Spotlight Awards
Dennis Griffith
Dennis Griffith, an instructional support specialist in the Resource Center for CareerTech Advancement, has become Oklahoma CareerTech’s go-to resource for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Through countless presentations to staff and to other groups outside the agency, he has offered expert guidance to break down the complex requirements and offered practical, thoughtful solutions every step of the way. He has created a library of training videos, guides and step-by-step walk-throughs to ensure employees can make the appropriate accessibility updates.
He has also taken on the task of correcting thousands of accessibility errors in ctYOU to bring the platform into compliance.
Gary Geralds
As the residential and commercial electrical instructor at Jim E. Hamilton Skills Center, Gary Geralds has consistently gone above and beyond to support students in the classroom and to support the entire system. His dedication and craftsmanship has made a tremendous impact across multiple Skills Centers sites.
Geralds has helped remodel the welding shop and the precision machining shop, repaired everything from appliances to copy machines and traveled to other sites whenever electrical expertise was needed.
He helped set up the construction shop at Jackie Brannon, install circuit protectors at Howard McLeod and add equipment drops and receptacles at the new Vinita Skills Centers building.
His work has saved the system significant resources, and his students consistently speak highly of him both as an instructor and as a mentor.
Team Spotlight Award
Health Science Education
Staff members in the Health Science Education Division at CareerTech have gone above and beyond to advance health science education across Oklahoma.
They planned and delivered a statewide Virtual Health Career Day and two health science career fairs in the last six months, while continuing to complete their regular duties.
They supported to fall leadership conferences for HOSA, the health science education CareerTech student organization, and agreed to bring back a mid-winter training in January.
Members of the team -- Peighton Harak, James Gordon, Amy Warner, Gilda Austin, Emily Gedra and Susie McEachern-Lauer -- collaborate, support each other and rise to every challenge, said Lara Morris, their manager.
Rising Star Award
Tiffiany Peters
In less than six months, administrative assistant Tiffiany Peters has made an outstanding impact in the Family and Consumer Sciences Education Division at Oklahoma CareerTech.
From her first day on the job, she stepped in with initiative and drive, revitalizing the school tracker, resolving email bounce backs for more than 400 teachers and streamlining internal processes that have saved other staff members countless hours and resources.
She has improved the flow of daily work with clear, consistent organizational systems and stepped up to help whenever needed -- from scoring a major grant submission to covering for colleagues without hesitation. Her positive attitude, reliability and team-first mindset have made her an indispensable member of the FCS team.
