Michelle DuVall has walked the runway wearing high fashion and has been photographed for Vogue magazine.
But there’s nothing glamorous about her day job, and that’s fine with her.
DuVall is the new education specialist for the Children’s Advocacy Alliance in Conway, the umbrella organization for programs that help abused and neglected children in Faulkner, Conway, Perry and Van Buren counties.
“My goal is to reach as many children as possible,” she said.
It was modeling that connected her with Tess Fletcher, executive director of the nonprofit alliance.
DuVall launched her personal-shopping company, Glam MLD, in 2015 and was asked to model for the first Arkansas Woman of Inspiration, a fundraiser for Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas in Little Rock. Arkansas’ first lady, Susan Hutchinson, was honored. Later, DuVall was the event’s fashion chairwoman.
This year, she is co-chairwoman of the event with Sarah Wengel, the Susan and Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daughter, who is DuVall’s inspiration for community service.
DuVall met Fletcher last year through Arkansas Woman of Inspiration 2018 committee meetings, and they became friends on Facebook.
“I talk to everybody,” DuVall said.
DuVall saw a post about the alliance’s education-specialist job, a new position.
“Tess is my fierce leader; that’s what I call her,” DuVall said.
Fletcher said DuVall is the right person for the job for several reasons.
“First of all, she’s a very outgoing individual and passionate about the mission of our organization,”
Fletcher said.
“This is a brand-new position for us. Prevention and community education are things we’ve been wanting to expand for a while, and we had the opportunity to bring [DuVall] on board,” Fletcher said.
“We would love to see her providing prevention and education programs in all of the schools in our entire service area — Faulkner, Conway, Van Buren and Perry counties, and to our partner agencies, first responders and the community in general, as well — and educate our community to the point that we just work ourselves out of a job,” Fletcher said.
“I think [in her new] position, what she’ll be able to accomplish in her role is not only educating children about what’s OK and what’s not OK — giving them a sense of empowerment — but also helping community members recognize signs of abuse and contact the hotline,” she said, which is (800) 482-5964.
DuVall, 35, grew up in Little Rock. Her dad died when she was 3, so her mother, LaVerne DuVall, raised her.
Michelle DuVall said that at 5-10, she was always tall for her age and lanky and started modeling at age 12.
Knowing she needed something more than modeling, she studied broadcast journalism and theater at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, then worked as a production assistant at KATV Channel 7 in Little Rock.
In 2006 or 2007, she was working part time for a women’s clothing store, Barbara Jean Ltd. in Little Rock, as well as for the television station, and going to school.
She was in the boutique that day, and Vogue magazine had a writer and photographer in town to cover a designer who was having a private showing at a customer’s home.
DuVall was pulled aside and asked to model for the private event, as well as at the store the next day.
“That’s when my photo was captured,” she said, and she was quoted in the magazine, too.
DuVall’s television career was short-lived. She was a casualty during layoffs at the station, she said, but she still often modeled on-air at the request of station employees.
DuVall worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield from 2009-2012, then moved to Dallas for two years, modeling for an agency and working as a sales consultant at a high-end boutique.
Her strong sense of family brought her back to Little Rock in summer 2013 to help her mother care for DuVall’s grandfather.
DuVall was still modeling, but she took a job in 2014 as the membership director for the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, “and that is what really changed the game,” she said.
“When the chamber was getting ready to have an event, even though my role was to sell memberships, I’d say, ‘I know this person with Soiree, Inviting Arkansas, everybody at Channel 7 … this is long before I knew Helaine [Freeman]” at the Arkansas Democrat-
Gazette,” DuVall said.
“I was with the chamber for a year, and I realized, ‘OK, I’m getting older. I’m seeing my self-worth, and I need to invest in planting seeds for the future,’” she said. “I resigned to see what that is.
“You tell God what your plans are, and he says, ‘Hold up, wait a minute.’”
In December 2014, she was involved in a “major car accident,” she said.
“All I wanted was to get a cherry limeade. Then I said, ‘Hey, I want a sugar cookie with my limeade. I’m going to do that right now.’ Before I knew it, I was unconscious. I was completely wet. I thought, ‘Why am I wet?’”
Another vehicle had rear-ended hers. The impact of the wreck had caused her drink to soak her.
“I didn’t get the cookie,” she said with a laugh.
Her car was totaled, and she was unconscious for a while. It was a hard, six-month recovery, and she dealt with a back injury and depression.
She went to work at Dillard’s at the urging of a friend who was an assistant manager there.
“Meanwhile, Sarah Wengel and I had modeled together under Barbara Jean,” DuVall said. “Sarah sought out a friendship with me. She was so kind, and as I got to know her more, she would tell me all these things she was involved in, and she’d say, ‘You should do this; you’d be good at this.’”
“I saw how philanthropic she was and how happy,” DuVall said of Wengel. “I started accepting invitations to various charity events and opportunities.”
DuVall volunteered with the 20th Century Club, at Wengel’s invitation, and became a board member.
In 2015, she was asked to model for Woman of Inspiration.
“Even though I was hired to model, I volunteered to even help set up the room. That was its first year. I’d never heard of Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas, our state agency. Meanwhile, as I’m volunteering, I have all these outlets,” she said of the nonprofit volunteerism.
“It made me so happy. It was truly like the Scripture, ‘It’s better to give than receive,’” she said.
She is a former board member of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. She has volunteered her fashion acumen to many organizations, including Easterseals, and has served on planning committees for organizations such as ACCESS Academy and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Guild Designers House. She even put on her dancing shoes last year for the Dancing With Our Stars contest for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
DuVall landed the job working for the Children’s Advocacy Alliance, where she started Dec. 3.
The alliance has a Child Advocacy Center where children come for forensic interviews, medical exams, mental-health services and more.
Because the position was new, DuVall said, she shadowed a couple of education specialists in other centers.
“I said, ‘How can I take from their ability to teach and present and make it my own?’ I actively seek out nonprofits, schools and churches in our counties where there is a large presence of children or ones who would encounter or service children in some capacity,” she said. “I reach out to tell them about this awesome prevention program called ‘Empower Me.’”
She presents the program to students in kindergarten through middle school. DuVall said the verbiage is age-appropriate.
“It teaches children that they should check with a parent, guardian or caregiver first before accepting a ride, a gift, going to someone’s house — whether it be a peer, a neighbor or maybe someone their parents know — or having their picture taken,” she said. “It’s using the buddy system so they can play safely with their friends.”
DuVall said she asks children to think of “five trusted adults you can talk to if something makes you feel uncomfortable or if you have that ‘uh-oh’ feeling.”
“I keep it light enough to keep their attention, but the more they hear it, they become comfortable with it,” she said.
“We want to teach them as young as possible to where they can speak for themselves and understand their body is their body and what is OK touch or not-OK touch, so that they have enough confidence and trust that they can tell that to an adult,” DuVall said.
DuVall said she’d eventually like to expand the program to high school, in light of the problems with texting and social media. Also, older children might know that something is happening with a younger student and report it.
“My goal is to reach as many students as possible, not cutting the age off at high school, because I believe any information is helpful information,” she said.
Childhood abuse and neglect affect adults in different ways, DuVall said.
“They have trauma because of their abuse. It may be their inability to keep a job, or they develop drug or alcohol abuse,” she said. “They’ve suppressed [the experience], and it manifested in other areas of their lives. They cause self-harm, or worst-case scenario, suicide, or they become abusers themselves.”
DuVall said her role as an educator is the right fit. In her training, she had to watch a video of an interview with a child who had been sexually assaulted. The details were so “brutal” that she became physically ill afterward, she said. The abuser went to jail.
She knows a child might tell her about his or her abuse, and she is prepared for that.
“Of course, I’m going to maintain decorum and ethics and say, ‘OK, I’m going to handle that.’ I’d rather for them to have told me than not tell me at all,” DuVall said.
“There’s no limit to what I can do to help these kids,” she said. “I see them come in; I see they’re afraid. They may have a medical exam.
“If I can prevent any of that from happening, then I’m going to do what I need to do as an education specialist.”
That will make her unglamorous job worthwhile.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.