Heather Larkin joined Arkansas Community Foundation in 1998 and became its President and CEO in January 2008. Heather has seen the Foundation through monumental asset grantmaking growth to where the Foundation is now largest grantmaker in the state by the number of grants made annually. In 2022, Heather was appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson to the Arkansas Women’s Commission, was named Woman of the Year in Philanthropy by the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, and was recognized as one of the top 20 Influential Women in Arkansas by Arkansas Business. She was also named as a “Scholar in Residence” at the Clinton School of Public Service Center on Community Philanthropy for exemplary contributions in the field of community philanthropy. Heather is a Hull Fellow and attended the Hull Leadership Program, a program to nurture and inspire the Southeast’s philanthropic leaders. In 2005, she was selected as one of five Americans to be a Transatlantic Community Foundation Fellow.
Heather is a native of Charleston, Ark. She attended Hendrix College in Conway and while at Hendrix, she competed in several sports including cross-country, track and basketball. Upon graduating with distinction in economics and business, she went to work for Ernst and Young, LLP and became a Certified Public Accountant. She returned to the academic arena and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law where she served as survey/comments editor for the UALR Law Journal. Heather has served on the boards of Just Communities of Arkansas, Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation, Rotary Club 99 and ACANSA Arts Festival. She was inducted into the Hendrix Athletic Hall of Honor in 2007. She is also a member of various organizations and is a graduate of Leadership Greater Little Rock class 19 and of Leadership Arkansas Class I.