2022 Newsletter Editions

David Gill Senior Director – Technology Innovation Heifer International FOR MOST OF us, the unassuming word blockchain has become subsumed within the showboat antics of its red-carpet-savvy customer, cryptocurrency. But Blockchain—the technology—has been praised for its ability to facilitate a traceable, immutable supply chain record, allowing end customers to feel confident that their morning coffee, […]

SEAMLESS Technology transforms the very concept of building services Payton Lenz Head of Digital Experience, Ledger, Bentonville DID YOU KNOW that Bentonville, Arkansas, is the Mountain Biking Capital of the World? You didn’t? Well, it is, and here’s the proof: That title has been trademarked by the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce. Thanks in

THREE YEARS AGO this month—in July 2019—the Arkansas Center for Data Sciences began actively spreading the word about our mission to help close the IT skills gap in Arkansas. We were footmen who would travel the state to talk with, and listen to, every employer, every higher ed official, and every job seeker who would take

THE DATA IS IN Twenty-nine months after launching our Registered Apprenticeship Program, we now have substantial data on completers. It’s good news all around Lonnie Emard, Apprenticeship Director, ACDS ON DECEMBER 12, 2019, the very first Arkansas cohort of apprentices began their formal journey toward careers in the burgeoning field of Information Technology. There were

As in all healthy relationships, communication is key. Clint Hankinson, Director of Marketing, ACDS AS TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES exponentially and the needs of industry broaden and become more specialized, the relationship between industry and higher education is more important than ever. Industry requires skilled workers to maintain and increase their speed of growth, and higher education

THOSE WHO KNOW me well know that I follow most sports. I also follow, and root for, a few individual athletes in several different sports. I like to know what spurs them to overachieve, what reservoir of discipline they call upon to bring their “A game” when everything is on the line. In other words,

BUILDING THE CYBERSECURITY PIPELINE It all starts with awareness Sandra Leiterman Managing Director, Trojan Cyber Arena, U.A. Little Rock IF YOU’RE IN my field, your required reading will include a website called The Cybersecurity Supply and Demand Heat Map. It’s an up-to-date color-coded interactive map of the United States showing that there are currently 1,053,468

ROAD TRIP! Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines IT’S THAT TIME of year…not to mention that moment in our two-year pent-up existence when we’re all terminally weary of staying home and climbing the walls. All that, plus the governor’s goal of making Arkansas a global leader in next-generation mobility (see This Month’s Q & A),

Alan Mantooth, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor, The Twenty-First Century Research Leadership Chair in Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Arkansas WE AMERICANS HAVE always been a restless lot, yearning for stability while we dream of the road. Cars equal freedom, and what’s more American than that? Now, today, Governor Asa Hutchinson has set the goal

MEET DAWN HICKS Age: 33 Hometown: Fordyce, AR Apprenticeship: PeopleShores MY BACK STORY Fordyce was very much a small town, in a very rural area. And I knew my whole life that I wanted to get out and get to a bigger city, because if you stick around there you had a very limited idea