The STOPDV Leadership Team

Andria Russaw has called Conway, Arkansas home since 1986. She has worked for Centennial Bank for more than 20 years and currently serves as a Director of Marketing. In her free time, she enjoys photography and spending time with her three grown children. 

In December of 2019 joined the Board of Directors for STOP DV, and quickly was surprised to learn the number of domestic violence occurrences in Faulkner County and was inspired more to help. She serves as Chair of the STOPDV Board and Development Committee, which manages fundraising efforts and coordinates events.

Jill Walden is a life-long resident of Conway and a graduate of Conway High School. She earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Central Arkansas - a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance. Jill has worked at Lisa Stephens Certified Public Accountant, PLC for over 23 years, and serves as Vice President and Income Tax Manager. Jill also serves as Agent of the Conway Advertising and Promotion Commission for the firm. She has one son, Ryder, who is 12 and he is her main man. 

In September 2019 Jill joined the Board of Directors as Board Treasurer and is extremely honored to be a part of the inaugural board. Domestic violence is a real and often-overlooked problem, and she hopes to be part of the solution.

Maree Coats has been a resident of Faulkner County since 1994. She attended the University of

Arkansas in Fayetteville and transferred to finish her Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education at

the University of Central Arkansas when she married her husband, Kirby. They have a close family that consists of three grown sons and a daughter-in-law. 

Maree has been working in real estate and property

development on both the management and construction side since 2006. She is also serving Faulkner

County as Justice of the Peace for District 2.  In this role, she serves on the Budget and Finance

Committee as well as the Courts and Public Safety Committee. Maree has a heart for animals and is very active in rescue work with critical care and orphaned neonatal kittens being her passion. 

She is driven to help the domestic violence advocacy platform in Faulkner County after the issue impacted within her

close friendship circle this past year.

Senator Missy Thomas Irvin represents Senate District 24, which includes Searcy, Stone and Van Buren Counties and parts of Cleburne, Faulkner and Newton Counties.

Senator Irvin was first elected to the Senate in 2010, as the first Republican to hold the seat since Reconstruction in 1874. She was also the first woman and the first resident of Stone County to hold the seat. At the time, she was the youngest woman ever elected to the Arkansas Senate, at the age of 39.

Senator Irvin is chair of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.  She is a member of the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee, the Joint Energy Committee, the Senate Efficiency Committee, the Senate Ethics Committee, the Joint Budget Committee, the Arkansas Legislative Council and the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee.

In past General Assemblies, she served as chair of the Senate Committee on Education and was a member of the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee, the Joint Retirement and Social Security Programs Committee and the Senate Rules, Resolutions and Memorials Committee.  She served as the Co-Vice Chair for Arkansas Legislative Council and was a member of the Joint Budget Committee and the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee. 

Senator Irvin was the State Chair for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Senator Irvin is a founding board member of the Human Rights for Kids Organization.

Senator Irvin’s political interest began as a presidential campaign volunteer at the age of nine for Ronald Reagan. She volunteered for Sheffield Nelson’s first campaign for Governor, and then worked for Sheffield Nelson’s second campaign for Governor in 1994 as Special Events Coordinator and Assistant Finance Director.

In 2000, Irvin served her brother, Bob Thomas, as campaign manager for his Second District U.S. Congressional Campaign.

Senator Irvin and her husband, Dr. John Dawson Irvin, have lived in Mountain View for more than 22 years. They are members of First United Methodist Church of Mountain View.

  Shelia Isby, a life-long resident of Conway is a graduate of Conway High School and attended the University of Central Arkansas. She was the first minority to be elected to the Conway City Council winning a city-wide election with 66.4% of the votes in 1998 and is currently serving her eighth term. She is the wife of Will Isby, has one daughter Brittany Miller (Kevin) and two granddaughters (Karsyn and Kaiya) and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her grandson in January. 

As a founding member of the Conway Regional Women’s Council, she was instrumental in establishing Dazzle Daze, which has raised thousands of dollars for health-related items for our area. She has been a co-chair of Dazzle Daze during two separate terms. She currently serves on the Advertising and Promotion Commission, Arvest Bank Board, Stop DV Board, Conway Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is a mentor for Young Empowered Sisters (YES). 

A 1994 graduate of the Faulkner County Leadership Institute, Isby has been recipient of the Martin Luther King Commission Distinguished Citizen Award, the Dan Nabholz Award and in 2015 received The Minority Enterprise Development Lifetime Achievement Award. Shelia has been employed with Counseling Associates, Inc. since 1996 and serves as their Human Resources Coordinator. 

The reason she serves on the Stop DV Board as with all her Community Involvement, she’s very passionate about serving her community and she believes everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect and no one should ever suffer any type of abuse at the hands of another. She is passionate about her love for God, her family and serving her community. 

Randy Higgins has been a long-time resident of Faulkner County. He has been married to his high school sweetheart Verna for forty-one years, and they have two sons, Matt and Mitchell, both graduates of UCA. He

has two grandchildren as well, Maddox, 7, and Avery, 4.

Randy and his family are members of Immanuel Baptist Church in Greenbrier for nearly 30 years. 

He graduated from the Faulkner

County Sheriff’s Reserve Training program in 1995 and had served as a reserve law enforcement officer in Faulkner County for twenty-eight years; sixteen years with the Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office and currently twelve years with the Greenbrier Police Department. He is also a graduate of the

class of 2007 Faulkner County Leadership Institute.

Randy recently completed his sixth two-year term on the Faulkner County Quorum Court representing his hometown of Greenbrier in JP District 2. 

He is the past president of the Arkansas Association of

Quorum Courts and completed a two year term on the executive

board of the Association of Arkansas Counties.

In 2021, after a 35 year career in the fire protection systems business, Randy retired from Johnson Controls, Inc., as the Regional Business Operations Manager for the eastern United States. 

After two years he

decided to come out of retirement and again serve Faulkner County on the staff of county judge, Allen Dodson, as the Faulkner County

Administrator.

Cortney Kennedy has been a licensed attorney in Arkansas since 2014. She currently serves as Associate Legal Counsel, Criminal Division, in the Office of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Prior to that she was a deputy prosecuting attorney in Faulkner County for the nearly 8 years,

most recently prosecuting domestic cases and general crimes. Cortney keeps involved with the

law enforcement community by teaching Writing and Research classes for the Criminal Justice

Institute and in the past has taught Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Deputies. Cortney

is a proud member and past president of Conway Noon Rotary, a graduate of Conway Area

Leadership Program (2019) and Jeff Farris Leadership Program (2018). She volunteers time with

Faulkner County’s Teen Court Program as well as the Conway Police Department’s mentorship

program for new hire families. She lives in Conway with her husband, who is a lieutenant at

Conway Police Department, four kids, and three dogs. Her children proudly attend local schools:

UCA, Conway High, and Conway Christian. Cortney attends New Life Church, where she is

active in a Lifegroup, in addition to hosting a women’s bible study. Her family stays busy

attending athletic events, camping, and making the most of every day.

Helping the survivors of domestic violence is a cause close to Cortney’s heart. Domestic

violence affects every aspect of the family, including the innocent children, and can become a

generational curse. It is Cortney’s goal to end the cycle of domestic violence by holding

offenders accountable and by providing survivors with the resources they need to remove

themselves from the situation. Cortney strives to handle survivors with compassion and mercy

and to lend them her strength when they have none of their own.

  Former representative Spencer Hawks is a real estate broker for Coldwell Banker RPM Group and a state legislator. As a former legislator, Hawks has served on the House Judiciary Committee where legislation involving domestic violence issues are considered. He has been married to his wife for ten years and has three children. Hawks is passionate about serving his community through both public service and philanthropy.