OU’S Largest College to Honor Award Winners

Garrison (B.A., Political Science, ’06) is a seasoned public servant whose career includes federal service and advocacy work, focusing on issues related to agriculture, hunger and nutrition. 

A field trip to Capitol Hill during her senior year of high school sparked her dream of one day working within the halls of Congress. After gaining her degree from OU, Garrison set out to do just that. Since then, she has held several policy positions on Capitol Hill, including serving as legislative assistant to Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and most recently as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director to then-Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio.  

Garrison also previously worked as an analyst at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service and at the USDA Office of Congressional Relations, liaising with members of Congress and their staff on food and nutrition-related issues. Additionally, she spent time as a policy analyst and anti-hunger advocate at the Food Research and Action Center, working to increase access to school meals in high-need areas. 

On March 15, 2021, Garrison was appointed to the Biden-Harris Administration as chief of staff to the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, the No.  2 USDA official behind Cabinet Secretary Tom Vilsack. In her current role, Garrison serves as chief advisor to the deputy secretary, providing guidance on efforts related to recruitment and youth engagement in agriculture, foreign agricultural trade missions to the U.K. and East Africa, enhancing internal USDA operations and workplace culture, advancing programmatic equity and civil rights enforcement, supportingUSDA’s first-ever Equity Commission, and strengthening access to programs and services for underserved producers and communities.

Garrison’s commitment to public service goes beyond the workplace. She often volunteers her time at local food pantries and mentors young people interested in a career in politics. She is also a second-generation Sooner whose parents both hold degrees from the University of Oklahoma; both were married at First Presbyterian Church near Campus Corner.

Johnson is an honors graduate, earning his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1976, with selection for membership in Phi Beta Kappa. After earning his juris doctorate from the OU College of Law in 1979, he then committed his professional career to public service. 

Johnson was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1982, serving as Speaker of the House from 1992 to 1996. At the time of his election as speaker, he was the youngest-sitting speaker in the United States. During his tenure in the House, Johnson was a tireless advocate for public education and was instrumental in the passage of HB 1017, Oklahoma’s landmark education reform legislation. 

After leaving the Legislature, Johnson continued his public service at OU, where he served as director of public policy, as well as adjunct professor of law at the OU College of Law. 

In 1997, Johnson was selected to serve as the 16^th president of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. From 2007-21, he served as the eighth chancellor of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. In this role, he led a state system composed of 25 state colleges and universities, 10 constituent agencies, one university center, and independent colleges and universities coordinated with the state system, and was responsible for an annual higher education budget in excess of $2.8 billion

In addition to his professional commitments, Johnson has devoted countless hours volunteering his time with numerous philanthropic and civic organizations to better the state for all Oklahomans. Johnson has received numerous honors for his dedicated public service, including induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame – the state’s highest honor – and the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame; the State Higher Education Officers Association Exceptional Leader Award, recognizing the outstanding chancellor in the nation; Leadership Oklahoma’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and The Oklahoma Academy’s Key Contributor Award.

Lipe was born in 1935 in Seminole County, Oklahoma, grew up in Bristow (Creek County), and in 1957 earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology and archaeology from OU.  From 1958 to 1960, he led small teams engaged in studying the archaeological sites to be affected by the formation of Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon of the Colorado River. This work was the basis for his 1966 doctoral dissertation at Yale University. Lipe’s first university teaching job was a one-year appointment at OU in 1963-64, followed by jobs at Binghamton University and the Museum of Northern Arizona. In 1976, he joined the faculty at Washington State University, where he remains an emeritus professor.

In 1974, he published “A Conservation Model for American Archaeology,” arguing that archaeological and historic sites are in fact non-renewable “cultural resources” in need of protection and management in the face of economic developments that could destroy them. Studies of these sites have the potential to enlarge society’s scientific and humanistic understanding of the past and also enable descendant communities to maintain sacred places and celebrate cultural heritage. Promoting the responsible development of the emerging field of “cultural resource management” became an important theme in his work and was emphasized in his term (1995-1997) as president of the Society for American Archaeology.

Lipe’s career is also marked by his leadership on several major projects that have had national impacts:

·      From 1972-1976, he co-directed the Cedar Mesa Project, mapping and documenting over 500 archaeological sites on Cedar Mesa, located in what is now the Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. In his 2016 Monument Proclamation, former President Barack Obama noted widespread public interest in the area’s well-preserved cultural resources, and especially their importance to the living cultural heritages of tribes having ancestry there. Tribes and federal agencies are currently collaborating to develop innovative co-management of the monument.

·      In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lipe was co-principal investigator for the Dolores Archaeological Program in the Mesa Verde region of Southwestern Colorado. Focused on the cultural resources affected by federal reservoir construction, the “DAP” was the largest archaeological project in the United States at the time.

·      In the 1980s, Lipe had a major role in developing the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado, and has been on its Board of Trustees since 1995. The center conducts long-term multidisciplinary research, delivers public education programs based on that research, and partners with Native Americans to develop the research and education programs.

Coker earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from OU in 2013. He was awarded a Marshall Scholarship and used the opportunity to complete his master’s degree in philosophy and public policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He later complemented this achievement with a master’s degree in economic and social history from Oxford University, finishing both programs with distinction and producing impactful research investigating social mobility and income inequality. 

While at OU, Coker won the Carl Albert Award, presented annually to the top senior in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences. Coker is remembered for his willingness to help others and provide supportive friendship/mentoring to his peers. He served as team leader for his CCEW group, as a research analyst for the OU Office of Strategic Planning and Economic Development, was the co-founder of the Oklahoma Funding Accelerator program, and served as a group leader of a disaster response team in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.  He co-founded the Oklahoma Microfinance Fund, served as an Associate for the Oklahoma Life Science Fund, co-founded the Honors College Current Events Discussion and Documentary Watch Groups, debated in the National Ethics Bowl and wrote for the Oklahoma Daily as an Opinion Columnist. As an undergraduate student, Coker enjoyed making coffee as a volunteer barista for the nonprofit coffee shop Second Wind.  

After finishing at Oxford, he pursued a passion for breaking down barriers that cause social inequality. He began his first job as a Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in New York City in 2016. He continued working for BCG for six years, his career punctuated by time with the BCG Henderson Institute, focusing on the ethical case for price personalization, and culminating with a promotion to Partner in January of 2022.

Mahaffey was raised in Norman and graduated from OU summa cum laude in 2017 with a double major in interdisciplinary perspectives on slavery and exploitation and international and area studies and a minor in Spanish. 

While at OU, Mahaffey founded HOPE Student Awareness, a statewide anti-trafficking curriculum for students, with a $10,000 grant from Davis Projects for Peace, and a year later co-founded OU's anti-trafficking Off the Market symposium and developed an executive summary for the U.S. Department of State on due process and criminal systems for traffickers globally with a team. Her undergraduate speaking engagements include TEDxOU 2015 and the 2015 U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Education’s Stakeholder Conference in Washington, D.C. She also was a member of the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences Withrow Leadership Scholars, interned for the Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth and was a member of the Honors College.

As OU’s seventh Marshall Scholar, she completed two master’s degrees. The first was in politics and international relations at the University of Nottingham and the second in sociology from the University of Cambridge, where she examined modern slavery and human trafficking. At the University of Nottingham, she worked in the Rights Lab researching initiatives to prevent human trafficking both globally and locally. 

Mahaffey has focused on human trafficking since 2009, and her recent work includes a 102-page deep dive on Oklahoman human trafficking partnership responses, current gaps and recommendations. At Cambridge, Mahaffey interviewed survivors and certified Oklahoma victim service providers to compile an 87-page discussion of what trafficking survivors think Oklahoma is doing well in responding to trafficking and what needs to change. She also serves as a Subject Matter Expert on the Oklahoman Commission on the Status of Women, where she co-authored a 2021 white paper on Oklahoman trafficking for the state Legislature and spoke at the Governor’s Mansion.

Mahaffey currently works as the transatlantic initiatives coordinator for the Association of Marshall Scholars, where she coordinates marquee, policy-focused events for U.K. and U.S. government officials, Marshall Alumni and key stakeholders. 

The Proctors’ generous past and commitment to OU’s future are a testament to their belief that an OU education can have a life-changing impact. Over the years, David and Judi Proctor have established numerous student scholarships at the university, including the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences. In recognition of their support, OU welcomed the couple into the Seed Sower Society in 2016. 

Most recently, the university received an extraordinary estate gift from the Proctors, which included a $7 million irrevocable contribution to the Department of Mathematics. In appreciation of this gift and its potential to transform STEM education university-wide, the OU Board of Regents has approved the naming of the department to the David and Judi Proctor Department of Mathematics.

David Proctor rose from humble beginnings in Seminole, Oklahoma. After earning his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from OU, he pursued graduate studies at Stanford University. He went on to have an outstanding career in aerospace and computer industries, including serving in a number of executive positions at IBM. He coded the lunar descent maneuvers for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 missions, and he and his team earned the President’s Medal of Freedom for ensuring the safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts. Judi Proctor also had a successful marketing career at IBM and shares David’s passion for OU. 

The Proctors’ generous and heartfelt support has transformed the lives of our students, providing them with expanded opportunities for success. They have enabled students to both succeed at OU without accumulating financial debt and to benefit from an expanded array of educational opportunities, including study abroad, that they might otherwise miss out on. The Proctors have also served as role models for these fortunate students and as deeply dedicated friends.