Our Speaker List

Carolyn Bell currently serves as Civil Rights Director for the Mississippi Department of Transportation. She has held various positions in state government for the past 35 years with the Department of Education, State Personnel Board and now MDOT for the past 29 years. The last 21 years as Civil Rights Director for MDOT, her division is responsible for all the civil rights functions of the agency to include the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Contract Compliance, On-the-Job Training (OJT) Program, Title VI, and American’s With Disabilities Act (ADA) Program. She graduated the Certified Public Manager Program in June, 2007. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. 

Jessica Dilley is the Assistant State Planning Engineer at MDOT where she has served for over 10 years.  In her role, she oversees MDOT Planning’s feasibility, mapping, and traffic data collection and analysis sections.  Previous to her current role, Jessica was over MDOT Planning’s Feasibility Analysis Section for the state.  She enjoys her work with MDOT, knowing that she is helping better the safety and transportation of the traveling public.  Jessica serves as current President of Mississippi’s Chapter of Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS), and immediate Past President for DSITE and MES.  She enjoys her involvement with professional organizations to help bring networking, professional development, and mentoring opportunities to transportation professionals statewide.  She has her Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering as well as her Undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Mississippi.  She is a licensed engineer in the state of Mississippi.  She and her husband live in Madison with their two kids, Gracyn (11), Hayes (6), and Owen (2).  On the weekends Jessica enjoys spending time with her family at the soccer and baseball fields.  

Michael Joyner graduated from Mississippi State University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. His involvement in ITE started in college where he served as secretary and vice president for MSU’s ITE student chapter. He is a transportation engineer and project manager in Gresham Smith’s Jackson office with nearly 7 years of experience. He has design experience in roadway design, permanent signing plans, roadway hydraulic analysis, and ITS design. Michael has served as secretary and younger member chair for the American Society of Civil Engineers Jackson Branch and currently serves as president for the ASCE MS Section.  He co-chairs Southern District ITE’s younger member committee, and sits on Deep South ITE’s younger member committee. 

Jenny Mehri joined Mississippi State University in 2021 and has over 7 years of experience in higher education and student affairs.  She currently serves as the Cooperative Education Career Advisor for several majors within the Bagley College of Engineering at Mississippi State University, including Aerospace, Biological, Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering.  Prior to her appointment at Mississippi State, she served in numerous roles at Mississippi College and the Mississippi University for Women that included advising, proctoring, admissions, planning and implementing student orientation, and developing student accommodations plans.  Her background also includes several years of experience working with Federal Grants, and management of both grant-related and departmental finances.  Jenny has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Mississippi State University, a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy from Mississippi College, and she is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Dr. Lucy Priddy is a Military Program Officer at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In this role, she serves as an action officer for military research and development supporting program formulation, execution, analysis, and review. Prior to this role, she served as an Assistant Technical Director for military engineering projects related to force projection, maneuver support, and force protection. As a research civil engineer, she conducted research focused on expedient and traditional pavement repair, evaluation, and construction technologies. 

Dr. Priddy graduated from the University of Mississippi with her bachelor's  degree in civil engineering in 2002 and completed her master's degree in civil engineering from Mississippi State University in 2005. She completed her PhD in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2014. She is a registered as a professional engineer in Mississippi. Dr. Priddy serves on the University of Mississippi’s Civil Engineering Advisory Board, is an  adjunct professor for Mississippi State University, and is a member of Virginia Tech’s Advisory Board for  the Center for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. 

Dr. Priddy currently serves on American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Transportation and  Development Institute Board of Governors and is an ASCE Fellow. She is active in several technical  committees of the Transportation Research Board and is a past chair of the Young Members Council.  

Dr. Emily Wall is a Senior Research Engineer for the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems Extension (CAVS-E) at Mississippi State University (MSU). She is a graduate of MSU’s Industrial and Systems engineering program for both her bachelor and doctorate degrees.  She received her Six Sigma Black Belt from MSU's CAVS Extension in June 2016 and received her Professional Engineer’s (PE) licensure in 2021. Working primarily with small to medium sized manufacturing companies in Mississippi, her project work includes: facility layout and design, lean manufacturing applications, interactive training for manufacturing processes, and virtual reality trainings. Her current research involves 3D Scanning applications for VR environments and transportation applications, manufacturability and machine learning, modeling and simulations, and usability of user interfaces in virtual reality. She also participates in the teaching of workshops and classes including: Workplace Ergonomics, Minitab, and Statistical Process Control.