Speaker's Circuit
Greg Harrison and Clark Hale will be the speakers when the Rotary Club meets at noon Monday at St. Mary’s Parish Hall.
They will speak about the Union County Recreation Complex.
Harrison is a current member of the El Dorado Rotary Club, previously serving as club president in 2013-14 and as assistant district governor in 2016-17. He also represents District 3 on the Union County Quorum Court. He serves on the Public Services Committee and is the current chair of the El Dorado/ Union County Recreational Complex Board. Harrison is a member of the United Way of Union County Board, serving as board president in 2015, and he’s a member of the El Dorado Boys’ & Girls’ Club Board, where he serves as a volunteer coach. He is the president of the El Dorado Jaycees, previously serving in this capacity in 2011 and as the Arkansas Jaycees president in 2012. He is the manager/coach of the local American Legion baseball program, starting it up as one team in 2014 and branching out to five teams, which gave 90 young men between the ages of 14-19 the opportunity to play baseball, last summer. The program is looking to have four teams this summer, in which the season will start after Memorial Day. Harrison is a financial adviser with Edward Jones, starting his career in the industry nine years ago, and he currently serves as the field trainer leader for Region 295. Harrison and his wife, Kelli, have three kids: Maddie (6), Will (5) and Hunter (10 months), and they are members of First Baptist Church of El Dorado.
Hale is a native of El Dorado. He is a 2015 graduate of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. Following graduation, Hale worked in the sales department of El Dorado Metals. In 2017, he became an account executive for The Diamond Agency, an El Dorado-based marketing and public relations firm. Hale is involved in advertising sales for the Arkadelphia Life magazine, the Clark County Adventure Guide and the El Dorado Insider. He is also responsible for billboards and community sponsorships for various organizations. In addition to his work at the Diamond Agency, Clark manages apartment rentals for Diamond Properties. Hale is a member of the 2018 ULEAD class and an advisory board member of El Dorado Festival & Events. He attends St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.
Alexis Alexander will be the speaker when the Kiwanis Club meets at noon Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church.
Alexis Alexander is executive director of the United Way of Union County. She oversees the local campaign that raised more than $1.1 million in 2017, the countywide Dolly Parton Imagination Library program and the Union County Hunger Relief Alliance.
Alexander is a graduate of Caddo Magnet High School and Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Leadership Arkansas and the three-year Community Development Institute at the University of Central Arkansas.
She currently serves as secretary-treasurer of Rotary Club of El Dorado and Crime Stoppers of El Dorado and is a member of the El Dorado Parks & Playground Commission.
Alexander lives in El Dorado with her six rescue dogs; Sam, Dixie, Sir Shorty, Sadie, River and PJ.
The Rev. Jesse C. Turner will be the guest speaker when the Civitan Club meets at noon Thursday at Antigua’s restaurant.
Turner is pastor of the historic 174-yearold Elm Grove Baptist Church in Pine Bluff and
executive director for the Pine Bluff Interested Citizens for Voter Registration, Inc., a 51-year-old tax-exempt, nonprofit and nonpolitical organization.
Through his work with the nonprofit, Turner secured a federal program for Pine Bluff called Weed and Seed, and secured more than $10 million for the University Park and Central Park Weed and Seed
neighborhoods, and the local economy. His work with the U.S. Department of Justice Weed and Seed Initiatives was recognized by the National Crime Prevention Council, and the Faith and Service Technical Network in Washington, DC. In 2016, Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed him to serve on the Board of Visitors for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He spearheaded efforts in 2003 to resurface and repair University Drive/Highway 79 north in front of the university in Pine Pluff, which cost $6.2 million, and led the naming of
a portion of I-530 in Pine Bluff to honor the late Civil Rights attorney and AM&N/UAPB alumni Wiley Austin Branton, Sr.
In 1987, Turner led a successful boycott against the local newspaper, which became the “catalyst” for developing a journalism program at the university.
He is the first recipient of the Pine Bluff Branch NAACP Dove Award for Civil Rights. He was the first African-American Republican to win a state primary since Reconstruction.