It's that time again to nominate a colleague for one of three opportunities through the Mississippi Health Information Management Association.

Board of Directors

Have you been looking to advance your leadership and serve in a MSHIMA volunteer leadership role? Now is your chance! Open positions for the 2026 ballot include President-Elect, First Year Delegate, Northern Liaison, Central Liaison, Southern Liaison, and Nominating Committee (3 positions).  To nominate, please send the nominees' name, contact information and a 4 sentence bio of the candidate to Dr. Alicia Watts at awatts@wmcarey.edu.

The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, March 27, 2026.

Scholarship Awards

MSHIMA is pleased to award deserving students with scholarships to offset the cost of advancing their careers. If you are a student deserving of such an award, or if you know of an HIM student in one of Mississippi's certified HIM programs deserving of a scholarship, please submit

To apply, a student should submit:

(1) a typed essay that includes: why he/she chose a career in HIM and why he/she should be considered for the scholarship

(2) proof of AHIMA student membership with MS being listed as state of residence

(3) letter of reference from program director or instructor that includes the student’s achievements, student’s GPA (which must be a minimum of a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale) and verification that the student plans to maintain enrollment in HIT/HIM related courses during the next academic year, and

(4) resume to include education, work/volunteer experience, honors/awards, and organizational memberships.

Click here to apply for a scholarship.  The deadline to apply is Friday, May 8, 2026.

Award Nominations

MSHIMA awards exceptional HIM professionals during its annual convention, which will be held June 10-12, 2026 in Hattiesburg.

Click here to view award categories.

If you or a colleague are deserving of one of MSHIMA's awards, complete our Award Nomination Form. The deadline is Friday, May 8, 2026.  

President’s Message

Hey MSHIMA Data Ninjas,

Welcome to the Mississippi Health Information Management Association- MSHIMA, where we make health records better looking than a perfectly coded CPT! Whether you’re a brand-new member still learning the difference between HIPAA and a hippo, a grizzled HIM veteran who dreams of ICD-10, or just here to swipe the free coffee at our meet-ups, we’re over-the-moon excited to have you in our chart-topping crew!

Let’s give a big shout-out to our fearless leaders, the board members, who are steering the MSHIMA ship with more finesse than a coder nailing a 7th-character ICD-10 code on the first try. With them at the helm, we’re ready to keep the data flowing smoother than a well-audited revenue cycle. HIM pros like you are the unsung heroes of healthcare, wrestling rogue EHRs, taming wild spreadsheets, and decoding physician handwriting that looks like it was scribbled by a caffeinated squirrel. At MSHIMA, we’re here to cheer you on with the tools, laughs, and maybe a few sanity-saving tips to keep you thriving.

We’ve got a year packed with more action than a last-minute Meaningful Use audit! Picture our annual conference (example: less “death by PowerPoint,” more “HIM party of the year”), local meet-ups where you can trade war stories about SNOMED-CT nightmares, and workshops to keep your skills sharper than a coder’s red pen. Want to dive deeper? Join a committee, share your epic ideas, or just show up to commiserate about that one time you spent three hours fixing a single DRG code. (We’ve all been there, right?)

Swing by our website www.mshima.org or ping us at mshima@mshima.org to get the lowdown on what’s coming up. Your passion and wit are what make MSHIMA the hottest ticket in HIM, so don’t leave us hanging like an unresolved claim- jump in and let’s make some healthcare magic!

Thanks for joining the MSHIMA squad. Here’s to a year of slaying data dragons, dodging PHI breaches, and maybe even surviving the next EMR upgrade with a smile, all under the current board members' awesome leadership!

Stay code-tastic,

Ashley Stanford
MSHIMA President