Board & Staff

Terry Bearden is the executive director of the Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association and serves as president of the Association of Nationally Certified ROMA Trainers and as vice-president of the Region VI Community Action Association boards of directors. She is a member of the NCAP Equity and Economic Mobility Commission, Arkansas Public Policy Panel Economic Justice and Civil Rights caucuses, Center of Excellence Steering Committee, State Association Think Tank, State Association ROMA Work Group, and CSBG Working Group. Terry is a Results-Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) Master Trainer, University of Connecticut Family Development Credential Program Instructor and Portfolio Advisor, and graduate of the University of Central Arkansas Community Development Institute–Central. Throughout her 20-year community action career, Terry has been a member of numerous coalitions, task forces, and work groups and has spoken, served on panels, and led workshops at local, state, regional, and national conferences.

John Moran is ACAAA’s Communications Director. He joined the Association after having spent over a decade previously serving as the Media Coordinator for the Arkansas State Employees Association—invaluable nonprofit-arena training for the art of trying to generate a maximum amount of attention on a minimum amount of budget. Since joining ACAAA, John has been endeavoring to usher the Association forward into more up-to-date modes of communication while still maintaining the respectfulness and seriousness with which the subject matter of Community Action deserves to be treated.

Erin Jacobson joined ACAAA in October 2020 as its Grants and Special Projects Director, and is also serving as the program manager of the Arkansas COVID-19 Fresh Start Housing Stabilization Program. She is a 2005 graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminology, drawing on over 15 years of non-profit experience, including her time with several area nonprofits focused on increasing access to the justice system, affordable housing, and related social advocacy work. An Ohio native, Erin has lived in Arkansas since 2011, where she continues to be inspired by leaders across the state working to reduce poverty and empower low-income Arkansans.

Dexta Jean Rodriguez is ACAAA’s Professional Development Director. As a child, her family moved to Arkansas from Puerto Rico. She has worked for a dozen nonprofits as a volunteer manager, program manager, or executive director. She has also been an award-winning freelance writer for the state newspaper as well as regional magazines and is a poet and visual artist. For the last eight years, she has taught art history, English composition, and college success classes at Arkansas Tech University and University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College. She is currently in her dissertation for a PhD in Leadership from the University of Central Arkansas. Dexta is Hispanic, a descendent of the indigenous people of the Caribbean – and member of a Taino pueblo – and of Scots-Irish homesteaders that settled around Polk County. Dexta is the mother of four sons, including a deaf and trans son, and a 2021 graduating member of the UCA Community Development Institute. She is an encourager and loves to laugh.