4 minute read
Serving Oklahoma Families in Need
By John Whitsett '80
It’s a long way from a town of 1000 to leadership of a government agency with more than 6000 employees that serve a million people with an annual budget of $5 billion. That’s the journey of Deb Shropshire—Director of Oklahoma Human Services and graduate of Southern Nazarene University Class of 1993.
Growing up in a Nazarene pastor’s family, Deb came to SNU from Erick, Oklahoma to play basketball and major in pre-med. Quickly realizing the competition was much stiffer at the college level, she hung up her Nikes after her freshman year and focused on her studies. “Doctors Judd, Finkenbinder, Young, and Heasley were incredible teachers and mentors,” says Deb. “They prepared me well for medical school.”
While learning about child abuse and neglect during one of her rotations, she found herself riding along with child welfare case workers, attending court hearings, and learning about the foster care system. “I fell in love with all of it,” says Deb. “I’d always thought I’d be an ER doc, but that experience pushed me headfirst towards pediatrics.” During residency that call became even clearer.
Upon graduation, she joined the medical faculty at OU Children’s Hospital while finding ways to work within the child welfare system—caring for kids in a foster care shelter, starting a clinic specifically for those kids and families, assisting case workers, and learning everything she could about how to influence systems. She went back to school, earning a Master’s Degree in Health Administration & Policy, and began to build relationships with key leaders in the government and non-profit sectors.
In 2014, the Director of Child Welfare asked her to come aboard as Deputy Director of Community Partnerships—a position she agreed to on the condition she could remain active in the clinic. Five years later, under a new administration, she was asked to assume the director’s position, never thinking her education on things like epidemics and infection control would come in handy a few months later when COVID hit. “The number of questions our team members, foster parents, biological families, and others had were endless,” she said.
On January 10, 2023, Governor Kevin Stitt appointed Deb to serve as the first female director of Oklahoma Human Services—the agency that not only oversees Child Welfare, but five additional divisions that provide services to children, families, the elderly, and people with disabilities. A few months later, at his request, she joined the governor’s cabinet as Secretary of Human Services which added the responsibility to serve as an advisor and liaison between her team and several other agencies. “There’s lots to learn, lots to discern, and lots of opportunities for collaboration and influence,” says Deb.
“My professors at SNU blended science and the spiritual with such grace. Being saturated in relationships where faith was a priority during my ‘becoming an adult’ years set the stage for me to hear God’s voice and call. I didn’t have a grand plan of where it might go. Each time there was a decision point, I only could see the next step. It’s been wilder, and harder, than I can imagine. But it’s been amazing and filled with miracles, simply because I took that next step at key moments.”
As to what keeps her going, Deb says, “I see a world where abuse and neglect don’t exist, where families are safe and strong, and where those that are vulnerable are valued and prized. The Lord’s Prayer says, ‘Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ That’s what motivates me every single day.”
