Arkansas PBS Foundation announces new board members

The Arkansas PBS Foundation has recently announced newly elected board members. They include Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, Toni Lindsey and Ed McClure.

The Arkansas PBS Foundation helps fundraise and coordinate volunteers for Arkansas PBS, the statewide public media network.

“I am very pleased to welcome these three excellent new members to the Arkansas PBS Foundation Board at this important moment,” Jonathan Rhodes, Arkansas PBS Foundation Board president, said. “During the challenging past year, Arkansas PBS has proven just how essential and valuable the network is to the citizens of Arkansas.

“As Arkansas PBS expands its broadcast signal to reach almost every resident in the state, the Foundation is also focused on expanding the geographic diversity and professional skills of our board members to strengthen our support for the Arkansas PBS mission,” Rhodes said.

Jones-Branch is the James and Wanda Lee Vaughn Professor of History and dean of the Graduate School at Arkansas State University. She is the author of “Crossing the Line: Women and Interracial Activism in South Carolina During and After World War II” and the co-editor of “Arkansas Women: Their Lives and Times.”

A second manuscript titled “Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women’s Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1914-1965” is forthcoming from the University of Arkansas Press in June 2021. Jones-Branch is working on her next manuscript tentatively titled “. . .To Make the Farm Bureau Stronger and Better for All the People: African Americans and the American Farm Bureau Federation, 1920-1966.”

A former Arkansas Humanities Council board chair and current Black History Commission of Arkansas commissioner, Jones-Branch is also a Persian Gulf War veteran.

Lindsey is director of Governmental Affairs for the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas. She also serves as the director for the Leadership Arkansas program.

Lindsey previously worked for the University of Arkansas Department of Athletics for more than 16 years. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and communication from the University of Arkansas and has completed master’s degree coursework in communication.

McClure is a partner at Matthews, Campbell, Rhoads, McClure & Thompson, P.A. His practice includes general, family, corporate and civil law. Originally from Iowa, McClure graduated from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, in 1982. He worked for a year in the Iowa House of Representatives before attending the University of Arkansas School of Law, graduating in 1986.

McClure has previously served as Rogers interim municipal judge, as well as on the Rogers Historic District Commission; Main Street Rogers; the Arkansas Bar Association Board of Governors; the House of Delegates; and Benton County Bar Association.

The board also includes: Phil Kaplan, vice president, attorney, Little Rock; Gayle Corley, secretary/treasurer, attorney, Little Rock; Catherine Bays, chief development officer, Museum of Discovery, Little Rock; Annette Herrington, CPA, Little Rock; Dr. Chris Jones, executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, Little Rock; Peggy Matson, former director of the Arkansas State Board of Collection Agencies, Little Rock; Scott Pace, partner, Impact Management Group, Little Rock; Courtney Pledger, executive director, Arkansas PBS, Little Rock; Dr. S. Lynne Rich, associate professor at the University of Central Arkansas, Conway; Larry Ross, president, Ross Consulting, Sherwood; and Ronnie Williams, vice president for Student Services, UCA, Menifee.