MEET THE PEOPLE FROM
OUR INTERVIEWS
CHRIS FIELDS
Chris Fields is most well known for being the firefighter captured in a photo that became an iconic symbol of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. The photo captures him walking out of the rubble while cradling the body of Baylee Almon, a one-year-old victim in the bombing.
Since retiring from the fire department after 31 years of service, Fields now travels around the country talking to first responders about his experience with PTSD and promoting mental health after experiencing trauma. He discusses the brutal realities of a life spent responding to citizens in their darkest hours, routinely placing others before himself and representing the greater good in all of us. Fields also focuses on the story of his life, his 31 years of public service and how that day in 1995 all combined to take a toll on his life and family as he suffered in silence for many years.
Now, he shares how he took control and his journey out of the suffering in hopes of helping other first responders avoid the failure, the pitfalls and to reach out.
Fields served over 31 years with the Oklahoma City Fire Department. Promoting through the ranks, he retired as a Major in 2017.
JUSTIN NORRIS
Justin Norris (He/him/his) is a senior Vocal Performance and Marketing major at The University of Oklahoma from Arlington, TX. He currently serves as the Student Government Association President and works on campus as a Tour Guide and Gender & Equality Center Peer Educator. During his time at OU he has held several leadership positions including Mr. Black University of Oklahoma 2019. He also stays involved on campus in the Black Student Association, Campus Activities Council, and Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts University Theatre.
REV. DR. SERENE JONES
A highly respected scholar and public intellectual, the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones is the 16th President of the historic Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. The first woman to head the 182-year-old institution, Jones occupies the Johnston Family Chair for Religion and Democracy. She is a Past President of the American Academy of Religion, which annually hosts the world’s largest gathering of scholars of religion. Jones came to Union after seventeen years at Yale University, where she was the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, and Chair of the University’s Program in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of several books including Trauma and Grace and, most recently, her memoir Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World. Jones, a popular public speaker, is sought by media to comment on major issues impacting society because of her deep grounding in theology, politics, women’s studies, economics, race studies, history, and ethics.
BRENDA ALFORD
Brenda Nails-Alford is a proud Tulsan, graduating from Booker T. Washington High School, and The University of Tulsa. She is married to Romeo J. Alford Jr., and together they share one daughter Jordan L. Alford. Brenda has been employed with the State of Oklahoma’s Department of Labor, and currently with CareerTech of Oklahoma.
Brenda is the Granddaughter of 1921 Race Massacre Survivors and Black Wall Street Entrepreneurs. She serves on the 1921 Race Massacre Commission, Tulsa Race Massacre Commemorative Grant Program Committee, Greenwood Heritage Citizens Advisory Committee, and Chairs the Mass Graves Public Oversight Committee.
In her spare time Brenda enjoys spending time with her family, volunteering, and researching family history.
JOI GORDON
Joi Gordon has served on the board for Dress for Success since 1999 until she became the CEO in 2002. Under her leadership, Dress for Success has become a globally-recognized organization that has empowered more than one million women to become economically advanced in nearly 150 cities in more than 20 countries.
Gordon received her B.A. in radio/television broadcasting from the University of Oklahoma and her juris doctorate from its College of Law. She lives with her husband Errol in Queens, NY.
Gordon has received recognition from several professional and academic institutions including: the University of Oklahoma, which presented her with its second highest honor, the Regents’ Alumni Award; the Legacy Award from Working Mother Media; Business Law in Leadership Awards from Lawyer’s Alliance; the Black Women’s Agenda, Inc.’s Economic Business Award; the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Oklahoma, Gaylord College of Journalism; the Vice Chancellor’s Award from The American Foundation for the University of the West Indies; and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
Additionally, she has been profiled in Crain’s New York Business, Financial Times, Epoch Times and Black Enterprise. She also was named among Working Mother Magazine's “Most Powerful Moms in Non-Profit” list and named one of the “25 Most Influential Black Women in Business” by Network Journal Magazine.
GENE RAINBOLT
In 1962 Gene Rainbolt acquired his first bank, the First American Bank in Purcell. In 1965 he acquired Federal National Bank in Shawnee, and in 1967 he and a group of investors commenced acquiring banks in Oklahoma, which led in 1985 to the formation of United Community Corporation, the State’s first multi-bank holding company.
Gene is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with both undergraduate and graduate degrees. His alma mater has honored him on multiple occasions, including the Distinguished Service Award and an Honorary Doctorate. In 1999 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
A strong advocate of improving and diversifying the Oklahoma economy, Gene has worked long and hard to improve health, education, provide better access to capital, and develop Oklahoma’s infrastructure system. He has served in numerous civic, economic development, chamber of commerce, youth, medical, zoological, arts and banking organizations.
If there is a single driving ambition and philosophy in the life of Gene Rainbolt, it is the establishment of an Oklahoma in which every child has the opportunity to become all he or she can be.
Gene and his late wife, Jeannine, have two children, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, which he considers to be the highlight of his life.
CHARLOTTE LANKARD
Charlotte Lankard is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, a weekly columnist for
The Oklahoman, and author of It's Called Life: Living, Loving, Hurting Changing. She is also a
contributing author to Powerful Single Parent Wisdom, Blending Families, and Devote 40 Days.
Charlotte is founder of CALM WATERS – a non-profit organization that offers grief and divorce support groups for children and their adult family members.
She helped establish the James Hall Center for Mind, Body, and Spirit at Integris, and served as Director for 8 years before retirement in 2009.
Charlotte was a founding member of the Board of Trustees for the Oklahoma Foundation of
Excellence and has served on boards of Oklahoma Baptist University, the James Hall Center
for Mind, Body and Spirit at INTEGRIS Health and the OU Cancer Institute’s Board of Advocacy.
She is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the Oklahoma Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.
She has 4 children and 8 grandchildren. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, reading, movies, theater, dancing, crossword puzzles and lingering over a good meal with friends.
COUNCIL WOMAN
NIKKI NICE
Councilwoman Nikki Nice was elected Nov. 6, 2018, to serve as Ward 7's representative on the Oklahoma City Council. She's the 10th woman, and the second woman of color, to serve on the Council since the City's incorporation in 1890.
Councilwoman Nice serves on the MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board, the Zoological Trust and the Trails Advisory Committee.
A fourth-generation Oklahoman, Councilwoman Nice was born, reared, educated and spiritually nurtured in Ward 7. Her early education was completed in the Millwood Public School District. She is a graduate of Northeast High School and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcasting from historic Langston University. She has studied abroad in The Gambia and Dakar, Senegal, in West Africa. Councilwoman Nice is a well-known television and radio personality with nearly 15 years of on-air experience in the Oklahoma City market.
Councilwoman Nice brings to the Oklahoma City Council a wealth of leadership and community service. She is the proud recipient of the Opio Toure Medallion award presented by the Oklahoma County Democrats, Finer Womanhood Award presented by the Chi Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Citizen of the Year Award presented by the Upsilon Iota Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and the Reach Forward No Fear Lady Award. Nice also served as a member of Class one of L.O.Y.A.L. (Linking Oklahoma’s Young Adult Leaders), Leadership Oklahoma City Class 35, an inaugural Board Member of NLC Oklahoma (New Leaders Council), and as a Northeast Task Force Member with OKCPS. She currently serves as an Executive Board Member for HeartLine, Inc., Special Friends of Ralph Ellison Library Executive Board Member, BLAC (Black Liberated Arts Center) Incorporated Board Member, Working Together for Change Ministries Board Member and Northeast Academy PTSA Vice President.
Councilwoman Nice lives in Northeast Oklahoma City and is the proud daughter of Roberta. She is a pet lover, music lover and a lover of people, and she is committed to moving Ward 7 and Oklahoma City "Forward Together."
OU PRESIDENT
JOSEPH HARROZ
Joseph Harroz, formerly the dean of the OU College of Law, has served as interim president since May 2019. On May 9, 2020, The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents unanimously voted to name Joseph Harroz Jr. the university’s 15th president.
Harroz earned a bachelor of arts in economics from OU in 1989, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and a juris doctorate from Georgetown University in 1992. Harroz rejoined the University of Oklahoma in 1994, the beginning of nearly 25 years of service to the university. He served first as vice president for executive affairs and then for 12 years as general counsel, the chief legal counsel to the president, the OU Board of Regents, Rogers State University and Cameron University.
In 2008, Harroz became president of a publicly traded healthcare company, growing its market capitalization to more than $80 million, before returning to OU in 2010 as the dean and director of the OU Law Center and Fenelon Boesche Chair of Law. Harroz has taught law for more than two decades, focusing on employment, sports and health care law.
Under Harroz, National Jurist Magazine named OU Law one of the nation’s “Best Value Law Schools” for 10 consecutive years, and its graduates consistently led the state in bar exam passage rates. In addition, his fundraising efforts more than tripled the size of the college’s scholarship endowment and expanded the annual amount of scholarship money given to students to more than $1.5 million..
Harroz, a grandson of Lebanese immigrants to Oklahoma, is father to Joseph, Zara and Jude and partner to Ashley Tate.
KRISTA TIPPETT
Krista Tippett is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, a National Humanities Medalist, and a New York Times bestselling author. She grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, attended Brown University, and became a journalist and diplomat in Cold War Berlin. She then lived in Spain and England before seeking a Master of Divinity at Yale University in the mid-1990s.
Tippet launched Speaking of Faith — later On Being — as a weekly national public radio show in 2003. In 2014, the year after she took On Being into independent production, President Obama awarded Krista the National Humanities Medal at the White House for “thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence.
Krista has published three books at the intersection of spiritual inquiry, social healing, science, and culture: Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living; Einstein’s God, drawn from her interviews at the intersection of science, medicine, and spiritual inquiry; and Speaking of Faith, a memoir of religion in our time. In recent honors, she is a recipient of a Four Freedoms Medal of the Roosevelt Institute. She also received an honorary degree from Middlebury College, and was the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University.
Krista has two grown children. She is currently at work on a new book about moral imagination and the human challenges and promise of this young century.
JOY HOFMEISTER
In 2015, Joy Hofmeister was sworn in as Oklahoma’s 14th State Superintendent of Public Instruction. She was re-elected in 2018 for a second four-year term.
Hofmeister's strategic plan and state goals, Oklahoma Edge, center on lowering remediation, raising graduation rates and lifting educational achievement for all students – from those with unique learning struggles to those in need of greater challenge – with a keen eye on closing opportunity and equity gaps individually. She has championed laws that strengthen the Reading Sufficiency Act, improve student safety, reduce bureaucratic red tape and combat the teacher shortage.
Hofmeister is a former public school teacher and small business owner. As an appointee of Gov. Mary Fallin, she served on the Oklahoma State Board of Education from January 2012 through April 2013. In the private sector, Hofmeister spent 15 years as a business owner of Kumon Math & Reading Centers, which utilize parent partnerships to ensure high academic achievement for children. At Kumon, she personally worked with more than 4,000 students to improve their educational outcomes.
The mother of four graduates of Oklahoma’s public school system, Hofmeister maintains a residence in Tulsa with her husband of 31 years, the Honorable Gerald L. Hofmeister.
LINDA CAVANAUGH
Linda Cavanaugh was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Cavanaugh is famous for being a retired award-winning newscaster, best known for her news reporting with NBC affiliate KFOR-TV (channel 4), in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Linda Cavanaugh led the station's weeknight 6:00 and 10:00PM newscasts with her broadcasting partner Kevin Ogle. She also did work on her own as she was solo anchor of the 4:30PM newscast for many years.
KAREN MARINELLI
Karen Marinelli has been teaching for 16 years and has spent the majority of those years as a first-grade teacher. She loves trying innovative, new teaching methods, and encourages students to learn by experiencing new things. The love Marinelli shares each day with her students stems from a family history rich in love and closeness with her husband, parents, sister, and friendships. She recognizes how blessed she and her children are by these relationships, and through these close-knit ties, she was able to overcome the devastation that the tornado brought to her back in 2013.
On May 20th, 2013, Marinelli was teaching at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma. It was a day much like any other day here in Oklahoma during tornado season. At the end of the day, Marinelli was left with only three children from her classroom, as the others were checked out early due to the looming weather conditions. When the tornado struck the school, she used her body to shield her remaining students from the wind, glass, and the weight of the debris. The debris fractured Marinelli's sacrum and left her in a wheelchair for several months.
Marinelli, who remains humble, rarely talks about her story. However, she knew she had been spared to be with her husband and her two sons, and two step-sons, and their daughter Lily, who was born almost one year after the tornado that changed their lives.
NOAH NICHOLS
Noah Nichols is currently in his Senior year at the University of Oklahoma studying Human Relations. He is passionate about advocating for honest conversations around mental health, spreading kindness, and living authentically.
Before college, Noah worked with staff members and school district administrators to establish the Gay-Straight Alliance at his high school to create an inclusive space for young LGBTQ+ individuals and their peers.
Noah has served as a leader of multiple on-campus organizations and was named Best Male Lead at University Sing 2017 for his performance as Captain Blackbeard in “Peter Pan.”
In 2019, Noah made his drag debut as Stasia Heist at the Student Theatre Initiative’s annual fundraiser/Drag Pageant, Miss STI.
In 2020, he worked with Dr. Loretta Radford at OCU alongside other OU students to design and organize the OCU Right to Vote Clinic to assist individuals exiting the criminal justice system in navigating the voter registration process. The Oklahoma City University School of Law Right to Vote Clinic is currently set to open to clients in May of 2021.
MIKE WAYLAND
Mike Wayland is the Principal of three years at Cushing High School in Cushing, Oklahoma. Wayland has been in the educational field for 25 years. Throughout his career, he has served in many different capacities such as a classroom teacher, an athletic coach, a high school principal and even as a superintendent in a dependent school district.
Wayland holds a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Science Education from Oklahoma State University as well as a Master’s degree in Secondary School Administration from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
Being brought up in a home in which both parents were educators, Wayland learned at a young age the importance of a good education.
He believes the one sure way to break through the barriers and cycle of poverty is through education, so he has found his passion working toward just this.
DEAN ED KELLEY
Ed Kelley was named dean of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma in March 2016 after serving nearly eight months as interim dean. He is a veteran news executive, coming to OU from Salt Lake City, where he was senior contributing editor at the Deseret News. He also has served as editor of The Washington Times and The Oklahoman. He has held a variety of other news positions in his career, including Washington bureau chief, managing editor and editorial page editor. He was named Editor of the Year in 1996 by the Washington-based National Press Foundation for overseeing The Oklahoman's coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. He served as a juror to the Pulitzer Prizes in 1998 and was named to the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2003.
Kelley has served on the board of directors of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, is a member of the board of directors of Oklahoma Watch and is a consultant to the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from OU, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He was a recipient of OU’s Regents Alumni Award in 2011 and the journalism program’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1994. He was presented an honorary doctorate in humane letters in 2013 from Oklahoma City University, where he served as commencement speaker. He is a member of the National Press Club and the American Society of News Editors.
CAROLE KELLEY
As a consultant for schools wanting to implement Personalized Learning, Carole Kelley coaches administrators and teachers to assist them in building their capacities as educational leaders. Recently, she has assisted Oklahoma schools in implementing the transformational shift to Personalized Learning. Working with Ken Grover, founder of Innovations Early College-Ready High School, Salt Lake City, UT, she has created a process for school administrators and teachers to understand the paradigm shifts necessary for a successful transition to this student-centered, competency-based educational model.
Additionally, Kelley has consulted for urban turnaround schools in the areas of bringing rigor to the classroom, providing professional development to both faculty and administrative teams, and working one-on-one to help teachers align lesson plans with Oklahoma State Standards. She has more than 25 years of educational experience in a classroom, as a college adviser, as an Advanced Placement coordinator, and as an administrator supervising a staff of 35 people and a $2.5 million budget. She helped create a nationally ranked inner-city college preparatory charter high school. Her experience includes working with governance boards, community foundations, grant writing and policymakers with regards to state regulations and accreditation.
MONROE NICHOLS
In 2016, Representative Monroe Nichols became the first African American elected to represent House District 72 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. During his time in the Legislature, Representative Nichols has authored legislation focused on providing all students with a high-quality education, all Oklahomans with access to health care services, ensuring Oklahoma’s economy works for everyone, revitalizing neighborhoods and reforming the justice system.
Prior to being elected, Representative Nichols spent his career in government, private business, higher education and the non-profit sector, serving as an aide to former Tulsa mayor Kathy Taylor, chief of staff to former OU-Tulsa President Gerry Clancy, economic development manager at the Oklahoma State Department of Career and Technology Education, and director of business retention and expansion programs for the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce.
In 2014, he co-founded Impact Tulsa, a collective impact organization aimed at improving education for all Tulsa area students. In addition to his legislative service, Representative Nichols is the Director of Network Growth for StriveTogether, a leading national non-profit focused on advancing equity to improve student outcomes in communities across the country.
Over the course of his career, Representative Nichols has been the recipient of several awards including the United States Department of Justice Award for Public Service. Monroe holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Tulsa and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma. In 2017, Representative Nichols was elected to serve as House Democratic Caucus Vice-Chair.
MONROE NICHOLS
In 2016, Representative Monroe Nichols became the first African American elected to represent House District 72 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. During his time in the Legislature, Representative Nichols has authored legislation focused on providing all students with a high-quality education, all Oklahomans with access to health care services, ensuring Oklahoma’s economy works for everyone, revitalizing neighborhoods and reforming the justice system.
Prior to being elected, Representative Nichols spent his career in government, private business, higher education and the non-profit sector, serving as an aide to former Tulsa mayor Kathy Taylor, chief of staff to former OU-Tulsa President Gerry Clancy, economic development manager at the Oklahoma State Department of Career and Technology Education, and director of business retention and expansion programs for the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce.
In 2014, he co-founded Impact Tulsa, a collective impact organization aimed at improving education for all Tulsa area students. In addition to his legislative service, Representative Nichols is the Director of Network Growth for StriveTogether, a leading national non-profit focused on advancing equity to improve student outcomes in communities across the country.
Over the course of his career, Representative Nichols has been the recipient of several awards including the United States Department of Justice Award for Public Service. Monroe holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Tulsa and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma. In 2017, Representative Nichols was elected to serve as House Democratic Caucus Vice-Chair.
M. Scott Carter has been a journalist in his native state for more than four decades. He has spent the majority of his career as an investigative reporter covering politics, the Oklahoma State Capitol, and writing about the impact of government policy on the general public.
A 1981 graduate of Yale High School, Carter holds an Associate of Arts degree from Northern Oklahoma College and a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma. In 2014, he earned a Master’s Degree in Professional Writing from The University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
He has also won numerous awards for his work. In 2014, he captured the Associate Press-Oklahoma News Editors sweepstakes award for his investigation of the construction of two tornado ravaged schools in Moore. That award followa his statewide investigation of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs in 2012, a series of stories on the sale of the Sardis Lake Reservoir in 2010 and a Sweepstakes Award with fellow reporter Carol Cole-Frowe in 2008 for a series on the abuse of a resident at the Norman Veterans Center.
In 2013, he was named one of the Oklahoma’s top three political reporters by The Washington Post’s blog, The Fix.
Carter has also earned numerous state and national awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Press Photographers Association, the National Magazine Publishers Association, and the American Library Association.
He previously served as a Professor of Journalism at Oklahoma City Community College, where he taught journalism, feature writing, photojournalism and served as the advisor of the student newspaper, The Pioneer.
Today, he is co-director of the largest high school journalism program in the state, the Epic News Network, which is based out of Midwest City.
Carter lives in Oklahoma City with his wife, Karen, and their six children
MIKE BOETTCHER
Veteran network news correspondent, Mike Boettcher, has been recognized with journalism’s top awards for his coverage of events that shaped the world since 1980. He also helped launch the era of 24-hour live news coverage when on June 1, 1980, he performed the first live satellite report for a fledgling network called CNN. In a three-decade network career Boettcher received national recognition in all facets of broadcast journalism – breaking news, feature, war coverage and investigative reporting. As the chief correspondent for CNN’s terrorism investigation unit, a team he created in the summer of 2001, Boettcher was awarded a Peabody, his third of four National Emmys and a National Headliner award.
In three decades of assignments covering world conflict for NBC News and CNN, he has witnessed, investigated and been a victim of terrorism himself. He was kidnapped and threatened with execution in El Salvador in 1985. Twenty years later, he survived a suicide bomber attack and a roadside bombing in Baghdad. Boettcher covered the emergence of modern terrorist tactics in the early 1980’s in Lebanon when the U.S. Marine barracks was bombed, killing 241. Boettcher led NBC’s investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing and was one of three journalists allowed to speak to Timothy McVeigh in prison.
Boettcher, who was one of a small group of reporters embedded with U.S. Special Forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom, has reported extensively from Iraq and Afghanistan. His experience covering Iraq dates back to Operation Desert Storm in 1991 when he was embedded with U.S. Marines. That same year he won an Emmy for his coverage of the Kurdish refugee crisis in Iraq.
Boettcher is recognized as one of the world’s most experienced foreign correspondents, covering wars and revolutions in every part of the globe. He left NBC News in 2008 to pursue the No Ignoring project – the only entity embedded full time with U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. As part of the project, he lectured weekly, via satellite, from Iraq to the University of Oklahoma’s groundbreaking War and Media class. He is also writing a book about the threat Al Qaeda poses around the globe titled The Network.
STORME JONES
Storme Jones joined News 9 in May 2019. A native of Yukon, Oklahoma, Storme graduated from the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and minors in political science and international studies.
He has traveled across the country covering Oklahomans, from tracking the state’s congressional delegation in Washington D.C., to covering the Oklahoma standard in action in Florida days after Hurricane Michael ravaged the gulf coast.
His coverage of people with intellectual disabilities and environmental issues earned state and national recognition during his time at KGOU Radio, with awards from the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists,
The Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters and the Oklahoma/Arkansas Associated Press.
In 2018, Storme traveled across the country investigating hate groups and their victims. His reporting took him from rural Nebraska to downtown Detroit and 13 states in between. The Carnegie-Knight News21 project earned
a Robert F. Kennedy Award for Human Rights and a Student Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Digital Reporting.
Storme enjoys spending time at his family farm in Northeast Oklahoma and attending OU football games with his three brothers. He is also an Aussiedoodle dad to Henry.
Storme believes in the strength and resilience of Oklahomans and is proud to tell their stories daily.
CHIEF NATE TARVER
Nate Tarver is from Tulsa, OK. Tarver graduated high school from Booker T. Washington, went on to OU for higher education, and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Broadcast Journalism.
Tarver went on to work as a police officer in the city of Moore where he developed the public school Liaison program which as a precursor to the DARE/School Resource Officer programs. Tarver spent 10 years at Moore PD, working his way to the rank of sergeant.
In 1989, Tarver attended the Oklahoma City Police Recruit Academy class 103, where he had various assignments while employed at OCPD to include patrol officer, field training officer, DARE instructor, undercover narcotics and vice investigations, gang enforcement, drive-by shooting investigator, robbery/burglary detective, and Public Information officer. He held the ranks of Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain during his time at OCPD.
Tarver retired from OCPD in July 2015 after 26 years, and became the Deputy Chief at OUHSC. Tarver was appointed the Chief of Police at OUHSC in January 2017. In September of 2020, he was promoted to Chief of Police overseeing all three OU campuses, consisting of over 145 total employees. In January of 2020, Tarver was inducted into the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame.
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