PLEASE REACH OUT TO SWILSON@LITTLEROCKCHAMBER.COM FOR ADDITIONAL IN-PERSON TICKET SALES.

Join us on Thursday, August 18th, at noon, for our second Cultivate session of 2022 - The Technology of the Table, presented by Dassault Falcon Jet. This will be a hybrid event with your choice of in-person or virtual attendance.

"You've made it to the table. Now what?"

Our panelists come from varying backgrounds and all have seats at the proverbial table. We will learn about the strategies of some of these highly successful executives and find out how we learn to implement in our own personal and professional lives.

According to the US Department of Labor, women represent 54.3% of the US workforce as of December 2021, but only held 35% of senior leadership positions. Additional studies have compared companies and those with women exectives are 30% more likely to outperform other companies.

What are the habits of these highly successful people and how do we differentiate true professionals in today's marketplace?

Our mission is to fuel economic growth by facilitating the development of professional women in the Little Rock region through intentional programming directly aimed at obstacles and opportunities women encounter in their careers. It is our hope that the women who join us for these various panels will be able to tap into the expertise of some of Little Rock's brightest and most dynamic females who are making waves in their industries.

Each session will include a Q&A session, powered by Delta Dental of Arkansas, to ensure that viewers feel engaged and connected. Thank you to our lunch sponsor, E ngel & Volkers, our Series Notebook sponsor, Baptist Health, and our series partner sponsors, Insight Engineering, Wright Lindsey Jennings and Southwest Power Pool.

Meet our panelists

Jean Block
Chief Legal Officer
Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority

Jean Block serves as the Chief Legal Officer for the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority. Since joining the utility in 2016, she has been responsible for all legal and compliance issues including contracts, personnel matters, the Freedom of Information Act, legislation, and oversight responsibility for the Human Resources and Environmental Affairs departments. She also founded LRWRA’s “Women of Water” group in 2020. Jean has practiced law for over twenty-two years. Prior to joining LRWRA she served as Chief Legal Counsel at the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery and as an Assistant Attorney General in the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office. Jean is currently a board member for UA-Little Rock’s College of Business. She has been named to Arkansas Business’ 40 under 40, Arkansas Money and Politics Arkansas Power Women, and recently recognized by the Museum of Discovery for innovation in S.T.E.M. fields by receiving the “Spark! Star” award. Jean holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Law. She served on the Little Rock Water Reclamation Commission from August 2011 - August 2015. Jean is originally from Mill Valley, California.

Curtis Barnett
President & CEO
Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield

Curtis Barnett serves as president and chief executive officer for Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield which serves more than 2 million members nationwide. As president and CEO, Barnett is leading Arkansas Blue Cross' efforts to help transform healthcare, striving to make it more affordable and a more compassionate system. He has spearheaded new work on behavioral health and health equity. Prior to his election as president and CEO in 2017, Barnett served as senior vice president of Internal Opearations for Arkansas Blue Cross and as president and CEO of its wholly-owned subsidiary company, USAble Corporation. On the national front, Barnett serves on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Board of Directors. He leads as chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Institute of Healthcare Management (NIHCM) and as chairman of the Board of Managers for Blue Health Intelligence, a healthcare data analytics and solutions company.

In Arkansas, Barnett serves on several industry and community boards of directors, including the University of Central Arkansas Board of Trustees, where he serves as vice chair, the dean's executive advisory board for the University of Arkansas Walton College of Business, the Arkansas Research Alliance, and the executive committee for the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, where he serves as vice chair.

A native Arkansan, Barnett received a bachelor's degree from the University of Central Arkansas, a master's degree in public administration from the University of Arkansas and is a graduate of the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management's Advanced Executive Program.

Barnett actively supports a number of charitable organizations, including the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which named him their Breath of Life honoree in 2015. His alma mater, the University of Central Arkansas, presented him with their Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2018.

Christina Clark
Vice Chancellor for Institutional Support Services and Chief Operating Officer
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)

As chief operating officer of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Christina Clark provides critical oversight for the institution’s day-to-day operations of the state’s only academic medical center. She leads campus operations, information technology, police, security surveillance, and emergency preparedness for UAMS. She also serves as a liaison for both internal and external stakeholders.

Clark was appointed the institution’s first institution-wide chief operating office in January 2019. She studied psychology, minoring in management, at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville before graduating in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). She received her Master of Business Administration degree with an emphasis in health care from UALR in May 2017. A native of Texas, Christina and her husband enjoy traveling, cycling and reading.

Meet our moderator

Ashlei King
Anchor
KLRT Fox 16

Ashlei King joined the Fox16 Good Day Arkansas morning program as co-anchor in July 2018. Just this last week, she was awarded a National Edward R. Murrow Award for a report highlighting how violence is impacting kids living in a Little Rock neighborhood. Ashlei is a San Antonio, Texas native who comes to Arkansas from her hometown, where she worked at KABB FOX29 for four years. While there, she was nominated for an Emmy for her work on a documentary highlighting the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. March, which is the largest in the country. She also won a National Association of Black Journalist award for the documentary. Ashlei earned her Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. During her freshman year at UT, she was a member of the co-ed cheerleading squad. She cheered for the Texas Longhorns football team and men’s basketball team. She also ran hurdles for two years on the UT Track & Field team.

Ashlei kicked off her broadcasting career in Austin, where she served as the CBS-affiliate’s UT reporter. She was also the Assistant News Director for Texas Student Television’s KVR News. After graduation, she worked for KTXS in Abilene. During her time in Abilene, she won a Texas Associated Press Award for deadline editing. Ashlei also spent two years in Tulsa, Oklahoma working for the CBS-affiliate. While in Tulsa, she covered a variety of stories from tornadoes to devastating wildfires that torched hundreds of homes. Her most memorable moment was when she did a live interview on CNN with Don Lemon about a racially motivated shooting spree in Tulsa.

Born in Italy, Ashlei spent part of her childhood in Germany. She has deep-seated roots in Arkansas. The King side of her family is originally from Southeast Arkansas (Dermott, Monticello, and McGehee areas). She still has family who lives in the area. Random Fun Fact: Ashlei is related to music icon Michael Jackson. His grandmother and her great-grandfather were first cousins. Ashlei is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Ashlei recently got married to her high school sweetheart in March 2022. During her spare time, you can find her hanging out with her husband, eating at hole-in-the-wall restaurants and then working off the calories at the gym.

Various ticket options are available so that you can choose your own level of engagement. Limited in-person enhanced tickets will receive lunch and event notebooks.

Please reach out to Stacy Wilson, Chief Revenue Officer at swilson@littlerockchamber.com for more information on sponsoring or attending.

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