Ginger Lewellyn Harper has a new job, but it’s in an intimately familiar place — her hometown of Heber Springs.
Harper started last week as executive director of the Heber Springs Area Chamber of Commerce.
“I’ve lived the majority of my life in Heber Springs, and my husband and I are raising our children here, and we’re very invested in the community,” she said. “This is my home.”
Her parents, Terry and Kathy Lewellyn, grew up in Heber Springs and still live there.
Harper, an attorney, said the chamber position offers her a perfect opportunity to give back to her community.
Opportunity is a word she uses a lot in conversation — she sees opportunities; she seizes them.
When Harper graduated from Heber Springs High School, she attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where she ran track and cross country. Long-distance races were her forte. She graduated cum laude with a degree in English.
She said becoming an attorney had been in the back of her mind for years, although she isn’t sure what sparked her interest in the profession. It was a natural progression of her love of English and writing and having an analytical mind. She attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William E. Bowen School of Law.
“I really enjoyed law school,” she said. “Of course, it was a lot of hard work, a lot of studying. I like to read; I like to study. I’m pretty analytical. I made great friends, lifelong friends there.”
She and her husband, Joe, who worked in Heber Springs then and still does, moved to Vilonia while she was in law school to “split the commute.” He is deputy operations project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Her first position after law-school graduation was as a clerk for Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Jim Gunter.
“I was very honored to be given that opportunity; it fit right into my skill set. It’s a lot of researching and writing and analyzing the facts of a special case, of appellate cases, and applying the law to those,” she said.
The couple, who by that time had their first of two daughters, decided it was time to move back to Heber Springs, and she took a job at Mays & White Law Firm.
After the firm closed, she worked for Grayson & Grayson PA in Heber Springs.
“In that time, we had our second daughter. … Then I had the opportunity to go back to the Supreme Court and work for Justice Paul Danielson for the last year of his term. I’d worked for him when I’d worked with Judge Gunter the first time around. I have such a respect for Justice Danielson, and I still do. He had called me … and asked if I would come work for him for his last term. I have so much respect for him that I jumped at that opportunity.”
Danielson retired and went to practice with his son, Erik Danielson, whose firm is in Fayetteville, with a satellite office in Booneville. Paul Danielson’s wife, Betsy, is also a former district and juvenile judge and works as an attorney with him.
Paul Danielson said he knew Harper from when she was a law clerk for his friend, Gunter, and her reputation was stellar.
“She’s wonderful,” Danielson said. When his law clerk left, he asked around and was told Harper might be willing to come back.
“I knew her work was great,” Danielson said. “She came highly recommended [from former co-workers]. I hired her, and she was just as great as they told me she was.”
He said Harper was “extremely bright and a great writer, of course, researcher and writer. She had all the skill sets needed to be a good law clerk.”
Danielson said he was happy to hear that the chamber chose her as executive director.
“She’s got a great personality, and everyone who knows her thinks the world of her,” he said. “I think she’ll do a great job; she has good people skills.”
Harper said she knew it was a one-year commitment; then she decided to leave the legal field.
“I just wanted a change of pace from the legal side of things,” she said. “I’d always wanted to look at the nonprofit sector.”
Harper said she took a job at the Arkansas Foodbank as the development department’s grants foundation coordinator, “researching grant opportunities, writing or drafting grant proposals, identifying different funding sources and also just working within the development department.
“They have great people in the development department.”
The mission resonated with Harper.
“It’s very fulfilling to be able to work for an organization with such an important mission,” she said. “That’s part of the reason I was drawn to them and the work they do.”
Harper said one in five Arkansans is food insecure, “which means they may not know where their next meal is coming from.” She added that the food bank works with 450 local partners to serve approximately 280,000 people in a 33-county service area.
“Everyone who works the food bank, they really care about the mission and the people they serve,” she said. “It was really a wonderful experience.”
However, she saw that the Heber Springs Area Chamber of Commerce was looking for an executive director after Julie Murray resigned.
“I saw it as an opportunity, as a way to give back to my community, Heber Springs, where I grew up. At this point, we’re still living in Heber Springs. I’m working for the food bank, so the commute starts to wear on you,” Harper said.
Harper said Heber Springs is an easy sell.
“There is so much for tourists to do, but it’s a wonderful place to live. When people come here, they fall in love with it, and they don’t want to leave. It has a small-town feel; it’s very charming. The people are very welcoming,” she said.
“It has so so much to offer. Right now, it’s a popular time for fishing both on the lake and on the river,” Harper said. “Some of our parks are going to open in March. We have a historic downtown area with retail shops that people love to visit.
“We have great trails where you can walk or hike and see beautiful waterfalls. I love to go with my kids; we go to different trails. Collins Creek is our favorite one to go to. There’s a waterfall with water running through the trail. We had family photos taken there a couple of years ago.”
Although she’s been on the job only a week, Harper said she has a vision for the chamber.
“Our mission at the chamber is to promote and grow business while enhancing the community, so what I’m looking
at as the goal is to be even more member-driven — really to focus on service to our members,” she said. “We want to work with them to determine how we can best serve them and what assistance we can provide them with to succeed.”
Harper said it’s important to listen to the business owners, who often have creative ideas.
Harper also said she wants to improve all the activities and events offered by the chamber, which include the Fireworks Extravaganza scheduled for July 6 and the Business Expo on Oct. 3.
The 63rd annual chamber banquet will take place at 6 p.m. March 12 at the Heber Springs Community Center, 201 Bobbie Jean Lane. The keynote speaker will be Walt Coleman III, a National Football League referee and an executive with Hiland Dairy in Little Rock.
“I’m really looking forward to the banquet,” Harper said. “A lot of time and effort have already been put in by the board and Jo Price in getting this ready,” Harper said.
Price is a former executive director who has served as interim during the search to fill the position.
“She has been so valuable to the chamber, and I know everyone is so thankful for her help in making this a smooth transition,” Harper said.
Jeremy Bivins, the new chamber board president, said Harper will provide a good transition, too.
“As a hiring committee and as a board, we liked her experience with nonprofits with grant writing and research,” he said. “She carries herself very, very well. Her presentation of herself and her abilities were excellent, and it was something we knew would carry over into the executive-director position very well.”
In addition to Harper, the board hired Caitlin Garner of Drasco, a 2018 graduate of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, as membership-development manager to replace Arlene Anderson, who retired. Garner has a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Garner’s parents, Laura and Michael Garner, and both sets of her grandparents live in Heber Springs.
“I did not know her,” Harper said. “I was able to talk to her a few times before I started. … Just the little bit of time we spent, … I can tell she’s very talented. I’m very excited for the opportunity to work with her. I think we’ll make a great team. I really do.”
And Harper can tell Garner all about Heber Springs.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.