LITTLE ROCK-Yessica Jones of Searcy, Arkansas, was appointed today as the deputy director of the Department of Information Systems (DIS).

“Yessica brings a diverse background in IT from teaching programming at Harding University to being a former database developer at Acxiom. She is a great addition to a great team,” noted Mark Myers, the director of DIS.

“I appreciate the opportunity the Hutchinson administration has given me. I have seen the progress and direction that DIS is taking. I look forward to helping the agency continue to be an example of an efficient organization,” Jones said.

Jones previously served as Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s outreach liaison to the Hispanic community and serves as an assistant professor in Harding University’s Department of Management Information Systems, teaching data management, database design, and business applications programming. Prior to that, she served as a solutions developer for Little Rock-based Acxiom, and as a database developer for Pennzoil.

Jones holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.B.A. from Harding University. She replaces Herschel Cleveland, who retired in June of 2015.