The Chief Information Officer has operational, strategic and fiscal responsibility for advancement, implementation, and strategic planning related to technology at Southern Miss.

Specifically, the Chief Information Officer is responsible for instructional and research computing for students, staff and faculty at all Southern Miss campuses; overseeing development and operation of the hardware and software infrastructure necessary to support emerging academic and administrative computing needs; recommending technology-related budget priorities; working closely with the university's executive team to establish institutional technology priorities; managing technology personnel and departments; establishing and convening academic and administrative user groups; and interacting with appropriate statewide technology organizations.

Reporting directly to the President, the Chief Information Officer should offer leadership, vision, and broad technical knowledge related to media, telephony, computing and other communications needs of the university, working closely with both technology professionals and academic and administrative advisory groups.

Coffman received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Southern Miss and an executive planning, decision-making, and management education from Air Command and Staff College in Maxwell, Ala., and Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kan. He earned a master's degree in organization and development and information systems from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.; a master's degree in computer information resource management from Webster University in St. Louis; and is pursuing a doctorate in information technology management at Capella University in Minneapolis.

Coffman's experience includes his current position as a project manager, where he implemented an 18-month multimillion-dollar project with Del Monte Foods in San Francisco. As chief technology officer with Firstdoor.com in Atlanta, Coffman served as director of technology, directing and aligning strategic planning, applications development and maintenance and support services to meet corporate objectives. As president and CEO of CyberHawk, he was innovator, developer and founder of an Internet solutions company that was selected as one of the "Emerging 30" companies for two consecutive years.