The leaders included Dr. Nichola Driver, Assistant Dean of Impact, and Dr. Lea Metz, Executive Director of the Office of Student Affairs and Admissions.

Held at the UA System office in Little Rock, the full-day leadership development event brought together 47 selected representatives from across all 22 campuses, divisions, and units within the UA System. The academy provided participants with deep insights into higher education governance, system operations, and collaborative leadership strategies.

“It was an honor to represent the Clinton School alongside leaders from across Arkansas,” Driver said. “The academy highlighted how interconnected our campuses are. By collaborating across units, we can better leverage public service, research, and community engagement to drive real impact for students across the entire UA System.”

Throughout the day, participants engaged in discussions with UA System President Jay B. Silveria, members of his cabinet, UA System Board of Trustees members, campus chancellors, and Dr. Ken Warden, Commissioner of the Arkansas Division of Higher Education.

“Gaining a broader perspective on the system’s strategic priorities was invaluable,” Metz said. “As we work to attract and support the next generation of public service leaders at the Clinton School, understanding the broader landscape of higher education operations helps us build stronger pathways and support systems for our students.”

The event also featured a proud moment for the Clinton School’s alumni network. Laura Lehnen, an alumna of the Clinton School Online program who currently serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Controller at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, also participated as an academy fellow. 

In a welcome message to the cohort, President Silveria emphasized the vital role of cross-campus leadership development.

“As president of the UA System, I believe we are obligated to continually identify and mentor new leaders across our 22 campuses, divisions, and units,” he said. “The future of the UA System depends on leaders who are committed to excellence, embrace innovation, and work together to advance the success of our students, faculty, staff, and communities.”

Designed to cultivate the next generation of higher education leaders, the Emerging Leadership Academy aims to strengthen long-term connections among campuses, system administrators, trustees, and state officials while driving shared educational excellence across Arkansas.

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Serving as a Graduate Research Intern with the Arkansas Chapter of the Fulbright Association, Brunson Saunders, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, evaluated governance and operational practices across 49 bilateral commissions. Her research drew on archival materials from special collections at the University of Arkansas Libraries in Fayetteville as well as interviews conducted with commission leaders across multiple international time zones.

To support the chapter’s long-term engagement strategy, Brunson Saunders developed an applied research package that included a cross-country comparison matrix, a literature review, and actionable policy recommendations.

“These deliverables will help the Arkansas Chapter build lasting capacity by organizing information that was previously dispersed,” Brunson Saunders said. “The final products provide a reusable foundation for future research, program planning, and outreach.”

Beyond evaluating administrative structures, Brunson Saunders highlighted how personal connections drive effective public service. During her project, she connected with Ngoc Minh To, a Fulbright Scholar and Ph.D. engineering candidate at UA Little Rock studying artificial intelligence in healthcare. Their conversations linked technical research on chronic disease management with ethical public service practices.

A conversation with community leader DeDe Long further underscored “the value of people-to-people exchanges.” This is a principle that became a core insight of Brunson Saunders’s evaluation.

“Sustainable international partnerships are not maintained by agreements alone, but by individuals who build trust and share knowledge,” Brunson Saunders said. “This project helped me see that public service begins by studying institutions carefully, listening to people with lived experience, and building partnerships for future collaboration.”

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ACHI is a nonpartisan, independent health policy center. In her new role, Sermersheim turns complex research into clear, accessible insights for everyday Arkansans. Her duties include monitoring legislative updates, tracking emerging health trends, and creating educational resources like flyers, infographics, and blogs. These materials are designed to help individuals and families make informed healthcare decisions.

“I spend a lot of my time writing about various health topics and identifying emerging issues, all with a lens of how this affects Arkansans,” Sermersheim said. “My job is really about making sure Arkansans have the information they need to understand how health policy touches their everyday lives.”

Bridging the gap between complex policy and public understanding was a central theme across Sermersheim’s graduate field service experiences at the Clinton School. Her projects included identifying school civic engagement needs for educational programing through the Clinton Foundation and evaluating Southern education funding models as a Walton Education Policy Fellow with the Arkansas Public School Resource Center.

“I realized I kept coming back to the same question: how do you take something that impacts large groups of people and actually translate it into something that is understandable for the people it impacts,” Sermersheim said.

Though her background was primarily in education, Sermersheim quickly found natural overlaps between education and health policy at ACHI, particularly in youth health programs and medical education. She credits Dean Victoria DeFrancesco Soto’s Policy Development course and a guest presentation from KFF CEO Drew Altman with sharpening her policy communication toolkit.

“Dean DeFrancesco Soto’s course helped directly prepare me for this position,” Sermersheim said. “I quickly learned how every word matters in policy work and how important it is to know and prioritize your audience and how to use facts and stories to illustrate important points. During my time in her class, we got to talk with Drew Altman, CEO of KFF, a national health policy organization. It was impactful to learn about the work they are doing throughout the country, and it was part of what launched my interest in getting involved in similar work at the state level.”

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This central governance challenge took center stage at the 27th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o 2026). Hosted by the University of Nebraska at Omaha from June 1-4, the forum brought together leading global scholars to explore the intersection of technology innovation, civic engagement, and digital government.

Among the highlighted research was a multinational study presented by Dr. Sunny Nillasithanukroh, Assistant Professor at the Clinton School of Public Service. The paper, titled “Commercial Generative AI Exposure and Public Acceptance of Government AI Use,” explores how citizens’ personal experiences with everyday AI tools, like ChatGPT, shape their willingness to support AI deployment in the public sector.

Bridging Private Experience and Public Value

The study leverages data from the Global Public Opinion on Artificial Intelligence (GPO-AI) survey, analyzing responses from over 23,000 participants across 21 countries. Dr. Nillasithanukroh co-authored the paper alongside Dr. Robert Richards Jr., Associate Professor of Communication, Dr. Andreas Sihotang, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Chul Hyun Park, Senior Research Fellow.

The core findings reveal a powerful trend: more frequent personal use of commercial generative AI is consistently associated with higher public acceptance of government AI utilization.

According to Dr. Nillasithanukroh, interacting with tools like ChatGPT provides tangible reference points that demystify the technology.

“Through repeated interaction, citizens directly observe how AI systems perform tasks, respond to prompts, and handle ambiguity,” Nillasithanukroh said. “Everyday AI use may help citizens imagine efficiency gains in routine public services. This increases public acceptance by making the benefits of government AI feel more concrete and credible.”

Where Citizens Draw the Line: Routine vs. High-Discretion

A key contribution of the study is its distinction between different types of government AI applications. The researchers categorized government AI tasks into two primary buckets:

• Administrative and Support-Oriented Functions: Low-stakes tasks focused on operational support, such as enrolling people in social welfare programs, matching job seekers with available jobs, and notifying citizens to provide documents.
• High-Discretion and Enforcement-Oriented Functions: High-stakes context applications tied to authoritative determinations, such as screening people at borders, monitoring social media for public safety, or determining eligibility for visas.

The analysis found that while personal AI experience boosts acceptance across the board, the connection is stronger for routine administrative tasks than for high-discretion, outcome-determinative enforcement functions.

Perceived Benefits Drive Support, But Risks Remain Institutional

Interestingly, the study’s mediation analysis showed that increased public acceptance is driven primarily by an understanding of AI’s functional benefits—namely, its speed and efficiency—rather than a change in how citizens perceive risk.

While users may be aware of technical limitations like “hallucinations,” individual interaction with commercial tools does not naturally teach citizens about broader public sector risks, such as algorithmic bias, surveillance, or institutional accountability failures.

Because of this, Nillasithanukroh stresses that governments cannot rely on the public to guard themselves or assume that familiarity equals a comprehensive understanding of potential societal harms.

“Governments should not assume that public familiarity with ChatGPT or other commercial AI tools will automatically produce informed concern about bias, surveillance, accountability, or unequal impacts,” Nillasithanukroh cautioned. “Risk awareness must be supported through explicit communication and governance.”

Implications for Public Service Leaders

The Clinton School-led research offers actionable blueprints for public administrators navigating the digital transition.

First, to build authentic public trust, governments should pivot toward low-stakes pilot programs and sandbox environments. Allowing citizens to directly interact with public sector AI tools in controlled settings can make the use of AI feel transparent and practical.

Second, communication must be tailored to the stakes of the technology. For routine operations, highlighting performance gains may suffice. However, for enforcement and security operations, public agencies must move beyond standard efficiency arguments to clearly demonstrate how human oversight is maintained, how errors are checked, and how fairness is guaranteed.

Ultimately, the research demonstrates that building long-term, citizen-centric digital governments requires a commitment to technical transparency and robust regulatory safeguards.

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Addressing the conference theme of navigating change in higher education, Dean DeFrancesco Soto reflected on the crucial role academic deans play as “bridges” within higher education institutions, connecting students, faculty, administration, and broader public sectors in an increasingly complex world.

Held annually at UCA’s Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center, NCAD is one of the nation’s oldest conferences dedicated to the deanship, bringing together chief academic officers, deans, and higher education leaders to address contemporary administrative challenges in a collaborative setting.

Owning The Middle and the Engineering of Leadership

Grounding her presentation in her personal background growing up in Sierra Vista, Arizona, a small military town near the U.S.–Mexico border, Dean DeFrancesco Soto shared how her upbringing shaped her approach to public service and academic leadership.

Reflecting on the Spanish phrase “ni de aquí, ni de allá” (neither from here nor from there), she described how navigating two distinct cultural worlds initially felt ambiguous, but eventually became her greatest asset.

“Sometime in graduate school, I realized that what I was embarrassed about was actually my superpower,” she said. “I was a translator, not just in terms of language or culture, but meaning. I was a bridge. The middle is where meaningful solutions and change are found, and owning the middle became a state of mind that defined my academic and leadership journey.”

Translating that principle to higher education, Dean DeFrancesco Soto urged deans to embrace transdisciplinary and cross-sector leadership, bridging academic fields with public, private, and nonprofit partners to solve real-world problems. Using a civil engineering analogy, she illustrated the dynamic pressures academic deans face when balancing institutional goals with the needs of campus stakeholders.

“Bridges collapse when they aren’t designed to sway, when they can’t absorb energy from wind, heat, and traffic,” Dean DeFrancesco Soto said. “As deans, we are the bridges that absorb tension. It is in that tension, and in our ability to stay flexible, that common ground and resolutions are found.”

She also emphasized the necessity of “bridge maintenance.” She encouraged academic leaders to prioritize personal well-being, reflection, and peer support to build long-term capacity in higher education work.

Grounded in a Shared Common Humanity

Closing her address, Dean DeFrancesco Soto drew upon a core principle of the Clinton School’s mission inspired by President Bill Clinton during the completion of the Human Genome Project: that all human beings are more than 99.9 percent genetically identical.

“Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more,” Dean DeFrancesco Soto concluded. “It takes a special kind of leader to bridge differences, translate perspectives, and center that shared humanity. In the mission-driven world of higher education, that responsibility falls to us.”

The Clinton School extends its thanks to the University of Central Arkansas and conference organizers for hosting NCAD on its Conway campus. Having served as the permanent host institution for NCAD since 2001, UCA continues to foster a vital national venue for thoughtful dialogue, administrative growth, and institutional partnerships across higher education.

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Recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), NASPAA accreditation represents the global standard in public service education. The Clinton School is one of only six graduate programs nationwide to earn NASPAA accreditation during 2026, joining a cohort of public service institutions dedicated to academic excellence and student success. 

“Our journey toward NASPAA accreditation began with a shared faculty commitment to setting the highest national standard for public service education,” Dean DeFrancesco Soto said. “This achievement is the result of years of collaboration with our students, faculty, staff, alumni, Dean’s Advisory Board members, community partners, and University of Arkansas System leadership. I want to extend my deepest thanks to Professor Al Bavon, whose dedicated leadership brought this vision to life.”

The Clinton School was founded to prepare individuals for service that advances the common good in Arkansas communities and beyond. Through this intensive process, our accreditation recognizes our foundation built over two decades that has been driven by our public service values.

“This achievement bookends a remarkable season of growth for the Clinton School. We celebrated our 20th graduating class in May, and we recently moved into our new home at One World Avenue,” Dean DeFrancesco Soto said. “Looking ahead, we are excited to build on this success as we continue to enrich our programs and support the public service leaders of tomorrow.”

Established in 2004, the Clinton School is a graduate school offering the nation’s first Master of Public Service (MPS) degree. Unlike traditional graduate programs, the Clinton School’s 46-credit-hour MPS program integrates three hands-on field service experiences directly into the core curriculum.

Through this practical training, the Clinton School’s nearly 750 graduates have completed over 1,500 projects locally and globally. Students have worked in 100 countries to address critical issues like public health, education, and economic development.

This extensive fieldwork has resulted in more than half a million hours of direct public service, equipping graduates to thrive across all sectors. Clinton School graduates apply their versatile professional toolkits across diverse fields, with roughly one-third entering government roles, one-third joining nonprofits, and one-third building careers in the private sector.

The Clinton School underwent a years-long process of self-study, site visit, and peer review that demonstrated the school’s commitment to the knowledge, research, and practice of public service. Accredited programs have embraced innovative approaches to curriculum design, community engagement, and data-informed decision-making, ensuring that public service education evolves to meet the demands of an increasingly complex and interconnected world, and students have the tools necessary to become the effective public service leaders of tomorrow.

“NASPAA accreditation requires a commitment to excellence and student success,” Crystal Calarusse, Executive Director of NASPAA, said. “We congratulate these schools on their hard-earned recognition and thank them for their commitment to strengthening public service institutions worldwide.”

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The project marked a new organizational partnership for the Clinton School. Established in 1913, the Lydia Patterson Institute is a Methodist Christian college-preparatory high school. Many of the attending students are the first in their families to pursue higher education.

Settles, a native of North Little Rock, Arkansas, focused on strengthening the institute’s alumni data tracking systems. The initiative involved assessing current data collection, storage, and utilization practices to improve long-term program evaluation, engagement, and institutional effectiveness. Through a localized needs assessment with staff and stakeholders, Settles identified strategic priorities to help the school accurately measure its educational outcomes and maintain long-term relationships with its graduates.

In addition to data system management, Settles utilized her own skills to help the institute’s students and staff further. As a photographer, Settles photographed several of the institute’s end-of-the-year events, including graduation and a 50^th anniversary celebration for the Class of 1976.

Drawing on her experience as a professional business owner, Settles also conducted a social entrepreneurship and community impact workshop for the students. The curriculum demonstrated how business development can be leveraged to generate positive community outcomes.

“Seeing as I own my own business, I thought it would be helpful for students to see how I developed it and how it impacts the community,” she said. “I think the students enjoyed the experience.”

The final deliverables for the project include a multi-part executive summary featuring best-practice research for automated alumni data management, an implementation strategy for the tracking system, and curriculum insights from the social entrepreneurship workshop, alongside compiled event photography. 

“I learned how to navigate the process of undergoing a true needs assessment for an institution,” Settles reflected, noting the value of observing an organization actively working to refine its internal systems. “I learned how to appreciate every step of the process as far as evaluating a program and recognizing the utility of this work in a public service aspect.”

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The award recognizes non-profit board members across Arkansas who demonstrate exceptional leadership, visionary governance, and measurable, positive impact. The Arkansas Business Executive of the Year awards ceremony will take place on Nov. 3, honoring top business and non-profit leaders from across the state.

“I am deeply humbled and honored to be named a finalist for this award by Arkansas Business,” McLarty said. “Public service has always been about investing deeply in people through building relationships, listening with empathy, and creating pathways for student success. Serving on the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Clinton School has been a true joy, especially having the opportunity to learn from and support our extraordinary students as they prepare to make a positive impact across Arkansas and the world.”

A lifelong advocate for public service, international engagement, and education, McLarty has provided strategic direction to institutions locally, nationally, and internationally for over three decades. Co-founder and Board Chair Emeritus of Vital Voices Global Partnership, McLarty helped build a world-renowned nonprofit that has mentored and supported thousands of women leaders across more than 180 countries.

Since joining the Clinton School’s Dean’s Advisory Board as an inaugural member in 2022, McLarty has lent institutional gravity and strategic vision to the school’s governance. Notably, she championed and helped launch the Clinton School’s inaugural Salon Dinner in 2025. This initiative brought business, civic, and philanthropic leaders together while positioning Clinton School students as primary dialogue facilitators.

Currently, McLarty serves as the board’s representative on the Clinton School Charter Committee. In this role, she designed and facilitated focus groups to synthesize board insights into the school’s foundational charter, which will establish the baseline framework for the institution’s next long-term strategic plan when unveiled this fall.

“From her leadership on our inaugural Advisory Board to her pivotal role in designing our new school charter and mentoring our students, Donna’s wisdom and generosity have left a lasting mark on our school,” said Dr. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, Dean of the Clinton School. “We are profoundly grateful for her service and celebrate this well-deserved honor alongside her.”

McLarty’s commitment to education and student advancement is also reflected in the McLarty Scholars Program, which she established alongside her family to create transformative learning and fellowship opportunities in international affairs and public service for Clinton School students.

Her broader civic leadership spans decades, including governance roles with the Centers for Youth and Families, the Kennedy Center, Blair House, the Little Rock Airport Commission, and the Wesley Theological Seminary. A graduate of the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business, she previously received the Arkansas Community Service Award for her enduring dedication to public life.

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The Dean’s Advisory Board brings together distinguished leaders across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to provide strategic guidance, support institutional advancement, and expand real-world opportunities for graduate students pursuing careers in public service.

“We are thrilled to welcome Alejandra, Kelly, and Sanford to the Dean’s Advisory Board,” Dean Victoria DeFrancesco Soto said. “Each of these remarkable leaders reflects the versatility and heart of public service. From federal economic strategy and high-level state governance to grassroots education leadership, their collective experience will be invaluable as we continue preparing our students to be the public service leaders of tomorrow.”

Alejandra Y. Castillo

Alejandra Y. Castillo is an accomplished public policy practitioner and executive with extensive experience directing federal investment initiatives, launching regional innovation hubs, and leading national organizations at the intersection of emerging technology, workforce development, and capital markets.

Castillo currently serves as the Chancellor’s Senior Fellow for Economic Development at Purdue University Northwest, focusing on the launch of the Roberts Impact Lab on quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. She recently served as the Senate-confirmed U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, leading the Economic Development Administration through a historic cycle overseeing more than $8.6 billion in federal investments across infrastructure, innovation, and regional economic resilience.

Throughout her career across three presidential administrations, Castillo has bridged public policy, philanthropic leadership, and corporate governance. As Chief Executive Officer of YWCA USA, she oversaw a 60 percent growth in the organization’s operating budget, raised more than $300 million in philanthropic capital, and co-created the first-ever non-profit Exchange Traded Fund on the New York Stock Exchange. Castillo’s academic work focuses on technology policy, workforce systems, and regional innovation. She held a Fellowship-in-Residence at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. 

She holds a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law, a Master of Public Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from SUNY Stony Brook.

Kelly Eichler

Kelly Eichler is a veteran attorney and public servant with decades of high-level legal, administrative, and policy experience across Arkansas state government and higher education governance.

A former Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas, Eichler has served in executive leadership roles for three Arkansas gubernatorial administrations. She previously served as criminal justice advisor to Gov. Mike Huckabee, Policy Director to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and Deputy Chief of Staff to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

A lifelong Arkansan, Eichler earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas and her Juris Doctor from the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Her legal career includes clerking for the Honorable James R. Cooper on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, serving as a deputy prosecutor for Pulaski County, and working in private legal practice. Eicher and her husband Brad Eichler, COO of Stephen’s, Inc., have two sons, Alex and Max.   

Sanford Johnson

Sanford Johnson (’09) is a dedicated education policy leader, advocate, and Clinton School alumnus who serves as the Executive Director of Teach Plus Arkansas-Mississippi.

Johnson, who has directed the Mississippi Policy Fellowship since 2020, launched Teach Plus Arkansas in 2021 before the two state programs were combined under his leadership this year. Today, he drives the region’s work across three core focus areas: reducing chronic absenteeism, increasing the utilization of student success plans, and building integrated data systems to measure college and career readiness. 

Prior to Teach Plus, Johnson spent 10 years as the Co-founder and Deputy Director of Mississippi First and taught middle and high school social studies in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta. Active in civic leadership, he serves on the boards of Teen Health Mississippi and the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, and is a former chair of the Clarksdale Municipal Elections Commission. 

A member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Johnson earned a Master of Public Service from the Clinton School in 2009 and holds a BA from Auburn University. He lives in Clarksdale with his wife, Amanda, and their daughters, Lorelei and Ava.

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Hosted by the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute and starting in September, ACCLA is a yearlong civic leadership program that brings together student leaders from colleges and universities across Arkansas. The academy prepares students to become effective civic leaders in their communities, and graduates receive the Civic Arkansan Credential from the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.

Saunders learned about ACCLA while attending the Arkansas Engaged Learning Network Conference at the University of Arkansas, where Dr. John C. Davis, a Visiting Fellow at the Clinton School and Executive Director of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, co-presented on the academy’s inaugural cohort and statewide purpose.

“I am honored to join the second ACCLA cohort,” Saunders said. “Dr. Davis’s encouragement stayed with me because it helped me recognize ACCLA as a practical way to continue growing through the Clinton School’s applied public service mission. The academy will serve as a meaningful extension of the training I’ve received in civic engagement, applied public service, and community-centered leadership at the Clinton School. I look forward to learning alongside student leaders committed to service, dialogue, and democratic participation.”

At the Clinton School, Saunders’ work has focused on civic engagement, public participation, program evaluation, community-based research, and institutional accountability. Her applied public service experience includes a Practicum team research project with Get Loud Arkansas involving youth civic participation and an International Public Service Project with the Arkansas Chapter of the Fulbright Association focused on international education, civic diplomacy, institutional partnerships, and cross-cultural public service.

As part of ACCLA, participants will attend monthly sessions, complete a service-learning project, engage respectfully across different perspectives, and contribute to the academy’s civic leadership mission.

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