Rose Adams, Commissioner

Executive Director - Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association (ACAAA)

Bachelor’s degree in education and social sciences, Illinois State University
Master’s degree in higher education administration, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville

Rose Adams is Executive Director of the Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association (ACAAA), which provides training, technical assistance, advocacy, and communications support to the state’s 16 community action agencies. Adams, who became ACAAA executive director in 2000, has led the state’s community action network in broadening its partners and resources to more comprehensively help people of low income advance toward economic security.

For the past nine years, Adams has worked with various coalitions to expand weatherization assistance in Arkansas, gain national recognition for the state’s efforts in promoting weatherization, improve the operation of the state’s low-income utility assistance programs, and advocate for low-income ratepayers. In 2006, she was a co-recipient of Entergy’s “Making Things Brighter Award,” and she received the Cunningham Community Action Leadership Award in 2007.

Adams formerly was executive vice-president of a national consulting firm, worked as a grant writer, held several positions with two community action agencies in central Arkansas, served as a Head Start director, was a school principal, and directed a county child welfare agency in Ohio. She also served for three years on the inaugural faculty of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, team-teaching a course on analysis for decision-making and strategic planning.

A native of Illinois who became involved in public service as a teenager, Adams has served on several nonprofit boards over the past 30 years, including the Morris Foundation, Arkansas Hunger Coalition, and Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and as president of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Alumni Association. She recently was appointed to the Arkansas Legislative Task Force on Reducing Poverty and Promoting Economic Opportunity.

Adams has a bachelor’s degree in education and social sciences from Illinois State University and a master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she also attended law school for one year. She also completed doctoral coursework in higher education administration at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.