Tulsa Women's Commission Meeting - May 1, 2026
Tulsa Women's Commission Meeting - May 1, 2026
The Tulsa Women's Commission met on May 1, 2026, to approve minutes, receive updates on initiatives, finalize committee structures, and discuss communication strategies for women's safety and well-being. The meeting also featured a resource demonstration and farewell to a departing commissioner.
Consent Calendar
- The minutes from the April meeting were approved by voice vote with no opposition.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Two guests, Gina Wilson and Kara (from the Doc and Lairs program), expressed excitement about the commission's work and focus on women's safety. Kara appreciated the group's collaborative approach and indicated she would attend future meetings.
Discussion Items
- Chair/Vice Chair Reports: Updates included the Family Safety Challenge (event on October 3rd), the Clinical Awards raising $212,700 for a worthy cause, and a session by the Office of Financial Empowerment with the Carter Center on student loan debt—highlighting that $1.5 billion in student debt is owed by women in Tulsa.
- Upcoming Events: Reminders were given for the June 3rd Leadership Tulsa summit (women's commission presenting), the May 7th Neighborhood and Financial Fair at Rudisel Library, the Title V and Beyond Apology Commissions Fair on July 21st, and the Commission Retreat on July 24th.
- Committee Formation: The commission confirmed five committees:
- Personal Safety (chaired by Sharisa; members Meg, Betsy)
- Housing and Economic Security (co-chaired by Neil Bent and Marcia Bruno Todd)
- Health and Emotional Safety (chaired by Primadonna Braddock and Maria Palacios; member Kate)
- Community Safety and Belonging (chaired by Jackie; member Ashley)
- Systems Rights and Institutional Safety (chaired by Desiree; members Mary Quinn Cooper and others)
Chairs provided updates:
- Housing and Economic Security: Co-chairs Marcia and Neil reported targeting perspectives from young parents, justice-involved individuals, and first-generation immigrants. They sought additional input on missing voices.
- Personal Safety: Chair Sharisa scheduled a first meeting and welcomed Gina Wilson as a new member.
- Community Safety and Belonging: Chair Jackie planned to schedule a meeting and discussed focusing on awareness and advocacy outcomes.
- Communication Initiatives: The commission set a goal of at least one communication initiative per committee (e.g., op-eds, radio spots, presentations) by end of year. It was clarified that statements issued on behalf of the commission must be voted on by the full commission. Individual commissioners can speak from their own perspective without needing a vote.
- Resource Presentation: Chairwoman Lada introduced the IWPR State Policy Action Lab (IWPR.org), a website providing data on women's issues by state and policy trackers. Commissioners were encouraged to use it for committee work.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes approved unanimously.
- Committee structures finalized with chairs and members; committees to begin work with monthly meetings (virtual allowed) and oral reports to the full commission.
- Goal set: at least one communication initiative per committee by the end of 2026.
- Reminder that official commission statements require a full commission vote.
- Commissioner Crenshaw was thanked for her service as she completes her two terms, moving to the Utility Commission.
- Meeting adjourned.
Meeting Transcript
Well, let's go ahead and call our meeting to order. Um, the first item of business is the approval of our meeting minutes from April. So uh let's take uh oh I guess I just got right into it. You said warm informations, and I just shot right in there, but uh so we'll go ahead and get started and then we can if we have time, we'll do some introductions and things like that. Um but let's uh review the minutes and I will entertain a motion to approve our minutes from April. So moved. Okay, there's and a second, all in favor of approving the minutes say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right, that passes and our sorry that second was really quiet. Who was that? Okay, thank you. Um already done there. Okay, we're gonna open up just with some updates from chair and vice chair reports. Uh are there any updates on the family safety challenge? Um I've asked her for a wish list, and I'll I'll bug her again, but I know we've got some time. Yes. Yeah, they're very excited. Yay, that's wonderful. It is very exciting. October 3rd uh drive her. And that and that can be something that we discuss in our committee meeting too about you know, just maybe some marketing ideas and yeah, it'll be great. Perfect. All right, here's the here are the numbers from clinical awards. So 212,7 was raised from the cynical awards, and you can see the breakdown there. It really was uh a tremendous event, and um thank you to everybody who participated with the nomination committee and the event committee. Um, it was a very successful event and uh an incredibly uh worthy cause. Uh this last month, the this was kind of wild because the convergence and the synergy was like wild. But the Office of Financial Empowerment hosted an event with the Carter Center Inform Women Transform Lives, and it was about navigating student loans, which is like my wheelhouse. So it was like women, higher ed, uh all the things. All the things. Office of Financial Empowerment, but uh they shared in the session, and we worked with the student borrows student borrowers protection alliance or agency. They um provided this fact sheet about borrowers and the 1.5 billion dollars is in student debt owed by women in Tulsa. This is just in Tulsa. Wow. The disproportionate amount of debt that women incur. Because women are, I mean, when you look at the gender breakdown, more uh completing more degrees than than men, and thus have more debt. So that was something that I thought was really interesting from that session, and uh are kind of a cool synergy with the Office of Financial Empowerment. If you haven't looked into the work that they're doing, it really is tremendous. Um don't miss June's uh Tulsa Women's Commission meeting. Uh as a reminder, uh the Tulsa Area United Way is going to be presenting on Alice and uh have invited uh their leadership to come and share with us. They're very interested in our work, um, not only around safety, but also child care access uh and availability. And right now with funding challenges, it's now more than ever very um pressing, especially related to Alice, which is asset limited income constrained employed individuals in the city. The pneumonic devices I don't know. Uh just I'm keeping these on until these events happen. But uh June 3rd is leadership Tulsa. Uh do you have any uh updates on that event or anything you want to share that we should know? Uh that I'm really excited uh that the women's commission will be presenting as one of the breakout speakers. We tickets are selling out really fast.
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