LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Another resignation looms for the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism.
Arkansas Heritage Director Jimmy Bryant’s last day on the job will be June 30, Shealyn Sowers, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email Friday to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He’s held the post for more than three years.
The Division of Arkansas Heritage, originally the Department of Arkansas Natural and Cultural Heritage, was created in 1975 to preserve and promote Arkansas’s natural and cultural heritage. The agency consists of eight divisions and a director’s office, according to its website.
Bryant, 68, joined the agency in January 2020 after working at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway for more than two decades. News of his retirement comes a week after Mike Mills, secretary of the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, resigned from his position. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed Shea Lewis, the director of Arkansas State Parks, to serve as the department’s interim secretary.
Travis Napper, the director of Arkansas Tourism, also recently announced he will step away from his position later this month to take a job in tourism consulting, the newspaper reported.
