• Northwest Arkansas Director
• lkellams@aradvocates.org

Laura Kellams joined AACF as its first Northwest Arkansas director in 2008. In this role, she works to call attention to challenges facing children in the region and to build support for policy solutions that can help all children thrive. Before joining Advocates, she was a newspaper reporter for 15 years, mostly covering politics and government for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. During that time, she served as a journalism fellow on the staff of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as part of the American Political Science Association’s Congressional Fellowship Program.

She is a longtime board member of the Economic Opportunity Agency of Washington County as well as the League of Women Voters. She is a past recipient of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families’ national “Bulldog of the Year” award for her advocacy to extend health coverage to immigrant children in Arkansas. Laura has a journalism degree from the University of Arkansas, and she and her husband Kyle have lived in Fayetteville for more than 30 years.