The National Park College Board of Trustees will welcome new member, Renee Westfall, at its regular monthly board meeting Wednesday inside the NPC Student Commons.
Westfall, team leader for South Arkansas at Flypaper Digital Marketing, defeated incumbent Larry Bailey for Position 3 in the November election, 16,634 to 9,791. She began her post this month.
"Renee has a heart for this community, and as a former graduate of the college, we are fortunate to have her expertise joining our board," NPC President John Hogan said in a news release. "We are working toward aggressive goals to meet the needs of our students and we look forward to having her help as we move forward."
Westfall said she is "very humbled at the election results and the public trust placed in me."
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NPC "is the key to job growth and economic development in this community," she said. "And when we have opportunities from businesses who decide to settle here that require training, the college and the business work seamlessly to meet the needs of the business community. And as a happy happenstance, our children get to stay here."
She noted that as a ninth-generation native of Garland County, she is well familiar with the community and very active, devoting much of her time to community service and other volunteer opportunities. She is also active in politics, chartering the Garland County Transparency in Government and serving as a member of the Arkansas Transparency in Government group.
"After the birth of my children, I started looking much more at the focus of the future and where we were going. And certainly, with the birth of my granddaughter, this college is the biggest key to economic development and growth of our youth in the entire county, bar none," she said.
NPC educates and provides people jobs that will allow them to stay in the community, she said, and she wants to be a part of that.
A graduate of Lakeside High School, Westfall was a student at NPC herself, graduating with her associate degree in 1999. According to the school's news release, she is a charter member of Phi Theta Kappa Oklahoma/Arkansas Alumni Association and was a decorated student receiving Phi Theta Kappa, President's list, and student of the month honors.
"(At) the initial meeting that the college did, I was astounded that my classmates were here, in teaching capacities," she said on being a former student and now a board member. "And I got lost. You know, I went to school here for three years and I was like, 'Who built these buildings while I was gone?' It's changed a lot. But the people and the dedication to the students is very much present. It's the same as it was 20-some-odd years ago."
She said the programs NPC has developed since her time on campus as a student give students the opportunities they need in order to complete their degrees, and she hopes to be able to help strengthen those offerings even more.
"I am a veteran outside salesperson," she said. "I have done commercial printing, direct mail advertising, moved into radio for 12 years with US Stations, and then took an opportunity in the WEHCO video division to sell internet and business phones. And then at the beginning of the year, I transitioned over to the digital marketing division, which is Flypaper. So I'm back in marketing again."
She notes that she hopes to utilize her marketing experience, as well as her position as a former student and mother of a student, to provide any insight she can to the board.
"I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has been so warm and welcoming and so helpful in helping me kind of come to ground with the new position," she said.