Dr. Christopher McNeil desires to be considered somebody to whom folks can flip. It’s one of many causes he’s a health care provider, one of many causes he’s on the Union Public Schools board of training and one of many causes he tries to be so seen by way of the Black Men in White Coats program.
A graduate of Oklahoma State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, McNeil is juggling his second 12 months of residency, a younger household with three kids beneath 6, and a faculty board place, all whereas enterprise a grasp’s diploma in public well being.
But he appears to assume all of that worthwhile if it conjures up younger folks to stretch their expectations.
“It’s important for kids to know it’s not just about being an NFL player or a rapper or an entertainer,” mentioned McNeil, a former collegiate wrestler. “You have the power to heal people.”
People are additionally studying…
McNeil discovered that inspiration near dwelling — his personal father, Leonard, a doctor’s assistant in the U.S. Army.
Still, he encountered few Black males on his usually troublesome journey into medication. It’s why he agreed, albeit with some trepidation, to kind Oklahoma’s first chapter of Black Men in White Coats.
“I thought, ‘I’m just a medical student. You guys are the bigwigs,’” he mentioned “But when there’s a problem, and you have the wherewithal to fix it, then stepping up to the challenge is just a matter of courage.”
He took an analogous strategy to the Union faculty board, to which he was appointed in January 2021 and elected to a full time period in 2022.
“You would see a lot of diversity (at athletic events) that was representative of the district. But you go to PTA meetings or board meetings or things where decisions were being made, and the representation was abysmal,” McNeil mentioned.
“I wanted to be the connection between the community and the school. And the parents and the school.”
Parents started calling him, McNeil mentioned, though he didn’t characterize them on the board.
“They’re from all over the place. And what people have told me, they’re calling me because I’m approachable. … And I take pride in that.”
Stories by Tim Stanley, Kevin Canfield and Kelsy Schlotthauer.
Gallery: Tulsa World’s People to Watch 2023
People to Watch: Phillip Abode says tangible outcomes will come if ‘extra of us select north Tulsa’
Pastor Philip Abode found north Tulsa whereas taking part in soccer on the University of Tulsa 20 years in the past. It reminded him, he says, of his childhood neighborhood in Stillwater.
He got here again to it to start Crossover Bible Church after graduating from TU after which Dallas Theological Seminary in 2006.
In the years since, the church has added a well being clinic and late this 12 months hopes to maneuver into an 80,000-square-foot neighborhood heart on thirty sixth Street North that may even home Crossover Preparatory Academy.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Kaitlin Butts’ music would not match into the mainstream nation mould
Kaitlin Butts may all the time write the heck out of a track and sing it, too. This previous 12 months, although, much more folks seen.
The 2011 Union High School alum’s album “What Else Can She Do” and single of the identical title earned enthusiastic critiques from Rolling Stone and Billboard, amongst others, with the one making Rolling Stone’s high songs of 2022.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Cassia Carr focuses on making metropolis a premier employer
Average Tulsans might not know the identify Cassia Carr, however they need to. As deputy mayor since August 2021, Carr is actually the town’s second in command.
Carr is in cost when Mayor G.T. Bynum is out of city or in any other case indisposed. She additionally has a portfolio of tasks that features enterprise growth, housing coverage, the seek for burials from the 1921 Race Massacre, negotiating with with the police and hearth unions, and “anything else the mayor asks me to do.”
In essence, the job entails conserving the town operating as easily as doable and, as she places it, “manage the budget and make sure we make good decisions with your tax dollars.”
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Amairani Perez Chamu desires ‘Dreamers’ to be seen as greater than numbers
Amairani Perez Chamu has massive goals, even for a Dreamer.
At 25, she has already been one of many 10 high seniors in her Oklahoma State University graduating class, acquired the town’s Pinnacle Award for management, grow to be coordinator of the Tulsa City-County Library’s Hispanic Resource Center, and emerged as a brand new Latinix voice in Tulsa, the state and the nation.
Perez Chamu got here along with her household to Tulsa from Acapulco, Mexico, at age 5. She is one in all 1.9 million “Dreamers” — U.S. residents delivered to this nation as kids with out documentation — and one in all about 640,000 lined by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Raymond Doswell hopes to attach Greenwood Rising to the broader American story
Deep down, says new Greenwood Rising Executive Director Raymond Doswell, he’s “a little old high school social studies teacher.”
“I have an affinity for the story of Greenwood in this sense,” Doswell mentioned. “I used to be born in St. Louis and grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois. East St. Louis additionally skilled a race bloodbath only a few years earlier than the Tulsa incident. It was one thing that we realized about in faculty however not in any deep method that I can recall.”
Doswell spent greater than 25 years working on the Negro Baseball Leagues Hall of Fame in Kansas City. There, he says, he realized to attach baseball to the broader American story. He hopes to do a lot the identical at Greenwood Rising.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Jeff Edwards is aware of significance of constructing good partnerships
Jeff Edwards grew to become the Tulsa River Parks Authority’s third director in the belief’s practically 50 years of existence final fall, following the retirement of Matt Meyer.
“I’ve always been kind of a sports-oriented person,” he mentioned. “Pretty competitive. So I think that goes well with a parks and recreation background. … I’ve always been drawn to activity. I played football, basketball and baseball through high school. … I just always gravitated to being outdoors because I was brought up that way.”
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Sarah Grounds hopes village of ‘tiny properties’ can present neighborhood for the homeless
On a wooded parcel of land in far north Tulsa, Sarah Grounds plans to construct a neighborhood for individuals who in any other case would don’t have any place to reside.
Grounds and the City Lights Foundation, a nonprofit she started in 2015, count on to interrupt floor this summer season on City Lights Village. Built on 23 acres donated by Catholic Charities, the village is anticipated to initially encompass 18 to twenty “tiny homes” of round 400 sq. toes, with 75 or extra in the long-range plans.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Jennifer Hankins works to ensure Tulsa delivers on formidable targets
As chief of strategic partnerships for Tulsa Innovation Labs, Jennifer Hankins is liable for conserving a set of personal corporations, authorities workplaces and businesses, larger training establishments and nonprofits on the identical path, headed in the identical course, as they attempt to remodel the area’s economic system.
The most formidable of those tasks is the Tulsa Regional Advanced Mobility Cluster, an in depth initiative to create an unmanned aerial analysis and growth hub using 30,000 folks.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Dr. Chris McNeil takes pride in being approachable
Dr. Christopher McNeil desires to be considered somebody to whom folks can flip. It’s one of many causes he’s a health care provider, one of many causes he’s on the Union Public Schools board of training and one of many causes he tries to be so seen by way of the Black Men in White Coats program.
A graduate of Oklahoma State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, McNeil is juggling his second 12 months of residency, a younger household with three kids beneath 6, and a faculty board place, all whereas enterprise a grasp’s diploma in public well being.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
People to Watch: Kim Teehee hopes expertise, status assist tribe safe delegate to Congress
Kim Teehee has been working each side of the political aisle for 25 years. She hopes this 12 months that have, and her status, will persuade the U.S. House of Representatives to honor a 188-year-old dedication.
“I am known to work on a bipartisan basis,” Teehee mentioned. “The way we’ve been most successful is when we’ve worked with champions on both sides of the aisle.”
Teehee is the Cherokee Nation’s designee to grow to be the delegate to Congress specified beneath the phrases of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota — the treaty that led to the pressured march referred to as the Trail of Tears.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
Check out our newest digital-only provide and subscribe now
Check out our newest digital-only provide and subscribe now: Tulsaworld.com/subscribe
publish credit score to Source link