Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Anna Wolfe, a native of Tacoma, Wa., is an investigative reporter who writes about poverty and economic justice. Before joining the staff at Mississippi Today in September 2018, Anna worked for three years at Clarion Ledger, covering local government and health care, and one year at alternative newsweekly Jackson Free Press. She has received state and national recognition for her stories on hunger, medical billing and debtors prisons, including the February 2020 Sidney Award and the Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2018 and 2019.

Featured Speakers

Recognized as one of the top PR professionals in the country, Rick Looser has worked for a virtual who’s who of business and industry, including Northrop Grumman, 3M, Raytheon, Sherwin Williams, Boeing, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Sanderson Farms, among others. Rick was also the lead communications strategist for the competition to win one of the largest defense contracts ever awarded by the U.S. Navy, the DDG 1000 program, a $30 billion contract. Rick is a sought-after speaker and media industry expert. He has been interviewed and featured in articles by The New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and The International Herald, to name a few. He has also been a featured expert on NBC’s Today Show, National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and on MSNBC. In 2009, Rick was inducted into the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame. Rick serves on the board of advisors for The University of Alabama’s Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations.

Francine Reynolds has been the artistic director at New Stage Theatre since 2006 and has worked as a theatre artist for 30 years. She recently directed Shakespeare in Love, Silent Sky and Beauty and the Beast, Best of Enemies, Our Town, Red, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Time To Kill. Recent portrayals include Dr. Katherine Brandt in 33 Variations, Polly in Other Desert Cities, Lucille in Dividing the Estate, and Edna Earle in Eudora Welty’s The Ponder Heart. She has directed a variety of shows including All The Way, The Whipping Man, The Grapes of Wrath, Hairspray, Mahalia: A Gospel Musical, The Great Gatsby, Lombardi, Boeing, Boeing; A Christmas Carol, Gee’s Bend, A Raisin in the Sun, Annie, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Soldier’s Play, and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Reynolds worked as a locations casting director in film and television for several years. Originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Reynolds enjoys living in Jackson with her husband, Chuck.

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Duwayne Burnside is one of 14 children born to legendary North Mississippi musician R.L. Burnside and his wife, Alice. He has been a frequent performer with the North Mississippi Allstars since the early 1990s, when that group, fronted by Luther and Cody Dickinson, formed. The young Burnside learned his first few guitar licks and chords from his father, but proved a quick study and soon began playing with local club owner Junior Kimbrough and the Soul Blues Boys. Growing up in Holly Springs, he was close to Memphis, and as soon as he was able to get to Memphis, he did, and soon had the chance to sit in with Little Jimmy King, Albert King, B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and others. Duwayne also began playing in his Dad's band, Sound Machine Groove, where he further honed his skills as a guitarist and showman. He recorded for Hightone and Fat Possum Records with his father's group before moving to Memphis, where he opened his own club, Burnside Kitchen and Grill, near Highway 61. He booked the music, cooked the food, sold the beer, and had his own band perform there on a weekly basis.

Benjamin Saulsberry is a native of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, where he currently works at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, as the tour coordinator. Since 2017, he has talked with thousands of visitors from all over the world about the work of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission and their commitment towards the creation of racial harmony in Sumner and surrounding areas. He has also served on a number of panel discussions concerning race, racism, and racial reconciliation as well as being the keynote speaker for various events; one of which being Harvard Law’s Annual Celebration of the MS Delta in November 2017 and the Black History Convocation at the University of Detroit at Mercy in February of 2019.

Steve Soltis is a senior adviser with MAS Leadership Communication, and a former communication executive for the Coca-Cola Company and UPS. As part of Stoty State 2021, he will lead a roundtable discussion with Paul Summers, the winemaker at Knight’s Gambit Vineyards in Charlottesville, Va., Benjamin West, Europe brand director at Veuve Clicquot, and Derek Irby, founder of Mayhew Junction Brewery.

Michael Williams is a writer, director, cinematographer, and producer known for OzLand (2015) and The Atoning (2017). Williams, a resident of West Point, MS, began creating short films in 2004 while in high school and graduated The University of Southern Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts in Film in 2009. Williams has made over 25 short films and 2 features and worked professionally in the film industry since 2007. When not making his own films, Williams serves as a cinematographer on a wide range of independent films and running Shendopen Productions, his video production business.

Ryan Starrett was birthed and reared in Jackson, Mississippi. After receiving degrees from the University of Dallas, Adams State University and Spring Hill College, as well as spending a ten-year hiatus in Texas, he has returned home to continue his teaching career. He lives in Madison with his wife, Jackie, and two children, Joseph Padraic and Penelope Rose O. He has co-authored The Hidden History of Jackson, The Hidden History of the Mississippi Sound, and The Hidden History of New Orleans with Mississippi State instructor Josh Foreman.

Zach Lancaster received his BA from William Carey University where he discovered his love for audio engineering and sound design. He used his musical background to create scores and sound designs for multiple theatre productions. After college he has worked in production sound for both television and films. Some of his network credits include HGTV, Discovery, History Channel, and A&E. He has also worked on movies starring Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Nick Cage, and Tim Blake Nelson. When he isn’t working, he is the father to two daughters.

The Northern Gulf Institute’s Jonathan Harris worked alongside award-winning playwright and current Mississippi State University faculty member Tonya Hays, and her Advanced Theatre class, to create an original play, as a traveling, teachable outreach project, focusing on the subject of climate change and its potential impacts on the Gulf Coastal region. Each viewing of the play was followed by a brief lecture and Q&A concerning the truths and concepts behind climate change and climate science in a manner intended for young audiences. The play, submitted to the Mississippi Theatre Associations' Southern Regional Theatre Festival won "Best Original Work" and was moved ahead to the state-wide Mississippi Theatre Festival where it won "Best Original Work for Social Change"  as well as a number of other awards for student acting.

David Garraway is the director of the Mississippi State University Television Center, where he oversees the university’s non-athletic broadcast television operation. At the TV Center, David has focused on increasing the center’s ability to tell creatively engaging stories that inform and entertain, while delivering the intended message to the target audience. Under his leadership, the TV Center has won numerous state and regional awards, including two Southeast Emmy nominations for creative storytelling. A native of Hattiesburg, David received both his bachelor of arts and master of science degrees in communication from the University of Southern Mississippi, a master of business administration from MSU, and is currently completing the coursework for a doctor of philosophy in instructional systems and workforce development. David and his wife, Michelle, have two small children and a dog that acts like yet another small child.