Alison Jumper in front of a mural located at the Fayetteville parks offices. | Photo credit: Casey Mann
When Alison Jumper is not at work, she is thinking about work, or talking about it or living it. If she is not in her office, she is running the steep trails of Mount Kessler, pedaling across a mountain biking trail or embarking on a remote camping trip. As Fayetteville’s director of Parks, Natural Resources and Cultural Affairs, her world revolves around outdoor recreation and, as she puts it, “covers a lot of ground.”
“We are responsible for all of the recreation programming,” Jumper said. “Soccer, baseball, tennis, pickleball… We also are responsible for park planning and design and construction… And we also have arts and culture under our umbrella.”
She said the work of her department touches the lives of almost every Fayetteville resident, whether they realize it or not. When a local attends a concert at Gulley Park, wins a tree in a city tree giveaway or simply walks on the trails, they are feeling the impact of the department.
Jumper grew up in central Arkansas and has been interested in the outdoors since childhood. She attended the University of Arkansas from 1994 to 1999 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture, a program introduced to her by her cousin.
“She had gone through the program before me and told me about the type of work that she was doing, and I was like, that is what I want to do,” Jumper said.
Despite growing up in the natural state, Jumper did not always know she would attend the U of A. However, once she found out about the landscape architecture program, she said she knew it was for her. She said that what she learned about problem-solving and holistic solutions while in school continues to guide her career.
After graduation, Jumper left Northwest Arkansas for Fort Collins, Colorado. Her experience there provided her with valuable mentorship and shaped her personal leadership style.
“My boss there made a really big impact on me,” she said. “He was very much a servant-leader style.”
Jumper was initially intimidated when she found out her new boss was an engineer. She said she assumed he would be rigid or difficult to work for, but he turned out to be “the biggest softy.”
She recalled when her former boss took her to the construction site of one of the first projects she worked on, a baseball field, and taught her how to take charge in an awkward situation.
“He introduced me to the construction team, because I was going to take on the construction management at that point,” she said. “And so one of the contractors said, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know it was bring your daughter to work day.’ [I said,] ‘Well, sir, I’m actually a city employee here, and I’m going to be managing this project.’”
Jumper said it was incredibly impactful to be taken under a mentor’s wing early in her career.
Despite her transformative experience in Colorado, Jumper returned to Northwest Arkansas after several years away. When she came back to Fayetteville, she took on a park planner role with the city in 2003, where she worked and shared an office with Matthew Mihalevich, also a park planner at the time.
Mihalevich first met Jumper in college. She was a year ahead of him in the landscape architecture program. He said they called themselves a dynamic duo, and they would always sing and have fun in their office.
“She’s always been like a team player,” he said. “… Getting input from anybody, everybody, like, ‘Okay, how do we figure out what’s the best solution here? [The] best way to move forward collaboratively?’”
Mihalevich said passionate is a good word to describe Jumper.
“Passionate toward the community,” he said. “And the people out there using these facilities, the parks, and all of that, making sure that that’s a positive experience for the community.”
Jumper said NWA’s landscape plays a big role in her love for the region, and it’s part of what keeps her here.
“My favorite thing about it is the landscape, and in particular the hills and the forests here,” she said. “I spend a ton of time on those trails because there are some really spectacular views, some really spectacular ecological systems on both of those mountains.”
Jumper said it is incredibly unique to have access to areas like Mount Sequoyah and Mount Kessler right in the city’s backyard. This access is the root of a lot of her goals for Fayetteville.
“Part of that vision is making sure that people have access to parks and green space and trails within a 10-minute walk,” she said. “We want to sort of weave those experiences and that access into everyday life. You may want to get in your car and drive out to Kessler or some other park, but you don’t have to, because we’re kind of interspersing these throughout the city.”
Walker Park and Underwood Park are among several areas in Fayetteville currently undergoing expansion. By 2026, Walker Park is expected to be equipped with new lighted, multipurpose fields, pickleball courts, sand volleyball courts, a refurbished playground and more. Underwood Park is undergoing similar improvements and is expected to fill a critical gap in access to community space for the west side of town, according to the city’s master plan for the park.
Fayetteville is uniquely positioned to pursue expansions like these. Jumper said the city has more than 4,000 acres of parkland and natural area, nearly three times the national average.
Part of Jumper’s ambitions include protecting existing natural areas. She said the parks department is taking a more active role in forestry management and working to improve habitats and remove invasive species.
Jumper said part of her passion for outdoor recreation stems from her own connection to it as an avid runner, cyclist, backpacker and hiker.
“There’s something about being out in the woods that really just changes your mood and changes the way you feel,” she said. “When I feel that when I’m doing an activity or out on a walk or exploring a site that we might acquire, it reminds me of how important it is for everyone to have that opportunity.”
Jumper started running in her 30s when she realized it was beneficial for her to be able to “turn off her brain” and move. Her longest running race covered 100 miles, and after an injury, she completed a 100-mile mountain bike race as well. Her favorite spot to train in Fayetteville is Mount Kessler.
“It’s so challenging,” she said. “You can go out there for a six-mile run, and you feel like you’ve run about 12 because it’s pretty taxing. It’s technical. You have to really pay attention, but it’s great because it makes you focus on the trail, and you can kind of let go of everything else and all the chatter in your brain.”
Jumper said a lot of the chatter in her brain has to do with work. It can be demanding, taking up nights and weekends. She added that her partner and the team at the parks department are incredibly supportive.
Despite the department’s reach across Fayetteville, Jumper said it can be challenging to measure its impact. The team tries through survey work and feedback from previous projects.
“In terms of the community impact, it’s a really hard thing to put your finger on,” she said. “Because you go out to a Gulley Park concert and you see 3,000 people out there just having the best time of [their] life, and you know that you’re making that impact, but it’s really hard to quantify. It’s more of just an intangible quality-of-life product that it’s hard to capture.”
For Jumper, the trails and parks she works to expand are the same places that ground her in her own life. It is why she sees outdoor recreation not just as an amenity, but a foundation for Fayetteville’s quality of life.