Founders

Ruthe Farmer

Founder & CEO, Last Mile Education Fund

Ruthe Farmer is a talent entrepreneur laser-focused on inclusion and leveraging existing infrastructure to scale change. She is the founder and CEO of the Last Mile Education Fund. She previously served as chief evangelist at CSforAll, was senior policy advisor for tech inclusion in the Obama White House, and chief strategy & growth officer at the National Center for Women & IT. Her work has been integral to the design, launch and scaling of multiple national initiatives, including the NCWIT K-12 Alliance, Aspirations in Computing, TECHNOLOchicas, AspireIT, CSEdWeek, CS and Cyber for Girl Scouts, the CSforALL Summit, and JROTC-CS. She served as 2012 Chair of CSEDWeek, was named a 2013 White House Champion of Change for Technology Inclusion, received the 2014 Anita Borg Institute Award for Social Impact, and the inaugural UK Alumni Award for Social Impact in 2015. She holds a BA from Lewis & Clark College and an MBA from Oxford.

Rian (Walker) Ferria

Co-Founder and Recipient, Last Mile Education Fund
Vice President and Information Security Consultant, Bank of America

The inspiration for this fund, Rian Walker began to explore technology at a young age. She got her first computer when she was six years old, and took off in the world of technology. Rian learned HTML and CSS to customize her Myspace page; and she purchased broken phones from Ebay, fixed them, and resold them. Despite a really challenging road, Rian ardently pursued her dream of a career in technology with the help of Dr. Lee and others. Now a graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in software engineering, Rian holds a role as Assistant Vice President, Information Security Analyst at Bank of America.

Sarah Lee, PhD

Co-Founder, Last Mile Education Fund
Director, School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering, University of Southern Mississippi

A fifth generation Mississippian, Sarah Lee earned her bachelor's degree from the Mississippi University for Women in Computer Information Systems. She received her Master of Computer Science degree from Mississippi State University and her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Memphis. Before returning to academia in 2011, she was employed at FedEx Corporation for 19 years, holding a variety of technical and managerial positions. She currently works as Director of the School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. Since 2011, she has worked on multiple initiatives in Mississippi to broaden participation in computing. She led the effort to launch the Mississippi affiliates of Aspirations in Computing and Women in Cybersecurity, and she has delivered K-12 co-curricular programs throughout the state since 2013. With a passion to provide more equitable access to computing and cybersecurity educational pathways, she launched USM’s Cyber4Work program that provides rapid upskill training in cybersecurity to adult learners in Mississippi.