Joshua A. Price, Commissioner

 Commissioner Price began serving on the Commission on February 11, 2019. Joshua was born and raised in Southwest Arkansas before moving to Maumelle in 1991. Joshua’s mother is a registered nurse from the Philippines, and his father is a native of Pike County. Joshua has a B.S. in sociology from the University of Central Arkansas with a minor in public administration. Joshua is the Director of Development of the University of Arkansas – Pulaski Technical College Foundation. He is also an appointed member of the advisory board for Pulaski County Youth Services and the Metroplan Regional Advisory Committee on Economic Vitality.

  For over 10 years, Joshua has worked with nonprofit organizations focused on mentorship, entrepreneurship, mental health, historic preservation, and the arts. He currently serves on the boards of Youth Home, Inc., Opera in the Rock, the Arkansas State House Society, the Quapaw Quarter Association, and the Arkansas Minority Film and Arts Association. Joshua is also the 2020 alumni president of the Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO) – a charitable organization operating under the Embassy of the Philippines in Washington DC with the mission to celebrate Filipino-American heritage and nurture U.S.-Philippine relations in the business and nonprofit sectors.

  In 2016, Joshua was elected as one of 37 Arkansas Delegates to the Democratic National Convention and served as a special correspondent for the New York Times at the Javits Center on election night. He also spoke at a White House Rural Council Forum on issues affecting minorities in the South held by former USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. In 2017, Joshua co-founded the Asian American Pacific Islander Democratic Caucus of Arkansas and was selected as its first president.

  Joshua is a graduate of the inaugural 2017 Maumelle Area Chamber of Commerce Leadership Development Program. In 2018, Joshua was appointed to the Maumelle Elected Officials Salary Committee by Mayor Mike Watson. In 2018, Joshua also ran for state representative in District 39. Joshua formerly served as the Digital Communications Manager and Special Research and Policy Advisor for the Delta Regional Authority, a bipartisan, federal economic development agency covering an eight-state region along the Mississippi River. In this role, he oversaw all digital and social media outreach for the 10 million residents of the Delta region, working with the DRA board of governors and directly under a Presidential Appointee by Barack Obama.

Joshua lives in Maumelle, Arkansas and attends New Life Church of Greater Little Rock.

Kristi McKinnon,   Commissioner

Kristi currently works as the Legislative Liaison and Policy Coordinator for the Division of Information Systems (DIS) within the Department of Transformation and Shared Services for the State of Arkansas. Before working at DIS, Kristi operated Waterchase Consulting (WC) where she practiced general consulting, legal research, and PR services. Prior to Waterchase, Kristi was the Supervisor of Voter Registration and County Records for Pulaski County from 2010 to 2013.

During that 3 year period, she oversaw 17 elections, including two generals, thousands upon thousands of absentee ballots, and was responsible for over 242,000 voters being moved into new precincts following redistricting. Kristi is also certified in ArcGIS. Additionally, she served on the ACECA legislative committee during the 89th General Session of 2013 for which they presented several key pieces of election related bills, which are now in statute. Some of the most noteworthy of those were voting centers (Act 1389), ePollbooks (Act 1297), required election training (Act 1457), and protecting the last vote (Act 466).

Kristi served as the Arkansas Young Republicans’ (ARYR) Legislative Director and was named to the ARYR’s 40 Under 40 List in 2015. In 2018, she was named as one of AY Magazine’s Intriguing Women of Arkansas. Kristi also served as the gubernatorial appointee on the Electronic Recording Commission from 2016 to 2019. Additionally, Kristi provided communications support for the Pulaski County Republicans from 2016 to 2019 and served as the 2nd Congressional District Committeewoman prior to her election on PCEC. In her free time, she volunteers annual Women of Inspiration Event, benefiting the Children Advocacy Centers of Arkansas.

Kristi graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a BA in Criminal Justice and attended graduate school there as well. She then transferred to the University of South Florida in Tampa following acceptance into a doctorate program in criminology with an emphasis on policy and higher education administration. She completed five years at USF while teaching and working as a Judicial Coordinator for Student Affairs and published scholarly works in the field before returning to Arkansas to start a family.

Kristi resides in Little Rock with her daughter and Yorkie Luke and is set to marry her fiance Zach in January of 2020. They attend Immanuel Baptist Church in WLR.