Tag: University of Tulsa

Surprise! In House District 82, we have a choice in 2026 election

Oklahoma House District 82 candidate Travis Headd during a meeting at an Edmond coffee shop

Automotive pioneer Henry Ford once said that a Ford customer could have a car in any color they chose as long as it was black.

That’s a pretty funny quote and it rang true back in the 1930s.

Unfortunately, it also rings true for the political landscape across 2026 Oklahoma.

“You can vote for any candidate you choose as long as it’s a Republican.”

So much for the two-party system.

But, wait. There is diversity emerging in the candidates to consider in the upcoming Oklahoma legislative elections this year. According to the Oklahoma Democratic Party website, the party is fielding more than 100 candidates this year for offices across the state.

At last, that’s offering some choice in our deep red state. And in the OKC metro area, where we’re inching our way out of the red and into a darker hue, like, say, purple, there is opportunity to bring fresh perspectives to the state Capitol.

In the State House district in which I’m a resident, District 82, we’ve been represented since 2018 by Republican Nicole Miller. She’s had no opposition at all in recent elections.

I haven’t kept up with how Rep. Miller has voted, so I don’t know if she’s supported legislation like school vouchers that rob public schools by subsidizing private schools under the guise of ‘school choice.’ Or if she was all in on cutting revenue the state government has to operate on by reducing state income tax and letting folks like me keep enough extra income to buy, perhaps, a single tank of gas.

So, I’m not anti-Rep. Miller. But I do want  some choice when I’m casting my vote for State Representative.

This year, Rep. Miller has some opposition for the House position from Travis L. Headd, 55, a University of Tulsa graduate, inventor, businessman and Edmond resident.

I’ve known Travis casually for a couple of years because his significant other, Juliet Joy, and I worked together in the same office.

However, I really didn’t know Travis the person, so i asked him to meet me at a local coffee shop to hear his story and how he came to be a candidate for the State House District 82 seat.

Travis, as it turns out, is a St. Louis, Mo., native who played Division I football at Tulsa, where he was a running back, Doak Walker award candidate and a TU Football Hall of Fame member as part of the 1991 Freedom Bowl winning Hurricane team.

Since college, he has been awarded a patent in 2015 by the U.S. Patent office as co-inventor along with Craig Calloway of local internet search technology, has served as a certified health care professional and as a business owner.

You can easily spot Travis by his signature, colorful hat that almost always adorns his head.

So, why is Travis Headd running for the House District 82 position?

First of all, he told me, the State Democratic Party reached out to him to gauge his interest in running for office. He accepted the challenge, partially to give voters a choice.

“It’s not that she’s done anything wrong, as far as that goes, Travis told me. “But some years she’s had no opposition at all.”

Yes, but from my perspective, it appears Travis has some long odds against an established incumbent. Plus, he’s African-American and, well, a Democrat in what has been a fairly conservative district (full disclosure: I’m a Democrat and have been since 2008).

So, I told him my apprehensions. He responded with confidence in not only his ability to connect with voters but in the District residents themselves.

“The demographics of this particular market are changing, especially since 2018,” Travis said. “We have West Edmond, Deer Creek, upper Northwest Oklahoma City. It’s very diverse, one of the most diverse districts. And you’ve got a lot of young liberals, young families.”

Don’t let that word ‘liberal’ scare you. Travis is running on a platform that offers practical solutions to issues important to Oklahomans.

He sent me a detailed outline of the issues he considers vital to the district. Those include strengthening education across the state, supporting small business growth, responsible tax policies, smart local development, community safety and mental health awareness and access.

And those are not just bullet points. He has a detailed action plan for every one of them that appears reasoned and well thought out.

Let’s consider education, for instance. Travis advocates developing alternative career development for students who choose not to go to college.

“We need advocacy for these kids coming straight out of high school to get into the technical schools,” he told me. “Some of them go to college, and that’s fine. But a lot of them don’t go to college, and a lot of the kids are left with figuring out what to do in life. They don’t know what to do when they graduate. There’s all kinds of infrastructure development that they can get into that offers great paying jobs. And we can keep that talent local. We can develop these young students.”

Travis articulates the rest of his platform with equal fervor. You can learn more about him and his campaign at his candidate website, https://www.headd2026.com. He told me he plans to meet as many fellow residents as he can by knocking on doors and introducng himself to the community.

So, I see Travis Headd as a serious candidate who offers real ideas and solutions for my fellow residents in District 82.

Plus, he offers us a choice in 2026. A choice! We have the opportunity to end the Republican party’s Oklahoma super majority.

Take that, Henry Ford.

Pandemic forces unexpected route to graduation for OCAST intern

OCAST interview with Ella Luttbeg, TU from OCAST on Vimeo.

 

Editor’s note: Along with Debbie Cox, my colleague from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), I recently interviewed Ella Luttbeg via the Zoom platform. Ella is a graduating senior at the University of Tulsa.

Ella Luttbeg was wrapping up some major projects as she prepared to graduate this spring as a mechanical engineering major from the University of Tulsa.

A senior capstone project neared its conclusion, as did an OCAST internship at Tulsa’s Triumph Aerostructures that she had held since October 2018.

A job at Boeing’s Oklahoma City operation awaited in June after her May graduation.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic threw some major roadblocks in her path. As the wave of Coronavirus infections washed over the nation in March, social distancing measures shuttered businesses, closed campuses and forced students like Luttbeg back to their homes to remotely complete the semester.

For Ella, home is Stillwater, where she graduated from high school before enrolling at TU as a freshman in 2016. Her parents are both biology professors at Oklahoma State University.

Luttbeg negotiated the roadblocks and finished out both the senior project and the OCAST internship.

“School wise, everything is remote, and our senior project kind of ended in a different fashion than we expected it to,” Ella told me in a recent interview over the Zoom platform. “So far, the pandemic hasn’t affected my job offer, which I’m grateful for.”

“I think something that really helps is seeing older college or professional women talking about their careers and getting excited about math and science and showing that it is a cool thing to be interested in. Having role models to look up to really helps people believe it’s something that they can achieve, as well.”
— Ella Luttbeg on inspiring more women to pursue STEM careers

During the OCAST internship, Luttbeg tackled a variety of engineering projects for Triumph Aerostructures related to fatigue and damage tolerance analysis in aircraft structures.

“I was lucky enough to be able to work from home for Triumph during the pandemic,” Ella said. “They were able to get me a laptop to remote in. It’s been different, but I’ve really been grateful to keep my internship.”

Luttbeg was one of two OCAST interns this academic year working at Triumph Aerostructures, a division of Triumph Group. Triumph is a publicly traded, global leader in manufacturing and overhauling aerospace structures, systems, and components.

“My time at Triumph Aerostructures has been super valuable to me, because it’s given me the opportunity to supplement my school studies with real world experience,” she said. “At Triumph, I worked with really smart engineers who taught me a lot about stress and fatigue and damage tolerance analysis. It exposed me to a whole different side of engineering.”

Ella Luttbeg

Luttbeg developed her interest in pursuing an education in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – while still in high school. She credits Larry Hesler, a high school math teacher, for stoking that interest, and college professors John Henshaw, Ph.D., and Steve Tipton, Ph.D., for mentoring her through the engineering program.

“I’ve always been interested in math,” she said. “Both my parents are scientists, so I’ve always been kind of exposed to the STEM world. Then at TU, my classes have shown me what engineering is all about.”

She learned about the OCAST intern opportunity through an email that TU’s engineering department sent to its students. TU is a long-time participant in the OCAST Intern Partnership program, which places students in real world R&D settings on a cost-share basis.

“I would definitely tell future/current college students to be on the lookout for the OCAST internships because they are a great way to be able to work part time during the school year and over the summer,” Luttbeg said. “I’m so thankful to have this opportunity to have this OCAST internship. It’s meant a lot to me and supplemented my education.”

RNT Cyber Ethics Conference highlights importance of protecting computer data

Jonathan Kimmitt from the University of Tulsa addresses the recent RNT Cyber Ethics Conference as keynote speaker

Editor’s note:  I attended the recent RNT Cyber Ethics conference at Metro Tech’s Springlake Conference Center on behalf of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology.  My question up-front was “why cyber ethics” vs. “cyber security?”  I got my answer from keynote speaker Jonathan Kimmitt from the University of Tulsa.  Below is an article I wrote on behalf of OCAST, with an abbreviated version published in today’s editions of The Oklahoman:

Life-and-death consequences can result from decisions made by computer network administrators to keep their systems secure from outside attackers, said Jonathan Kimmitt, chief information security officer for the University of Tulsa.

Exhibit A: The Wannacry ransomware cyber attack on medical facilities across Great Britain in the spring of 2017 that crippled the ability of state-run hospitals to provide medical care.

Wannacry put lives of patients in British hospitals at risk because of delays in surgeries and urgent care, Kimmitt told an audience at the recent RNT Cyber Ethics Conference 2018 at the Metro Technology Center Springlake conference center.

Kimmitt was the first of several keynote speakers and session leaders to address the ethics of cyber security at the two-day conference, sponsored by RNT Professional Services, a Norman-based company that provides cyber security risk assessments, training and security project management.

“It really does come down to ethics and decision making,” Kimmitt said. “If I were to release everyone’s information out into the world, would that be ethical? I would say it’s not. But if I allowed a system to be vulnerable, which caused someone to release that information, is that the same thing?”

In the Wannacry cyber attack, network administrators shared in the blame because they delayed updating their computer servers with Microsoft-recommended patches that would have kept the malware at bay.

“We had a bunch of server administrators in the U.K., who had that mentality, who said ‘we’re not going to update our servers, we’re not going to make any changes,’” Kimmitt said. “Those who are in IT hear that all the time. Well, their machines were unpatched, and, therefore, they got ransomware.”

Other conference speakers followed with similar themes.

Kevin Owens, principal at Spokane, Wash.-based Cerberus Cybersecurity, LLC, outlined how Russian cyber attackers took down much of the electric grid in Ukraine by using “spear-phishing” tactics to gain an administrative password

In spear-phishing, attackers use personal information gathered online about targets to disguise themselves as a trustworthy friend or entity.

“The No. 1 thing that you guys can learn is we’ve got to learn to defeat spear-phishing,” Owens said “This is the No. 1 way these guys are getting in. We need to train users.”

Tom Vincent, banking, compliance and data security/privacy attorney at GableGotwals, conducted a session on the importance of ensuring data security and privacy in a corporate setting.

“More and more it’s a financial issue,” Vincent said, citing a case where a pharmacy lost a $1.4 million judgment because personal data of a single customer was released by an employee. “You should not have security and privacy be an afterthought.”

There are many examples that show the importance that ethical decision-making plays in maintaining data security, said Teresa Rule, President of RNT Professional Services.

“When I was 11 years old, my cousin Susan’s diary was stolen by my other cousin and he read it out loud,” Rule said. “She was very embarrassed, but only the people at the dinner table heard it. But now if you were to steal someone’s electronic diary, it goes global. Remember Sony? Ashley Madison?”

“If you are the owner of a business or someone who is responsible for protecting data and you are not taking due diligence you are not being an ethical citizen.”

Jim Stafford writes about Oklahoma innovation and research and development topics on behalf of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology (OCAST).