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  Olivia Martin

  Executive director, Tulsa

  Olivia is a devoted advocate for education and the Tulsa community. She brings more than two decades of experience in teaching, school administration, development, and civic engagement to her new role. Olivia attended Tulsa Public Schools throughout her entire childhood. She graduated with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the University of Tulsa. Currently, Olivia is pursuing her PhD at the University of Tulsa in English Language and Literature with an emphasis on American literature. Olivia is fully committed to championing students, teachers, parents, and volunteers in the meaningful work of literacy for all children in Tulsa and the surrounding region. She envisions a dynamic future for Reading Partners Tulsa and looks forward to nurturing data-driven growth and collaborative partnerships in the service of students’ literacy and a life-long love of learning.

• Camille Burke

  Program manager

  Camille Burke was born in Seattle, WA and grew up enjoying the great outdoors with her family and friends. In 2015, she graduated from Kalamazoo College in Michigan with a double major in Spanish and Anthropology & Sociology. After graduation, Camille made the decision to serve a year of national service through the AmeriCorps City Year team in Detroit, MI where she discovered her passion for helping students to reach their full potential. Camille continued her passion as a math and literacy intervention teacher and instructional supervisor in some of Chicago’s private schools from 2016-2021. She graduated from DePaul University’s Master of Public Administration program in June of 2021 and moved to Tulsa shortly thereafter. Camille joined the Reading Partners Tulsa team in Fall 2021 as a Program Manager and is excited to share her passion for education and years of experience to the Reading Partners community!

• Amanda Floyd

  Senior program manager - student impact

  Amanda has devoted her entire professional career to public education, first as a classroom teacher in Memphis and Dallas and later as an instructional coach. In 2019, Amanda and her family moved from Dallas to Tulsa. Upon arrival, Amanda joined the Tulsa Reading Partners team as an AmeriCorps member, first as a literacy lead, and then as a site coordinator at McKinley Elementary and McClure Elementary. Amanda graduated from the University of Memphis with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a Masters in Library Science at OU-Tulsa.

• Brandy Gildon-McCracken, M.Ed

  Program manager

  Brandy is a North Tulsa native who has devoted her entire professional career to providing an outlet for less fortunate students. She first worked as a junior high band director in Pine Bluff, AR and an elementary music teacher and high school vocal music director in England, AR. In 2012, Brandy moved back to Tulsa from Arkansas. Upon her arrival in Tulsa, Brandy served as the vocal music director and marching band director at Central High School. Later, she returned to elementary education in one of Tulsa’s newest Charter Schools, where she served as the music teacher and an instructional coach. She is now earning her second Master’s Degree in Education Leadership. Brandy joined the Tulsa Reading Partners team as a program manager in July 2021.

• Tara Harris

  Program operations manager

  Tara went to elementary school, high school, and college in Tulsa. She graduated from the University of Tulsa with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a Museum Studies Certificate and an Art History minor. After TU, Tara joined the 2017 Teach for America Greater Tulsa corps and taught second grade at College Bound Academy. She served as a classroom teacher for two years and then served as an instructional coach for the next two years with a focus on math. Tara then received her Masters in Education Administration, Curriculum, and Supervision at OU-Tulsa. She is thrilled to be starting her second year with the Reading Partners team to continue her work in the Tulsa education community.

• Ashley Horning

  Senior manager of AmeriCorps experience

  Born and raised in the Midwest, Ashley moved to Oklahoma in 2007 where she went to the University of Oklahoma. After volunteering with the United Way in OKC tutoring elementary students, Ashley found her passion and joined Reading Partners Tulsa as an AmeriCorps site coordinator at Celia Clinton Elementary. From there Ashley, has been a regional site coordinator, program associate, program manager and is now Senior manager of AmeriCorps experience. Ashley graduated with her master’s degree in public administration in 2018.

• Tonya Neeley

  Program operations associate

  Tonya is a Tulsa native. She is a former AmeriCorps member who has served all four years and now joins the Reading Partners team as the new Program Operations Associate. She loves working with children and seeing them reach their reading goals. Tonya is currently pursuing her bachelor's degree in Psychology and is looking forward to settling into her new position.

• Tammy Robbins

  Deputy program director

  Tammy Robbins earned her undergraduate degree from the Xavier University of Louisiana and graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin. She has taught in the classroom for 15 years, four years as a middle school science teacher in the Rio Grande Valley, and 11 years in an elementary school in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She started working at Reading Partners as a site coordinator in 2015. She later became a program manager and is currently serving as the deputy program director. She is excited to continue building relationships with our schools and their families. She believes that literacy is the key to future academic success for children and that it allows students to have better opportunities in life.

• Rachel Robertson

  Program manager

  Rachel was born and raised in the Tulsa area. She loves traveling with her husband and camping with their lab, Shadow. Her educational background is in Organizational Leadership from NSU. Before her work at Reading Partners she started as a volunteer. Her love for this work completely changed her career trajectory. This is where she belonged. Rachel has been involved with Reading Partners for the last seven years. Starting as a volunteer, moving into serving with AmeriCorps. From there she moved into the classroom where she continued to enjoy working with our community's Pre-K students. She is passionate about building skills in both young students' lives and the AmeriCorps members that serve with us as a Program Manager.

• Courtney Rodebush

  Director, program

  Courtney Rodebush graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in journalism and public relations. Courtney pivoted from journalism to build a career in education and brings over 15 years of secondary classroom teaching experience to her work with Reading Partners. Courtney joined the Reading Partners staff in 2018 as a program manager and is currently serving as the director of program. She looks forward to continuing to serve students across Tulsa to increase reading proficiency and foster a love of literacy at an early age.

• Mike Thomas

  Program manager

  Mike has worked in education since 2009. He has spent time working for multiple area school districts, and then spent seven years working for the YMCA running Out of School Time programming. As a Tulsa transplant, he has fallen in love with this city. He is passionate about serving students and families in our community and believes that we are all better when we serve together.

• Emily Fuller

  Development manager

  A Tulsa native, Emily graduated from Oklahoma State University with degrees in Spanish, Family Relations and Child Development. She then headed to the mountains of Colorado to get her master’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from Colorado State University. Emily has worked with children in education, health care and non-profit organizations for over 20 years. She joined the Reading Partners team to merge her experience in fundraising and development with her passion for education. She has served on the board for the Tulsa Debate League and currently serves on the Edison Foundation board. Emily enjoys meeting new people and relationship building.

• Tarae Williams

  Special operations associate

  Tarae is a Tulsa native who has a passion for children in her community. After working several years in sales, her goal was to live and serve with more passion and purpose. In her journey she found her place at Reading Partners Tulsa where she first served as an AmeriCorps member for two and a half years. Now in her new-to-Tulsa role of special operations associate, she cannot wait to see how she can further contribute to the organization and help the team serve Tulsa's students.

• Brenna Peterson

  Senior external relations manager

  Brenna Peterson joined Reading Partners in 2016 as community engagement coordinator. She has previous experience with marketing, communications, and volunteer management, ranging from nonprofit work at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Tulsa to organic farming at Johnson's Backyard Garden in Austin, Texas. Brenna has a bachelor’s degree in communication sciences and disorders (deaf education and deaf studies) from the University of Texas at Austin.

• Sam Stockley

  External relations associate

  Samantha Stockley joins the Reading Partners team with a love of literature, writing, and a strong drive for public service. After years as a freelance tutor and writer, Samantha settled into the agency world of nonprofit fundraising via proofreading and copyediting. She has always been an advocate for literacy and is overjoyed at the prospect of tackling her new role as development associate. Samantha also enjoys playing french horn, reading, and snuggling with her four cats!

• Haley Biram

  Community engagement director

  Haley is a Tulsa native and graduated from the University of Tulsa in Nonprofit Business and Arts Management. Joining the Reading Partners team in 2020, Haley leads all volunteer recruitment and onboarding efforts for the Tulsa region and oversees community engagement initiatives and partnerships. Coming from Gathering Place as their volunteer program manager, Haley contributed to the launch and coordination of the park's volunteer program for two years. Prior to Gathering Place, Haley was the education and public programs manager at the Hardesty Arts Center for five years.

• Latasha Buxton

  Community engagement coordinator

  Latasha joined the Reading Partners team in 2019 as an AmeriCorps member. Her passion for education and love for children aligned with the core values and commitments of Reading Partners. With over 17 years of experience in child care and educational setting, she is equipped to make a positive impact in everything she does, to focus on what matters with changing the outcome of our children and communities, and believing in connecting with people for a sole purpose. As a community engagement coordinator for recruitment, she now works to ensure volunteers have all the information they need to be reading partners. As the first person many people interact with when joining Reading Partners, Latasha brings a warm disposition and is an excellent customer service provider. Latasha earned a Bachelor of Science in healthcare administration from Concordia University-Portland. She has two children, Daniel and Michelle.

• Lyssa Flanagan

  Community engagement associate

  Lyssa graduated from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Science in psychology with minors in English and liberal arts. At university, Lyssa gained a service mindset and decided to dedicate her professional career to helping others. Lyssa knew she wanted to go into nonprofit work, and served as a City Year Americorps member at Daniel Webster High School, supporting freshman in an English classroom. During that year of service, Lyssa saw the literacy crisis firsthand and decided to join Reading Partners in 2017. Lyssa served two years at Reading Partners as an AmeriCorps site coordinator at Kendall-Whittier Elementary and McClure Elementary. Both schools boasted some of the highest student and tutor enrollments in the region. In 2019, Lyssa joined the Reading Partners full-time staff as the community engagement associate of recruitment. When not at work, you can find Lyssa in her craft room making paper crafts and scrapbooking.

• Jonathan Merkel

  Community engagement manager

  Jonathan started with Reading Partners in 2014 at Denver's Garden Place Academy. There he served as a reading center coordinator in Denver's Globeville neighborhood for two years. In 2017, he moved back to his native state Oklahoma and joined the Reading Partners Tulsa community engagement team. Currently, as Community engagement manager, he is responsible for managing regional volunteer recruitment, retention, and appreciation campaigns.

Board

Samantha Aponte
Onikah Asamoa-Caesar
Lauren Avery
Omare Jimmerson, Chair
Rick D. Lambert
Christi Lee
Todd Martin
Danielle Neves
Tim Newton
Connie Pearson
Aliye Shimi
Nate Todd