Senator LINDA PONDEXTER CHESTERFIELD

District 12

Senator Linda Chesterfield represents District 12, which includes parts of Pulaski County on both the south and north sides of the Arkansas River. She was elected to the Senate in November 2010 took office in January 2011.

Senator Chesterfield is a member of the Senate Committee on Education, the Senate Committee on Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs, the Senate Efficiency Committee, and the Joint Budget Committee.  She is a member of the Arkansas Legislative Council and Legislative Joint Auditing, as well as several subcommittees.

In 2003, Senator Chesterfield was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives where she served through 2008. She is a former co-chair of the Local 911 Systems Blue Ribbon Committee Task Force, a former chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs, and a former chair of the Senate Efficiency Committee. As chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation, Technology, and Legislative Affairs, she won passage of legislation to improve the state’s highway infrastructure. Senator Chesterfield has said, “Education and economic growth are inextricably intertwined as we move forward in Arkansas to reach our full potential as a state.”

Senator Chesterfield sponsored legislation for a tax exemption for single parents with two or more children. She has also sponsored legislation that promoted growth at Pulaski Technical College and for other two-year institutions in Arkansas. Senator Chesterfield also passed legislation on appropriating funds for Historic Black Colleges and Universities. 

When legislation is filed that would create a new board or commission, she makes sure that its members represent a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Senator Chesterfield is a retired teacher with more than 30 years of classroom experience teaching 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. She is a past president of the Little Rock School Board and the Pulaski County Association of Classroom Teachers. She also served two terms as president of the Arkansas Education Association.

Senator Chesterfield was on the board of the National Education Association and is the only Arkansan to have been elected to the NEA’s nine-member Executive Committee. She was also the chair of the NEA Black Caucus. Senator Chesterfield has been president and treasurer of the Arkansas Democratic Black Caucus and chair of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus. Senator Chesterfield is the Connection Chair of Beta Pi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc.

A native of Hope, Arkansas, Senator Chesterfield is the daughter of the late Ms. Ernestine Pondexter and the granddaughter of the late Ms. Ophelia Logan. She was an honor graduate of Henry Clay Yerger High School, class of 1965. She was the first Black student to graduate from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Senator Chesterfield earned her MSE from Ouachita Baptist University. She and her husband, Emry, own a consulting firm, Pondexter Chesterfield Consulting. Senator Chesterfield and her husband are members of the First Missionary Baptist Church of Greater Little Rock, where she serves as chair of the Mission Society and is a member of the Deaconess Board.