Above: Byron Dunn, president and past chairman of Gulf States Shipbuilders Consortium (GSSC), stands with Larry Porter, right, who received the Navigator Award during GSSC’s annual conference on April 3 in Biloxi. Porter, the master trainer overseeing the welding and shipbuilding programs at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, manages GSSC programs at the college.

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College master trainer Larry Porter received the Gulf States Shipbuilders Consortium (GSSC) Navigator Award on April 3 in Biloxi. Porter oversees the welding and maritime programs at MGCCC.

Each year, GSSC honors an individual who has displayed outstanding leadership or made other significant contributions to the development of the maritime workforce. The Navigator Award was first awarded in 2008.

Porter was recognized because of his leadership resulting in training and placing approximately 670 welders in the shipbuilding/maritime industry in the past year. The MGCCC maritime programs serves as a model for other colleges in Alabama and Louisiana.

“It is such an honor to be chosen for this award. It was totally unexpected,” he said.  “GSSC is an outstanding organization working to provide skilled workers for the maritime industry. I would not have received this award without MGCCC and my fellow instructors being committed to academic excellence and student success.”

GSSC is a membership-based, regional cooperative group of shipbuilding companies, suppliers, educational institutions and economic developers that work toward raising public awareness of the shipbuilding and repair industry and establishing a steady stream of trained workers for that industry in the Gulf Coast region.