Jurnell Cockhren is the President and founder of Civic Hacker LLC, a social enterprise that builds technology to support social causes and to develop the theory and practice of Public Interest Technology. In addition to being a DevOps practitioner, he uses his engineering skills to help make a positive social impact and ally with vulnerable communities.

Jurnell moved to Nashville after receiving a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from The University of the South: Sewanee. His research contributions have appeared in journals like Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics and Child Psychology and Psychiatry. In 2018, one article received the Clifford T. Morgan Award for Best Article from the Psychonomic Society. Finally, in 2016, he served as a co-organizer for the inaugural DevOps Days Nashville event.