ABOUT ME

Vivian Flowers is a public servant with over thirty years’ experience, and is a proud Pine Bluff native. She is currently serving in her fifth term as Arkansas State Representative for District 65, which is comprised of parts of Jefferson and Arkansas Counties, including part of Pine Bluff. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer for the Center for Diversity Affairs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, as a member and chair on the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, and as a commissioner for the Pine Bluff Historic District Commission. Although eligible to run and serve for another six years in the House, Flowers announced her candidacy for Mayor of Pine Bluff on November 6th. Her decades of experience as a state legislator, executive leader, and appointee for state and local commissions have well prepared her to represent the City of Pine Bluff with integrity and distinction. Throughout her service as state representative, Flowers has been instrumental in helping to secure funding and resources for Pine Bluff. From grant funds for the aquatic center to the oversight and ownership of the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, Flowers has successfully advocated for Pine Bluff. Most recently, the USDA awarded Pine Bluff over $32 million for flood prevention projects, which Flowers had a direct hand in securing. She has been and is currently working on and researching solutions toward addressing the massive and historic underfunding of the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff. The recipient of local, state and national legislative awards for her leadership and hard work on numerous issues and legislative acts, Flowers has sponsored and co-sponsored dozens of bills that have passed into law, benefiting Pine Bluff and the State of Arkansas for generations to come. During her first two terms, she addressed family reunification (Act 993), heritage tourism (Acts 451 & 776), and minority business expansion and fair elections (Act 1014). She subsequently sponsored and passed legislation that ended child marriage (Act 1028), expanded government transparency by requiring audio recording and storage of public meetings (Act 849), and continued her commitment to growing the state’s heritage tourism footprint in South Arkansas with the “Arkansas Delta Music Trails Act” (Act 1066). State and national leadership has been a significant part of Flowers’ distinguished service as she currently serves as Secretary for the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), and previously served as Region X Chair (2018-2020) as well as chair of the NBCSL COVID-19 Working Group (2020). During her first term, Governor Hutchinson appointed Flowers to the Governor’s Council on Medicaid Reform, and in 2017 she was elected chair of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus during her sophomore term (2017-18). Flowers currently serves on the House Education and House Insurance & Commerce, Joint Energy, Joint Budget, and the Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC) Committees. She is the Vice-Chair of the ALC Policy Making Subcommittee. Flowers is an inaugural graduate of the University of Arkansas Clinton School Of Public Service, and earned bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Professional Technical Writing from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Upon graduation, she accepted a position as Director of Recruitment for Diversity at the University for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Center for Diversity Affairs and was later promoted to serve as Chief Operating Officer (COO), leading the department’s diversity recruitment/program/leadership efforts at UAMS for nearly a decade. Prior to her graduate studies and professional service in the DEI arena at UAMS, Flowers established a solid record of service as a volunteer and professional in the non-profit sector, journalism, electoral politics on the state and national levels, as well as in state government service with the Bureau of Legislative Service and the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. Having served on numerous state and non-profit boards and commissions – including the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas and Arkansas Minority Commission - she currently serves as a board member of the Women’s Council on African American Affairs and is a founding member of Higher Heights. A fifth generation Arkansan, Flowers is a proud Pine Bluff native who currently resides in the city’s Historic District. She is the daughter of Mary and Dr. John A. Flowers, Sr., a lifetime member of the NAACP Pine Bluff Branch, and a dedicated member of St. John A.M.E. Church.