Page 81 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2026

The Women of
Coastal
Mississippi
There is no single path to a career in tourism,
and three women helping shape Coastal Mississippi
prove it. Kendra Simpson, Director of Marketing;
Ari Covacevich, Director of Sales and Business
Development; and Pattye Meagher, Director of
Communications and Engagement, arrived through
different careers and experiences but share a passion for
the place they now promote.
Kendra Simpson’s connection to Coastal Mississippi is
personal. She moved to Pass Christian with her husband,
a Coast native, before Hurricane Katrina and chose
to stay, rebuild, and raise their family here. Her career
began in hospitality while she was earning her marketing
degree at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf
Park campus, then grew through leadership roles at the
Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Mississippi Aquarium
before she joined Coastal Mississippi in 2022.
“What excites me most is the potential,” Simpson says.
“People don’t realize what we have until they come see
it. Then they can’t stop talking about it, and they want to
come back.”
That perspective comes from experiencing the
Coast not just as a marketer, but as a resident who
has watched the region rebuild, grow, and evolve.
Simpson sees the mix of food, music, beaches, golf,
outdoor recreation, arts, and family attractions as one
of Coastal Mississippi’s greatest strengths. When she’s
not promoting the place she calls home, she’s usually
enjoying it herself outdoors gardening, kayaking, and,
more recently, raising monarch butterflies.
For Covacevich, promoting Coastal Mississippi means
promoting home. Born in Oxford and raised on the
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Kendra Simpson
Her appreciation for Coastal Mississippi extends
beyond work through gardening, kayaking and, most
recently, raising monarch butterflies after discovering
caterpillars on milkweed in her yard. For someone who
encourages others to discover the Coast, nurturing one
of its smallest seasonal visitors feels especially fitting.
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living | www.smliving.net Coast, she graduated from Pass Christian High School
and has spent more than 15 years in tourism. Today, she
leads efforts to attract meetings, conventions, sporting
events, leisure groups, and international visitors.
“I love that we have access to some of the freshest
seafood you can find,” Covacevich says. “There’s such
an incredible diversity to our food scene, but what really
makes Coastal Mississippi special are the people behind
it.”
Her connection to the Coast also runs through her
husband’s family, whose Biloxi shipbuilding roots date to
1896. Today, she and her husband, Josh, are raising their
daughter, Emma, with a similar connection to the water
through boating, fishing, cooking, and exploring local
restaurants.
Meagher took a different route home. Raised in
Monticello, she grew up vacationing on the Coast before
launching a communications career in Washington,
D.C. Her experience included work on Capitol
Hill, communications and legislative affairs for the
American Conservative Union and CPAC, service with
Congressman Walter B. Jones Jr., and her own public
relations consulting business. After living in Virginia and
Savannah, she returned to Mississippi and joined Coastal
Mississippi in 2022. Meagher jokes that her unofficial
title should be “Mythbuster.”
“I love telling people about the Coast and dispelling
preconceived ideas about what Mississippi is,” she says.
Her favorite moments come when visiting journalists see
the coastline and respond, “I had no idea it would be like
this.”
Different paths brought Simpson, Covacevich, and
Meagher to Coastal Mississippi, but their mission is
shared. They also agree that the leadership of CEO Judy
Young and the team she has assembled gives each of
them the opportunity to help shape the future of Coastal
Mississippi Tourism for tourism partners, communities,
and, most importantly, the people who call Coastal
Mississippi home.
COASTAL MISSISSIPPI
P.O. Box 8005, Biloxi
228.896.6699
www.coastalmississippi.com
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