Overview

Okla­homa has been ranked the 3rd worst state for women. The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion is out to change that. The Coali­tion is a statewide non-profit, non­par­ti­san asso­ci­a­tion with orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual mem­bers that rep­re­sent more than 100,000 women and girls. Our goal is to cre­ate mean­ing­ful sys­temic change through edu­ca­tion and advocacy.

The organization’s pri­mary focus is to sup­port state leg­is­la­tion and poli­cies that advance the Coalition’s mis­sion. We are also com­mit­ted to the devel­op­ment and dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion on pro­grams and issues impor­tant to women and girls. Imag­ine the influ­ence we will have with our net­work of thou­sands of women from across Okla­homa! It is time for Okla­homa women to band together as ONE VOICE that will ini­ti­ate pos­i­tive change.

The Coali­tion will achieve its mis­sion by focus­ing on the fol­low­ing issue areas:
Aging • Edu­ca­tion • Girls • Health • Incar­cer­a­tion • Vio­lence • Work & Families

Coali­tion sub-committees for each of these top­i­cal areas are work­ing dili­gently to iden­tify spe­cific issues that will ben­e­fit women and girls. The Coali­tion may serve as a con­duit to con­nect orga­ni­za­tions that are sup­port­ing sim­i­lar issues, in addi­tion to iden­ti­fy­ing spe­cific leg­is­la­tion and/or poli­cies to support.

As a 501©(3) non­profit, we do not endorse or oppose can­di­dates for pub­lic office or polit­i­cal par­ties. We seek to iden­tify and pro­mote bills and poli­cies ben­e­fit­ing women and girls that can win sup­port from Repub­li­can and Demo­c­ra­tic mem­bers of the Okla­homa Legislature.

If you are inter­ested in join­ing a proac­tive orga­ni­za­tion that is striv­ing to improve the lives of women and girls, we would wel­come you as a mem­ber of the Coali­tion. Please visit our Mem­ber­ship page to learn more about join­ing as an indi­vid­ual or organization.

Coali­tion History

Four deter­mined women came together in 2007 with the com­mon vision of a statewide women’s coali­tion that would unite indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions as one pow­er­ful voice to ini­ti­ate pos­i­tive change for Oklahoma’s women and girls. Dr. Jean Warner, Donna Lawrence, Jan Peery, and Pat Potts had long seen the need for an orga­nized voice for women and girls. The syn­ergy cre­ated by their shared pas­sion ulti­mately led to the found­ing of the Okla­homa Women’s Coalition.

The pio­neer spirit of our early Okla­homa women fueled the small group as they began blaz­ing a trail to build this new orga­ni­za­tion. The women approached the Okla­homa Leg­isla­tive Coali­tion, a group of women’s orga­ni­za­tions that had jointly spon­sored an Annual Day at the Capi­tol for more than 20 years. Mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions voted in the fall of 2007 to join the effort and direct their focus on poli­cies and issues related to Okla­homa women and girls.

The next sev­eral months were spent research­ing coali­tions in other states, draft­ing bylaws, fil­ing for incor­po­ra­tion and 501©(3) sta­tus, dis­cussing strat­egy, and recruit­ing board mem­bers. The bylaws were approved, the name was revised to Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion, and a statewide bipar­ti­san board of direc­tors was elected in Sep­tem­ber 2008.

The inau­gural board meet­ing of the Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion was Octo­ber 2, 2008. The new board mem­bers eagerly agreed to take on lead­er­ship roles as offi­cers and com­mit­tee chairs. They worked tire­lessly through­out the next 12 months build­ing mem­ber­ship, estab­lish­ing advo­cacy com­mit­tees, host­ing events, devel­op­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions strate­gies, cre­at­ing finan­cial poli­cies, and build­ing cred­i­bil­ity at the State Capi­tol. The first year suc­cesses would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the excep­tional lead­er­ship skills of these tal­ented women.

Found­ing Officers:

Chair — Dr. Jean Warner, Okla­homa City
Vice Chair — Donna Lawrence, Okla­homa City
Sec­re­tary — Andrea Chan­cel­lor, Tulsa — Women’s Int’l Net­work of Util­ity Pro­fes­sion­als
Trea­surer — Faye Hen­son, Weath­er­ford — Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Uni­ver­sity Women-Oklahoma

Found­ing Orga­ni­za­tional Representatives

Jacque­line Achong, Law­ton – Alpha Kappa Alpha Soror­ity, Inc
Feli­cia Collins-Correia, Tulsa – YWCA Tulsa
Con­nie Dou­glas, Bro­ken Arrow – Busi­ness and Pro­fes­sional Women
Trish Emig, Still­wa­ter — League of Women Vot­ers of Okla­homa
Karen Mor­gan, Tulsa – Girl Scouts of East­ern Okla­homa
Jane Nel­son, Okla­homa City – Okla­homa Nurses Asso­ci­a­tion
Jan Peery, Okla­homa City – YWCA Okla­homa City
Cathy Stack­pole, Okla­homa City – Girl Scouts – West­ern Okla­homa, Inc

Found­ing Indi­vid­ual Members

Pat Potts, Okla­homa City
Lucy Smith, McAlester
Rebecca Kennedy, Semi­nole
Susan Win­ches­ter, Chick­asha
Zora Brown, Okla­homa City

A $10,000 grant from the Women’s Foun­da­tion of Okla­homa assisted in build­ing the organization’s infra­struc­ture by fund­ing a bill-tracking ser­vice, office sup­plies, and devel­op­ment of a logo and brochure.

The Okla­homa Women’s Coali­tion was offi­cially launched and intro­duced to the pub­lic at a press con­fer­ence on Feb­ru­ary 18, 2008 dur­ing the group’s Advo­cacy Day at the Capi­tol. With a stand­ing room only crowd, Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Jari Ask­ins, along with Cor­po­ra­tion Com­mis­sioner Dana Mur­phy and Dr. Jean Warner, unveiled the Coalition’s logo and pub­licly announced the for­ma­tion of the orga­ni­za­tion. Con­gress­woman Mary Fallin closed the day’s activ­i­ties, which included pre­sen­ta­tions by House and Sen­ate leadership.

The first year ended with more than 200 indi­vid­ual mem­bers and two dozen orga­ni­za­tional mem­bers that rep­re­sent more than 100,000 Okla­homa women and girls. Our num­bers and our influ­ence are grow­ing daily, which will lead us to unprece­dented suc­cess as we pur­sue our mission.

FY 08–09 Coali­tion Highlights:

• Bylaws drafted, IRS 501©(3) non­profit sta­tus secured
• Statewide bi-partisan board elected
• Com­mit­tees on Advo­cacy, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Events, Finance, Fundrais­ing, Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment, and Mem­ber­ship established
• Advo­cacy Sub­com­mit­tees on Aging, Edu­ca­tion, Girls, Health, Incar­cer­a­tion, Vio­lence, and Work & Fam­ily researched issues/bills and began devel­op­ing advo­cacy strategies
• Advo­cacy Day at the Capi­tol hosted Feb­ru­ary 18, 2009 with more than 150 participants
• Annual Meet­ing and Issues Forum hosted June 10, 2009
• Statewide cov­er­age via news­pa­per, radio, Inter­net, and TV
• Brand­ing mate­ri­als devel­oped: logo, brochures, letterhead
• Web site devel­oped with infor­ma­tion, reg­is­tra­tion and dona­tion pages
• Bill track­ing ser­vice used to mon­i­tor bills in the 2009 Leg­isla­tive session
• Nearly $60,000 raised, plus in-kind dona­tions val­ued over $25,000

Oklahoma Women's Coalition, Advocating for Women and Girls

720 West Wilshire, Suite 101-D
Oklahoma City, OK 73116
Telephone: 405-286-0356
Email: info@oklahomawomenscoalition.org