Betsey Wright has been chosen as the first Mahlon Martin Fellow, created by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies to support research and programming on public policy in Arkansas.

The Butler Center, a department of the Central Arkansas Library System, started the fellowship in memory of Mahlon A. Martin, former Little Rock city manager, state finance director, and Rockefeller Foundation executive director. The Mahlon Martin Fellowship will support research and programming on public policy in Arkansas and will be funded through gifts in memory of Mahlon Martin andh endowments.

Wright spent 13 years working for then-Gov. Bill Clinton as his chief of staff, campaign manager, and deputy chairman of his 1992 campaign for president. Wright and Martin worked closely during her time as chief of staff to Gov. Clinton while Martin was director of the state Department of Finance and Administration.

In the 1970s, she founded and served as executive director of the National Women's Education Fund, a Washington-based organization that promoted women's political participation and trained women candidates across the country. She also served as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and as a lobbyist in Washington DC.