The director of the Arkansas Division of Higher Education said Wednesday that a Tuesday afternoon phone call ended her nearly seven-year tenure.
“I got a call from the governor’s office saying they were going in another direction and thanking me for my service, [but] no cause or explanation,” Maria Markham said. “I was not expecting that.”
Markham became director of the Higher Education Division in July 2016. She had previously spent 11 years as vice chancellor of Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas.
In 2019, Markham was appointed by then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson to represent Arkansas as a commissioner for the Education Commission of the States.