Keesa Smith is the new executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families of Little Rock, taking over on Feb. 20. Founded in 1977, the statewide, nonprofit child advocacy organization aims to ensure that all children and their families “have the resources and opportunities to lead healthy and productive lives and to realize their full potential.” As executive director, Smith said, she will also work to reduce racial disparities across the state. “For more than 45 years, AACF has played a key role in keeping children’s issues at the forefront of people’s minds,” she said. “I can’t wait to begin this new role and continue the work of improving the lives of Arkansas’ children and families.”
From 2013-2023, Smith was deputy director of youth and families at the Arkansas Department of Human Services. There, she oversaw the state’s child welfare, juvenile justice and early education programs. She was the secretary’s designee on the Supreme Court Commission on Children, Youth & Families and served on the Racial Justice Taskforce and the Arkansas Court Improvement Program Advisory Council. Before joining DHS, she led the Department of Workforce Services’ Board of Review. Smith is a member of the Pulaski County Bar Association, the Harold Flowers Law Society, the inaugural class of the Arkansas Bar Association Leadership Academy Program, and Class XXVI of Leadership Greater Little Rock. She also served as deputy legal counsel for former Gov. Mike Beebe and as a staff attorney at the Center for Arkansas Legal Services.
Smith earned her Bachelor of Arts in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law.
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