Heide Harrell, M.A., APR, Chair- elect

Heide Harrell is Director of Communications for Central Arkansas Water, a metropolitan water system that serves almost 500,000 Arkansans in eight counties. She has more than 20 years of communications and marketing experience, and her many PRSA roles include serving as a member of the board of directors from 2020-2022, as Secretary in 2023 and as Senior Counsel in 2024. She has contributed to committees and task forces that support PRSSA students and PRSA’s annual conference. Harrell has also been chair and director of the Southwest District and President of the Arkansas Chapter. In 2023, she was awarded the Crystal Award, the highest award presented by the Chapter’s Past Presidents Council, recognizing significant and continuous contributions to both the public relations profession and PRSA.

Before Central Arkansas Water, Harrell was vice president and communications director of the Private Wealth Management division at Stephens, one of the largest, privately held independent investment firms off Wall Street. She was also director of marketing and business development at Rose Law Firm, the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi River. She also spent nearly eight years working for two of Arkansas’s top advertising agencies.

Harrell graduated from the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce Leadership Greater Little Rock program (Class XXIX), the 2021 Arkansas Business Executive Leadership Academy, and served as the 2023 president of the UA Little Rock Alumni Association. In 2020, Harell was selected as an honoree in the 27th class of Arkansas Business 40 Under 40.