Ms. Kathleen Shaver, 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient!

Kathleen Shaver received her Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies – Public Policy and Government from American University, Washington, DC in 1989. After graduation, she worked as an environmental legal assistant and then as an aide to the Oklahoma Secretary of the Environment. In 1994 she received her Master of Science in Environmental Management from the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH) at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). Her master’s thesis was titled “Management Indicators as Predictors of Back Injury in Oklahoma Hospitals”. She conducted doctoral research at the UCLA School of Public Health on industrial storm water runoff. [Read More]

Ms. Sara Greenlee, 2021 Young Alumni Professional Award Recipient!

Sara Greenlee is an outstanding professional with genuine zeal for the discipline and a penchant for understanding and improving health and safety systems. Sara attended OSU for undergrad in microbiology and sought to complement her biological training with a research emphasis in aerosol science, applied physics and chemistry. After completing her degree at the Hudson College of Public Health, Sara immediately found a position in a highly competitive industry (Energy / Oil and Gas Extraction), with a highly competitive company (Haliburton) , in a specialized division (research and development). Sara has advanced quickly with Haliburton moving from intern to site lead to technical specialist in only a few years. [Read More]

Ms. Brandie Combs, 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient!

Ms. Combs graduated with her MPH in 2001, completing her degree while she was an Administrative Technician and Public Health Educator with the Oklahoma State Department of Health. She served a multi-county area in western and northern Oklahoma helping to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs. This foundational work in her early career gave her the insight of what could be accomplished by working directly with communities on locally tailored health improvement initiatives. [Read More]

Ms. Sara King, 2021 Young Alumni Professional Award Recipient!

Sara King is a 2015 MPH graduate. In her local county health department district, King leads a team that focuses on local health promotion efforts by assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating initiatives and programs relevant to the communities within her jurisdiction. This team emphasizes community engagement and data-driven information accumulation and evaluation so that each initiative and program is tailored to the specific communities they are intended to serve. King has shown tremendous ability to develop innovative ideas in community-focused programs that promote equity. A prime example of such a program is Birth Partners, a pilot research program providing childbirth education and doula services to pregnant women experiencing significant maternal stress. This program was built under Sara's leadership and includes research components to evaluate the outcomes of the services. The efforts to make this program research-based can impact this program's expansion and increase benefits across Oklahoma. [Read More]

Dr. Juell Homco, 2021 Young Alumni Professional Award Recipient!

Dr. Juell Homco graduated from the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in 2019 with a Ph.D. in epidemiology. Following completion of her degree, she was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Informatics at the University of Oklahoma-University of Tulsa School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She serves in key leadership roles as the Director of Research and Community Analytics at OUSCM and Associate Director of the Oklahoma Primary Healthcare Improvement Cooperative (OPHIC) at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). In these roles, she has contributed substantially to advances in healthcare informatics, quality improvement and dissemination and implementation projects within the clinical community and across the state. These contributions reflect her research expertise, which uses epidemiologic and applied informatics methods to understand the impact of advanced health information technology on healthcare utilization, clinician behavior, and population health.[Read More]

Casey Woods, 2021 Young Alumni Professional Award Recipient!

Casey earned his MHA from the OU Hudson College of Public Health in May 2011 and has demonstrated continued growth and service to the OU Health system for more than 12 years. Following an Administrative Fellowship at Stephenson Cancer Center and OU Medical system, he has taken on increasing responsibilities. Casey now serves as the Chief Operating Officer at OU Medical Center and is an active member in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Professionally, Casey has been an administrative operator over approximately $500M worth of projects as part of OU Health ranging from small renovation projects to large expansion projects, including the new Patient Tower and Operating Room Expansion which completed June 2021 on the University of Oklahoma Medical Center campus. Casey oversaw the entire completion of the new North Tower at the OU Medical Center, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The current expansion was much needed and added 144 beds and 32 operating rooms to help support the needs of patients treated at Stephenson Cancer Center, those undergoing critical and complex surgical procedures, those with trauma-related injuries and more.[Read More]