Fort Smith Metro News Briefs: Van Buren High School Hall of Honor, and a MASH program at Mercy

Following are recent news brief items from the Fort Smith metro.

Van Buren Honors
The Van Buren School District is inducting four alumni into the Van Buren High School (VBHS) Hall of Honor. Honorees include Crawford County Adult Education Director Dr. Debbie Faubus Kendrick; Grammy Award-winning country music artist Shay Mooney; former All-State Pointer athlete Tommy Poole, Jr.; and longtime VBSD Board of Education Member and business leader Dorvan Wiley.

Dr. Debbie Faubus Kendrick
Over the past 40 years, she has served as a classroom teacher, counselor, coach, assistant principal, and principal, before transitioning to her current role as executive eirector of the Crawford County Adult Education Center (CCAEC). Faubus Kendrick has served as president and vice president of the Arkansas Association of Adult Education Administrators (AACAE) and is a member of the Van Buren Chamber of Commerce’s Education and Workforce Committee. She has received numerous awards, including recognition as the AAEA District IV Teacher of the Year and the 2014 AACAE Administrator of the Year. She was named a 2022 Workforce Hero by the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals. In 2017, she was presented the prestigious Iverson Riggs Citizen of the Year Award by the Van Buren Chamber of Commerce. A resident of Mountainburg, Kendrick lives with her husband Roy and their animals. The couple has two adult sons and three grandsons.

Shay Mooney
A 2010 Van Buren High School graduate, Mooney has been a mainstay in the music industry for more than a decade as a songwriter and part of the duo Dan + Shay (with fellow artist Dan Smyers). The duo has won industry honors from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association, and Billboard Music Awards, among others. Mooney and Smyers made history in 2021, when the two captured their third consecutive Grammy for “Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Mooney is married to former Miss Arkansas USA Hannah Billingsley, with whom he shares four young sons. The couple has residences in Nashville and Crawford County.

Tommy Poole, Jr.
A stand-out high school athlete, 1985 Van Buren graduate Poole, Jr. has been selected to the VBHS Hall of Fame for his contributions to Pointer athletics and his community. Upon graduating VBHS, Poole attended Westark Community College to play baseball, and later Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. He double majored in business management and economics and graduated with honors. In 1990, he began his career at ABF Freight System, working as a billing clerk, OPS supervisor, linehaul supervisor, and linehaul manager. Today, he is director of Linehaul Operations. Poole is also a husband, father, and grandfather. His wife Tammy was a longtime educator for the Van Buren School District. The couple has two grown children and are the proud grandparents to four grandchildren.

Dorvan Wiley
Wiley graduated from VBHS in 1969 and attended Ouachita Baptist University, where he played football and earned a degree in business administration. In 1974, he returned to the River Valley and began a career that spanned the manufacturing and finance industries. Wiley’s other notable leadership roles have included: Van Buren Education Foundation Board; United Way Board of
Directors; Boys & Girls Club of Van Buren Board Member and Past President; past VBHS Hall of Honor Committee Member; West River Valley Regional Solid Waste Management District Board Representative; Co-Chair of the River Valley
Community Network; Baptist Health Hospital Advisory Board; Mercy Medical Center Board of Advisors; and Heritage Methodist Church Member, Preschool Board of Directors, Finance Committee Chairman, and 1998 Iverson Riggs Citizen of the Year. Wiley resides in Van Buren with his wife, Mikie. They are parents to five adult children and proud grandparents to 10 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

The induction ceremony for the Hall of Honor Class of 2026 will be held 6 p.m., Oct. 1, in the Van Buren High School Commons. Tickets for the ceremony are $10 and can be pre-ordered by calling 479-474-7942 or by emailing [email protected].

Mercy MASH

Local students participating in a summer program at Mercy Fort Smith are spending two weeks gaining insight into the essential roles that keep hospitals and clinics running.

The Medical Applications in Science for Health (MASH) program, offered in collaboration with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), provides opportunities for hands-on learning, tours, clinical rotations and more. Fifty-six high school students from across the Fort Smith region are enrolled in the free program, which is running from June 15-26. Participants represent many area schools, including Northside, Southside, Greenwood, Van Buren, Alma and more.

The program began with an overview from Mercy leaders about the evolving healthcare landscape and the growing need for skilled professionals. Students are exploring a variety of topics such as patient privacy laws, proper hand washing and infection control, as well as careers ranging from nursing, physicians, lab tech, pharmacy, and imaging.

Participants are divided into small groups for clinical rotations in areas such as physical therapy, emergency care, radiology, surgery, nursing, med-surg, lab services and labor and delivery. EMS and Mercy Life Line crews will stop by for an up-close look at ambulances and Mercy’s life-flight helicopter.

In addition to their on-site experiences, students have toured several Fort Smith-area facilities, including the Don W. Reynolds Cancer Center, the Gregory Kistler Center, the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine and the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith College of Health, Education and Human Sciences.

School of Nursing
The Arkansas Health Care Association School of Nursing announces the opening of its newest location in Fort Smith on June 19. Fort Smith joins AHCA School of Nursing locations in Little Rock, Rogers and Jonesboro, with the first cohort of 28 new students scheduled to begin classes in Fort Smith in July.

The AHCA School of Nursing recently received full approval status from the State Board of Nursing and has advanced from its pilot phase. Created and operated by a consortium of AHCA member facilities, the AHCA School of Nursing is the first school of its kind in the country, designed to remove barriers that can prevent full-time caregivers from pursuing nursing education.

“The opening of our Fort Smith location is an exciting milestone for the AHCA School of Nursing and the future of health care in Arkansas,” said Rachel Bunch, president of the AHCA School of Nursing. “This program invests in hardworking people who are already serving patients every day. By creating a flexible, affordable pathway to LPN certification, we’re helping them advance their careers and building a stronger nursing workforce.”

The new Fort Smith site will be the biggest LPN program in Fort Smith, according to AHCA, expanding access to nursing education in the River Valley.