District leadership
Chris works inside a live public-school system. Budget, operations, staffing, and community trust are part of the context behind everything else on the site.
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Superintendent · Speaker · AI Implementation Leader
Chris
Chism
Superintendent of Pearl Public School District, co-founder of AscendEd Intelligence, and a national speaker on leadership, systems, and responsible AI implementation across education, business, and industry.
Chris is most useful when the conversation needs to move past hype and into decisions, guardrails, workflows, and change that can work in actual organizations — whether schools, businesses, or public agencies.
Featured
Start here.
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Presentation deck
The AI implementation slide deck behind many of Chris's keynotes and trainings, open to view.
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Chism's AI Academy
A free, self-paced course from a first prompt to building with AI agents. No login required.
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Financial Literacy (Moneywise High)
A personal finance course for grades 9–12 with standards-aligned scenarios and a hands-on Budget Lab.
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The Agent Office
Chris's real AI agents as a live cartoon office: break room when idle, desks when working.
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Live Keynote Avatar
Talk live with Chris's AI digital twin on stage. Behind a sign-in; contact Chris to request access or a demo.
SPEAKING
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Keynotes, trainings, and advisory work through AI Strategies LLC: 290 presentations in 19 states.
All projects A–Z →Tools for schools →AI Lab & side projects →
At a glance
Superintendent of Pearl Public School District.
Pearl Public School District profile, verified June 13, 2026More than 30 years in public education.
Pearl Public School District profile290 presentations across 19 states — schools, businesses, IT, legal, financial, engineering, and civic organizations.
Pearl Public School District profileWitness for a U.S. House hearing on AI in K-12 education.
House Education and Workforce Committee, April 1, 2025Three operating lanes shape the public work.
Practical AI implementation
His AI work is grounded in workflows, literacy, and operational usefulness rather than abstract futurism. The emphasis is what organizations — school systems, businesses, and industries — can actually adopt and govern.
Co-founder & CIO, AscendEd Intelligence
Chris co-founded AscendEd Intelligence and runs the AI side of the company as Chief Innovation Officer. The platform consolidates fragmented K-12 district data into a unified analytics environment — built by educators, not consultants.
On the record
Public sources back the work.
Full public record & press →
Useful for rooms that want practical clarity.
Organizers usually invite Chris when they need a practitioner’s view of AI, leadership, or responsible implementation — whether the room is education leaders, business executives, IT professionals, or civic organizations. The best fit is an audience that wants operating clarity more than keynote theater.
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AI Speech & Panel — 2026 Mississippi Digital Innovation Conference
Spoke and joined the artificial intelligence panel at the 2026 Mississippi Digital Innovation Conference at Tupelo's Huntington Bank Arena, alongside sessions on cybersecurity and fiber internet. Covered the AI literacy future jobs will require — choosing the right model for the task, prompting well, and keeping a human in the loop — for an audience of students, educators, business owners, and workers.
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Dr. Chris Chism LIVE from Digital Innovation MEGAPOP — SuperTalk Mississippi
Live on SuperTalk Mississippi's MidDays with Gerard Gibert from the Huntington Bank Arena & Conference Center at the MEGAPOP Digital Innovation 2026 Conference, talking through the work that goes into educating the next generation of Mississippians.
Bio
Chris Chism, in brief.
Chris Chism is superintendent of Pearl Public School District and co-founder of AscendEd Intelligence. He has dedicated more than 30 years to public education and has delivered 290 presentations across 19 states — to K-12 leaders, IT professionals, judges, CPAs, engineers, architects, and business executives. He testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce on April 1, 2025 and received the 2026 Hugh I. Peck Research Award from William Carey University. He is the 2025-2026 Mississippi Superintendent of the Year.
Get in touch
Speaking, media, and collaboration inquiries.
Reach out directly by email or phone. For speaking and media requests, include the event, audience, format, and date so the inquiry can be routed quickly.