AR-02: Joyce Elliott (D)
PROFILE
About Elliott:
Joyce Elliott grew up in the tiny community of Willisville, Ark., where she graduated from high school in a class of nine students.
Elliott was only the second person of color to graduate from the newly integrated school. Her older sister, Carolyn, was the first. Joyce earned an undergraduate degree in English and speech from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and a graduate degree in English from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark.
Her first path to public service led her to the classroom. For thirty years, Joyce Elliott taught high school juniors and seniors in our public schools (both Advanced Placement and standard classes).
After her teaching career, Elliott served as a state representative from January 2001 through January 2007. In her final term, she was chair of the Education Committee and served on the Committees on Insurance and Commerce; Budget; Personnel; and Energy. In both her second and third terms in the House, Elliott was named by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as one of Arkansas’s Ten Best Legislators.
Elliott was elected to the Arkansas State Senate in November 2008, where she currently represents District 31. In her first term in the Arkansas Senate, Talk Business Arkansas magazine named her one of its Top Ten Legislators of 2009, the only freshman to be so named. Elliott currently serves on the Education Committee, where she is vice-chair; as well as the Insurance and Commerce; Budget; and Retirement Committees.
Joyce Elliott is the mother of one son, and grandmother to Athena. An outdoor enthusiast, she enjoys traveling, especially to National Parks, hiking, dancing, canoeing, zip lining, and whitewater rafting.