SPEAKERS

2026 Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference Speakers

Ashley Svarney

Ashley is a strategic communications leader with 17 years of experience shaping narratives for global destinations, luxury hospitality brands, and entertainment resorts. Given her successful in-house career with destination marketing organizations and resorts, Ashley brings a unique perspective to her media-facing PR agency. Known for building strong relationships and uncovering the details that make a story resonate, she connects narratives with the journalists who will care most.

Maggie Kirkland

Maggie Kirkland is the Public & Media Relations Executive for Coastal Mississippi, where she leads media relations efforts that promote the destination through strategic storytelling, earned media, and journalist engagement. She works with travel writers, editors, broadcasters, and content creators from around the world to develop story

opportunities and showcase the people, culture, history, and experiences that define Coastal Mississippi. With a background in hospitality, communications, and community engagement, Maggie is passionate about building authentic relationships and helping Coastal Mississippi earn meaningful media coverage that drives visitation and awareness.

Paige Hunt

Paige Hunt, TMP

Director of Tourism, The Partnership

Paige is an experienced destination marketer who has worked at both the state and local level. She joined The Partnership in 2021 as the Director of Tourism. In her role, she works to develop and implement programs to further the vision for tourism in Starkville: Mississippi’s College Town. She focuses on the promotion of Starkville as a destination market for leisure travel, conventions, sporting events, and cultural tourism efforts that directly benefit the Starkville economy. Under her leadership, Starkville has been awarded Best Small Town in the South by USA Today three times as well as Tourism Promotion of the Year, Tourism Partnership of the Year, Small Festival/Event of the Year, Large Festival/Event of the Year and the Best Overall Digital Media Campaign at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism. Additionally, Paige was recognized as the Mississippi Tourism Association’s Member of the Year in 2023.

Before joining The Partnership, Paige most recently served as Director of Sales & Visitor Services at VisitHATTIESBURG, where she actively sold Hattiesburg as both a leisure and corporate destination. Prior to that, Paige served as Senior Bureau Manager for Tourism Communications at the Mississippi Development Authority. Here, Paige strengthened digital outreach for Visit Mississippi's comprehensive tourism efforts through video and social media campaigns along with an updated website.

Paige currently serves as Vice President for the Mississippi Destination Marketing Organization Association, as President of the Board of Directors for Visit the Cities of the SEC, as President for the Mississippi Tourism Association, and as Vice President of the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area Alliance.

In addition to her passion for tourism marketing, Paige enjoys reading, singing in her church choir, live theater and attending Mississippi State sporting events. She and her husband Andy have a 13-year-old son.

Laura Beth Strickland

Strickland joined the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau (VCVB) in November 2009.

A Vicksburg native and proud Mississippian, her experience and passion for growing our tourism industry is not only a professional goal, but also a personal goal. As executive director, she serves on countless boards representing Vicksburg including Mississippi Tourism Association, Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (Vice-chair), and Capital Area Tourism Association.

Strickland graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2008 with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree in Journalism and English with an emphasis in Public Relations, Mass Media, and News Reporting.

She is married to Michael, who farms in Vicksburg. They are parents to May (9), Michael (8), and twins Hunter and Hadley (4).

Thomas Gregory

Thomas Gregory serves as Executive Director of the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation, where he’s passionate about improving the quality of life and driving economic growth for Greenwood, Leflore County, and Carroll County, Mississippi. As a certified community planner, Thomas brings a wealth of experience, having previously served as Executive Director of the Mississippi Main Street Association, a Community Planner for the Small Town Center at Mississippi State University, and Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Greenwood, Mississippi.

Armed with a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as an MBA and BBA from Mississippi State University, Thomas combines strategic vision with hands-on expertise. His accolades include being named a “Top 40 Under 40” by the Mississippi Business Journal and a “Top Young Professional” by the Delta Business Journal. Thomas is deeply involved in leadership initiatives and is a graduate of the Delta Leadership Institute's Executive Academy. He’s also a past president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Planning Association and has participated in prestigious programs like Leadership Mississippi, the Public Interest Design Institute, and the Sustainable Cities Design Academy.

Thomas’ commitment to his community goes beyond the EDF—he serves on the boards of Keep Mississippi Beautiful, Mississippi Heritage Trust, the Mississippi Economic Development Council, Main Street Greenwood, the Greenwood Tourism Commission, and the Museum of the Mississippi Delta. His dedication to making Greenwood and the surrounding region thrive is at the heart of everything he does.

Senator Lydia Chassaniol

Senator Lydia Graves Chassaniol has represented Mississippi's 14th Senate District since 2007 and serves as chair of the Senate Tourism Committee, where she has been a longtime advocate for the state's tourism, hospitality and cultural industries. A former restaurant owner and caterer from Winona, she brings firsthand experience in Mississippi's culinary heritage to her work in both public service and tourism.

She also hosts Southern Dish on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, a television series that travels the state showcasing local restaurants, chefs and the stories behind Mississippi's rich food traditions, highlighting the people and places that make the state's culinary culture unique.

Dr. Joseph “Jody” Holland

Dr. Joseph (Jody) Holland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy Leadership at The University of Mississippi, where he specializes in public policy and administration. He earned his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University, focusing on Public Policy and Administration. His teaching portfolio includes a wide range of courses, covering topics from general public policy issues to more specialized areas such as food policy, economic development, nonprofit management, grant writing, and leadership development.

Dr. Holland’s approach to teaching emphasizes critical analysis and solution-oriented strategies, designed to enhance public policy implementation and leadership effectiveness. His scholarship is community-engaged, with a particular focus on leadership and organizational development in the nonprofit sector. He has played a pivotal role in securing over $4 million in grant funding and has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications.

Recent publications include:

· Holland, J (2026) Designing “Different:” Balancing Fun and Rigor in Honors Leadership Education. Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (JNCHC), Forthcoming.

· Holland, J., Liu, I., Williams, A., Hayward, K. and Lingle, L. (2026) Cultivating Changemakers for Community Engagement: The Case of the Sullivan Foundation Fellows Program, Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship 19(1)

· Holland, J. H., Bass, M., Bittner, W., Cox, M., Engeriser, W., Goss, I., Jenkins, D., Wilson, E., & Young, E. G. (2025). The Power of Moments in Civic Education: A Mock Congressional Hearing Simulation. Creative Education, 16, 667-679.

Dr. Holland also serves as the Executive Director of the Lafayette Oxford Foundation for Tomorrow (LOFT), a local community foundation providing grants to nonprofit organizations. Additionally, he is the founder of Holland Consulting Group, offering leadership training, policy analysis, grant writing, and organizational evaluation services to public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

John Dersham

Lila Winfield

Lila Carter Winfield of Ridgeland, Miss Is the Mississippi Main Street Association's marketing and outreach specialist for the statewide downtown revitalization organization.

Winfield coordinates the statewide organization's marketing, communication, and outreach efforts which include Main Street members, investors, partners, legislators, municipal officials, media, and the public. She also serves as MMSA's primary coordinator for conferences, trainings, and special events.

A Starkville native, Winfield graduated from Mississippi State University in May 2024 with a degree in marketing. She has served as the digital content manager for Visit Mississippi since December 2024.

During her college years, Winfield completed internships with the Mississippi Main Street Association, the Greater Starkville Partnership/Starkville Main Street Association, and Downtown Strategies/Retail Strategies, gaining hands-on experience in community development and destination marketing.

Emily Donovan

Emily Tillman Donovan is president of the World Catfish Festival and president of the Belzoni-Humphreys Development Foundation. Since assuming leadership of the festival in 2022, she has helped transform the event from a struggling festival with approximately 2,000 attendees into one of Mississippi’s premier community celebrations, drawing more than 10,000 visitors.

By day, Tillman is the owner and program director of Rylice Radio and host of the Mississippi Music Show, which airs on four radio stations across the state, celebrating Mississippi’s rich musical heritage while promoting music tourism and cultural events. She is passionate about using festivals, tourism, media, and strategic partnerships to strengthen rural communities and drive economic development across the Mississippi Delta. She resides in Belzoni, and is a wife, and mother of two.

Stafford Shurden

Stafford Shurden has been many things: a judge, a Delta farmer, a restaurateur, and an Amazon bestselling author. But what he's best known for is proof that the most powerful marketing tool you already own is your story. His Tailgate Gas Station Review series built a viral following on Facebook and YouTube, turning an unfiltered love for small-town food and Delta life into one of Mississippi's most recognized personal brands. In this session, Stafford breaks down how authenticity, consistency, and a good tailgate can build the kind of audience that no ad budget can buy.

Jenn Gregory

Jenn Gregory is a senior leader at a consulting firm by day and a farmer the rest of the time. She and her husband run Post Oak Farm in Mississippi, raising beef cattle, meat goats, crops, and a kitchen garden that started as a personal escape and grew into an audience. Through honest, behind-the-scenes content, she's built a following around real farm life: muddy boots, working moms, slow living, and the unglamorous beauty of building something from the ground up. In this session, Jenn shares how showing up authentically on social media, without a production budget or a marketing team, can turn your place into a brand people actually want to follow.

Ben Muldrow

Ben Muldrow is a talented graphic artist who has been designing for over 25 years with experience in a wide variety of marketing applications. He provides community identity and branding services for communities across the United States. Ben has worked on a number of projects in Mississippi specializing in the development of city and neighborhood identities, wayfinding strategies, and promotional marketing material.