Beth Sullins is the Assistant Director of Operations for the Early Childhood Education Institute at OU-Tulsa. She has been with OU-Tulsa since 2008, when she was hired to coordinate an evaluation of the Scholars for Excellence in Child Care study. In 2011, she was promoted to Assistant Director of Administration and assumed oversight of all budgets, contracts, purchasing, personnel and operations of the Institute. Prior to her work with the ECEI, she worked for the Community Service Council’s Child Care Resource Center, overseeing their family child care food program, bookstore, and eventually operations of the department. She’s a native Texan (Hook ‘em Horns!), her bachelor’s degree is in Psychology from Hollins University, and she completed her studies for a master’s degree in Child Development at Texas Women’s University. She is LEAN Six Sigma certified, participated in OU’s Leadership Council, and works with leadership on campus, serving on committees and volunteer activities. She was awarded the Regents Award for Superior Staff in 2018, one of only three awards given to OU staff annually.
Fun fact: Her heart has always been in early childhood, and she’s worked with various ages of young children. It’s why she went to graduate school and pursued early childhood as a career. Her favorite age, if she had to pick one, is late infancy (6 months to a year) because it’s just incredible to watch babies’ brains grow and change daily as they start becoming little people.
Encouraging Note: My favorite quote, which hangs in my bedroom at home, is “A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” Each of you makes a difference every day in the lives of the children you teach. It’s hard to remember that when you’re in the thick of it, but I hope you know that families and children are better because you were in their lives.
