Transcript Works: Mindy Ragan Wood

Tim Willert, The Norman Transcript, Okla.
·2 min read

Dec. 25—Editor's note: Today's profile of senior staff writer Mindy Ragan Wood is the latest in a series focusing on Norman Transcript employees.

Mindy Ragan Wood has seen it all during her nearly three years as The Transcript's city and county government reporter.

Two months after being hired in January 2020, COVID-19 took hold and changed the way the city operated.

A few months later, recall petitions directed at members of the City Council began to circulate. Political upheaval would follow, and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority would eventually proposed a couple of new tolls roads that resulted in lawsuits from Norman residents.

Wood, though, wasn't sure she if was going to stick around long enough to tackle any of the meaty stories that would follow.

"By April, the newsroom was closed, the front office was closed," she recalled. "It was really scary because we knew revenue was going to be impacted and we worried about our jobs."

She hadn't even been on the beat long enough to develop many sources, a critical part of the job.

"It shut down my ability to build face-to-face face rapport," she said. "I'm a new face in town. I'm a new reporter. It limited my ability to build those relationships."

Prior to joining The Transcript in January, Wood, 46, spent four years as a reporter for weekly and twice-weekly publications in Okarche, Piedmont and Yukon.

But she knew she wanted something more and applied for the opening at The Transcript, where she has been right at home ever since.

"I like that you have such a diverse mix of ideas from the public," she said of Norman. "You have a mix of progressives and conservatives, and that tug of war can be painful, even for a reporter, because you get caught between them.

"But that's the way government is supposed to work, to create better policies with all those viewpoints."

Wood, who is married, has learned to balance the responsibilities of her job with those those of caring for an adult son who is disabled. Both roles, she said, have made her a fighter.

"There's a link to my being a reporter and caring for my adult son with disabilities and health issues," she said. "Both the role of a caregiver and the reporter you have to be a fighter. You have to fight for your child's rights to get good care and you have to fight to get the truth."