Dr. Nashlie Sephus is a principal scientist in artificial intelligence and machine learning focusing on fairness and identifying biases. She formerly was CTO of AI startup Partpic based in Atlanta which was acquired by the Amazon Visual Search team. After then joining Amazon as an Applied Scientist she led many product launches including visual search for replacement parts on the Amazon Shopping app in June 2018. Also in 2018, Dr. Sephus became the founder and CEO of The Bean Path non-profit organization based in Jackson, MS assisting individuals and startups with technical expertise and guidance. In September of 2020, she became the owner and developer of the Jackson Tech District—21-acres of mixed-use commercial real-estate in downtown Jackson—to bring tech training and workforce/economic development to the area.