Forest Thigpen is President of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, an independent public policy organization based in Jackson. Forest and his wife, Debbie, have two sons: Jason, who is 28, and Clayton, who is 20. They live in Madison and are members of Broadmoor Baptist Church. Debbie has an interior-design consulting business, which is based in their home. Jason graduated from Madison public schools and Mississippi College, and he works in the Jackson area. Clayton also graduated from Madison public schools and is a sophomore at Mississippi State University. 

Forest served on the Washington staff of Senator Thad Cochran for 10 years. He worked in various legislative and administrative capacities for Senator Cochran, including service as the Republican Staff Director for a subcommittee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. He was responsible at various times in his Washington career for policy analysis in the areas of taxes, government regulation, health care reform, banking, insurance, energy, Social Security, welfare, the justice system, communications, housing and environmental issues.

As a part of his work at the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, Forest produces a one-minute radio commentary, titled Vital Signs, that airs several times weekly on SuperTalk Mississippi, American Family Radio in Mississippi, and other stations around the state. He has been appointed to a variety of commissions to study and make recommendations on critical issues facing Mississippi. He was appointed by Governor Barbour to the governor's tax study commission and a commission on reforming our state's charter school law, and he was named by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant to the Commission for a New Mississippi, which is working to find ways to operate government more efficiently. The governor also appointed Forest to a committee of the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal following Hurricane Katrina. Since 2007, Forest has served on the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In the late 1990s, Forest served as chairman of the Mississippi Task Force on Reducing Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancies, which was established as a part of welfare reform legislation.

Forest has been involved as a volunteer in a variety of ministries. He has developed and directed a church-wide ministry to meet the special needs of the poor and elderly, and he has served on the Inner City Ministry Committee at his church.

Email: