Portia Ballard Espy is chief administrative officer for the Children's Defense Fund's Southern Regional Office in Jackson, Mississippi. She has 28 years of experience working in the areas of Human Resources, Communications, Grant making and Low-Income related initiatives. She has worked for companies such as Cox Communications; The Black Collegian Magazine; Pellerin Milnor Corporation; Shell Oil Company; Shell Offshore Inc.; Shell Chemical Company; Raytheon Aerospace, Entergy Corporation, Entergy Mississippi, Inc. and the Kellogg Foundation’s Mid South Delta Initiative. Before she joined CDF, Portia served as Assistant Director of the Kellogg Foundation’s Mid South Delta Initiative, a program that helped facilitate local citizens in the Delta regions of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas to create a better quality of life in their respective communities.

Portia is a cum laude graduate of Southern University - Baton Rouge where she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts, concentrating specifically in the areas of electronic media and journalism. She went on to receive a Master's of Business Administration degree from Loyola University of New Orleans, with a concentration in Human Resources Management. Portia serves as a Commissioner on the board of the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Services. She also serves on the boards of Excel by Five and Digital Opportunity Trust-USA. Portia has served on the boards of the Mississippi Head Start Association (Friend), the Mississippi IDA Partnership, the Mississippi Foundation for Public Broadcasting, the Mississippi Children’s Museum; and is a past member of the Former Members of Congress Auxiliary and the 2010 Class of Leadership Mississippi.