Off to a great start!

What a great kick off meeting! Special thanks to Amy and Ashley for the superb organization. It was great to be in a room full of women from all walks of life with a common goal.

See you all next week!

Chrissi

Kate Kelly

Age and/or Generation: 52

Current Job(s):  Tourism Director.

Former Job(s):  Director of Community Relations at Cherokee Heritage Center.

Education and/or Training:  Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and English from NSU.

Greatest Professional Accomplishment:  Winning RedBud award for Red Fern Festival.

Areas of Expertise:  Writing; tourism; public speaking.

Hometown:  Proctor, Oklahoma.

Other Towns of Residence:  Fairbanks, Alaska; Tulsa; Skiatook, Oklahoma.

Family:  Two sisters.

Hobbies: hiking, bird watching, gardening/yardwork, reading, music, traveling.

The Role of Mentors in Your Life: Instilled the importance of intergrity in my life and in those with whoms I assoicate and work. They also encouraged me to believe I could accomplish whatever I wanted, and to aim high.

Favorite Quotation: He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

Christy Landsaw

Age and/or Generation: 40 Something, Generation X

Current Job(s): I am currently the Director of Budgets & Planning for Northeastern State University and the owner of KTK Angus Steakhouse in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Former Job(s): I was originally hired by NSU as the Payroll Supervisor.  Prior to joining NSU, I practiced public accounting with a Broken Arrow CPA firm.  I was also one of four partners/owners of a Wings to Go Franchise in Muskogee.

Education and/or Training: As a Navy “brat” I went to fifteen different schools across the US before graduating from Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  After high school, I attended Tulsa Community College then transferred to NSU as a “non-traditional” first generation college student.  After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Northeastern State University, I went on to study and pass the Certified Public Accountant exam.

Greatest Professional Accomplishment:  Thus far, I would have to say one of my greatest professional accomplishments was passing the CPA exam.  At the time I was eligible to sit for the exam, it was only offered twice a year; once in May and once in November.  The two day exam consisted of four parts: Finance, Accounting & Reporting, Audit and Law and you had to take all four sections at the same time.  If you passed at least two sections and achieved a score of at least 62% (as compared to your peers also taking the exam) on the sessions you didn’t pass, you could “condition”.  Conditioning meant you didn’t have to retake those sections again. 

Three weeks before I sat for the exam, on the one year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, my father passed away unexpectedly.   Needless to say, instead of studying, I spent the next few weeks making funeral arrangements and helping my family through a rough time.  One week before the exam, I had to make a decision whether to go ahead and sit for the exam or forego my exam fee and the time I had already devoted to studying and postpone sitting until six months later.  I made the decision to take the exam, “conditioned” then went on to pass the remaining sections.

I can’t really put into words any other specific event I would claim as my greatest professional accomplishment.  I don’t think I’ve reached my full potential and believe there is so much more I have to contribute. I’m hoping I haven’t achieved my greatest professional accomplishment just yet.

 Expertise:  Financial Planning & Accounting. 

Hometown: Our home resides in Hulbert, Oklahoma.

Other Towns of Residence:  Tulsa, OK; Washington, DC; Decatur, IL; Lafayette ,  IN; Ferndale, Eureka,  McKinleyville and Oxnard, CA; Corpus Christi, TX; and Adak, AK.

Family:  I am married to my best friend! We have been together for almost twenty seven years.  We have three children:  our oldest son, Devin; our daughter, Jordan; and our youngest son, Mason.  We also have two dogs: Jasper, a three year old Jack Russell; and Roxie, a three pound Yorkie that thinks she is the boss.

Hobbies: I enjoy entertaining and spending time with friends and family.  Cooking, baking, interior decorating and anything relating to home design or remodeling projects are things I enjoy most outside of work and helping out at the restaurant.

The Role of Mentors in Your Life:  I have been fortunate and have had many mentors in my life.  Unfortunately, I haven’t always told them how much of a difference they made because I wasn’t even aware of how much influence they had until much later in my life.   One mentor in particular, Mrs. Christian (my high school Accounting teacher) was such an inspiration to me and definitely guided my decision to major in Accounting several years later.  Since we moved so many times, I lost contact with her and never had a chance to thank her.

Professionally, two women I have looked up to with great admiration are Ms. Kim Cherry and Dr. Janet Bahr.  These women had a huge impact on NSU.  They devoted a large part of their lives to shaping our institution and left an everlasting impression on me.

Favorite Quotations: These are just a few of my favorites:

I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.  George Burns

The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.  William Morris

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.  Og Mandino

Dana Eversole

Hello, my name is Dana Eversole and I am a professor of Media Studies at NSU. I have been teaching at NSU for 25 years, but I did start at a really early age.

I received my undergraduate degree in journalism education from NSU in the 1980s when Vanilla Ice was hot and all hair styles were bad. After graduation I landed a pure journalism gig in Joplin, Mo. where my students were almost as old as me and would say things like "I have a sister older than you." Good times. I taught for five years and kept a daily journal of all things Parkwood High School and later Joplin High School. I do not think I have re-read those entries in many, many years.

From Joplin I cruised over to Pittsburg, Kansas and taught for a year at PSU while earning a master's degree in public relations. It was great. I was jobless and wanted to return to Oklahoma. My parents had sold my childhood home in Muskogee and were redoing an old turn of the century house just a few blocks over. They were residing in a duplex until the house was completed so what was one more in a tiny space. I moved in. I was highly educated, homeless, jobless and getting ready to attend my high school 10-year reunion. More good times.

I finally (two weeks) found a job announcement for a job and the name in the ad was a friend from my NSU days. I called. She said I was over qualified for the job posted, but before I went into shock visualizing about more nights on a blow up mattress in the living  room at that duplex she said she had another job For the next two years I was the news editor for the Tahlequah Daily Press. This was a great job. No money, but I got to know everyone in town. I wrote a lot of stories, covered beats and received many awards. This was the best stepping stone to a career teaching journalism and public relations to 18 year olds and older. Sometimes really older.

In the fall of 1989, before many of you readers were born, I received a call from Dr. Tom Cottrill, dean of the College of Arts and Letters (now, the College of Liberal Arts) to see how much experience I had in advertising. "I have sold an ad," I said to Dr. Cottrill. He took a chance and hired me to finish and ad class for a professor who was ill. The next semester, I taught two classes in public relations and was asked to apply for the fulltime line in the mass communication department.  I did. I got the job and the next thing I knew was the staff of The Northeastern decided to put a nude man on the cover of its publication that hit stands on Media Day (500 to 1,000 high school students on campus for  contests, lunch and speakers). The adviser left for Texas, so instead of just PR classes I inherited The Northeastern for the next 20 years or 60 semesters which ever sounds better.

During that time I earned a doctorate in driving the car or endurance. It is really all still a haze. Really it is in Higher Education with some mass communication thrown in for good measure. It is from OSU, go Pokes. During that time of always in my Chevy Cavalier, aka tuna can, I also adopted my two nephews who were 1 and 2 at the time and are now 17 and 18.

My greatest professional accomplishment(s) are seeing students seek and obtain the ultimate job - and there have been many, and watching them grow into the great individuals they are today. My favorite quote is my own, "Redo" because I believe we can all do things a little better if we work at achieving a higher standard than expected.

My mentors were my parents who told me I could accomplish whatever I set my mind to. Wow I forgot to tell you that I am the oldest of three children, the only girl and I was born without a left hand. I never questioned my worth or my intelligence. I did, have done what my goals were growing up - playing school and bossing people around. My life is really really good.

Now, I did not tell you how old I am or my generation, but I found a great quiz to determine your generation. It is fun.

According to a blog by Penelope Trunk "if you really want to know how old you really are, look at the media you use rather than the generation you were born into."

So here is a test Penelope Trunk put together with the help of an interview with Weigel and an evening reading her blog. Add up your points to figure out what generation you’re really a part of:

Do you have your own web page? (1 point)

Have you made a web page for someone else? (2 points)

Do you IM your friends? (1 point)

Do you text your friends? (2 points)

Do you watch videos on YouTube? (1 point)

Do you remix video files from the Internet? (2 points)

Have you paid for and downloaded music from the Internet? (1 point)

Do you know where to download free (illegal) music from the Internet? (2 points)

Do you blog for professional reasons? (1 point)

Do you blog as a way to keep an online diary? (2 points)

Have you visited MySpace at least five times? (1 point)

Do you communicate with friends on Facebook? (2 points)

Do you use email to communicate with your parents? (1 point)

Did you text to communicate with your parents? (2 points)

Do you take photos with your phone? (1 point)

Do you share your photos from your phone with your friends? (2 points)

0-1 point – Baby Boomer

2-6 points – Generation Jones

6- 12 points – Generation X

12 or over – Generation Y

Muriel Saunders

Age and/or Generation:  Mature

Current Job(s):  Adjunct Professor

Former Job(s):  Human Resources Professional

Education and/or Training:  Masters +

Greatest Professional Accomplishment:  First Black Female Manager in IBM's Data Processing Division, First Black Personnel Officer in the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health

Areas of Expertise:  Human Resources, Communication

Hometown:  Muskogee, OK

Other Towns of Residence:  Washington, D.C., Salina KS, Greensboro NC, Dallas, TX,, Los Angeles, CA, Menlo Park, CA, Tulsa, OK

Family:  Two daughters, son deceased, two g4randdaughters.
Hobbies:  Music and Puzzles

The Role of Mentors in Your Life:  The man who taught me how to be successful in big business, and how to communicate with people in all circumstances.  He polished my rough edges.

Favorite Quotation:  Reach for the stars and build your ladder as you go./

Rachel Younger

Age:  36
Currently employed with Cherokee Nation as the Finance & Administration Manager for Talking Leaves Job Corps.
Previously employed with Bank of America as the Assistant Manager for the Tahlequah, OK branch.
I am most proud of 3 of my previous direct reports at Bank of America.  All 3 were tellers for me and now 2 are Banking Center Managers for different branches and 1 is the Assistant Banking Center Manager of the Tahlequah branch.  I spent alot of behavior coaching with all 3 of these associates and  am so glad I invested the time with them because they are now reaping the rewards professionally and financially!
I grew up in a small town south of Tulsa - Mounds, OK.  We moved from Mounds to Sand Springs which is where I graduated high school.
The majority of immediate family lives here in Tahlequah, OK which makes my roots here very deep now.  I have a husband and 7 year old son who are my life!
I truly enjoying reading as much as possible with such a hectic professional and home life, but have been known to stay up all night to finish a great book.  My most recent good read is Spoons are for stirring coffee, which is written by a man from Ft. Smith, OK.  My other favorite hobby is watching my son in ALL of his sports activities.  It keeps us really busy but is worth every minute invested.
I have 3 mentors that are still involved in my life on a regular basis.  These women have taught me to be strong when i thought I couldn't, how to realize things about myself that were hard to take but have benefited me professionally and how to excel at any position that I am placed in.  I hope to be that type of mentor to my current staff and other young women in my community.

Words to live by - "Write your hurts in sand and your blessings in stone"

Amber Fite-Morgan

Age and/or Generation:  33

Current Job(s): NSU General Counsel 

 

Former Job(s):   Assistant District Attorney for Tulsa County

Education and/or Training: NSU, B.A. Mass Communications, 2002; University of Tulsa College of Law, J.D. 2005

 

Greatest Professional Accomplishment:  Passing the Bar Exam 

Areas of Expertise:  Higher Education Law 

Hometown:  Muskogee, OK

Other Towns of Residence:  Tahlequah, OK, Tulsa, OK, Fort Gibson, OK

Family:  Husband, Jordan and Bruiser Bear, Shih Tzu (more like our child)

Hobbies:  Cycling, gym, cooking and baking, spending time with Jordan and Bruiser Bear 

The Role of Mentors in Your Life:  I have numerous mentors. They include so many people from all walks of my life.  One of the most influential mentors was my best friend from middle school and high school, Amelia. We were very competitive with one another. She taught me to use the competitiveness as motivation and encouragement. Other mentors include the colleagues I work with in my current role at NSU.  They have each added immensely to the person I have become and continue to become.  

Favorite Quotation:  "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."-Eleanor Roosevelt