Experience that translates to the job

Experience that translates to the job

For nearly 25 years with Alltel and Verizon, I worked across multiple states and in large, complex operations. I led teams, supported multi-site operations, managed multimillion-dollar budgets and projects, worked with enterprise systems and major vendors, and was responsible for turning strategy into results.

At one point, my responsibilities included an operation of roughly 800 employees on a large corporate campus. At that scale, you learn quickly that strategy only works when the people responsible for carrying it out have the right systems, tools, training and support.

Today, I work full time leading Learning & Development for a large dental organization based in Little Rock with operations across multiple states. I build learning strategy and, just as importantly, the practical systems and tools required to implement it across many locations.

But my experience isn’t only from inside large organizations.

Steve and I have also owned a small business and operated a farm in rural Arkansas. I’ve been the person managing expenses, navigating requirements and trying to keep an operation going when margins are tight. We ultimately had to pause our farm operations, so I understand how hard it can be for small-business owners and farmers who are simply trying to make a living in a system that can feel stacked against them.

That perspective matters in an office responsible for Business Services. Government shouldn’t make it harder than necessary for someone to start a business, maintain it, understand what they’re required to file, or get an answer when something goes wrong.

Throughout my career — from Alltel and Verizon to running a small business and farm of my own — I’ve believed in looking at the work honestly: understand the problem, listen to the people closest to it, look at the evidence, build a solution, measure the results and change course when something isn’t working.

That’s the experience I would bring to the Secretary of State’s office: leading people, managing complex systems, understanding the people who depend on them, and making those systems work better.