George T. “Thatch” Shepard Jr., former deputy commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division and secretary of the Mississippi River Commission, has joined Burk-Kleinpeter Inc., a New Orleans-based engineering firm.

He will be based in Jackson and work on the company’s federal projects in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, a company spokesman said.

Shepard is a retired U.S. Army colonel and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He has a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Florida.