DBA 13 Candidates
Kiara Ampuero Cerdan
Kiara Ampuero is a healthcare professional with experience in healthcare operations, program coordination, process improvement, and physician engagement. She currently serves as a Manager with Fresenius Medical Care, where she supports hospital-based dialysis services and helps ensure patients receive quality care.
Before joining Fresenius, Kiara worked at Mayo Clinic. One of her proudest accomplishments was contributing to an award-winning quality improvement project. She also served as an Instructor in Medical Education. Kiara earned her Master of Healthcare Administration and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration at Jacksonville University. Her research interests include healthcare leadership, rural healthcare access, care coordination, and improving patient outcomes.
As a bilingual, first-generation college graduate who grew up in rural Georgia, Kiara understands how difficult it can be for people in smaller communities to access healthcare and educational opportunities. These experiences have shaped her passion for helping underserved communities. Her long-term goals are to become a healthcare executive and an adjunct professor so she can make a difference both in healthcare and in the classroom.
Outside of work and school, Kiara enjoys traveling, hiking, volunteering, trying new experiences, and spending time with her family.
Wayne Barr II
Wayne Barr II is an adjunct professor in the Office of Freshman Studies at Florida A&M University, where he has taught the Freshman Year Experience cpourse since 2022, alongside his work as a Grants Business Manager at Florida State University overseeing sponsored project compliance and finance. His career spans over 15 years in Florida state government, including roles as an auditor, internal auditor, and senior management analyst across the Departments of Economic Opportunity, Children & Families, and Financial Services. He holds an MBA in Management from Florida A&M University and is a Certified Inspector General Auditor (CIGA).
Portia Brown
Portia Brown is an Officer, Fraud Analyst II at Bank of America in Jacksonville, Florida, who has contributed to a plethora of Client Protection functions such as fraud referral investigations and high-risk mitigation for unusual claims activity. She is currently transitioning into the Legal, Risk, and Regulatory line of business to better apply her recent Juris Master’s degree in Financial Regulation and Compliance from Florida State University’s College of Law.
Portia has been dedicated to operational and compliance excellence in the financial institution space dating back to 2017 when she started her career at Citibank. At Citi, she developed foundational corporate skills such as professionalism, public speaking, and collaboration with leadership. Along with career development skills, she excelled in many different functions ranging from entry-level collections, FEMA support, training support, and vendor business control.
Although Portia considers herself a Jacksonville native, she was born in Montgomery, Alabama and moved to Jacksonville at the age of three. She is deeply rooted in a love for black history and has founded a non-profit organization (Melanin Every Month Inc.) with the mission of Inspiring, uplifting, and educating the community while also celebrating black history and black excellence 365 days a year, as opposed to just in February. Through her organization, Portia has been committed to serving her community through volunteer events.
Portia earned a B.S. in Criminology and Juris master’s in financial Regulation and Compliance from Florida State University; she is now pursuing a DBA with hopes of understanding how to operate as a Risk and Compliance professional in the banking space at an executive level, gain a deeper research acumen, and discover how business structures can be applied to her non-profit organization.
Outside of her career, Portia loves to spend time with her daughter Nevaeh, spend time with friends and family, travel, workout, do community work, be creative in any way that she can, and you can always find her near the beach.
Jennifer Gallant-Backman
Jennifer Gallant-Backman, MPA, is a Doctor of Business Administration student at Jacksonville University and an executive healthcare and operations leader. She serves as Regional Operations Director at Dispatch Health, supporting decentralized Hospital-at-Home care delivery across multiple markets, and as Chief Financial Officer of Gallant Family Enterprises, a family-owned portfolio of construction, paving, and aggregate materials companies. Her doctoral research explores how leaders in family-owned and asset-intensive businesses use AI and analytics to strengthen operational decision-making. Gallant-Backman holds a Master of Public Administration from Anna Maria College and brings more than a decade of experience spanning healthcare operations, emergency services leadership, and multi-entity financial management to her doctoral work.
David Gilmore
David Gilmore is the founder and principal of Gilmore Management Systems, LLC (GMS), a Florida-based ISO management systems auditing and consulting firm specializing in ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001. He holds Lead Auditor credentials across all three standards and serves as an appointed third-party auditor for DQS, Inc., an ANAB-accredited certification body, conducting certification audits across the manufacturing, defense, professional services, and industrial sectors. He is an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE) and an ASQ Certified Quality Auditor (CQA), a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and holds a lifetime Certification in Transportation and Logistics (CTL). He holds a Master of Science in Management with a specialization in Contracting and Procurement and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration specializing in Technology Management.
A U.S. Navy veteran, Gilmore served as both a submarine and aviation supply officer, in environments where supply chain integrity and zero-defect execution keep ships at sea and aircraft in the air. That foundation carries into his work with clients today, where he helps organizations get more from the management systems they have already built and hold those gains year over year. He serves on the board of the ASQ Jacksonville Section 1506 and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration in Business Analytics at Jacksonville University, where his research examines how data science methods can help organizations measure, predict, and improve quality outcomes.
Laura Hill
Laura Hill is a doctoral student and accounting educator with professional experience in taxation, financial management, and business operations. She is the Founder and President of Tax HQ LLC, where she provides tax preparation, tax planning, and payroll services to individuals and businesses. Laura also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania and Penn State University, teaching Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, and Cost Accounting.
Laura holds a Master of Accountancy and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and is an IRS Enrolled Agent. She also holds an undergraduate degree in Behavioral Sciences and Leadership from the United States Air Force Academy.
Prior to her career in accounting and higher education, Laura served more than ten years in the United States Air Force as a Reconnaissance Pilot and Officer. Her military experience provided a strong foundation in leadership, instruction, problem-solving, and organizational management.
As a doctoral student, Laura is interested in advancing her knowledge of accounting and business education while drawing on her diverse professional experiences to contribute to research, teaching, and the academic community. Her background in accounting, taxation, higher education, and military leadership provides a unique perspective on the intersection of professional practice and accounting education.
Melvin "Jeff" Lankford, Jr.
Jeff Lankford is a seasoned U.S. Navy veteran and operations leader with over 21 years of high-stakes leadership experience in complex meteorological, oceanographic, and tactical defense environments. With a global scope of responsibility, he has delivered environmental intelligence and risk-mitigation analysis supporting U.S. European Command, Africa Command, Central Command, and NATO operations, safeguarding more than $300 billion in Department of Defense assets across 450-plus installations. Currently, Jeff serves as a UAV Meteorologist and Operational Advisor at RedTown, LLC, where he provides environmental intelligence and strategic risk assessments that optimize global flight planning and mission effectiveness for Navy UAV operations.
Jeff holds a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Jacksonville University's Davis College of Business & Technology, a Bachelor of Science in Operational Meteorology from Mississippi State University, and an Associate of Arts in General Studies from the University of Maryland Global Campus.
Jeff was appointed as a Drug and Alcohol Program Advisor (DAPA) and certified ADAMS for Supervisors facilitator during his Navy service, serving as his command's advisor on corporate wellness, risk mitigation, and regulatory compliance, while also directing personnel management, training, and conflict resolution for teams of up to 25 in high-stress environments.
Oscar Lemus Treminio
Oscar Lemus Treminio is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with over 8.5 years of administrative leadership experience, having managed personnel, logistics, and operations for organizations ranging from the Pentagon to a Wounded Warrior detachment overseas. He currently serves as Branch Office Administrator at Edward Jones, supporting client relationships and daily branch operations, after holding supervisory roles managing teams and multimillion-dollar administrative functions within the Marine Corps. He holds an MBA from the University of Maryland Global Campus and is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified, with a growing focus on financial services through his Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional (FPQP®) designation.
Sabrina Meumann
Sabrina Meumann serves as a Pediatric Critical Care Float Registered Nurse at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital, part of Stanford Children’s Health. In this role, she provides specialized care for critically ill pediatric patients, including those with complex cardiac conditions, traumatic injuries, and multi-organ transplants. She has also contributed to program development, leadership training, and unit design initiatives within the hospital.
Earlier in her career, Meumann gained extensive experience as a traveling nurse across leading children’s hospitals and Level 1 trauma centers nationwide, including assignments in pediatric cardiac intensive care units, neonatal intensive care units, and oncology intensive care units. Her work has spanned institutions such as MD Anderson Cancer Center, Minneapolis Children’s Hospital, Valley Children’s Hospital, and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. She has also served as a leader on wound care policy, ethics committees, and evidence-based practice initiatives.
Sabrina earned her Master's of Science in Organizational Leadership and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Jacksonville University and an Associate of Science in Nursing from Daytona State College.
Rhianna Scyster
Rhianna currently serves as the Lead Consultant for her family’s consulting group, where she supports nonprofits in their policy advocacy, strategic planning, and community engagement. In 2020, Rhianna was awarded the Nat Glover Policy Fellowship from Jacksonville University, where she earned her Master’s in Public Policy in 2023. In 2024, Rhianna received the OneJax Humanitarian Acosta-Rua Young Professional’s Award as the 6th recipient of this award in award history. Most recently, Rhianna was recognized by University of North Florida’s Alumni Association and received the 2025 Young Alumni Achievement Award. In 2023, Rhianna founded the Jacksonville Policy Engagement Group (JPEG), a small group of public policy professionals dedicated to informing their local community on policy initiatives and activating all through dialogue and education. Rhianna is honored to serve as the Board Vice President for The Sanctuary on 8th Street and co-chair of the Jacksonville Transformation Coalition’s Culture and Community Workgroup.
Outside of her work, Rhianan is the mom to 2-year-old, Jori, wife to Holden, and friend to many!
Holden Scyster
Holden Scyster is an operations executive who serves as the force multiplier behind growing organizations, building the systems, reporting infrastructure, and AI-powered workflows that let leadership focus on mission rather than coordination. Currently, Holden serves as Chief Operating Officer at READ USA, Inc., where he manages complex workstreams across finance, technology, and program delivery while building automation and reporting systems that make small teams faster.
Throughout his career, Holden has been instrumental in turning complex data into decision-ready insight. His leadership journey also includes a Teach For America corps membership as a middle school math teacher in Duval County Public Schools, a role in which he closed achievement gaps through data-driven, individualized instruction and mentored incoming teachers. He additionally serves as part-time Chief Financial Officer for First Baptist Church of Oakland, overseeing financial reporting and cash flow for a $1.1M+ annual budget, and brings prior technical discipline from his service as an Avionics Technician in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Holden holds a Bachelor of Science in Sport Administration from Louisiana State University, a Master of Science in Applied Business Analytics from Jacksonville University and is a Salesforce Certified Associate with a Google AI Essentials certification.
Kalaivani Suriyamoorthy
Kalai Suriyamoorthy is the CEO and founder of Shiva Robotics Academy, a STEM education institution she built from the ground up over the past decade, and the founder of the Shivaji Foundation, a nonprofit that brought robotics education to over 900 underserved students in 2025 alone. Her work has been recognized with the Jacksonville Business Journal TECH Leader Award and a TEDx talk, and she is a Carnegie Mellon-trained robotics professional whose FIRST Robotics teams have won awards at the state and world championship levels. She is now pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration to deepen her expertise in strategic leadership and the business of technology-driven education.
Chase Tennant
Chase Tennant is an analytically minded operations and account management professional with a track record of turning data into measurable business results. Currently, Chase serves as a National Account Manager at MegaCorp Logistics, where he manages client relationships, negotiates and dispatches shipments, and built a new Salesforce-based operational system that cuts customer turnaround time by 30%.
Throughout his career, Chase has been instrumental in using data and process improvement to drive results, having spent nearly eight years at A/C Designs Inc. progressing from warehouse and registrar roles through scheduling, maintenance, and ultimately business operations, where he applied economic analysis to inform maintenance department strategy.
Chase holds a Master of Science in Applied Business Analytics and a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences with concentrations in Economics and Marketing from Florida State University. In 2026, he was recognized as the youngest broker to win MegaCorp's March Madness Sales Tournament.