Governor Appoints Leslie Fisken as Secretary of Transformation & Shared Services

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday named Leslie Fisken as secretary of the Arkansas Department of Transformation and Shared Services.

Fisken replaces Secretary Joseph Wood, who was elected chair of the Republican Party of Arkansas last month. Wood had led the department since January. 

Fisken currently serves in Sanders’ administration as director of cabinet affairs. Before then, she was the chief of legislative affairs for the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. Her past roles include director of governmental relations at UAMS and education policy adviser to former Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Fisken is also a former member of the Little Rock School District Board of Education.

“For the past eight months, Leslie has successfully united every agency in my administration around our shared goal to make bold, transformational change for the people of Arkansas,” Sanders said in a statement. “She is a hard worker with a deep understanding of how state government works, both of which make her eminently qualified to serve as Secretary of Transformation and Shared Services.”

Fisken holds a bachelor’s from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as Governor Sanders’ Director of Cabinet Affairs and bring together all our state agencies around her bold, conservative agenda,” Fisken said. “I’m excited to take that experience to the Department of Transformation and Shared Services, where I’ll continue my work to improve our agencies and serve the people of Arkansas.”