# Stacy Peterson Director of Communications for the Arkansas Auditor of State (Dennis Milligan). Accredited in Public Relations (APR). Office 501.371.2118, cell 501.519.3650. Email [email protected]. Per her own 2/14/2025 introduction to SFOF Director of Operations Adam Slayton, she has "worked with SFOF for several years on behalf of" Milligan, indicating a multi-year operational relationship with SFOF predating the documented FOIA period. Peterson is the Auditor's-office communications principal: she drafts Milligan's speeches, scripts his radio show appearances, drafts his correspondence to Israeli officials, designs his social media around Israel and SFOF themes, coordinates video production for SFOF-distributed content, and from late May 2025 onward also monitors SFOF Policy Zoom calls on Brady's delegation. She works in functional parallel to Chief Deputy Jason Brady (who handles the policy substance and letter signing operation) and Executive Assistant Wendy Spadoni (who handles scheduling and logistics). The three constitute the operational core of the Auditor's-office Israel Bonds and SFOF coordination. ## October 2024 Israel Solidarity operation Peterson designed and operated the Auditor's-office October 2024 Israel Solidarity campaign in the week leading up to the first anniversary of October 7. The campaign components Peterson personally executed: On 10/2/2024 she sent Spadoni a Word document ("Israel Solidarity Letter 10.2.24.docx") to be formatted on the Auditor's formal letterhead and approved by Brady; the letter was addressed to "Embassy of Israel, 3514 International Dr NW, Washington, DC 20008." The mailed PDF version dated 10/3/2024 ("Letter to Israeli Ambassador 10.3.24.pdf") was emailed to Sen. Jason Rapert at his National Association of Christian Lawmakers address ([email protected]) with Milligan BCC'd, under the subject line "Support for Israel Letter from Auditor Milligan." "Attached is a copy of the letter that Auditor Milligan mailed to Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog today. We look forward to seeing you on Monday." On 10/3/2024 she sent a draft Capitol Rotunda speech to Milligan ("Israel Speech for Monday"). The speech was scheduled for delivery 10/7/2024 at the National Association of Christian Lawmakers press conference at the Arkansas State Capitol Rotunda. The original draft had Milligan stating that during his Treasurer tenure Arkansas "purchased some $95 million in bonds supporting the State of Israel." On 10/4/2024 at 1:20 PM Milligan replied "Good job!!" from his personal AOL account [email protected]. The figure was subsequently revised down to "$85 million" in the version Peterson sent Kurt Underwood on 10/7 at 8:06 AM (the Capitol Rotunda delivery draft) and in the 12/17/2024 re-distribution to Underwood. Whether the revision corrected an error in the original draft or was made for other reasons is not documented. On 10/7/2024 at 2:56 PM, Kurt Underwood shared a Google Drive folder "STAND WITH ISRAEL DRAFTS" with Peterson, soliciting her contributions to Israel video drafts. Peterson replied at 3:18 PM "Coming to chat in a minute" with an attached ACT644.pdf (Act 644 of 2017 legislative text, the Arkansas Israel Bonds enabling legislation). At 3:21 PM Peterson directed Underwood on video editing: "1:08 need to update this b-roll to the Act 644 doc I just sent you. Maybe use this photo in his reference toward his Jewish friends at 1:20ish: [NYT October 7 link]. This could also be used as extra b-roll: [AP October 7 anniversary link]." Underwood completed the video that afternoon and emailed Peterson the YouTube link at 3:44 PM (https://youtu.be/oPGl3ir_Bn4). The Auditor's-office "I stand with Israel" video was therefore produced and posted on October 7, 2024 itself, with Peterson directing and Underwood producing. On 10/7/2024 at 3:48 PM Peterson emailed Lawrence Berman ([email protected]) directly, with Milligan BCC, under the subject "A message from Arkansas Auditor Dennis Milligan." "Arkansas Auditor of State Dennis Milligan wanted me to reach out on his behalf and express his support for Israel and her people – every day, but especially today on the anniversary of the atrocious attacks one year ago today... Auditor Milligan recorded a brief video, which you may watch here if you so desire." Berman replied within 62 minutes (4:50 PM same day) with the entire DCI senior leadership cc'd: Dani Naveh (DCI President & CEO), Stuart Garawitz, Shiri Stern, Ethan Behling, Bradley Young. Berman: "This is a wonderful message, Stacy. I will reach out to the Auditor directly, but please let him know how deeply we appreciate his support and friendship. He is truly one of a kind, and we are forever grateful to him and your whole team." The "support and friendship" framing and the participation of the entire DCI senior leadership chain document an existing operational relationship between the Auditor's office and DCI predating Brady's 10/23/2024 outreach to ATRS and APERS by 16 days. See [[october-2024-israel-solidarity-operation]]. At 3:54 PM Peterson sent a substantially identical message to the Israeli Embassy consular address ([email protected]), this time addressed to Ambassador Herzog directly under the subject "Solidarity with Israel." Milligan was again BCC'd. ## SFOF Spring National Meeting speech operation Peterson coordinated Milligan's 4/24/2025 SFOF Spring National Meeting speech with SFOF Director of Operations Adam Slayton ([email protected]) and Brady. The 3/10/2025 confirmation email from Peterson to Slayton ("Auditor Milligan to Speak at SFOF") asked two questions: clarification of the "member story" framing Slayton had proposed via Spadoni, and whether SFOF would be recording the speech for later distribution. On 4/3/2025 Brady sent Peterson the speech draft ("update sfof speech") containing the partisan framing "if we 'Conservatives' in this room will lock arms and join forces, with Republicans in control of the White House, House and Senate." On 4/17/2025 at 10:50 AM Peterson sent Milligan the final tightened version ("Sir, Jason and I have made a few tweaks to your speech for SFOF"). The 4/17 final version softens the most overtly partisan Brady-draft passage into a more general "As conservative state financial officers, we have a fiduciary duty to our states and fellow citizens" closing. Milligan replied "Great" at 11:29 AM. Peterson sent the speech text to Thomas Burchfield (Auditor's-office staff; [email protected]) at 10:51 AM the same day asking him to read it aloud to Milligan for rehearsal: "Sometime today if there is downtime, would you please suggest to him to read it aloud to you?" Peterson organized the 4/16/2025 9:00-10:00 AM "Record Video for SFOF" session in Kurt Underwood's office, with Milligan and Underwood as mandatory participants. This is the session prior batches documented as a SFOF promotional video shoot. Peterson is the organizer per her own calendar invite. On 4/30/2025 Peterson followed up with Adam Slayton: "Jason asked me to reach out to you to see about getting a copy of the video of Auditor Milligan's speech during last week's SFOF conference." Documents that Brady directed Peterson on post-event SFOF speech retrieval. After multiple Spadoni follow-ups, Slayton finally delivered the video link on 5/12/2025 (forwarded by Spadoni to Peterson, Brady, and Underwood). On 5/15/2025 Underwood produced clips at https://youtu.be/hQQ213tI5pw ("SFOF Clips"). ## The 6/4/2025 SFOF model-replication offer to Schwend On 6/4/2025 3:23 PM, two days after the 6/2 ATRS Board approval of Resolution 2025-22 authorizing up to $50 million in Israel Bonds, Peterson emailed SFOF Director of Public Policy Adam Schwend ([email protected]) with two attached news articles ("APERS_Israel Bonds 5-17-25.pdf" and "ATRS_Israel Bonds 6-3-25.pdf") covering Milligan's recent pension Board work. Peterson wrote: "Adam, Attached are two articles detailing Auditor Milligan's recent work on the two pension boards he sits on which recently voted to invest up to $50 million apiece in Israeli bonds. Feel free to pass along to any member states you think might be interested. The Auditor has very good contacts with the development corporation in case any other states are interested in learning more." This is the Auditor's office offering itself to the SFOF state-financial-officer network as a model-replication broker for Israel Bonds adoption, exactly two days after the Arkansas Board action. The "very good contacts with the development corporation" framing names Berman/Young/Garawitz at DCI as institutional relationships Milligan can transfer to other state financial officers. The 10/12/2023 Stacy Garrity Pennsylvania case study that SFOF distributed to Milligan in November 2024 ([[sfof-state-financial-officer-network]]) is now operationalized as the Garrity-Milligan two-state precedent that Peterson offers Schwend as a template for additional SFOF member states. The Auditor's office is therefore documented as functioning not merely as a recipient of SFOF Israel Bonds promotion but as an active SFOF Israel Bonds export node. Updated [[sfof-state-financial-officer-network]] with this finding. ## Milligan radio show coordination Peterson scripted and coordinated Milligan's appearances as occasional host of a Little Rock radio show. On 2/14/2025 she emailed Slayton requesting a SFOF speaker for an open radio slot on Tuesday 2/18: "Auditor Milligan occasionally gets asked to host a radio show that broadcasts here in Little Rock. I have a couple of open slots on the show where I'd like to discuss the national debt and the federal deficit and the work SFOF has done to address it." Slayton connected Peterson to Indiana State Comptroller Elise Nieshalla via her Communications Director Emily Boesen ([email protected]). Nieshalla agreed to participate but the show was rescheduled. The chain documents SFOF acting as a state-financial-officer-to-state-financial-officer radio booking broker through the Communications Directors of member offices. Peterson's 2/14 introduction to Slayton also includes the Auditor's-office self-description: "Auditor Milligan served 8 years as Treasurer of State from 2015-2022... he oversaw the creation of a statewide Financial Education Commission and was able to – through active, conservative investing – return more than $600 million back to the state in interest earnings. We were also the first state to host a Smart Women Smart Money conference (outside of Idaho)." The Smart Women Smart Money mention confirms Arkansas as a host-state for the SFOF SWSM project (per the SFOF email disclaimer footer, "Smart Women Smart Money is a project of the State Financial Officers Foundation"). ## SFOF Policy Zoom monitoring expansion (May 2025) On 5/28/2025 5:49 PM Brady asked Peterson "Is there any way you could start watching these?" referring to the SFOF Policy Zoom invitations. Peterson replied 5/29/2025 8:45 AM "Yep." Documents that as of late May 2025, Brady was delegating SFOF Policy Zoom monitoring to Peterson, expanding her SFOF operational role beyond the speech and communications work into substantive policy-meeting attendance. Whether this was prompted by Brady's reduced availability, by Peterson's developing relationship with SFOF leadership (Schwend, Slayton), or by another factor is not documented. On 10/23/2024 the same delegation pattern was already in place at a smaller scale: Brady forwarded OJ Oleka's 2:00 PM ET call invitation to Peterson (cc Spadoni) at 10:03 AM with the request "Stacy can you call in and listen and let me know ow [sic] please - if you can't - Wendy please." Peterson replied "Sure can." This is the same day Brady sent the seed 10/23/2024 Israel Bonds outreach to ATRS and APERS executive directors at 3:39 PM CDT. Brady was therefore delegating the SFOF Policy Zoom attendance to Peterson on the same day he initiated the formal pension Israel Bonds outreach. ## R2 residual sub-batches: refinement on SFOF Communications role The Corrigan custodian production at [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] refines the wiki's prior framing of Peterson as a long-standing SFOF Communications channel. On 12/20/2024 at 9:37 AM SFOF Communications Specialist Ryan Chavers emailed CEO OJ Oleka the SFOF Communications Questionnaire. At 10:07 AM Corrigan (as Chief of Staff) forwarded the email to Peterson asking "Did you get the email below?" At 10:11 AM Peterson replied: "Nope. Do you want me to respond?" Peterson was therefore **not** on SFOF Communications-Specialist direct distribution as of late December 2024. The wiki's prior framing of her multi-year SFOF engagement is supplemented: Peterson's SFOF role was via direct engagement with Oleka, Slayton, Schwend, and Wall (the policy and operations principals) rather than via the Communications-Specialist routine distribution. The Chavers survey reaching the Auditor's office through Corrigan and being routed downward to Peterson establishes that the Communications-channel-of-record routing at SFOF flows through Corrigan as Chief of Staff first. The Brady-Peterson iMessage thread at [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] captures three additional exchanges. The "So am I - don't rush - take your time and be safe!" message (above the visible portion) is a social safe-travel exchange. On Thu, May 15 at 1:21 PM Peterson messaged Brady "$32.1 million after today's check run" and Brady replied "Sweet!" — the figure is unidentified in the text and uninterpretable from the visible content; possible interpretations include the daily state-warrants/payroll check run the Auditor's office processes, an Unclaimed Property recovery total, or an Israel-Bonds-related amount. On Fri, May 16 at 5:57 AM Brady forwarded Peterson the Wickline NWA Democrat-Gazette APERS Israel Bonds story headline. The forwarding was simultaneous with Brady's parallel forward to Wendy Spadoni, documenting Peterson as part of Brady's immediate internal-distribution loop when Israel Bonds public reporting drops. ## Cross-references Peterson personally received the SFOF distribution touchpoints documented at [[sfof-policy-letter-operation]] (the letter circulations) and at [[dci-promotional-pipeline]] (her mailbox contains some of the same DCI marketing emails sent to Milligan and Brady, though her volume is smaller than Milligan's). She is on the State Board of Finance distribution alongside Milligan, Spadoni, and Brady (per [[arkansas-state-board-of-finance]]). The 11/13/2024 SFOF PROJECT_PROPOSAL.paper Dropbox share from Noah Wall to Peterson is the same share Wall sent to Milligan on the same date. The Peterson-version Dropbox notification shows the underlying sharer email as "[email protected]" while the Milligan-version 11/18 reminder shows "[email protected]" — either Wall used different personal-style addresses for different shares or the Dropbox UI rendering differed between the two notifications. See [[noah-wall]]. ## Evidence > "Stacy Peterson, APR / Director of Communications / Arkansas Auditor of State Dennis Milligan / 501.371.2118 office / 501.519.3650 cell" > Peterson signature block, multiple files, October 2024 through June 2025 > "I work with Arkansas Auditor Dennis Milligan and have worked with SFOF for several years on behalf of him." > Stacy Peterson to Adam Slayton, Introduction & request.pdf p.1, 2/14/2025 > "Will you please put this on AM's formal letterhead? It still needs approval from Jason, but I figured we could get that part out of the way. I *think* this is the correct address: Embassy of Israel, 3514 International Dr NW, Washington, DC 20008" > Stacy Peterson to Wendy Spadoni, Letterhead.pdf p.1, 10/2/2024 > "Attached is a copy of the letter that Auditor Milligan mailed to Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog today. We look forward to seeing you on Monday." > Stacy Peterson to Jason Rapert (christianlawmakers.com), Support for Israel Letter from Auditor Milligan.pdf p.1, 10/3/2024 > "Arkansas Auditor of State Dennis Milligan wanted me to reach out on his behalf and express his support for Israel and her people – every day, but especially today on the anniversary of the atrocious attacks one year ago today. In Arkansas, Christian and Jewish leaders came together this morning for a press conference announcing unwavering support for Israel and our Jewish friends in America. Auditor Milligan recorded a brief video, which you may watch here if you so desire." > Stacy Peterson to Lawrence Berman (BCC: Dennis Milligan), A message from Arkansas Auditor Dennis Milligan.pdf p.1, 10/7/2024 3:48 PM > "This is a wonderful message, Stacy. I will reach out to the Auditor directly, but please let him know how deeply we appreciate his support and friendship. He is truly one of a kind, and we are forever grateful to him and your whole team." > Lawrence Berman to Stacy Peterson (CC: Dani Naveh, Stuart Garawitz, Shiri Stern, Ethan Behling, Bradley Young), RE A message from Arkansas Auditor Dennis Milligan.pdf p.1, 10/7/2024 4:50 PM > "Attached are two articles detailing Auditor Milligan's recent work on the two pension boards he sits on which recently voted to invest up to $50 million apiece in Israeli bonds. Feel free to pass along to any member states you think might be interested. The Auditor has very good contacts with the development corporation in case any other states are interested in learning more." > Stacy Peterson to Adam Schwend (SFOF Director of Public Policy), Re Policy Zoom_1.pdf p.1, 6/4/2025 > "Sir, Jason and I have made a few tweaks to your speech for SFOF. Jason and Melissa are bringing copies of it for you to have, and I've copied the final version here below." > Stacy Peterson to Dennis Milligan, Re SFOF Speech - Final.pdf p.1, 4/17/2025 > "I'm always happy to have my friends Larry Berman and Brad Young from Israel Bonds Development Corp. in Little Rock. I'm proud to be a supporter of the State of Israel and happy to help these fine gentlemen in any way that I can." > Stacy Peterson to Kurt Underwood (Israel social media draft for Milligan), Israel social.pdf p.1, 4/14/2025 > "Stacy can you call in and listen and let me know ow please - if you can't - Wendy please" > Jason Brady to Stacy Peterson (cc Wendy Spadoni), Re Call today 2pm ET.pdf p.1, 10/23/2024 10:03 AM (the same day Brady's 3:39 PM Israel Bonds outreach to ATRS and APERS went out) > "Is there any way you could start watching these?" > Jason Brady to Stacy Peterson (re SFOF Policy Zooms), Re Policy Zoom.pdf p.1, 5/28/2025 ## Cross-References [[dennis-milligan]] her principal [[jason-brady]] Chief Deputy Auditor; her policy-substance counterpart who delegates SFOF Policy Zoom monitoring to her and co-finalized the SFOF Spring speech [[wendy-spadoni]] Executive Assistant to the Auditor; her scheduling and letterhead counterpart [[kurt-underwood]] Auditor's-office video producer she directs [[lawrence-berman]] DCI National Managing Director with whom she had direct documented contact on 10/7/2024 before Brady's 10/23 pension outreach [[adam-slayton]] SFOF Director of Operations who coordinated Milligan's SFOF speech and connected her to Comptroller Nieshalla [[jason-rapert]] former Arkansas state senator; National Association of Christian Lawmakers founder; convener of the 10/7/2024 Capitol Rotunda event [[michael-herzog]] Israeli Ambassador recipient of the 10/3/2024 Auditor's-office solidarity letter [[national-association-of-christian-lawmakers]] Rapert's organization that hosted the 10/7/2024 Capitol Rotunda Christian-Jewish solidarity press conference [[october-2024-israel-solidarity-operation]] concept page documenting the multi-channel public-facing Israel solidarity campaign Peterson designed in early October 2024 [[sfof-state-financial-officer-network]] SFOF network; Peterson's 6/4/2025 article forward to Schwend operationalizes the Auditor's office as a model-replication broker [[auditor-as-dci-channel]] DCI channel concept; Peterson's 10/7/2024 Berman email and Berman's same-day reply with DCI senior leadership cc'd documents the pre-pension-outreach relationship [[melissa-corrigan]] Chief of Staff who routes SFOF Communications work down to Peterson; the 12/20/2024 forward refines the wiki's framing of Peterson's SFOF Communications relationship [[auditor-foia-r2-stacy-peterson]] [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] source pages ## Auditor R3 3-3-26 production: operational FOIA handler during Fowler leave The Auditor R3 production at [[auditor-foia-r3-3-3-26]] documents Peterson's operational FOIA-handler role during TJ Fowler's June 16-20, 2025 leave week. Brady forwarded Mark White's 6/19/2025 11:18 AM second-canvass email from his iPhone to TJ Fowler and Peterson at 3:16 PM. Peterson's same-day 3:58 PM reply offered to handle the response in Fowler's absence: > *"TJ, is this something you want me and Kurt to handle? Thx."* The "me and Kurt" framing identifies Kurt Underwood (Auditor's-office video producer) as Peterson's documented operational partner on FOIA handling. The pairing operates inside the formal-authority structure under General Counsel Fowler at [[tj-fowler]]. Peterson and Underwood ran the operational FOIA response in Fowler's absence during the critical week when the Auditor's office received Lenow's second ATRS canvass forward and Joshua Dunlap's 6/22/2025 primary FOIA submission. Peterson's 7/13/2025 12:40 PM reply to Brady on the `Re Ark Times Article + Congratulations` thread documents the post-publication internal Auditor's-office routing of the Lenow article. Brady's 7/12/2025 6:52 AM iPhone forward to Peterson + Melissa Corrigan preceded Brady's 6:54 AM Berman forward by 2 minutes. Peterson's reply: *"Susan Ford is Cole's band teacher. Did not realize she was part of ATRS! We love her."* — substantively unrelated to Israel Bonds (responding to the Mark White congratulations of Susan Ford for Arkansas Teacher of the Year), but documents the social-personal register of the Brady-Peterson-Corrigan internal channel even as the formal Israel Bonds correspondence flows in parallel. Peterson's substantive Israel Bonds-related work in the R3 production is narrower than her R2 footprint. The 6/4/2025 SFOF export offer to Adam Schwend documented at [[auditor-foia-r2-stacy-peterson]] is not in the R3 production; the SFOF channel post-vote activity lives in Peterson's mailbox which was not produced in this batch.