By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Few entities have had a bigger effect on Arkansas than Walmart, and this year the effect was bigger than most. For that reason, philanthropist Alice Walton, daughter of founder Sam Walton, and retiring CEO Doug McMillon are the Arkansans of the year.

Every December, this column bestows that title on an individual or individuals who have most impacted the state. It is inspired by Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” designation for “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.”

The Arkansans of the year is a one-man decision. There is no award ceremony, and there are no cash prizes – not that Walton or McMilllon would need one.  Walton is the world’s richest woman, worth an estimated $122 billion, according to Forbes.

This was the year Walton’s vision for a new kind of medical school became a reality. In July, the first class of 48 students participated in their opening white coat ceremony at the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine – with the appropriate acronym AWSOM – in Bentonville. Students will graduate with their medical degrees in 2029. The first five cohorts won’t have to pay tuition. More than 2,000 students applied.

Walton’s inspiration was her own experiences with the health care system after suffering from a bone infection after being in a car accident. Students will be taught to focus on the whole person rather than a specific malady, and to keep patients healthy rather than merely treat them after they are already sick.

The school is housed in a 154,000-square-foot facility alongside another of Walton’s philanthropic endeavors, the Heartland Whole Health Institute. That research and advocacy organization is seeking to change the nation’s fragmented health care system just as AWSOM seeks to change medical education. Among its focuses is creating a payment model based on health outcomes rather than quantity of care. 

Both rest on a campus anchored by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. That institution has helped make northwest Arkansas a tourist destination. Next year, it will grow 50% with another 114,000 square feet of galleries.

While Walton seeks to transform both Bentonville and the nation’s health care system, McMillon has helped the company remain vibrant and growing. In doing so, he has helped prevent Amazon from doing to it what Walmart did to Kmart and Sears. 

The company continues to renew itself 63 years after the first store opened in Rogers – an age when it could become stale and stuck in its ways. Third quarter revenues were up 6%, while its net income was up 34% compared to the previous year’s third quarter. Meanwhile, McMillon presided over the official opening of Walmart’s new 350-acre home office in Bentonville this year.

Now the Jonesboro native is handing the reins to Jacksonville-born and Rogers High School-educated John Furmer. The company that started in Arkansas continues to be led by Arkansans.

Many people have mixed emotions about Walmart, even as they shop there. Walmart’s success came at a price of closed hometown retailers and mom-and-pops who could not compete with it. Walmart won fair and square, but there were tradeoffs for communities. There’s also the fact that the company has been criticized in the past for paying low wages.

McMillon addressed that issue in 2015 by announcing an increase in starting wages at the time to $9 an hour. In doing so, he raised the salaries of nearly half of the company’s one million-plus hourly workers, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. Under McMillon’s leadership, the company has sought to increase advancement opportunities for its employees. About three-fourths of its managers began as hourly associates, including McMillon and Furmer.

Another issue is the fact that Alice Walton makes Fort Worth, Texas, her primary residence. Still, she’s undeniably a native Arkansan with deep roots here.

Let’s return to Time magazine’s definition of its Person of the Year: “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill.” 

Walton and McMillon are affecting Arkansas for good. For Alice Walton’s investments in northwest Arkansas and her efforts to transform the nation’s broken health care system, and for Doug McMillon keeping the world’s largest retailer nimble and young, they are the 2025 Arkansans of the year.

Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 20 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.

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