Forty-one Texarkana area residents who completed the year-long Leadership Texarkana community leadership program were honored by the Leadership Texarkana (LT) organization at the End-of-Year Celebration on May 6 at Crossties Event Center. State Bank was the event’s sponsoring Partner.
Through their involvement in Leadership Texarkana sessions this past year, the participants in the program were given frameworks for understanding the leadership required to lead in our community, as well as the challenges and opportunities in the greater Texarkana area surrounding economic development, healthcare, government and courts, quality of life initiatives, public and higher education, media, and the private public and non-profit sectors. They were also challenged to develop and articulate their individual personal plans for taking active service and leadership roles in the community, and to be active agents for bringing together natural partners in working together for progress in Texarkana. Throughout the year, each class member provided content for the organization’s weekly blasts of “What’s To Love Txk!,” contributing to the knowledge that drives community pride and community narrative, two elements foundational to the pursuit of community excellence.
During every monthly session from September through April, members of the LT Class of 2025 were challenged to work through Strategic Doing-focused groups to lead the way as change agents, in maximizing our ecosystem’s capacity to attract, retain and unleash the talent foundational for excellence; at the same time class members were also learning the basics of the powerful and proven Strategic Doing processes for gathering groups in working together for progress.
Specifically, the Strategic Doing teams in the Leadership Texarkana Class worked toward new, positive outcomes, moving the community forward on:
• Beautification of State Line Ave, the focus of three separate groups via:
– TXK on Display metal artwork celebrating TXK’s manufacturing prowess, in conjunction with the cities of Texarkana AR and TX, AR-TX REDI, Inc, and Texarkana College, with additional support from Mayo Manufacturing and Wholesale Electric Supply, Inc., Smith-Blair
– a Kindness Garden to augment green spaces on Hazel Street, in conjunction with Farmers Bank – Better Billboards – sharing links to goTXK assets, and made possible at special rates negotiated with Lindmark and made available to TC and others
• Promoting the Assets and Excellence of Texarkana USA to all, the focus of three other groups via: – New creative goTXK promos to ensure goTXK reaches max subscribers in TXK – A new Exploring Downtown video, to be used by MainStreet TXK for promoting downtown as a destination worth exploring.
– Geocaching in TXK as a fun and family-oriented resource for both natives and out-of-towners to discover geocached resources and information downtown.
The annual flagship Leadership Texarkana program has been offered in Texarkana USA for the past 46 years. The Chamber of Commerce began the Leadership Texarkana program in 1979, however, Leadership Texarkana separated from the Chamber in 2000 and has been an independent non-profit for the past twenty-six years, an evolutionary trend mirrored around the country.
Applications for the coming year’s program for 2025-26 can be found and completed online at LeadershipTexarkana.com; the deadline for applications is June 20. It is a competitive application process, with the number of participants accepted annually limited in size by meeting logistics. Additional details can be found at LeadershipTexarkana.com.
On Thursday, June 5th, LT will host an after-hours recruitment social for Texarkana-area residents interested in applying for the LT Class of 2026; details will be available on the Leadership Texarkana Facebook page.
LEADERSHIP TEXARKANA is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to WORKING TOGETHER for COMMUNITY EXCELLENCE. To those ends, Leadership Texarkana dedicates its efforts to
• Unleashing Texarkana Talent and Ingenuity
• Blazing Trails for Community-Wide Strategic Doing
• Unifying all around Vision, Values and Priorities
• Bringing a Voice of Possibility and Responsibility
• Celebrating TXK Excellence and What’s to Love at goTXK.org–
PLUS a TXK calendar for all events
Additional information about Leadership Texarkana can be found at www.leadershiptexarkana.com.
LEADERSHIP TEXARKANA GRADUATES
CLASS OF 2024-2025
JADA K. ABNER Farmers Bank & Trust
WES BENNETT Owner, PowerHaul Movers and PuroClean
ASHLEY GRIMES BOYLES KBB Consulting, LLC
CHIP CHIPMAN CHRISTUS St Michael Health System
HILLARY CLOUD Texarkana Chamber of Commerce
NICOLE COX Guaranty Bank & Trust
JASMINE CREE Texarkana Odyssey
BRANDY ELDRIDGE The Assembly Line
PENNY K. EVERETT Express Employment Professionals CHRIS FULLER The Eagle/Owner
MORGAN GADDIS 1221 Endeavors
MEKAYLA GARRETT Four States Fiber
JORDAN “GIBBY” GIBSON Cooper Tire Rubber Company MADELINE HAAK Total Medical Supply/ WeAreWashington BRANDON HAYNES Graphic Packaging Int’l STEVEN HOLLIBUSH Caddo Area Council, BSA LLOYD D. JACKSON, ED.D Texarkana AR School District SELENA JEFFERIES Texas A&M Univ – TXK DEREK JENKINS Pleasant Grove ISD
LORA JOHNSON Simmons Bank
NEAL KISER Pleasant Grove High School
BRITTANY KNOWLES Texana Bank
COLE LAW Edward Jones
AMBER LAWRENCE Texas A&M Univ- TXK KAYCEE LOMAX RRCU
KALYN LUMPKINS Complete Computing Solutions HEATHER CONNELL LYBRAND Wholesale Electric Supply OSCAR O. MORELAND, IV Vanco Systems, Inc DEREK J. MURPHY Texarkana ISD
MORGAN PRITCHETT Daines Insurance
PATRICK REYNOLDS Southern Insurance Group JACI ROBERTS BERRY Norton + Wood
LORI SPRINGER State Bank
BROOKE STONE City of Texarkana, TX
LINDA TAYLOR Ground Floor Collective
JORDAN THORNTON Texana Bank
CHRISTY TIDWELL Texarkana ISD
CAROL TRUMBLE Mayo Manufacturing
JAMIE TYE Community Healthcore
BARBARA WALKER Txk Convention Center/HGI MICHELLE WARREN Texarkana Water Utilities
