Gov. Hutchinson named Kelly Eichler and Sheffield Nelson to the University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees today.

Eichler is Hutchinson’s policy director. Nelson is a former head of Arkla and two time Republican candidate for governor. 

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Both will begin their terms March 1, 2016. Eichler will replace Jane Rogers. Nelson will replace Jim von Gremp, who resigned from the board earlier this year to take a position on the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Eichler’s term will extend through 2026. Nelson’s will run through 2025.

From the release:

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“I am delighted to appoint Sheffield Nelson and Kelly Eichler to the Board of Trustees and have no doubt they will make tremendous additions to an already stellar group. Their individual backgrounds and experience – not to mention their respective ties to the University of Arkansas System – will benefit their colleagues and provide new perspective in the coming years.”

Kelly Eichler is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where she was a Razorback cheerleader and member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, which was founded by her aunt, Mary Campbell Gregory. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the UALR Bowen School of Law in 1991. Eichler has served as a law clerk at the Arkansas Court of Appeals, as a Pulaski County Deputy Prosecutor, a partner in private practice, and Special Judge in Circuit and Juvenile Courts. She began working for the State of Arkansas in the administration of Governor Mike Huckabee and continues that service today as Policy Director for Governor Asa Hutchinson.

Kelly’s ties to the University of Arkansas System run deep starting with her great grandfather, Sy Campbell, who graduated the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1910. Her grandmother, Erline Campbell Pace, who was president of Pi Beta Phi and crowned Razorback Homecoming Queen, graduated in 1936. Her father and brother, Jim Pace, are also alumni.

In addition, her husband, Brad, head of Corporate Finance at Stephens, Inc., is a graduate of UALR and currently serves on the foundation Board. He was recently named as a Distinguished Alumni and member of Beta Gamma Sigma, a business school honors society. They have two children: Alex and Max.

Sheffield Nelson earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas School of Law, Little Rock Division in 1969 and is a graduate of the Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas). He has served on the Boards of Philander Smith College and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He served at two different times on the Arkansas Board of Higher Education.

Nelson is the former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Arkla. For the past 30 years, he has been a senior partner at the law firm, House, Wallace, Nelson and Jewell, and a successor firm, Jack Nelson and Jones.

Nelson served on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission from 2000-2007. The Sheffield Nelson Dagmar Wildlife Management Area was named after him for his service to the people of Arkansas, as a commissioner. In addition, he has served as president of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and as chairman of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission

Nelson won the Republican nomination for Arkansas governor in 1990 and 1994, and served as co-chairman of the state’s Republican Party from 1991-1992, and as Republican National Committeeman from 1993-2000.

Nelson and his wife, Mary Lynn, have two children, fourteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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