Communicator of the Year Award
Natalea Watkins Communicator of the Year
This award is traditionally presented annually at the OCPRA Fall Workshop to an individual whose service and leadership have set a high standard for others.
Nominations for the Watkins Award, OCPRA’s most prestigious award, are accepted from individuals who work for an OCPRA member institution or OSRHE Communicators Council member institutions.
The recipient must demonstrate leadership that has had a positive influence for the recipient’s institution as well as for the state system of higher education.
Nominations are reviewed each fall by the selection committee, which is comprised of previous Watkins Award recipients.
The OCPRA Board of Directors, working with OSRHE Communicators Council, created the Communicator of the Year program in 2003. The first award recipient was Natalea Watkins, longtime associate vice president for communications at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. So effective was her leadership in both OCPRA and Communicators Council that, beginning in 2004, the award was renamed the Natalea Watkins Communicator of the Year Award.
2023 - Trish McBeath
Vice President of Student & External Affairs
Eastern Oklahoma State College
2022 - Amy Goddard
Director of Communications & Marketing
University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma
2021 - Keith Mitchell
Senior Director of Public Affairs
Cameron University
2019 - Charlie Johnson
Vice President for University Communications
University of Central Oklahoma
2018 - Karen Kelly
Director of Communications
OU Gallogly College of Engineering
2017 - Angela Caddell
Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
2013 - Amy Ford
Director of Communications and Marketing
East Central University
2009- Brian Adler
Director of Public Relations and Marketing
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
2016 - Catherine Bishop
Vice President for Public Affairs
University of Oklahoma
2012 – Gary Shutt
Director of Communications
Oklahoma State University
2008 – Lana Reynolds
Vice President Institutional Advancement
Seminole State College
2015 - Adrienne Nobles
Assistant Vice President for University Communications
University of Central Oklahoma
2011 – Paula Gower
Director of Marketing and Public Relations Oklahoma City Community College (At OBU since 2012)
2007 – Susie Brown
Director of Marketing Communications
Tulsa Community College
2005 – Donna Spain-Bryant
Oklahoma GEAR UP
2014 - Jamie Glover
Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management
Cameron University
2010- Mary Bea Drummond
Director of Marketing and Communications Services
Oklahoma State University-Tulsa
2006 – Randy Talley
Director of Media and Community Relations
The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (Retired from USAO in 2013)
2004 – Bill Guffey
Director of Public Relations (Retired)
Carl Albert State College