Former Mississippi State linebacker Manny Gatling tackling Kemper start-up

Emmanuel “Manny” Gatling is applying the lessons he learned playing linebacker for Mississippi State University almost every day on the job as a senior process engineer at the Kemper County energy facility.

“The most interesting part of my job is to understand and see just how the integration of this plant works,” Gatling said. “A lot of different processes and people have to work together, and what we do affects one another.”

Gatling graduated from MSU with a chemical engineering degree and has worked for Southern Company for five years.

When he’s not on the job, he’s with his wife Quin, experiencing those “firsts” for their 9-month-old son Emmanuel Gatling II.

He signed up for the Kemper project because he said it’s the perfect job to help make life easier, safer and a better overall experience for others.  Kemper’s first-of-its-kind technology offered an ideal venue for that.

“To get somewhere you have never been, you have to do something you have never done,” he said.  “That’s true in our personal lives, and true in any profession, too.”

Gatling and his team are responsible for facilitating a safe and reliable startup for the Kemper County energy facility, ensuring correct size, material and flow, as well as drawing on lessons learned and identifying new ways to improve the process moving forward.

As you might expect, Manny also spends fall weekends glued to the tube, watching MSU take on their gridiron opponents. He started all 12 games at outside linebacker in his senior season with the Bulldogs in 2010.

“I have to watch my ‘Dawgs’ during the season,” he said. “Hail State!”

Manny’s parents Minerva and Alphonzo Gatling instilled in Manny and his three brothers a principled foundation that has served him well in life.

“They’ve always reminded us that their goal was to provide better for their children and to demonstrate that we can do and have anything we wish to do,” he said.