SRESA

2026 Making Connections Keynote Speakers! REGISTER TODAY! I am also attaching the link for our Tentative Agenda for our Breakout Sessions!

https://www.sresa.net/agenda-in

- Robert St. John

Robert St. John is a celebrated restaurateur, author, and media producer whose career spans over three decades of culinary innovation, storytelling, and
community advocacy. As President and CEO of New South Restaurant Group, he has shaped the dining landscape of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with a collection of beloved restaurants. Beyond the kitchen, St. John has authored 14 books, penned a
widely syndicated newspaper column, and produced acclaimed television documentaries that spotlight Mississippi’s rich cultural heritage. His work in
media and hospitality reflects a deep commitment to sharing the flavors and stories of the South with a national audience. St. John is also a dedicated philanthropist and entrepreneur. He founded Extra Table, a nonprofit that provides millions of meals to food pantries across Mississippi at no cost to the agencies. He hosts groups on his Yonderlust Tours, offering immersive food and cultural experiences
throughout Europe. His leadership extends to numerous boards and civic initiatives, championing the arts, downtown revitalization, and community
development. In all his endeavors, St. John’s work embodies a joy and passion and for hospitality, storytelling, and service.

- Dr. Alvin Williams

Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Analytics, Mitchell College of Business, University of South Alabama. Previously, he was Interim Dean and Chair of Marketing, Mitchell College of Business. He worked at the University of Southern Mississippi from 1980 to 2008, where he served as Chair of Marketing from 1988-2005 and Interim Dean from 2006-2008.He has been active in the Society for Marketing Advances (SMA) since 1980, serving as President (2001-02 and 2016-17) and as a member of the Board of Governors. He is also active in the Academy of Marketing Science and the Institute for Supply Management. Williams has conducted over 350 presentations and seminars for supply management and marketing professionals and academicians in the U.S., Europe, South Africa, India, China, New Zealand, and Peru. He has taught at Aarhus University in Denmark (2023, 2024) and was a Visiting Professor at the University of the Virgin Islands (2021). He has published in various academic and professional journals in marketing and supply management, including Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Decision Sciences, and Journal of Macromarketing. He is past Editor of the Journal of Supply Chain Management. Williams earned a BS degree in Marketing at the University of Southern Mississippi, MA degree in Marketing from the University of Alabama, and the Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Arkansas.

- Mitch Williams

Prior to being hired with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Mitchell worked at WDAM-TV for 27 years, serving as sports director for 20 of those years. While at WDAM, the sports department was cited by the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters for excellence on 40 different occasions including being named the state’s best sportscaster 8 of the last 10 years. While at WDAM, he provided coverage for over 15,000 sporting events. Mitchell was called to FCA in 2011, fourteen months after leading the funeral for former NFL MVP Steve McNair on July 11, 2009. While now serving as FCA Multi-Area Director and Football Chaplain for the Southern Miss football team since 2015, the local growth of this nation’s oldest and most reliable athletic ministry has been tremendous. With just one staff member and a need to raise a budget of $55,000 at the time of Mitchell’s unique calling to FCA in 2011, the Southeast Mississippi Chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes now serves in 2026 with a budget just over $3,000,000 and has a team of 32 full-time, part-time, and volunteer staff serving over 120 middle and high schools, six community colleges and two universities from Meridian to the Gulf Coast. In addition, FCA of Southeast Mississippi hosts over 50 local events, including 6 local camps, and opportunities for coaches and their families. A licensed and ordained minister, he attended North Forrest and Southern Miss, where he lettered every year in cross country, indoor and outdoor track. Mitchell was enshrined in the Southern Miss M-Club Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2023, as part of “Generations Strong,” he was recognized by the City of Hattiesburg as one of the Most Inspiring African Americans in the city’s 140-year history. Mitchell and his wife Shelia are the parents of four boys, grandparents and are members of Grace Temple Church of Hattiesburg.

- Lauren Zarandona

Lauren Zarandona loves problems. Math problems. Lauren teaches 11th and 12th grade math and coordinates, plans, and facilitates Math Outreach programs at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. In her twenty-third year as a teacher in Mississippi, Lauren hopes to help every learner fall in love with their own (math) problems. She believes that just and equitable teaching starts (and ends) with teachers and learners solving problems together. She is National Board Certified and a Presidential Award recipient for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching (2015). When she is not teaching, she enjoys reading, jogging, preparing vegan meals, and watching Star Wars with her husband and two boys.

Registration is now open! Click on the link below to register!

https://sresa.msresaservices.com/events-2026-making-connections-conference?search=2026%20making%20connections&description=true

Keynote Speaker for Day one of the 2026 Making Connections conference will be Robert St. John.

Robert St. John is a celebrated restaurateur, author,
and media producer whose career spans over three
decades of culinary innovation, storytelling, and
community advocacy. As President and CEO of New
South Restaurant Group, he has shaped the dining
landscape of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with a collection of beloved restaurants. Beyond the kitchen, St. John has authored 14 books, penned a widely syndicated newspaper column, and produced acclaimed television documentaries that spotlight Mississippi’s rich cultural heritage. His work in media and hospitality reflects a deep commitment to sharing the flavors and stories of the South with a national audience.
St. John is also a dedicated philanthropist and
entrepreneur. He founded Extra Table, a nonprofit that provides millions of meals to food pantries across Mississippi at no cost to the agencies. He hosts groups on his Yonderlust Tours, offering immersive food and cultural experiences throughout Europe.
His leadership extends to numerous boards and civic
initiatives, championing the arts, downtown
revitalization, and community development. In all his
endeavors, St. John’s work embodies a joy and passion and for hospitality, storytelling, and service.

SAVE THE DATE!!!! June 3rd - June 5th, 2026
You are not going to want to miss this year’s 2026 Making Connections Conference! Just a reminder that we are accepting presenter proposals and vendor booth submissions! Please visit our website for more information! Registration will open up on January 12, 2026!

www.sresa.net

We would like to thank Dr. Titus Hines, Superintendent of Perry County School District, for serving as our SRESA Executive Board President for the 2024-2025 school year.

SRESA has some exciting news!

We would like to Congratulate AshleyBarefoot, Lamar County School District, on being named the 2025 Mississippi Teacher of the Year!

She will also be a Keynote speaker for this year’s Making Connections Conference!

About Ashely: Ashley Barefoot has been a student her entire life. She views teaching as a natural evolution of her love for learning and takes great joy in sharing that wonder with others. Her personal philosophy of education is to nurture students’ curiosity by facilitating discovery opportunities for students and teaching them the skills they need to become lifelong learners and changemakers.
After graduating from college with a degree in English, she served as a member of AmeriCorps VISTA at an afterschool program where she realized that working with kids was fun! She changed career paths to elementary education and has continued to learn alongside her students ever since. She has been the 4th and 5th grade gifted education teacher at Longleaf Elementary in Hattiesburg since 2013. Thanks to her students, she has learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, code computer programs, read and write in Braille, and fly mini hot air balloons. She’s honestly just doing her best trying to keep up with her students!
She is a National Board Certified Teacher, a Google Certified Educator, and a National Geographic Certified Educator. She loves traveling and learning and tries to do a little of both each summer. As a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks Scholar, she visited Walden Pond while reading Thoreau in 2017, dug into archaeology and American Indian culture in Mesa Verde National Park in 2016, explored the concept of wilderness in the Adirondack Mountains in 2015, and studied the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi in 2013. She analyzed environmental history in Boulder, Colorado with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in 2013, served as an Earthwatch Teach Earth Fellow in Costa Rica in 2010, and spent a month backpacking in the Olympic Mountains with the National Outdoor Leadership School in 2009. In college, she spent a year as an international exchange student in England. She loved it so much she returned the next two summers to backpack across Europe! Her latest passion is Teaching with Primary Sources. After becoming a Primary Source Certified Educator through TPS Mississippi in 2021, she served as an online course facilitator for Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Primary Source Questions with the Right Question Institute in 2021-2023. She was thrilled to explore primary sources at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in 2022.
Learning alongside experts who are passionate about their work inspires her to bring that same sense of discovery, wonder, and hard work to her classroom. She believes teachers learn alongside their students every day to plant the seeds of the future.

You are not going to want to miss this year’s
conference, so please make sure you register today!!!!!

Keynote Speakers for the 2025 Making Connections Conference - June 4th - 6th, 2025

Busy morning at SRESA. We are hosting two trainings on USM campus this morning.

Sign up for a workshop today and earn CEUs at www.sresa.net

We would like to thank everyone that attended the Fall 2024 Regional Superintendent Meeting. Thank you to the new Mississippi State Superintendent of Education, Lance Evans, and his team for speaking to our local Superintendents today.

We would like to thank everyone that attended our September Superintendent meeting yesterday! We would like to thank Dr. Ken Barron, Superintendent of Yazoo County School District, for serving as our SRESA Executive Board President for the 2023-2024 year. Presenting his award to him is our current 2024-2025 Executive Board President Dr. Titus Hines, Superintendent of Perry County School District.

Thank you to our guest speakers yesterday and our Lunch Sponsor , SAVVAS Learning.