Ten People to Watch in 2015

Ten People to Watch in 2015

Sara Plummer

Anna America

Anna America defeated incumbent Arianna Moore in the Nov. 4 city councilor elections for the District 7 seat. America also serves as affiliate director for Communities in Schools of Mid-America, Inc.

America’s top priorities for her district in 2015 include business growth, school support and public safety.

She plans to draw additional attention to the district’s retail corridors and to attract new businesses to the area.

She recognizes the need to improve communication and collaboration between city officials and both local businesses and area school districts, which, she believes, benefits all in the community.

“Public schools are directly tied to the success of a city; if we don’t have good schools, we won’t have strong neighborhoods, economic development or a strong workforce,” she says.

Public safety is another priority for America, including the recent rise in neighborhood crimes, such as items being stolen out of vehicles. This is causing more and more Tulsa residents to go out f the city limits for shopping and other activities, she says.

Alan Armstrong

Alan Armstrong is Tulsa Regional Chamber’s 2015 chairman of the board of directors.

Armstrong became president and CEO of Williams in January 2011. Previous positions he has held include president of Williams’ midstream and olefins businesses in North America, vice president of gathering and processing, vice president of commercial development, vice president of retail energy services and director of commercial operations for the company’s midstream business in the Gulf Coast region. He joined Williams in 1986 as an engineer after graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

Armstrong serves on the board of directors of the American Petroleum Institute and is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Business Roundtable.

Armstrong serves as a board member and past chairman of the board of visitors for the University of Oklahoma’s college of engineering and is a current board member with Junior Achievement, USA; Junior Achievement of Oklahoma; Teach for America; and Philbrook Museum of Art.

Ken Busby

In December 2014, Ken Busby, executive director and CEO of the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa (AHCT), announced his resignation after 12 years.

“After . . . so many great things accomplished for AHCT, I’d like to bring my talents and energy to a new opportunity where I can continue to impact this terrific community,” says Busby.

“If it weren’t for his passion and determination, we wouldn’t have the fabulous Hardesty Arts Center or the impactful Any Given Child – Tulsa education initiative,” says Jean Ann Fausser, past AHCT chairman of the board.

Before the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, Busby held roles as director of development for Tulsa Zoo Friends and membership director, communication director and assistant to the director with Gilcrease Museum. In addition to his role at the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, Busby currently serves as chairman of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust and president of Tulsa International Mayfest. He is also a member of the Arts Education Advisory Council of Americans for the Arts.

Terrie Correll

Tulsa Zoo President and CEO Terrie Correll, along with zoo officials and community members, recently celebrated the completion of the Mary K. Chapman Rhino Reserve, a $3.4 million.

The rhino exhibit is one of the first completed projects in the zoo’s 20-year master plan.

The next project in phase I of the master plan is a new exhibit complex that will hold Asian big cats such as tigers and snow leopards and Komodo dragons, to be called Lost Kingdom. It will include large, paneless windows “that will allow people to be up close with the tigers,” Correll says.  Lost Kingdom will be a five-acre exhibit complex located in the center of the zoo.

Other projects in phase I, which runs through 2018, include the new Carnivores! exhibit featuring a new habitat for African lions and renovations of the giraffe exhibit and a revamped and expanded chimpanzee exhibit, to be called African Forest. It will carry a Swiss Family Robinson theme, with tall buildings set in the treetops, climbing structures, gardens that create a lush jungle feel and a ropes course.

Gerard Clancy

Dr. Gerard Clancy will enter the new year as vice president and dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Tulsa.

Clancy spent 14 years at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, serving as president since 2006. Before joining OU, Clancy served as a faculty member and vice chairman of the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa.

During Clancy’s years at OU-Tulsa, financial support of OU-Tulsa programs grew with the campus, adding $132 million in new endowed faculty chairs, nearly $142 million in fully-funded new facilities – including seven new buildings – and $17.5 million in new student scholarships.

Clancy also assisted in the development of a community health network that includes mobile psychiatric teams, after-hours student-led complimentary medical clinics for the underserved, the Wayman Tisdale Specialty Health Clinic and school-based clinics in disadvantaged areas. In 2011, OU and The University of Tulsa announced plans to collaborate in the creation of a four-year community medicine educational program in Tulsa.

Frank Haith

Frank Haith became The University of Tulsa’s 30th head basketball coach on April 18, 2014. Haith’s tenure at Tulsa has gotten off to somewhat of an inconsistent start this season with wins over Creighton and Auburn and losses to Southeastern Oklahoma, Oral Roberts, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Haith brings 28 years of collegiate coaching experience and 17 years of advancing to postseason competition to the Tulsa basketball program.

Haith, 49, spent the previous 10 seasons as a head coach at two universities. His first seven seasons were spent at the University of Miami and the past three years at the University of Missouri. Haith has averaged 20.5 wins in his 10 years as a head coach, while compiling an overall 205-129 record for a .614 winning percentage and eight postseason tournament appearances.

Tulsa made it to the NCAA Tournament last year, and this year most of the same players return. It will be interesting to see how this year’s team fares in its inaugural season in the American Athletic Conference.

John Schumann

Dr. John Schumann will serve as interim president of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa beginning Jan. 1, 2015. Schumann previously served as program director and vice chair of education for the OU School of Community Medicine’s Internal Medicine program.

Schumann attended Yale University, where he majored in history. Following work for the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C., he earned his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. His residency program was with Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., which is affiliated with Harvard University.  After his residency, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 2002 and completed a fellowship in clinical medical ethics there. He also co-chaired the faculty advisory board of the university’s Human Rights Program.

Dr. Schumann has authored the blog GlassHospital since 2010. He has also written for Slate, the Atlantic, the radio program Marketplace, and National Public Radio’s health blog, Shots.

Philip Montgomery

Many Tulsa football fans are excited about the hiring of Philip Montgomery as head coach. Montgomery is known as an offensive genius, and he steps into the great Tulsa passing tradition.

Montgomery has logged nearly two decades of coaching experience, including the past seven (2008-14) at Baylor where he most recently has served as the offensive coordinator for the Big 12 powerhouse.

In his career, Montgomery has tutored several award-winning quarterbacks, including Big 12 Player of the Year Bryce Petty, Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, Baylor All-American Nick Florence, Conference USA MVP Kevin Kolb and Houston standout Case Keenum.

Following Baylor’s record-breaking 2013 Big 12 championship season, Montgomery was honored as the Offensive Coordinator of the Year by FootballScoop.com and was named a finalist for the Broyles Award given to the nation’s top assistant. In 2011, Montgomery was named the National Offensive Coordinator of the Year by Rivals.com and was the Quarterback Coach of the Year by SpeedTracs/FootballScoop.com.

Leigh Goodson

Dr. Leigh Goodson, Tulsa Community College’s first female president in its more than 40-year history, recently celebrated 100 days in office after officially entering her new role in July 2014.

Since becoming president, Goodson has seen a number of accomplishments, including signing a partnership agreement with Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology to make it easier for area students to obtain an associate degree from TCC and then a bachelor’s degree from OSUIT all on TCC’s Northeast Campus.

TCC also signed an agreement with Rogers State University in September that allows TCC students to transfer their associate degrees to RSU.

She recently launched a college-wide effort to craft a new version of TCC’s strategic plan. The process will plan for the college’s future and serve as a roadmap for the next three to five years. The current strategic plan was developed in 2011 and expires in 2014. The new strategic plan is expected to be developed by April 2015.

Evan Tipton

Evan Tipton is the incoming 2015 TYPros chair. Tipton has been a member of TYPros since 2007.

Tipton is a commercial insurance broker for the Scott McCoy Agency and the owner of For the Love of Tulsa. He is a native Tulsan and graduated from Edison Preparatory School and Oklahoma State University.

Tipton’s focus in 2015 is on increasing accessibility and engagement within the organization.

“We are not just suit and tie, doctors and accountants,” says Tipton.

One way he expects to do that is through Street Cred 2015, to be held at 61st Street and Peoria Avenue.

In addition to spotlighting an area not located in the city’s urban core, this event will help to further Tipton’s vision “to break out of the mindset that TYPros is only for downtown and midtown,” he says.

In addition, TYPros recently announced the launch of its nonprofit foundation, which will allow it to have a greater impact on local causes and organizations.