One retires, two hired at Arkansas Farm Bureau

Chuck Tucker, Senior Vice President of Organization and Administration with the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, is retiring May 31 following a 36-year career with the organization. Also, the state’s largest agricultural advocacy organization announced it would hire two new public relations veterans, Jason Brown and Steve Powell.

Tucker, 62, began working for Arkansas Farm Bureau in August of 1985, when he was hired as assistant safety director for the farm and ranch advocacy organization.

“I will always be grateful to Mr. Kelly Hargis, former head of the Member Services department, now Organization and Member Programs, and Mr. Jerry Matthews, former Director of Human Resources, for giving me the opportunity to come to work for such a great organization,” Tucker said.

“They encouraged me to pursue my master’s degree first and once I obtained it, Mr. Hargis and his wife drove to Jonesboro to offer me the job. I’ll never forget that,” Tucker said.

Tucker spent his entire career in the Organization and Member Programs department. He first served as safety director, then as director of the Southcentral District until 1996, when he moved to become director of the Southwest District. In 1999, he became director of the Northeast District, where he remained until he was promoted to vice president of OMP in 2007. He was named Senior Vice President of Organization and Administration in 2016.

Jason Brown, APR, and Steve Powell have joined the public relations team, bringing together more than 40 years of professional communications experience.

Brown and Powell will serve as senior field communicators with a focus on telling agriculture stories from across Arkansas. Brown will focus on the southeast and south-central regions and Powell the northwest and southwest regions of Arkansas.

“Today we are proud to welcome to our PR team two experienced communicators with deep agriculture knowledge,” said Steve Eddington, Arkansas Farm Bureau’s vice president, public relations. “Jason and Steve are well-equipped to tell the unique stories of Arkansas farmers and ranchers in addition to the immense value they bring to our communications team.”

Brown comes to ARFB from Indigo Ag, where he managed commercial public relation for the Boston-based agriculture tech company. Before that, he spent more than a decade at The Communications Group, a Little Rock-based marketing and public relations firm, where he led PR work for number of agriculture and manufacturing clients.

Brown, an accredited public relations practitioner, earned the designation in 2017 by demonstrating the mastery of strategic communication practice, competencies and ethical standards. In 2020, he served as president of the Public Relations Society of America’s Arkansas chapter and now sits on the organization’s board of directors as immediate past president.

Powell, who spent 14 years as an anchor and feature reporter for KATV, most recently served as outreach coordinator for the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention and provided communication support for the Arkansas Farmers Market Association. Previously, Powell owned and managed his own video production company, Traveling Pixel. Powell earned a marketing degree from the University of Alabama and studied broadcast journalism at Troy University.