Kimberly joined AARP Mississippi in 2016. At AARP Mississippi, she is responsible for all initiatives that involve the 50+ population and their families. She also promotes the national agenda of AARP and has a presence in Washington, D.C. and throughout the entire state of Mississippi. Kimberly is committed to her nearly 262,891 AARP members in Mississippi, to living their best lives.
Kimberly is the Former Mississippi State Representative, for District 72, which encompassed Hinds and Madison counties. She served in the Mississippi legislature for, nine legislative session years. Some of her legislative highlights were her bills that became law: that strengthened domestic violence penalties, developed comprehensive stalking laws, increased child pornography penalties and human trafficking laws in the State of Mississippi. Additionally, Kimberly has received numerous awards and accolades for her community/civic work, motivational speaking and domestic violence outreach.
Additionally, Kimberly also served as a Special Judge in the Hinds County Youth Court. Moreover, she practiced law for over 15 years.
Kimberly is a product of the Jackson Public School District, graduating from Callaway High School with honors in 1990. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Mississippi State University, a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Communications from Auburn University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law.
Kimberly is a member of Pearl Street African Methodist Episcopal Church. Additionally, Kimberly is a noted and well sought after empowerment speaker on topics that cultivate women leaders and gives them skills for shifting the paradigm to seek their place in every position of influence. Some of her professional/community affiliations are: AARP Diversity, Equity Inclusion Council Member, The Mississippi Dept. of Archives & History Board of Trustees, Mississippi Supreme Court Special Committee on Judicial Campaign Intervention, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc., The Jackson (MS) Chapter of The Links, Inc., Junior League of Jackson (Sustainer), Leadership Jackson Alumni.
Kimberly is the Proud Mother of four amazing daughters: Sage, Brelan, Iliya and Kerrigan.

Ben Cohen has served as the Chief Information Officer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation since 2014. Cohen began his career with MDOT in 2001 as a software developer on the financial system. Nine years later, he moved into a project manager role overseeing a team that provided software support for the financial and fleet management systems. Since becoming CIO, the Information Systems Division has focused on mobile app development, field data collection, business intelligence and reporting, as well as workforce development. Under his direction, the MDOT Information Systems Division supports several mission critical applications, a colocation data center environment and a traffic network consisting of over 1,000 traffic cameras statewide. Cohen holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Mississippi College (2006) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi (2001).

Dr. Dent is the Chief Information Officer at Jackson State University. In this position, she oversees the management of the university’s network and communications infrastructure, enterprise resource planning system and other information technology (IT) services that support all levels of research, learning, and teaching.
Information Technology consists of three units: Academic IT, Computing and Communications, and IT Managed Services, all staffed to deliver customer friendly support to all JSU campuses.
Dr. Dent joined Jackson State in August 2012 after a 37 year career with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Prior to joining Jackson State, Dr. Dent served as the Deputy Director of the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the U. S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS. She holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS in Computer Science from Jackson State University and PhD in Scientific Computing from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Sally Burchfield Doty was named by Governor Tate Reeves as the first director of the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM). The new office serves as the single point of contact for broadband policy, grant funding, and administration for the State of Mississippi.
Sally most recently served as the Executive Director of the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff where she led a team of attorneys and accountants in reviewing and making recommendations on all filings before the Public Service Commission. Her team also administered $75 million in CARES Act funding for broadband expansion and secured an additional $32 million of federal funding for unserved areas.
Prior to her service in the executive branch, Sally was elected to serve three terms in the Mississippi Senate representing Southwest Mississippi. In the legislature, Sally served as Chair of Judiciary A, Vice-Chair of Finance, and served on the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. In 2019, as Chair of the Energy Committee, Sally shepherded the bill allowing Mississippi Electric Cooperatives to enter the broadband business.
An attorney, Sally has practiced law in Jackson and her hometown of Brookhaven. She received her law degree from Mississippi College School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Mississippi University for Women. Sally is adjusting to life as an empty nester and is looking forward to her first grandchild due in November.

Mr. David C. Johnson was appointed the new Executive Director of Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) and Chief Information Officer for the State of Mississippi effective November 1, 2020. A native of Mississippi and a graduate of Mississippi College, Mr. Johnson began his career in public service in 1995 with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. While there, he served in various roles utilizing his background in accounting, audit, and financial management.
Mr. Johnson has served at ITS for the past 14 years, first guiding the financial and budgeting efforts for the agency and then assuming the role of Director of Procurement Services, providing leadership over the enterprise technology procurement function for Mississippi state government. A 2006 graduate of the Senator John C. Stennis State Executive Development Institute, Mr. Johnson utilized his extensive financial data analysis background and knowledge of state government to serve as a key member of the ITS executive management team. Going forward, Mr. Johnson’s in-depth understanding of information technology within ITS and throughout state government will allow him to continue to build relationships with partner agencies, collaborate with technical resources and colleagues on a state and national level, and further advance Mississippi technology, both strategically and operationally.

Drew Levanway is the General Manager of NIC Mississippi, a subsidiary of Tyler Technologies. With over a decade of eGovernment experience, Drew leads the team that has helped the State of Mississippi deliver over 350 online, mobile, and emerging technology solutions, providing citizens an efficient and secure way to engage agencies, departments, local, and state government. Under his leadership, Mississippi’s self-funded eGovernment program has resulted in an over $19 million cost avoidance for the state since its 2010 inception.

Michael is a CyberSecurity Strategist for AT&T and has been with AT&T for Fifteen years, evangelizing needs for better CyberSecurity. His prior experiences include nearly a decade of service with IBM, fifteen years as President and CEO of Carolina Business Systems, five years as President, CallWare Technologies and three as President of AlianzaSur, Inc. working in Central America and Northern South America.
Michael is a Vietnam combat veteran, graduated from The Citadel and resides in Charleston, SC with his wife Yalani.

Mr. Montgomery is a strategist and executive advisor at VMware. Chris helps public sector organizations align their mission objectives with a supporting IT Strategy that enables digital transformation. He is recognized in the industry as a cyber security expert and thought leader for organizational change management associated with technology modernization.

Renée has been with the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) for 23 years starting in the Strategic Services Division as an Agency Planner. E-Government was the first project Renée was assigned at ITS when she was tasked with encouraging agencies to move services online. Through stints as a project manager, business analyst, and procurement manager, oversight of the E-Government Program has remained a constant focus. Mississippi’s program launches well over 20 services each year and serves nearly 100 government entities in the state.

Michael Pantin serves as Chief Information Officer at the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services. He has over 20 years of experience in state government IT, including service at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office, and the Mississippi Public Service Commission. In addition to his IT experience, Michael has a background in biology, psychology, business administration, and law. He is a graduate of Millsaps College and Mississippi College School of Law.

Nishanth has more than 27 years of diverse IT experience in academia, manufacturing (automotive and pharmaceutical) and professional health care organizations. In his current role, Nishanth leads university-wide IT services for UM and assists the institution achieve its objectives using innovative technology approaches. He provides leadership for the continued development of an innovative, robust, and secure information technology environment throughout the University. His prior role was the Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Michigan State University. Nishanth led a team responsible for all aspects related to Infrastructure, Data Center, Electronic Medical Record, Service Management and Operations for the approximately 65,000 member campus spanning over 10,000 acres. Before that, Nishanth was Director of IT Technology/InterOperability at Bronson Healthcare in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For his service, he was awarded the Bronson President's Leadership Award and earned the highest employee opinion survey results in 2013. Other positions Nishanth has held include Global Systems Engineering Manager at Perrigo Inc. in Allegan, Michigan, and Director of Operations and Infrastructure/Site Service Delivery Director and Clinical Systems Team Manager at Borgess Health/Ascension Health in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Nishanth earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Michigan State University. His professional memberships include the Intel Corp. Mobility Advisory Board, Michigan Healthcare Cybersecurity Council, Big Ten Academic Alliance and several committees at other national organizations.

Wendell Berry wrote, "What we owe the future is not a new start, for we can only begin with what has happened. We owe the future the past, the long knowledge that is the potency of time to come." As odd as it is for a technologist to cling to a Luddite like Berry, his words often ring true for me. I hope to live and work in such a way that the future will be different because of the way that I have lived my life. For over 20 years I have labored in the field of tech, growing up with the internet, wireless, security, Perl to Python, SQL to NoSQL, hierarchical networks to spine leaf fabrics, hand crafted artisan configs to automation that seeks to stamp out the snowflake networks of the netcraftsmen of yester-year. This phase of my career is focused on growing a new IOT practice, hiring and mentoring new engineers, and bringing the expertise of a technologist to bear on the operational problems of our own business as well as those of our customers. Only the future will tell if this investment results in "making a man's grave a rich furrow", but that is the goal.

Bryan Schneider is a Director in the Fortinet Capture Team. His expertise includes 20+ years of experience in Public Sector advanced solutions business development for a range of Wireless carriers, including leading strategic initiatives such as Mobile Security, Endpoint protection, Digital Transformation, Mobile Forms, LBS, Interoperability, IOT and OT, covering SLED, K12 and Federal Agencies. Bryan also brings domain expertise into Public Safety, Next Generation 911, FirstNet, Telco/ISP, CJIS, Remote WFH solutions, and Federal ZTA initiatives.

Mr. David Sliman is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in the Information Technology Services department. His office consists of 80 employees and multiple student workers. As CIO, Sliman is responsible for the academic and administrative technical needs of approximately 14,000 students and 2,800 faculty and staff in several counties in south Mississippi. Departments reporting to the CIO include Enterprise Technology Planning, Technology Finance and Administration, Technology Operations and Infrastructure, Technology Security Office, and Technology Support Services.
Mr. Sliman has been a member of the USM technical staff since 1997. He was integral in the rebuilding of the technical infrastructure of all the USM Gulf Coast teaching sites after hurricane Katrina and the modernization of the USM Technology and Data Center in Hattiesburg. He was involved in the creation of the Mississippi Optical Network (MissiON) and serves as the spokesperson for the state university CIOs for Internet2. He is a member of multiple committees at USM and is the EDUCAUSE primary representative for USM.
Prior to USM, Mr. Sliman was co-founder, president, and CEO of Southwind Technologies, a computer integration company and one of the first internet service providers on the MS Gulf Coast. Mr. Sliman worked for several contractors at the NASA Stennis Space Center as a scientific programmer, database administrator, and network specialist for NASA, the Naval Oceanographic Office, and the Naval Research Laboratory.
The Ocean Springs, Mississippi native graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Jay White is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and the Director of Data Services for the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS). ITS's CISO provides oversight of the cybersecurity efforts across all state agencies, including cybersecurity systems, services and development of policies, standards and guidelines. The Data Services Division of ITS is responsible for management and oversight of the state government data centers, and numerous compute, storage, co-location services and systems.
Jay has worked as a technology consultant with ITS for over 20 years. Jay has been the ITS CISO since in 2011 and became the Director of Data Services in early 2021. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi.

Kevin Yearick serves as Chief Information Officer - Technology for the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a Public Healthcare / Academic / Research Center.
He is responsible for employees on the service desk, network, telecommunications and technology teams. He has changed the culture of the once bureaucratic department to one that runs “business at the speed of business”.
Kevin developed and manages a multi-year strategic plan for operations and technical infrastructure inclusive of system upgrades, enhancements, and implementation activities that address strategic initiatives, vendor product developments and support requirements.
Prior to joining the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Kevin served as the Executive Director of Network Services at the Grady Health System in Atlanta, GA, at Hospital Partners of America, as Director of Corporate Infrastructure Services, and at Accenture as a consultant for local technology services.
Kevin received his BA in Business Administration from Queens University of Charlotte, NC.
Kevin is married to his college sweetheart, with two children. Kevin volunteers as a Head Coach for the local Youth Soccer organization and enjoys a good game of golf.

Dr. Young is responsible for data, information technology, research, non-communicable epidemiology, data and technology security, revenue cycle, electronic health record, database, and vital statistics functions of the agency.
Dr. Young is a graduate of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and holds a Master of Health Services Administration degree from Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Health Sciences from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS. In addition to her role with the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, Dr. Young is an adjunct faculty member for the School of Health Related Professions at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She has experience in hospital administration, health information and informatics, life sciences research, healthcare reimbursement, analytics and policy development.
Before joining the Mississippi State Department of Health, Dr. Young served as the Deputy of Health Services, the Director of Innovation Initiatives, and the Medical Services Director in the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. She has also been a Director in University of Mississippi Medical Center Hospital Administration and for UMMC University Heart.