Marie Crawford to speak as part of Joel Gambill Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series

From: Feb 21st, 2011 @ 12:00 am
To: Feb 22nd, 2011 @ 12:00 am

Marie Crawford to speak as part of Joel Gambill Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series

         JONESBORO - Marie A. Crawford, the chief communications officer for Central

Arkansas Water, will be on the Arkansas State University campus Monday and

Tuesday, Feb. 21-22, as part of the Joel Gambill Distinguished Alumni Speaker

Series. Crawford will speak to journalism classes on both days.

        A 1983 graduate of ASU with a bachelor of science degree in journalism/news

editorial, Crawford worked in news reporting for five years, including one year

with the Jacksonville Daily News as a reporter and city editor. She then worked

four years with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as general assignment reporter and

beat reporter covering Little Rock city government.

        For the last 22 years, she has been the chief communications officer first for

Little Rock Municipal Water Works and now its successor, Central Arkansas Water,

the largest drinking water supplier in the state of Arkansas.

        Crawford enrolled in the University of Arkansas-Little Rock William H. Bowen

School of Law in the fall of 2006. She attended law school part-time while managing

full-time employment with Central Arkansas Water. She graduated In May 2010 with a

Juris Doctorate Degree and was admitted to the Bar of Arkansas on Sept. 14, 2010.

         In November, she formed Nelms Crawford Law Firm, P.L.L.C., and currently

provides solely pro bono legal services. Her son, Allen, is an instructor and assistant

athletic trainer at the University of Central Arkansas at Conway. He also completed

his undergraduate studies at ASU.

         Crawford continues to be involved in alumni relations with the Department of

Journalism at ASU and the Bowen School of Law. She recently served with the Bowen

Law School Dean's Bar Passage Alumni working group and on a panel for "Raising the

Bar," both initiatives that have the goal of increasing the bar exam passage rate

among Bowen graduates.