LITTLE ROCK (11-17) – Mary P. “Prissy” Hickerson of Texarkana was elected Chairman of the five-person Arkansas State Highway Commission at the Commission’s November 17 meeting.  She served the past two years as Vice Chairman.

     Hickerson replaces J.W. “Buddy” Benafield of Hickory Plains who stepped down from the Chairman’s spot at the same meeting.  The move is a Commission tradition that allows for the new Chairman to be in place when the Legislature convenes.  Benafield will remain on the Commission until his term expires in January 2005.

     Commissioner Jonathan Barnett of Siloam Springs was elected Vice Chairman.  His term on the Commission expires in January of 2009.

     Hickerson was appointed in 1996 by Governor Mike Huckabee. She is the business manager for her husband’s dental practice as well as H & H Enterprises. Hickerson attended college at the University of Tennessee’s Nashville campus. She is a 1993 graduate of Leadership Texarkana and a past member of the Leadership Texarkana Advisory Board.  She presently serves the Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transporation Officials as Chairman of the Special Committee on Commissioners and Boards.  Hickerson is a board member for the I-49 Coalition and a member of the Texarkana Citizen Advisory Committee on Intermodal Transportation.  Her tenure on the Highway Commission expires in January 2007.