Representative Denise Garner

My husband, two young sons, and I moved to Northwest Arkansas 30 years ago. At that time, I retired from my nursing practice and began volunteering for a variety of nonprofits.

My nursing practice focused on mental and behavioral health, with a specialty in oncology. In my nonprofit work, I’ve consulted and/or fund-raised for health, education, policy, arts, and social welfare organizations. I founded Feed Communities, a hunger relief, nutrition education, and sustainable food systems advocacy nonprofit in 2011 and Roll Call, an organization to encourage civic engagement in 2016.

I was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in Nov 2018 and served as Co-chair (1 D/1 R) of the House Freshmen Caucus our first term. I’ve served as Minority Whip my second. I am running unopposed for a third term.

I’m a member of the Women’s, Democratic, Public Health, Veterans, Black, & Arts Caucuses and Chair a bipartisan, bicameral caucus for Early Childhood Well-being. The mission of this caucus is to focus on issues dealing with the well-being of families with children 0 – 5, to provide a multigenerational approach for policies to alleviate the families’ needs, and to collaborate with all committees, agencies, community organizations, and stakeholders dealing with early childhood issues.

 I have served on the AR Legislative Council; Joint Budget; House Education; House Aging, Children, Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs; and House Revenue & Tax.

I am a member of NCSL’s standing committee for Education and the Hunt Institute’s Early Childhood Education “Caucus Caucus”. I was selected for the Center for the Advancement of Leadership Skills program in 2021 and as the Women in Government’s State Director for 2022.