Luckett appointed as SNAP, EFNEP Program Coordinator at UAPB

Rachel L. Luckett has been appointed as the family and consumer sciences coordinator for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) and Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s (UAPB’s) School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences (SAFHS). In this position, she will provide overall coordination and leadership in planning, developing. implementing, reporting and evaluating SNAP and EFNEP operations.

Serving in UAPB’s Cooperative Extension Program, Luckett will implement public informal education and programs to improve healthy food and lifestyle choices among limited-resource families and individuals, encompassing all age groups, primarily throughout the Arkansas Delta region of the state.

She will supervise EFNEP and SNAP program assistants located in various locations in rural and urban communities; train personnel on coordinating and presenting training activities that focus on general nutrition, food preparation, food safety and food budgeting for limited resource individuals; and recruit participants to attend program functions.

Prior to her new appointment, Luckett served as an Extension specialist/urban outreach director at UAPB’s North Little Rock Site in North Little Rock. While there, she provided technical assistance to UAPB’s regulatory science program, providing support, education and research to the multidisciplinary program. She also conducted programs to recruit and prepare students for careers in agriculture; environmental, industrial health and safety; food safety regulatory affairs; and nutrition and health. 

From 2014 to 2018, she served as Extension specialist-health and nutrition leader at UAPB. In that position, Luckett directed the SNAP-Education program, oversaw the program’s demonstration kitchen and coordinated training with program staff as well as with local clients, agencies and organizations.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my position at UAPB’s North Little Rock Site, but I am glad to be back on the UAPB campus working in nutrition again,” she said.

Luckett received her Master of Science degree in clinical nutrition from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock and her Bachelor of Science degree in hospitality management-dietetics from UAPB.

Luckett currently serves on the advisory board for the Arkansas Association of Family and Consumer Science parliamentarian and nominating committee and has been a national member since 2014. She is also an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Little Rock Alumnae Chapter, where she is on the executive board. 

She was a two-time winner in the All-American National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and is currently an inductee for the UAPB and AM&N Letter A Club Hall of Fame Class of 2024. She recently published her first book, The Finisher: My Winning Season.