

Cindy Byrd, State Auditor & Inspector
Cindy Byrd has been the first to reach several milestones. She is the first graduate of East Central University to be elected as Oklahoma...


Cheney Bird, Nurse - Labor and Delivery
Cheney Bird grew up knowing that three generations of the Bird family before her were Northwestern Oklahoma State University graduates,...


Everett Dobson, Business Owner and Philanthropist
Everett Dobson grew up in the small town of Cheyenne, Oklahoma, about an hour west of Weatherford. There, most of his teachers in school...


Lori Hill, Tourism Director, Broken Arrow Convention and Visitors' Bureau
35 years ago Lori Hill could already sense the incredible untapped potential of Oklahoma’s tourism industry. Now, tourism is the state’s...


Dusty Turner, Agricultural Entrepreneur
It took years for Dusty Turner to self-define as an entrepreneur. “I didn’t even know what that word meant, it’s a label that’s developed ov


Brooke Lee, Teacher and Milken Award Winner
Oklahoma’s 2019 Milken Educator Award winner didn’t think twice about where she would get her degree.


Chrissi Ross Nimmo, Cherokee Nation, Deputy Attorney General
Chrissi Ross Nimmo has a long history with Northeastern State University – she even jokes she was born there. The Cherokee tribal...


Kylene Rehder, Social Work Program Director & Professor
Most college students have “that one professor” who’s made a profound difference in their education. Dr. Kylene Rehder’s impact goes...


Dr. Tom Kupiec, Scientist and Entrepreneur
Sometimes life hands you happy coincidences. Tom Kupiec laughs about his college-age choice to wait until summer to enroll at UCO.