Pulaski County district adds board member

Gustafson a law school dean, mother

Lindsey Gustafson of Maumelle is the newest member of the Pulaski County Special School Board.

Gustafson, 51, was appointed to the position by the other six members of the School Board on Tuesday to fill the vacancy created by the resignation last month of Alicia Wilmoth.

The mother of six children who attend or graduated from the district’s schools, Gustafson has been on the faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law Associate for nearly 25 years. She is currently dean for academic affairs at the law school.

Gustafson has experience with district governance. She previously served as a chairman of the district’s Community Advisory Board when the district was operating under state control for fiscal distress and without an elected board.

She was on that advisory board from 2013 to 2016 when the district was removed from state control and a local board elected.

“I am really grateful for the good work you guys have done,” Gustafson told her new colleagues. “I know a little bit about how hard this work is. I’m grateful for how hard Alicia worked and I’m ready to get going.”

Gustafson is a graduate of the district’s former Oak Grove High School that was replaced by Maumelle High. She has served as a member

of both the planning and curriculum committees for Maumelle High School.

Wilmoth, who previously known as Alicia Gillen, represented the district’s Zone 5. Wilmoth, a former executive with the Maumelle Chamber of Commerce, recently became director of economic development for the city of Cabot.

Wilmoth recommended Gustafson for the vacancy when she announced her resignation in August.

Gustafson can serve in the Zone 5 board seat until November 2022 at which point she must run for and win election to continue to hold the seat.

There is a board election this coming November but the candidate filing period ended prior to Wilmoth’s resignation.

School Board positions are unpaid.