ARKANSAS' FIRST LADY GINGER BEEBE

Introducing Ginger Beebe, First Lady of Arkansas

First Lady Ginger Beebe brings to Leadership a lifetime dedication to volunteerism and involvement in children's issues and mental health awareness. As First Lady, she encourages all Arkansans to take an active role in their communities. Currently, she serves as Honorary Chair of the Natural Wonders Partnership Council, which expects to announce a state-wide, strategic plan for improving children's health and quality of life in the summer of 2008. Mrs. Beebe also is on the board of the Women's Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes philanthropy among women. Through the Women's Foundation, she has been active in the Girls of Promise, a conference introducing 8th-grade girls to professional women role models from an array of nontraditional, math, science, and technology fields.

Believing that elementary students in Arkansas should see and know more about the world they live in, Mrs. Beebe has partnered with students at the Clinton School of Public Service to send Flat Stanley, the familiar children's book character, throughout the world to “visit” other countries and report back to Arkansas's elementary students via the First Lady's Web site. Mrs. Beebe uses Flat Stanley's experiences as a teaching tool when she visits schools and reads to students throughout Arkansas.

In 2007, Mrs. Beebe traveled the State to hear firsthand the issues faced by families of children with mental illnesses. Information gleaned from the tour is being utilized in the foundation of Arkansas's Children's Behavioral Health Care Commission, which will work to reform the system of mental health care for children and combat mental illness in the State.

Mrs. Beebe and her husband have three adult children and five grandchildren.

Spouses of Governors who completed their terms in their State houses are able to continue their work to prevent childhood drinking as members of the Leadership To Keep Children Alcohol Free Emeritus Group.  Click here for information on the Emeritus Group and a complete list of members.