Dan DeMott

Technology Manager, Office of Technology Development, VP for Research – USM

US Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD) (RET), Technology Manager and Instructor, Office of Technology Development, VP of Research.

DeMott retired senior Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) from the United States Army where he served honorably for 20 years in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) field as an EOD Technician and NCO EOD Operations Officer. During his service in various positions, he had responded to Events of National Significance, Terrorism, and other Improvised Explosive Devices throughout the United States.

Since his retirement, DeMott has served in multiple positions in state and local Homeland Security and Emergency Management projects in the State of Iowa. Previously, DeMott served as a Training Manager and Instructor at Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services. He was responsible for the delivery of incident management, sports, and special events courses while serving as the Lead Developer for the NERRTC Emergency Operations Center Course and Lead Instructor.

His new primary responsibility will be managing and triage technologies and discoveries that emerge or interface with USM’s research enterprise, specifically in defense-related and dual-use technologies. DeMott will serve as the technology manager for a DoD initiative to develop a national platform that facilitates the transition of defense technology to commercial usage. In addition, he will be the lead on developing the New Hacking 4 Defense curriculum (“H4Di”) that is targeted to be launched in the summer of 2017.

Anna Wan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics – USM

Anna Wan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Southern Mississippi. She teaches mathematics courses for future teachers and also directs Eagle Maker Hub, a university makerspace.

André Heath

Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Initiatives – USM

André Heath leads the recruitment and retention efforts in the College of Science and Technology as Assistant to the Dean for Recruitment, Retention and Strategic Initiatives. For 18 years, he has worked to attract students to Southern Miss while placing them on the path to success in both their undergraduate careers and professional endeavors.

An accomplished speaker, in 2011, Mr. Heath advanced to the semifinals of Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. He has a passion for speaking to groups, organizations, businesses, colleges and schools across the state on an array of topics including leadership, personal development, and community engagement.

Most recently, André was the recipient of both the USM Staff Council Service Award and Staff Excellence Award in recognition of his dedication, leadership, and contributions to the overall goals of the University. He is the proud father of 3 children Austin, Alyssa and Caroline. André and his wife, Amy make their home in Petal, MS.

Jeremy Graves

ITC Program Coordinator and Instructor, School of Computing – USM

Jeremy has taught networking and security technologies since the mid 90s. He is a master problem solver with extensive experience in research, design and implementation of a wide array of technologies.

His background includes extensive training and certification through Microsoft and Cisco.

A small business stakeholder and executive for more than a decade, Jeremy has supported hundreds of businesses from small to large.

Henry L. Jones, II, Ph.D.

Adjunct Faculty, School of Computing – USM

Dr. Jones, has over two decades of experience in product commercialization, development of electromechanical systems, and software architecture and design. Prior to the founding of Kopis Mobile, he was the Director of the Center for Battlefield Innovation at Mississippi State University, and in that role served as the Chief Technology Officer for Mav6, a research and development services firm for the U.S. military.
Under Henry’s leadership and intuitive thinking has led Kopis Mobile in designing and manufacturing apps and app-enabled equipment for the DoD, law enforcement and private security markets since 2009. Henry has brought together a team of experts in most types of software development including mobile, embedded, desktop and server software. The Kopis team also has decades of experience in hardware development, particularly PCB and electrical design, mechanical design and rapid prototype development.
Henry has led product developments in a variety of non-defense industries including telecommunications and electric utilities (as the Chief Technology Officer for smart meter company SmartSynch, now a part of Itron (ticker: ITRI)), remote sensing and forest products (as a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Forest One, now a part of Thomson Reuters (ticker: TRI)), financial companies (as a co-founder of Iron View Capital, a quantitative hedge fund), and consumer retail (as a co-founder of DataRiver, a mobile app and software company). He has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. He also has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mississippi.

Julie Cwikla, Ph.D.

Director of Creativity & Innovation in STEM, Office of the VP for Research – USM

Julie Cwikla, Ph.D. holds a doctorate in Mathematics Education and serves as the Director of Creativity & Innovation in STEM at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Working with others she investigates interesting and important questions about STEM learning and careers. Funded by NSF, NASA, and others she studies preschool fraction learning, digital devices in the classroom, and growing algae on Mars. A recipient of the National Science Foundation’s “Early Career Award” she has directed over $12 million in funded research programs serving children, teachers, and families on the Gulf Coast.

Her daughters ages 6 and 13, would tell you she hugs hard, loves learning, and reads too many books at the same time.

Andrew Sung, Ph.D.

Professor and Director, School of Computing – USM

Andrew Sung is Director of the School of Computing at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he also serves as a Professor, teaching Neural Networks and Data Mining & Machine Learning courses.

Dr. Sung's research interests include computational intelligence and its applications, information security and assurance, bio- and medial-informatics, data mining and pattern recognition, high-performance computing, petroleum exploration, and reservoir modeling.

Kyla Regan

Student and Researcher, Department of Defense Education Activity – USM

Tom Rishel

Computer Science Instructor – USM Gulf Park

Tom Rishel is an instructor in Computer Science at USM’s Gulf Park campus in Long Beach, MS. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Millsaps College in Jackson, MS and his Master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling Psychology from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. After a radical career change he received his MS in Computer Science from USM and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computational Science with an emphasis in Computer Science. Tom teaches a variety of undergraduate Computer Science courses. His research is in the area of Natural Language Processing.

Amy Chasteen Miller, Ph.D.

Professor and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs – USM

Dr. Miller's primary area of specialization is gender studies, with additional research interests in deviant behavior, culture, and health. For about a decade, her research has focused on the sociology of childbirth. In a large-scale project to explore women's diverse experiences with childbirth in the U.S., she has conducted qualitative research on midwives and their clients, women who choose unassisted homebirth, and the experiences of women giving birth in hospitals. Dr. Miller also has a research interest in college student engagement and success, particular with regard to the role of diversity.

Keith Conley

Graduate Research Assistant – USM