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The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is partnering with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office to present a series of profiles based on the governor’s Faces of Arkansas, which highlights the story of one Arkansan each month. The series began in December.

According to the governor’s office, “Each month, a different Arkansan will be featured through a written profile, portrait photography, and a short video clip accompanied by their framed photo hanging inside the Capitol. Selections of the Faces of Arkansas program were chosen based on individuals who make Arkansas function: playing an essential role in making their industry work, overcoming major obstacles to achieve their dreams, or serving as the heartbeat of their local communities.”

Included here are the profiles from December, January and February (with some editing from the Style staff). Next week’s feature will include profiles from March through June. Starting next month, the latest profile will appear monthly in the Style section.

Cheron Atkins-Butcher

My Superhero Wears Wings (December)

The walls, shelves and windowpanes of Cheron Atkins-Butcher’s classroom burst with color. Books arranged by hue, a ceiling tile bears signatures of students from years past and small treasures hide in corners — each one marking a moment of pride. Even Ms. AB — her students’ nickname for her — radiates energy in her red glasses, Razorbacks T-shirt and red snakeskin Converse sneakers. Her room is alive, a space that instantly invites you in.

In the window sits a painting from a former student: an airplane, a figure leaping out, and the words “My Superhero Wears Wings.” The art captures her story in one image: before becoming “Ms. AB,” Atkins-Butcher was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, a woman who jumped into service.

Raised in a military family, she spent her childhood traveling the world — collecting stories and experiences from other cultures and understanding the meaning of serving something bigger than yourself. Her father’s 30 years of service planted that seed early, and when it came time to choose her own path, she followed in his footsteps.

Today, her mission looks different, but the courage is the same. Instead of jumping from planes, she dives into her students’ lives, creating a landing zone for creativity, confidence and connection. Where service was once combat, it’s now shaping young minds to see service as a way of life.

After leaving the military, Atkins-Butcher moved to Chicago, a young single mother of two with a determination to build something better. She rode the train an hour each way to classes, often with her toddler in her lap. What began as necessity became purpose, the same commitment and courage she’d carried in the military, now channeled into helping children discover their own voices.

Years later, longtime educator Beverly Williams called, offering her a position in Pulaski County — the same area where Atkins-Butcher had lived in the 1980s and where her parents had recently returned. She answered that call, too. Back home, Atkins-Butcher found what she’d been missing: family and a sense of belonging.

At Sherwood Elementary, she has built not just a classroom, but a community. After noticing girls practicing cheers in the car line, she founded the school’s first cheer team. Matching shirts, bows and pompoms now accompany performances, lunchtime discussions and a sense of belonging. “It’s something communal,” she says. “Something safe. Something kids can look forward to outside of academics.”

Inside her classroom, “out of the norm” isn’t a motto, it’s a method. Poetry assignments turned into art installations. Persuasive essays comparing restaurants covered in peer-feedback notes. Readers’ theater skits bring grammar to life. “Norm’s out of the book in my room,” she says. “They’ve done normal long enough.” Her teaching mirrors her journey: hands-on, brave and anchored in service. Her students come in to learn reading and writing, but they leave with confidence, imagination and a sense of family. “They look to us as real leaders,” she says. “Sometimes there’s conflict in our world, but we pull together and stand strong.”

Her impact reaches far beyond her classroom walls. Atkins-Butcher earned three Bronze Stars for her Army service, and this year, she was one of only 23 educators statewide selected for the inaugural Arkansas Excellence in Teaching Fellowship — a nine-month program honoring educators who go above and beyond. “Hearing voices from every corner of Arkansas, learning how others bring success, it’s reinvigorated me,” she says. “I want to take those ideas back to my kids and my colleagues.”

From jumping out of planes to lifting young minds, she has spent her life proving that “out of the norm” isn’t rebellion, it’s resilience.

“Arkansas,” she says with a knowing smile, “is the place you want to be. We’re just as good as anywhere else — East Coast, West Coast, it doesn’t matter. We’re just as good.”

Michael Kornegay
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Will Newton)

 

Michael Kornegay

Small Towns, Big Connections (January)

In small towns, connection doesn’t require effort; it requires attention. You learn names quickly. You don’t disappear easily. Community isn’t something you schedule; it happens whether you’re ready or not.

Michael Kornegay understands this kind of pace. As Connections Pastor at El Dorado First Assembly, his role is about noticing who’s there: who just walked up, who might need a hand, who’s looking for a way in.

That instinct is central to the 10:33 Initiative, a statewide pilot program launched by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in October to unite government agencies, community partners and local churches. Union County is one of three pilot counties selected for the initiative’s first year, alongside Pulaski and Pope counties. For Kornegay and El Dorado First Assembly, the work feels like a continuation of what they’ve always done: showing up, working alongside people and meeting long-term needs.

Kornegay didn’t plan on becoming a minister. He studied photography and videography, preparing for a career behind the camera. But in 2013, just before finishing his bachelor’s degree at Southern Arkansas University, he felt a calling toward ministry without clear instructions.

“I felt like the Lord wanted me to go into ministry,” Kornegay says. “And my first thought was, how do you do that without a ministry degree?”

When he took that feeling to his pastor at the time, the response surprised him. He was told not to do it. Ministry, he was warned, is hard. People don’t come to pastors when life is smooth; they come when there’s crisis and chaos.

Rather than rushing into something he wasn’t prepared for, Kornegay waited. Seven years passed before he stepped into ministry, a stretch he now realizes was preparation. That clarity arrived in March 2020 — the same time the world responded to the pandemic.

Everything changed at once. Churches moved online overnight. Community became fragile. Connection had to be intentional. Kornegay’s media background became unexpectedly useful.

Today, his work is rooted in helping people find their place, often from the day they walk through the church doors. He builds systems so no one gets lost in the crowd, then points them toward life groups, where faith and community are practiced beyond church pews.

“We’ll never be able to pastor everyone,” Kornegay says. “That happens in small groups, people doing life together.”

That same model of relationship-driven care sits at the heart of the 10:33 Initiative, which uses Restore Hope’s HopeHub, a collaborative case-management and data-sharing platform active in 19 Arkansas counties. Through HopeHub, individuals connect with a community advocate who mobilizes faith and community partners to address immediate needs while building long-term stability in housing, healthcare and employment, then are guided to Arkansas Launch for job opportunities, training and career support.

Pastor Daniel Egger of El Dorado First Assembly describes this work as deeply rooted in faith, a core mission of the church. For Kornegay, the initiative reflects a belief he has lived out locally and globally: connection changes lives. Through relationships formed organically, he has traveled from South Arkansas to South Africa and parts of Asia, walking alongside church leaders and helping people grow into roles they didn’t yet feel ready for.

Each trip began with conversation, a relationship, an open door. El Dorado, in this way, becomes more than a dot on the map. It functions as a hub, where resources, relationships and people move outward into South Arkansas and beyond; big connections rooted in a small place.

Kornegay doesn’t describe these opportunities as goals he pursued. He talks about them as doors that opened. For him, the guiding philosophy is simple: availability. “The light’s always green until it’s red,” he says. “If it fits the mission, we say yes.”

Eric Watts
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Will Newton)

 

Eric Watts

Natural State of Being (February)

For Arkansas, Lake Maumelle is part of an outdoor recreation economy that is one of the state’s strongest engines of growth. And for fishing guide Eric Watts, the lake is the source of his vocation.

Outdoor recreation has become one of the state’s strongest engines of growth, now ranking as Arkansas’ second-largest industry behind agriculture. In 2023 alone, outdoor recreation contributed more than $7 billion to the state’s economy and supported nearly 70,000 jobs. Fishing has been a major driver of that growth, with value added from fishing increasing more than 36% over the last several years, putting Arkansas among the top states nationwide.

Long before the sun climbs high, a boat eases into the waters of Lake Maumelle. Gear is prepped. Weather conditions are read carefully — light, wind, temperature — there’s no rush. Schools of fish patterns, whether it’s feeding, water depth or passing through certain channels, are revealed through careful consideration and listening.

“This is my natural state of being,” Watts says. “And I think it’s most people’s natural state of being — when you’re one with nature, connected with the outdoors, connected with God. When you’re on the water, the hustle and bustle of everyday life is gone. You’re just right here in the moment.”

Watts is the owner of Natural State Fishing, a Little Rock-based guiding service that takes everyone from kids and first-time anglers to experienced fishers and professional athletes out on Lake Maumelle. But for Watts, guiding has never been about the title or the business card.

“My favorite part is seeing people light up,” he says. “A lot of my clients, it’s their first time ever fishing. Watching them catch a fish, but also watching all the cares of the world go away, that’s the experience. They leave with a memory and a skill.”

That emphasis on teaching is intentional.

“It’s not about you catching a bunch of fish with me,” Watts says. “I want you to be able to go out and replicate the same things on your own.”

Fishing has shaped Watts’ life for as long as he can remember. He grew up on the water with his grandfather, father and uncles, spending long days fishing in Mississippi and along the Gulf Coast. Some trips were unforgettable, including an hours-long battle with a shark near an offshore oil rig. But his fondest memories are about what he didn’t catch.

One stands out clearly. As a young child, riding across the water in his uncle’s boat, Watts instinctively stuck his hand into the spray, letting the lake rush past his fingertips. “It wasn’t about fishing that day,” he recalls. “It was just being out there. That feeling stuck.”

The lake supplies roughly 90% of the city’s drinking water while also serving as a hub for fishing, boating, paddling and wildlife recreation. It sits within the Maumelle Pinnacles Conservation Area, which encompasses Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Rattlesnake Ridge and Blue Mountain, together forming a network of nearly 55,000 acres of protected land.

Before fishing full time, he worked nearly eight years in furniture manufacturing after briefly attending the University of Arkansas and realizing the path wasn’t a right fit. Those years, he says, shaped his work ethic and prepared him for entrepreneurship. Days were spent at work; nights and weekends were spent fishing, learning the lake and guiding whenever possible.

Making the leap to full-time guiding came after long hours and a pivotal conversation with his wife, his biggest supporter and accountability partner, who encouraged him to pursue life around his most consuming obsession.

“I never would’ve had this experience for myself if I hadn’t taken that leap,” Watts says. “Now I get to be out here every day.”

Through his work, Watts has become part of a tight-knit angler community, one he describes as deeply Arkansan in spirit. “We help each other out,” he says. “If someone’s in trouble on the water, you’re there. That’s just how we operate.”

That sense of responsibility extends beyond people to the resource itself. Watts teaches clients how to fish, respect the lake, to understand seasons, patterns and the importance of stewardship. For Watts, the Natural State is a way of being, lived daily on the water, where Arkansas’ outdoors continue to shape livelihoods, communities, and lasting connections.