Executive Communications Director, Senior Advisor, Little Rock School District
Pamela Smith has firm ideas about how people should be treated, and she has spent the better part of her adult life working to be an example of caring for others.
“I have a deep respect for people who treat others with kindness and respect, regardless of their position or station in life,” she said. “To me, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, and the way we treat people says a great deal about who we are.”
To that end, Smith has made a life out of helping those around her. In April, she was honored as Alzheimer’s Arkansas’ volunteer of the year, highlighting what has been a longstanding relationship with the organization.
Smith has served as emcee for and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support the association’s annual fundraising gala, which was expanded and renamed this year to the Championship Luncheon and the Boots and Bling Gala.
Smith has felt a pull toward service throughout her life, long before her broadcasting years at KATV. During her time at the station, she became close to news anchor Anne Pressly, and Pressly’s tragic death in 2008 left a lasting impact on her. Pressly had been tabbed to emcee the Alzheimer’s Arkansas benefit walk that year in Conway, and Smith volunteered to do it in her memory, shifting more of her volunteer energy toward the Conway chapter’s efforts in subsequent years.
“What started as volunteering in honor of a friend became a 20-year relationship with an organization that I’ve come to deeply value,” Smith said.
Since then, Smith has never been far from helping people. Along with her work at the Little Rock School District and Alzheimer’s Arkansas, Smith is an active member of the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College Foundation in North Little Rock and Rotary Club 99 in Little Rock. At the center of all her efforts is a drive to help others, foster relationships and give back to the communities that have given so much to her.
“I try to meet people where they are, treat everyone with kindness and respect, and leave where I’ve been a little better than I found it,” she said.
