Charisse Childers
Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and newly-appointed state Secretary of Commerce, has named Charisse Childers to serve as director of the Division of Workforce Services when it becomes part of the Department of Commerce on July 1.
As part of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s government transformation, AEDC and DWS will become one of several agencies within Commerce in the new fiscal year. Others include the Division of Aeronautics, Arkansas Waterways Commission, Arkansas Wine Producers Council, Office of Skills Development, Development Finance Authority, Insurance Department, State Bank Department and Securities Department.
Childers currently serves as the director of the Arkansas Department of Career Education, having been appointed to the post by Hutchinson in January 2015. There she leads almost 500 employees and oversees workforce training, adult education, career and technical education, and rehabilitation services for the state, including the coordination and oversight of $170 million in federal and state funds.
From 2006-2014, she was the executive director of Accelerate Arkansas, an 80-member statewide group of business and education leaders dedicated to knowledge-based economic development in the state of Arkansas.
In 2014, Childers was recognized by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation as one of 40 nonprofit leaders in the state.
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