Nick Stevens (’18) is a proven builder in the nonprofit and education sectors. Since graduating from the Master of Public Service (MPS) program in 2018, Stevens has leveraged his specialized training in program evaluation and strategic planning to drive community impact.
His professional journey includes co-founding the Creative Institute of Central Arkansas (now Create Conway), leading education and events at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, and serving as the U.S. office director at Life Child.
Stevens currently serves as the director of Corporate and Community Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he directs non-credit workforce and professional skills training. He is known for applying his Clinton School field service experience, including his International Public Service Project and Capstone, to real-world program development.
What do you most enjoy about your current role as the director of Corporate and Community Education at UA Little Rock?
I am a facilitator and educator at heart. I love connecting people and helping them learn. In my role here, I get to help faculty on campus take their expertise and make it available to the community. There is so much that we have available at the university that can help people in their jobs and help businesses grow. What I love doing is getting to make these connections between our expertise and the people who need it to achieve what they want to achieve in life. It’s magical to discover a specific need and to match that between a business and a faculty member, or between someone who is looking for training and getting them a really good experience on campus.
What does public service mean to you?
To me, it’s about taking on your role to make your community better. I have always had the ability to work in nonprofits, education, and training. My primary goal has always been, “How will this make the community work better and help people access what they need?” The funding is about making this work possible. People are the goal. Helping people, maximizing people’s potential is what public service is all about.
What is one thing that most people don’t know about you?
Something that many people wouldn’t know is that I once spent a summer in a conflict zone. When I was in college, I spent three months in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The city had recently been taken over by a rebel group, and it was one of the greatest, most life-shaking experiences I’ve ever had. It helped me to have a better picture of what is possible and normal for most individual people on Earth that is not American life. Until that trip, I wanted to live and work in southern Africa. But while I was there, I decided my skillset and passions were more aligned with equipping and empowering others to make a difference in the world.
What was your favorite class in your time as a Clinton School student?
The most impactful class I took was the Program Evaluation course with Dr. Ellen Fitzpatrick. That class gave me a passion for evaluation, and it led me to becoming her graduate assistant. The GA position gave me real-world experience of what it’s like to do that work for a real organization in real life. My first job after the Clinton School was as a program evaluator, where I really got to put those skills to work!
What skills did you learn at the Clinton School that you still put to use in your job or life today?
Some of the great skills I learned that I still use in my career today are program planning, program evaluation, and field research methods. I do a lot of surveys. I think the Clinton School impacted me by teaching me to always take that extra step to go after more formal evaluation beyond basic program data and participant feedback. I am equipped to do that kind of next-step assessment and to find out what kind of impact we are truly seeing.
I also developed facilitation skills that I use all the time, particularly with my Capstone, where I helped bring people together to facilitate the formation of the Arkansas Farm to School Network. For that project, I planned and facilitated a year-long strategic planning process on behalf of Arkansas Children’s Research Institute that brought together key farm-to-school stakeholders in the state. The work resulted in a formal Farm to School Network for Arkansas. Within two years, they accomplished their initial goal of getting a full-time Farm to School coordinator position created within the Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Through that Capstone, I practiced key facilitation skills and tools that I still use to this day.