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Pogue awards Janis Bluford for her service

 Janis Bluford was in shock when she was called to the stage during a recent Grambling State University convocation. 

 ”I was surprised when President (Frank) Pogue called my name to come up on stage” during the Founder’s Day convocation, said Bluford. “My first thought was that I had done something wrong or something bad had happened.”

uring the university’s Sept. 17 Founder’s Day Convocation, Bluford was presented with the “President’s Award for Excellence in University Service for Outstanding Support Service.”

luford, a Farmerville native, graduated from Grambling State University in December 1978. She worked at a local insurance company from 1979-1981. In September 1981 she started her career her at Grambling State as a “steno clerk 3” in the president’s office, working under President Joseph B. Johnson.

luford has worked with eight of the university’s 10 presidents, including Johnson, Harold W. Lundy, Raymond Hicks, Leonard Haynes III, Steve A. Favors, Neari Francois Warner, Horace Judson and, now, Frank G. Pogue. “Each president had different perspectives and each relationship was different,” stated Bluford

 he special recognition was a hard secret to keep since this type of recognition is one of the things that Bluford handles for the president, making sure that everything goes as it should. 

 ”This was not easy to keep from her considering that we have a daily interaction with each other,” said Pogue, who has worked with her since he arrived on campus in 2009. 

 ”Mrs. Bluford prepares all presidential awards. So I had to ask my other assistant to pull this all together.” 

 s the senior executive assistant, Bluford executes various tasks. She coordinates events for the president to make sure each goes according to plan and is successful. She handles presidential office budgeting and purchases, drafts presidential documents and supervises student assistants. 

luford lives in Monroe with her husband of 23 years, Deryl Bluford, and they have two children, Josh Bluford and Christina Bluford. Josh Bluford is a graduating senior at Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he is majoring in computer information systems. Christina Bluford is following her mother’s college path as a freshman at Grambling State, majoring in computer science.