New chief named at advocacy group

A former deputy director of the state Department of Human Services has been named executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the advocacy group announced Thursday.

Keesa Smith, deputy director of youth and families at the Human Services Department from 2013 until this year, will start her new job on Feb. 20.

“We are grateful that, after a long and careful search, we have a new executive director,” Ryan Davis, president of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families’ board of directors, said in a news release.

“Keesa has a strong commitment to the children and families of Arkansas, and she is prepared to lead AACF to new heights.”

Smith will be the fifth executive director in the group’s 45-year history. Previous directors were Jo Luck, 19781979; Don Crary, 1979-1988; Amy Rossi, 1988-2003; and Rich Huddleston, 2004-2022.

“I am excited and look forward to continuing AACF’s long history of advocating on behalf of our state’s most vulnerable population, our children,” Smith said in the release. “For more than 45 years, AACF has played a key role in keeping children’s issues at the forefront of people’s minds. I can’t wait to begin this new role and continue the work of improving the lives of Arkansas’s children and families.”

In addition to her deputy director post at the Human Services Department, Smith was the department’s appointee on several boards and commissions and the secretary’s designee on the Supreme Court Commission on Children, Youth and Families. She also served in her own capacity on the Racial Justice Taskforce and the Arkansas Court Improvement Program Advisory Council.

Before serving at the department, Smith led the Department of Workforce Services’ Board of Review, reconstructing processes to eliminate a backlog of more than 4,000 unemployment appeals and decrease the wait time for clients for an agency response from 14 months to 23 days. She was also deputy legal counsel for former Gov. Mike Beebe.

Current interim co-executive directors Jennifer Ferguson and Laura Kellams will return as deputy director and Northwest Arkansas director, respectively. Kellams will continue to provide legislative advocacy leadership during the 2023 legislative session.