Oklahoma Academy holds listening session at Conference Center
Aug. 3—The Woodward Conference Center hosted a listening session with The Oklahoma Academy Tuesday afternoon. President and CEO Julie Knutson spoke to a full room of interested citizens. The meeting was to learn about the academy and their next Town Hall meeting that is scheduled for October in Durant.
The Oklahoma Academy's mission is to "raise awareness of the issues, provide non-partisan, evidenced-based research and hold space for civil discourse and consensus building."
The Town Hall will focus on enhancing the state's workforce for an increasingly innovative economy. Some of the concerns the group would like discussed at the upcoming town hall included: — Teaching positions: the shortage and the emergency certified teachers. How do we balance this and still have and educated workforce for the future? — Navigating the new culture of working from home versus manual labor and/or in the workplace location. — Finding doctors and therapists willing to either move to rural northwestern Oklahoma or just travel here for appointments to take care of patients in our area. — Legislators lack communication with the field that they are passing laws on, whether it be education, medical or any other subject that they are not asking the professionals opinion on. — Entities need to work together for the sake of our children and their future in their careers. K-12, Career Tech, Higher Education and the Workforce. — Cultural shifts of physical and mentally hard jobs with great pay versus a rewarding, healthy job and lower pay.
"The Oklahoma Census selects 100-150 members to participate so that we end up with a population participating in the town hall that is socio-demographic as closely as possible that represents Oklahoma's population, Knutson said. "Ten university students are able to participate with a scholarship. Also added are ten members of the Oklahoma Legislature. We make sure to get senators, representatives, republicans, democrats. This way they are able to hear not just from their constituents but from all over Oklahoma.
"This group is broken into 5 smaller panels and are set in a hollow square facing each other throughout the town hall. It is truly an opportunity for voices to be heard, perspectives shared. A set of consensus recommendations is created. The Academy then takes these recommendations and starts trying to get them implemented."
If you wish to learn more about The Oklahoma Academy or would like to be a member please visit https://okacademy.org/ or julie@okacademy.org or call 405-307-0986.
