SEC – AAAE Conference 2024 Agenda

Anita Cobb, MBA, is Mead & Hunt’s Market Leader for Aviation Equity Strategies. Though her title reflects the core of her work, she also has created equity-based programming and trained professionals in the Transportation, Architecture, and Water Resources fields, as well as many other service lines in the AEC industry. She has a passion for and specializes in matters related to environmental justice, community collaboration, youth education, family empowerment, and mentorship. She supports and shares creative strategies focused on advocacy, transparency, and resource literacy for individuals that are marginalized and facing undue hardship. Anita’s recent activities include collaborating with academics to explore neurodiversity in planning and engineering, developing targeted universalism approaches for disadvantaged and underserved communities, creating a universal hub for aviation professionals focused on diversity and equity, and producing strategies to optimize DBE training, development, and significant project participation. She is also involved in the production of equity best practice documentation that addresses systemic inequalities in the aviation industry.

Mandy Johnston is a passionate advocate for organizational diversity, equity and inclusion. As the Chief Financial Officer at BLG Logistics, Inc., headquartered out of Northport, Alabama, she oversees the finance, human resources, and information technology teams. Her over 20 years of experience prior to BLG includes successfully leading finance and business operations teams in a variety of industries and global companies, including automotive (Mercedes Benz), building materials (Weyerhaeuser), sports & entertainment (CFL: Edmonton Elks Football Club), architecture and construction (AECOM), oil & gas tool assembly and services (FMC Technologies) and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin Well) across the United States and Canada. She has also served on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations, including the Institute of Management Accountants Board of Global Directors. A native of Louisiana, Mandy is a graduate of The University of Alabama with an MBA in Strategy and a BSBA in Accounting, with a minor in Political Theory. She is a National Merit Finalist and a Presidential Scholar and was the Vice-President of Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Society.

Stephanie H. Mays is a Shareholder in Maynard Nexsen’s Labor & Employment Practice. She has worked at the firm for the past 16 years defending employers in all aspects of the employment relationship, including litigation and federal agency proceedings, conducting training, and providing day-to-day advice and pragmatic solutions tailored to meet her clients’ needs. Stephanie also serves as Maynard’s Chief Talent Officer where she focuses on creating intentional and centralized programming around diversity and inclusion, recruitment, onboarding, training and development. In this role, she has worked closely with the firm’s DE&I Committee to establish a pre-law internship program, a sponsorship program pairing senior associates with partners in leadership, and an internal video series to enable employees to get to know one another across practice areas and office locations. The Birmingham Business Journal recently named Stephanie as a Leader in Diversity. She is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America© for Litigation: Labor and Employment, Benchmark Litigation’s “Under 40 Hot List,” and has been listed in Super Lawyers every year since 2013. Stephanie earned her B.A. from Birmingham Southern College and her J.D. from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.

Eric Mercado founded ACS with the vision of offering a fresh recruiting, leadership development and consulting experience to government, aviation and corporate industries. His experience spans government, general aviation airports, commercial service airports and private business. He has managed organizations and their operations, administration and maintenance departments while recruiting and developing their respective staff. Eric is a Certified Member, Airport Certified Employee (ACE) – Operations, and ACE – Security, through the American Association of Airport Executives. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Management and Minors in Airport Management & Planning and Spanish from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). He also earned his Private Pilot Certificate through the SIUC’s Part 141 Aviation Flight Program. Eric is currently working toward a Master of Business Administration in Human Resource Management from Fitchburg State University and has completed several courses in talent acquisition from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Eric is also involved in various organizations related to diversity, human resources, transportation and aviation where he lends his expertise to committees and is a regular speaker on a variety of human capital topics. As the Chief Executive Officer of ACS Firm, Eric has led the strategic vision, day-to-day operations, administration and consulting assignments for the firm from its inception.