UAMS vice chancellor Cherry Duckett sets retirement date of July 1
by June 20, 2017 5:17 pm 835 views
Cherry Duckett, vice chancellor for institutional relations at UAMS in Little Rock, has announced her plans to retire.
She’ll be replaced by Maurice Rigsby, currently assistant vice chancellor. Both moves are effective July 1.
The news was announced in a memo sent Tuesday (June 20) to UAMS employees from Chancellor Dan Rahn. Duckett has agreed to stay on in an advisory role as special assistant to the chancellor until Aug. 31, according to the memo.
Duckett joined UAMS in 1998 after leaving the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, where she served as deputy director and in other positions for 21 years. Prior to her role at AIDC, she served as an advisor to the late Governor and U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, was a member of the fiscal staff for the Legislative Bureau and was director of the State Energy Office.
Duckett served in several roles at UAMS including governmental affairs liaison and assistant vice chancellor before being promoted in 2014 to vice chancellor for institutional relations.
“UAMS has benefitted from Cherry’s knowledge of state government and federal issues,” Rahn wrote. “She is respected by elected officials and leaders from across the state and beyond.”
Duckett also played a major role in several initiatives important to UAMS, Rahn wrote, including the breast cancer license plate benefitting UAMS and the Komen Foundation, the designation of state matching funds to expand the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and a $102 million Department of Commerce grant to UAMS to establish or upgrade broadband connections at 474 health care and education sites across Arkansas.
Rigsby has worked at UAMS since 2014, first as a government liaison and later as assistant vice chancellor.
“Over the last three years, Maurice has assumed increasing responsibility for UAMS’ complex issues in health care and higher education, working closely with the Governor’s Office, members of the General Assembly and the Arkansas congressional delegation,” Rahn wrote.
Rigsby previously worked as senior assistant attorney general for legislative affairs with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, as deputy director and regulatory affairs counsel for the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission and as a staff attorney for the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research.