PGRI's LOTTERY EXPO NASHVILLE
CO-HOSTED by PGRI, Inc., The Tennessee Lottery, and our Industry-Leading Sponsors
September 11-13, 2023
The W Nashville Hotel
Tuesday September 12
3:00 pm WILL (Women’s Initiative in Lottery Leadership) session
Take Command and Win' Special Guest Speaker: Captain Gail Harris, United States Navy (Retired)
Bloom Where You're Planted: Turning a desert experience into an oasis of opportunity. Through hard work fired by courage and persistence- she became the highest ranking African-American female in the U.S. Navy
Captain Harris created the U.S. Navy's first course on ocean surveillance information systems and taught the Anti-Submarine Warfare and Soviet Surface Operations courses. She was one of the first two women assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence's War Gaming Team Detachment at the Naval War College, and was chosen to be commander of the Soviet Union's Theater military forces. Gail coordinated the Defense Department's Intelligence support for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, headed the Intelligence Department for Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Two, in Rota, Spain, with the mission was to support U.S. military and aircraft carrier operations with intelligence reports during the Gulf War.
During her service, between 1992 and 1996, in the Middle East, as the intelligence planner for Commander U.S. Forces Central Command, she also headed the U.S. Navy's Iraqi Crisis Action Cell and Intelligence Watch Center during crisis operations in the Persian Gulf. At this time, she was also specifically chosen by the director of Naval Intelligence and commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command to fill in as acting naval attache, Egypt, for a five-month period, becoming the first female attache to a Middle Eastern country. For her last assignment, Harris was selected to develop intelligence policy for computer network defense and computer network attack for the Department of Defense.
Upon her retirement from military service, Harris worked for Lockheed Martin as an intelligence subject matter expert, has been a contributing author to books such as Wake Up and Live Your Life With Passion, and Lies and Limericks: Inspirations from Ireland, and is currently finishing her book/memoir War On Any Given Day. And she still makes time to host a weekly R&B radio show
WILL (Women’s Initiative in Lottery Leadership)
Panel Discussion: Progress in the Empowerment and Advancement of Women in Lottery
WILL (Women’s Initiative in Lottery Leadership)
Moderator: Rebecca Paul, President & CEO, Tennessee Lottery, President of the World Lottery Association, and Founder and Chair of WILL
Panelists:
Richard Bateson, Chief Commercial Officer, INTRALOT, Inc.
Wendy Montgomery, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Communications and Sustainability, IGT
Jennifer Welshons, Chief Marketing Officer, Scientific Games
Jennifer Westbury, Executive Vice President Sales & Customer Development, Pollard Banknote
