State Senate Confirms OJA Executive Director Rachel Holt as Agency Head
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
OKLAHOMA CITY, MAY 19, 2021—The Oklahoma Senate today confirmed Office of Juvenile Affairs Executive Director Rachel Holt to head up the agency.
Holt has led the agency since March 2020 when she was appointed interim executive director by OJA’s governing board. Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed her executive director in October, pending Senate confirmation.
“I appreciate the OJA board for appointing me interim and the nomination by Governor Stitt to serve as director of the Office of Juvenile Affairs,” said Holt. “I am grateful to the Senate for the confirmation, especially my sponsor, Senator Julia Kirt; Health and Human Services Committee Chair Greg McCortney, Vice Chair Paul Rosino and their committee members; President Pro Tempore Greg Treat; and Majority Floor Leader Kim David.
“It has been my honor to guide the agency during the past year, and I look forward to leading this agency and its committed, competent and caring employees. I very much value and respect the frontline work being done every day in the community, in the courtrooms, in the homes, in the schools and, especially, in our secure-care treatment facilities and our charter school. I look forward to working with our contract partners and improving the lives of children through a robust continuum of care.”
As OJA’s executive director, Holt is responsible for the overall management of the agency's operated and contracted programs and services. She works directly with the agency's governing board to facilitate agency priorities, planning and operational performance.
Karen Youngblood, chair of OJA’s governing board, applauded the Senate’s action.
“Rachel is a leading authority on juvenile law in Oklahoma and knows intimately the workings of OJA,” said Youngblood, who has served on the board since 2017. “During the past 14 months, she has guided our agency as it focuses more on rehabilitation and treatment of the youth in our care, which enhances public safety by our youth having a better chance of success when they return to their local communities. We look forward to continued accountable, transparent and effective progress for the taxpayers of our state and all youth in our care with her leading our OJA team.”
Before being appointed OJA’s director last year, Holt served as OJA’s chief operating officer and senior general counsel since December 2017. Before that, she was an assistant attorney general assigned as OJA’s general counsel and prior to that she served as OJA’s deputy general counsel.
Holt, a native of Philadelphia, graduated cum laude from George Washington University with a major in criminal justice. In 2004, she and her husband David, a native of Oklahoma City, moved to Oklahoma and she began her studies at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Upon graduation from law school, she was named an Oklahoma County assistant district attorney, where she served in the juvenile division prosecuting juvenile delinquents and youthful offenders, and assisting with deprived matters. The Holts have two children.
###
