Marine Lt. Col. Jason Smedley is chair of the Arkansas Veterans Commission.
Lt. Col. Jason Smedley will be the first commandant of Arkansas Military and First Responders Academy in Little Rock. As commandant, Smedley will be the chief executive and oversee all academy operations. AMFRA, which is scheduled to open in August on a 25-acre site in southwest Little Rock, will serve 9th through 12th grade students. The school will enroll up to 140 ninth graders its first year and then expand one grade per year. “I am proud to announce that Lt. Col. Smedley has joined the AMFRA leadership team in this critical role,” AMFRA CEO Paul Vallas said. “He brings unmatched public service expertise and 22 years of experience to AMFRA. We owe it to our students to have a purpose-driven leader to help build the foundation of the school that embraces high-level academics, the military culture and the first responders’ community.”
Smedley is the squadron commander of the Reserve Marine Wing Support Squadron 471 and chairman of the Arkansas Veterans Commission. He has more than 20 years of legislative experience and service in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served as a staffer for Arkansas Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. He also worked with Marine Corps Legislative Affairs, and was the military liaison for Gov. Mike Beebe and an agricultural lobbyist for the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation. Smedley served as a Marine infantryman in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2006, and during his 22 years of service, he served in infantry, public affairs, civil affairs, security cooperation and logistics with deployments to Iraq, Estonia, Jordan and Senegal. He has been awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy Achievement medal with the “V” device. Smedley was also the company commander of Arkansas’ only Marine infantry unit.
Smedley holds an undergraduate degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., a master’s degree from American Military University, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.
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