evacuees; opening and manning the first four Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) and manning all subsequent DRCs; and working for USDA waivers that opened to all Katrina-affected areas USDA Rural Development programs that are traditionally available only to rural areas.

This Katrina relief effort, mostly designed to help in the ninety days after the hurricane, is especially pertinent in that USDA Rural Development has no mandated role in disaster relief.

Other accomplishments of Nick Walters as Mississippi’s State Director of USDA Rural Development from March 2001 to August 2006 included:

  • Supervised and administered the distribution of between $200 and $250 million per fiscal year of federal funds into rural Mississippi.
  • Supplemented the agency’s Congressionally-appropriated money with additional federal funds of between $70 and $120 million per year. Did this by working the “pool” of unused money at the USDA national office.
  • Dramatically increased the agency’s involvement in health care, including financing of significant buildings and expansions of hospitals, clinics, and other health care facilities.
  • Increased the agency’s outreach to education, including making school districts aware of grant eligibility. Funded grants to school districts as well as distance-learning programs for public schools.
  • While bringing in more money, reduced overhead by closing field offices. The number of field offices went from 53 to 26. Walters also reduced number of USDA Rural Development employees in Mississippi from 242 to 203 by use of attrition.
  • Substantially increased the visibility of agency by concentrating on outreach, educating local elected officials, water association officials, and businessmen about agency programs.

Walters, a native of Wiggins, Mississippi, is a seventh generation Mississippian. He holds both a Bachelor and Master of Arts degree in History from Mississippi College. He has been recognized for his leadership in Mississippi's economic and community development. He was named one of the Mississippi Business Journal's "Top Forty Under Forty" Business Leaders for 2001. He was a member of the Mississippi Blues Commission, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Southern Mississippi's Economic Development Advisory Board.

Walters is married to the former Lisa DeCell of Memphis, Tennessee, and they have two sons, Porter and John Garrett, and one daughter, Betsy. The Walters are members of First Baptist Church of Jackson and reside in Ridgeland, Mississippi.