By Jill Eaves

When Kelly D. Bryant first met Lori Arnold, the former executive director for the American Red Cross Greater Arkansas Chapter, she was not looking for a new commitment. Bryant, the environmental manager at Clearwater Paper Corporation in Arkansas City, connected with Arnold after her company made a donation. Arnold asked her to consider joining the chapter board, hoping to find someone rooted in Southern Arkansas.

“I had a lot of other things going on, so at first I said not right now,” Bryant said. Arnold circled back a few months later, and this time Bryant said yes. She is now in her first term on the board, which runs through 2027.

Bryant grew up in Malvern, near Hot Springs, and has spent more than a decade at Clearwater Paper, where she oversees environmental compliance at a pulp and paper mill in Desha County. Joining the board introduced her to a side of the Red Cross she had never considered.

“I’ve learned a lot more about the Red Cross than I originally knew,” Bryant said. “I knew about the blood donations and the work with the military, but learning about the disaster relief and the shelters opened my eyes to what the Red Cross does and how many people it actually serves.”

That became personal when Bryant joined volunteers installing free smoke alarms, a service the Red Cross provides to reduce injuries and deaths from home fires. She recalled entering homes where residents had never checked whether an exit was blocked, or whether an alarm even worked.

“They were really appreciative, because it was free, no strings attached,” Bryant said of the families she met that day. “There are still people who will do things for a good purpose with nothing behind it.”

Those installs are part of a broader response to home fires in the area. Since the start of 2026, the Red Cross Greater Arkansas Chapter’s Disaster Action Team has responded to over 370 fires, providing emergency shelter, supplies and comfort to families in the middle of a crisis.

Bryant has also become a leader and advocate closer to home. Rather than waiting for people to come to the Red Cross, she has taken its mission directly to her own circles. As a member of the Pine Bluff Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, a group of nearly 200 women, Bryant encouraged her fellow members to get involved. Several answered the call. Roughly a dozen members attended a hands-only CPR class taught by Lori Arnold, learning lifesaving skills they can use to help in an emergency.

“Not everybody can do everything, but we can usually find people who can do something,” Bryant said. “Those small things add up.”

Pine Bluff is one of the Red Cross’s focus communities, areas where the need for education and preparedness resources is often greatest. Bryant said that when she looks at the demographics of the city, from income levels to access to information, the reason becomes clear.

“Some people don’t know where to find resources,” she said. “Getting that information out can help save lives, with smoke detectors, with knowing CPR. You don’t know what you don’t know if it’s never been put in front of you.”

For Bryant, the return on that small first step, a donation, an introduction, a single yes, has been measured in the people she has met and the families whose homes are a little safer because someone showed up. It is a small step she hopes more Arkansans will consider taking themselves.

The American Red Cross is looking for community members like Kelly Bryant to serve on its chapter boards, providing strategic local leadership and strengthening disaster readiness close to home. To learn more about becoming a board member, or to volunteer or donate, visit redcross.org.