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2020 Regents Education Program Annual Conference Session #3

Home » About the State System of Higher Education » 2022 Regents Education Program Annual Conference » 2020 Regents Education Program Annual Conference Session #3

Session #3

Niki Batt

Niki Batt joined the Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General as an Assistant Attorney General in 2010, in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, focusing her time on civil litigation. In 2019, Niki was named Vice Deputy Attorney General, and Director of the Attorney General’s Legal Counsel Division. 

Prior to working for the Oklahoma Office of the Attorney General, Niki spent more than six years practicing law in all phases of insurance defense litigation and medical malpractice defense litigation. 

Niki is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association.  She is also admitted to the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Northern, and Western Districts of Oklahoma, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. 

Niki holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Oklahoma State University.  She earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.   

The Honorable Glenn Coffee

The Honorable Glenn Coffee is a businessman, attorney, former secretary of state and senator who was the first Republican in Oklahoma history to serve as president pro tempore.

First elected to the State Senate in 1998, Senator Coffee quickly gained a reputation as a leader and a reformer. He served in a variety of leadership posts in the State Senate, including minority floor leader and as Senate co-president pro tempore after Republicans won a historic tie in the Oklahoma State Senate in the 2006 elections, sharing the responsibility of running the State Senate with his Democrat counterpart. 

He was appointed as the 30th secretary of state in 2011 by Governor Mary Fallin.

Brent Gooden

Brent Gooden is the President and CEO of the Gooden Group.  Brent has decades of experience in public relations management, business consulting, marketing communications, media relations, public affairs, issue advocacy and crisis management.

Before founding Gooden Group, he worked with an internal team managing media, public and community relations, and coordinating and producing high-profile events for two Fortune 500 companies, Rockwell International and Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation.

Brent is a native of Oklahoma City, a graduate of Northwest Classen High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Oklahoma State University.

President Burns Hargis

Burns Hargis was named the 18th president of Oklahoma State University (OSU) and the OSU System in December 2007 and took office March 10, 2008.

Hargis, who holds degrees in accounting from Oklahoma State University and his juris doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law, is the second OSU graduate to lead the university as president. Oliver S. Willham, who served as president from 1952 to 1966, graduated from then Oklahoma A&M in 1923. 

Prior to coming to OSU, Hargis was vice chairman of Bank of Oklahoma and practiced law in Oklahoma City for 28 years, most recently with the firm of McAfee & Taft. He is a former president of the Oklahoma County Bar Association and former president of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation.

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President Joeseph Harroz, Jr.

Joseph Harroz, Jr., is the interim president at the University of Oklahoma and previously served as dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Law. 

He is a native Oklahoman and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor of arts in economics and a minor in zoology. He received his juris doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center and was an associate editor of the Journal of Law and Policy in International Business.

While in Washington D.C., Harroz served as legislative director and legal counsel to then U.S. Senator David L. Boren.

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Pat McFerron

Pat McFerron is an Oklahoma political consultant and partner with CMA Strategies, Inc., Oklahoma’s leading Republican consulting firm. CMA Strategies’ principals have run winning gubernatorial and congressional campaigns, as well as statewide offices ranging from the Corporation Commission to attorney general and lieutenant governor.  

In addition to his duties with CMA, McFerron is president of Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates, responsible for survey design and analysis of both political and commercial campaigns. 

McFerron graduated Summa Cum Laude from Oklahoma City University and conducted graduate study at The American University in Washington, D.C.

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Chancellor Glen D. Johnson

Dr. Glen D. Johnson is the chief executive officer for the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education. Johnson leads a state system comprised of 25 state colleges and universities, 10 constituent agencies, two university centers, and independent colleges and universities coordinated with the state system.

Johnson became eighth chancellor of the Oklahoma State System in January 2007 after a national search. Before assuming the role of chancellor, Johnson served as the 16th president of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant for 10 years. 

Prior to his work at OU, Johnson served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1982 to 1996 and was speaker of the House from 1990 to 1996. At the time of his election as speaker, he was the youngest-sitting speaker in the United States.

Ashley Kemp

Ashley Kemp is the executive director of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission after serving as the deputy director since April 2013.

Prior to joining the Ethics Commission, she served as general counsel to the House of Representatives, deputy general counsel to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, and assistant general counsel to the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

Kemp graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 2004.

Dr. Thomas C. Meredith

Dr. Thomas Meredith is a consultant with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB).  Prior to his work with AGB he  served as a university president and as the head of three university systems.

Most recently he served as Commissioner of Higher Education for Mississippi’s university system comprised of eight universities.

Dr. Meredith holds a BA from Kentucky Wesleyan College, an MA from Western Kentucky University, and an EdD from the University of Mississippi. He completed the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University and the Higher Education Roundtable at Oxford University.