UCA chief of staff to leave Aug. 15

CONWAY — Kelley Erstine, a vice president and chief of staff at the University of Central Arkansas, plans to leave the school this summer.

Erstine’s resignation will be effective Aug. 15.

Erstine, 61, has served as vice president for university relations and chief of staff since he returned to UCA in September 2015 from an insurance position in North Carolina. During this time, he also was interim UCA president from December 2016 to February 2017.

In 2000, then-Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed Erstine to the UCA board of trustees. In 2004, Erstine resigned from the board to accept a position as UCA vice president of advancement and development, a job he held until June 2008.

In an email Thursday to faculty and staff, UCA President Houston Davis said Erstine had accepted a position as chief executive officer of the Independent Insurance Agents of Arkansas, a trade association. “This is the same position Kelley held previously for eight years in Arkansas and for seven years at the North Carolina Agents Association,” Davis said.

Erstine “will continue to carry out his current responsibilities until his final day at UCA in August,” Davis said.

“While I congratulate Kelley on this opportunity, he will be greatly missed here. He loves this university and has served it well on several occasions,” Davis added.

Davis said he would “begin consideration in the coming weeks of [the] next steps to fill this important role on my leadership team.”

UCA spokesman Amanda Hoelzeman said in an email Thursday that the university “will hire a new Chief of Staff, but President Davis has not determined at this time if there will be a search or when that may start.”