It could almost be said that Brenda Thornton leads two lives.

Professionally, the 1978 Mississippi State graduate is a key member of the management team of AmFed Companies, a leading insurance and financial services firm located in Ridgeland. AmFed is the state's largest provider of Workers' Compensation Insurance and third party administration services and recently has begun providing outsourcing services to small- to medium-sized businesses.

But in practically every minute of her spare time, Thornton—who sometimes refers to herself as Goldilocks—is one of Mississippi State's most enthusiastic ambassadors.

From 1993 to 2000, she was a member of the board of directors of the MSU Alumni Association's Central Mississippi Chapter, serving as president in 1998. Currently, she chairs the Advisory Board of the Department of Computer Science at Mississippi State and the Technology Committee of the MSU National Alumni Board. She also is a member of the Peter Koch Lutken Chair of Insurance Advisory Council. She was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the Alumni Association in 1998 and recently was designated a Distinguished Engineering Fellow by the College of Engineering.

AmFed has some 15 Mississippi State graduates in its management ranks, and Thornton recruited more half of them.

"When I was involved with the Central Mississippi Chapter, I met so many bright and energetic young people coming out of MSU. It was a great recruiting ground," Thornton noted.

"For instance, one of our employees, Natalie Gibbs, is a 1995 graduate who was membership chairperson for the Central Mississippi Chapter board and is slated to be president of the chapter in 2002. She also serves on the College of Business and Industry's Young Alumni Advisory Board.

"The company's chief financial officer, 1971 graduate Russ Gatlin, served as president of the Hinds County Alumni Board in 1986, president of the M Club, a member of the Alumni Association's National Board, and is currently a member of the IHL Alumni Advisory Board representing MSU."

Thornton, one of the founders of the company in 1992, wears many hats at AmFed. She is executive vice president and chief information officer, and her responsibilities include information systems, marketing, and the Professional Employer Organization, AmFed's outsourcing services for small- to medium-sized businesses. She has been recognized as one of Mississippi's 50 leading business women by the Mississippi Business Journal.

Putting together the PEO, at the request of AmFed president Billy Roberts, is one of Thornton's proudest accomplishments. "With a background in information systems, building a company from scratch that specializes in human resources administration was one of the most challenging projects of my career," she said.

"Today, we have over 20 clients and more than 300 employees. Because AmFed is considered a co-employer, it can offer benefits such as a health plan, Section 125 "cafeteria" plan, 401(k) savings plan, and voluntary benefits."

During the time that Thornton was heavily involved with the Central Mississippi Chapter of the Alumni Association, her primary goal was to raise money for scholarships for MSU students. She and Robin Browning (president, 1987) organized the annual MSU Tennis Tournament in Jackson in 1995, which has become one of the largest MSU fundraisers and alumni gatherings each year. Corporate sponsorships of the tournament have raised more than $40,000 for scholarships at Mississippi State.

While president, Thornton hit upon another novel idea for scholarship support: a collection of Mississippi State screensavers. Her idea was to create a screensaver with true animation and music and donate a portion of the proceeds for scholarships. However, she was unable to find anyone to animate her ideas and had to put the project on hold. While working on an AmFed marketing project with a company in Oklahoma, she mentioned her idea of the screensaver.

After securing copyright permission from the university for the use of Bully and other Mississippi State logos, Thornton contracted with the Oklahoma company to take her ideas and build an animated, musical screensaver that would have something for everyone—children, students, and alumni.

She titled the screensaver Who Let the Dawgs Out? after obtaining permission from Wingspan records for the use of the song. The finished product is a collection of eight MSU screensavers designed for both Windows and Macintosh PC platforms. The screensavers feature mascot Bully to the chorus of Who Let the Dawgs Out? and The Dawg Pound Rock and music from the Famous Maroon Band such as the Fight Song and the Alma Mater. It also includes the various sports logos for football, basketball, and baseball.

The cost of the screensaver CD is $19.99 plus shipping and handling and tax, if applicable. They can be purchased at stores around the state as well as online.

In September, Thornton established GoldiLocks Enterprises and set up her own e-commerce web site, www.thebullystore.com, to prepare for orders of the screensaver for alumni and friends. She has received orders from virtually every state in the country, and even some from outside the country.

Thornton's goal was to have the screensaver completed by the first home football game with Florida.

"Everything that could possibly go wrong did, from missed deadlines by the replicating company in Colorado to a mix up on delivery of the CDs. The screensavers were flown from Colorado to Birmingham and driven to Starkville on the morning of the game. They finally arrived in the bookstores within an hour before the game."

Thornton can laugh about it now, but looking back on it, she said, "GoldiLocks was not happy because she likes to have everything just right!"

Thornton also provides an opportunity for other MSU enthusiasts to sell their MSU-related products on her web site. "Many people have items that they have created but don't know how to promote them on the web" she said.

Because she has already jumped through all the e-commerce hoops in setting up her online store, Brenda makes it easy for others. For Christmas, she sold a Santa Bully Christmas Cookie plate and a Dawg Bone Christmas ornament made by Jennifer Dixon, who will design a new Christmas ornament for GoldiLocks Enterprises each year. In December, Thornton gave away a CD of the song that she co-wrote, Here Comes Santa Bully, with each purchase of a product on her web site.

For Valentine's Day, she featured MSU jewelry by Paula Smith and her very own limited-edition signature doll, Goldilocks. Each doll is handmade by Mississippi doll artist, Jessie Reeves. Thornton plans to design a new collectible doll each year.

She also is planning a holiday version of MSU screensavers titled Bully on Holiday, which will be available later this year. For a sneak peek, you can see and hear Here Comes Santa Bully at www.thebullystore.com.

For the holiday screensaver, Thornton asked graphic artist and MSU graduate Stephanie Martin ('99) to be a part of the project after seeing her animated version of Who Let the Dawgs Out? on her personal web site. Charla Dukes ('92), is the software engineer of the project. "My dream has always been to keep this project in the MSU family," Thornton explained.

In addition to the 7.5 percent of screensaver sales that the university receives in royalties, all of the proceeds from the sale of the screensavers will be used to fund an endowed scholarship fund that she established for the Department of Computer Science, of which she is a graduate.

So how does one come to have two lives?

"People ask me if I work for the university," she laughed. "I do, but I'm not on their payroll. I love MSU and I love helping other people.

"The screensaver and GoldiLocks Enterprises all started with an idea. I believe that it was, in part, my education at Mississippi State that helped me persevere and not give up until my dream came true.

"I want to encourage students to have dreams and not give up on them, to be entrepreneurs. We have such an incredible pool of talent at MSU that can accomplish so much. I want MSU to be recognized nationally for what we have accomplished and what we will accomplish."