Mississippi Coding Academies add Dr. Nashlie Sephus, Dr. Sarah Lee and Glenn McCullough to Board of Directors

(JACKSON, MISS.) The Mississippi Coding Academies proudly announces the expansion of their board of directors to
include Dr. Nashlie Sephus of Amazon, Dr. Sarah B. Lee of the University of Southern Mississippi, and Glenn
McCullough, Jr., former executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority.

Dr. Nashlie Sephus

Dr. Nashlie H. Sephus is the Applied Science manager for Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) focusing on fairness and identifying biases in the technologies. Prior to working as the CTO of Partpic, she received her Ph.D. from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2014. She received her B.S. in Computer Engineering from Mississippi State University (2007). Dr. Sephus is a native of Jackson, Miss., and a graduate of Murrah High School and the Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex (APAC).

“As founder of The Bean Path, former CTO of Partpic, and visionary for the Jackson Tech District, I’ve seen how access and exposure to technology can economically and qualitatively enhance people’s lives,” Dr. Sephus said. I’m excited to join the board of Mississippi Coding Academies to continue the synergies between The Bean Path and strengthen the State’s tech ecosystem. I’m very passionate about this work as I apply time outside of my day job at Amazon to invest in cultivating socioeconomic equity in my hometown through technology.”

Dr. Sarah Lee

Dr. Sarah B. Lee began serving as an advisor to the board in 2018 during her tenure as a member of the faculty and assistant department head in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Mississippi State University. Dr. Lee assumed a new role in 2020 as director of the School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. Through this new affiliation, Dr. Lee is working with stakeholders in Hattiesburg and on the Gulf Coast to implement coding academy opportunities for people in south Mississippi.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to continue to intersect my work in broadening participation in computing with the Mississippi Coding Academies,” Dr. Lee said. “The Mississippi Coding Academies play a huge part in our strategy at Southern Miss to provide equitable access to high-quality computing education, and an alternative way for our Mississippi residents to develop skills that will open additional career and educational doors for them.”

Mr. Glenn McCullough

During his time at the Mississippi Development Authority, Glenn McCullough, Jr., led economic development and community programs that resulted in record private capital investment, job growth in higher-income jobs, and global export trade. Prior to MDA, he was chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority and was a former mayor of Tupelo, Miss.

Mike Forster, chairman of the Mississippi Coding Academies board, said he was very happy to add these three distinguished leaders to the board.

“I could not be more pleased to have Nashlie, Sarah, and Glenn on our board as we begin our fourth year of operation. The next 12-months should be exciting as we launch a third location in south Mississippi, establish a new distance learning paradigm to broaden our reach into smaller communities, and graduate our fourth year of coders. I could not be prouder of our coder graduates as they are earning high praise from their employers as they build exciting new careers in the digital economy.”