SPEAKERS

Gerard Clancy

Dr. Gerard Clancy is President of the University of Tulsa. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry (1983), an American Heart Association Research Fellowship (1985), and a medical doctorate degree with Alpha Omega Alpha Honors (1988). He continued on at the University of Iowa with his Psychiatry Residency and Psychiatry Chief Resident training (1992). Before joining the University of Tulsa, Dr. Clancy was the Dean of the College of Medicine, Tulsa. In 2006, he assumed the additional role of President of the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. Currently, he serves on numerous boards across Oklahoma and was the 2015 Chairman of the Board of the Tulsa Area United Way. Dr. Clancy’s areas of expertise include health disparities, health care delivery systems and health professions education transformation, severe mental illness and creative talent development, and retention and recruitment for regional economic development. He assumed the position of President of the University of Tulsa in November 2016.

Luke Crouch

Luke Crouch is a web software engineer with 15 years of experience. He currently develops web software at Mozilla, focusing on security & privacy prototypes and experiments for Firefox. In that role, he has built tracking protection services and features, measured online tracking, and shared what he has learned with collaborators at Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Princeton Web Transparency & Accountability Project.

Denise Dutton

Dr. Denise Dutton serves as an Assistant Provost at the University of Tulsa. She directs the Honors Program, teaching a range of seminars from the Ancient Greeks to the Enlightenment and guiding students as they join the centuries-old conversation about what makes for a well-lived life. She is also the founding director of the Henneke Center for Academic Fulfillment, a campus resource to support TU professors as they experiment with ways to engage and support students in the learning process and ways to share their scholarship with the general public. Dr. Dutton earned her Ph.D. in Politics at Princeton University. She served as Assistant Professor of Political Science at Missouri State University for several years before returning to her alma mater. She and her husband stay busy chasing after twin toddlers and the family dog, Boxer.

Dallas Elleman

Dallas Elleman is an Engineering Physics/EE Robotics student at the University of Tulsa with minors in Innovation/Entrepreneurship and Cybersecurity. He is a recent transfer from Tulsa Community College, and his academic career includes an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, selection as a finalist in the National Science Foundation’s Community College Innovation Challenge, and a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship. Before this, Dallas spent several unprofitable and ultimately unsuccessful years aspiring towards rock stardom while employed in the not-very-lucrative manual labor and construction sector, almost a decade as a Field Network Technician (cable guy) for Cox Communications in Tulsa and, in general, a great deal of time engaged in a long series of apparently (at the time) unrelated puzzles and challenges that eventually resulted in a strong compulsion to more productively join humanity’s timeless struggle for answers, progress, and meaning through the pursuit of higher education.

Katie Hoffman

Katie Hoffman is a writer, speaker, and life coach on a mission to help others create lives and relationships they are proud of. In October 2016, she founded Fairytale Reform, a website dedicated to helping young women reframe what they have always been told about happily ever after. By blending research, personal experience, and spirituality, Fairytale Reform provides tools, inspiration, and community to help followers live their fairytales—whether they’re single, taken, or somewhere in between. Katie is dedicated to serving women from all walks of life and works closely with local and global non-profits to help women become physically, emotionally, and economically independent. In May 2017, she will graduate from the University of Tulsa with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Psychology.

Lauren Miller

Lauren Miller is a social advocate dedicated to seeing peaceful and effective communication throughout the community. She has spent hundreds of hours researching how community and police interactions can be improved and is the author of Project Cohesion, a proposal on how to improve community relationships with law enforcement. She is also the coordinator of The 12th, an event in which ORU students visited the Tulsa Sheriff's Department and gave a presentation regarding encouraging better communication between law enforcement and the community. Lauren is passionate about encouraging and equipping the younger generation to make a difference in their communities and world.

Deborah Love Bradshaw

Deborah Bradshaw is a professional speaker, author, and educator. Her formal training is in Education, Psychology, Business Management and Marketing, Body Language, and Acting Techniques. Deborah has developed and facilitated classes coaching professionals in the use of acting techniques and body language in order to help them feel more comfortable speaking in public and to assist them in developing more effective communication. Deborah lived in Southeast Asia as a child and young adult. Her experiences there have given her insight into cross-cultural communication. She uses these experiences and positive body language techniques to teach people how to understand the cues they are receiving. Through these methods, participants also learn to practice the science of body language to influence their own brain chemistry in order to create a more positive attitude and accomplish personal goals. Deborah has presented to local and national audiences on topics ranging from Improving Education, Disability Related Issues, and Better Communication as well as other motivational topics.

Ellen Emeric

Ellen Emeric is a senior at the University of Tulsa studying Sociology and Economics, and her interests in demography and the built environment have led her to pursue a career as a City Planner. She currently works at Tulsa City Hall in the Planning and Development Department and has conducted research for the City as well at Texas A&M University, where she was accepted as a summer research fellow in the departments of Urban Planning and Sociology. On campus, Ellen passionately serves the Newman Center as a Peer Minister and Graphic Designer.

Zachary Fullingim

Born February 28, 1992, Zachary Fullingim was raised with his younger brother by his powerful single mother, who fell in love and married his fourth-grade football coach. On February 23, 2003, that coach, the only father he had ever known, adopted the boys as his own. He graduated from Lincoln Christian School in 2010 and attended Oklahoma State University from 2010-2013 where he played football and studied behavioral psychology. He is a husband to his wife Caitlin, father to his daughter Caiah, Project Supervisor for his family’s commercial roofing company Hi-Tech Systems Inc., volunteer football and basketball coach for Sand Springs 3rd grade, facilitator for Tulsa Public Schools’ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, sits on the board of directors for the non-profit Game Time Foundation, hosts football camps as a camp director and coordinator for Pinnacle Football Academy, and hosts youth and adult leadership development courses as a certified John Maxwell speaker and coach.

Grayson Lynch

Grayson Lynch is a 22-year-old business student at TU. He has had a lifelong love for guns. This passion for guns lead him to Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, where he earned an Associate’s degree in the Applied Science of Gunsmithing. Having formal training on gunsmithing theory, technology, and practices, he is passionate about stopping the spread of misinformation about firearms.

PERFORMERS

Luis Garcia & Deena Burks

Luis Garcia is a math/science tutor, Mechanical Engineering student, member of the 2016-17 Living Arts performance committee, and dancer for Portico Dance Theater. He presented his debut choreographic composition “Call of Nature” in the Exchange Choreography Festival 2016 at Studio K of Tulsa Ballet. He was commissioned by Portico and Tulsa Symphony to dance “Revue de Cuisine” music by Bohuslav Martinu at the Philbrook Museum. He is an Equity Member Program Actor with Tulsa Project Theater. He has studied and performed West African Dance and rhythms from Deena Burks for over two years. He has received ballet training at Tulsa Ballet.

Autumn Slaughter

Autumn Slaughter is a doctoral student in the University of Tulsa’s clinical psychology program. Her psychology background also includes a master’s in counseling psychology from Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma City. In addition to psychology, Autumn also studied English in her undergraduate program at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL. She has been a featured poet at poetry readings in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and her work has appeared in regional magazines and on websites. Autumn has also published five books, including a memoir that explores trauma and depression (published under her maiden name) and two books of poetry. 

Asura Oulds

Asura Oulds attends the University of Tulsa, studying Vocal Performance and Music Composition. He is a musician who is trained in classical, jazz, and pop styles. He has performed in numerous operas and musicals and is part of the musical committee in the Alpha Chi Chapter of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha. He is also part of the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus and has performed numerous large works of composers like Haydn, Beethoven, and Bach. After acquiring his undergraduate degree he plans to begin working towards a master’s degree in music composition.