About Derrel
A graduate of Bartlesville Sooner High School and Oklahoma State University,
Derrel has proven career expertise in industry, education, technology, and
public service.
Like many in Bartlesville, Derrel has U.S. and international experience.
With Schlumberger, an oilfield service company, Derrel worked in the oilfields
of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Wyoming as a field engineer, and as a manufacturing
engineer and engineering project manager in Texas. He also served as an
engineering manager at Schlumberger’s Japan research and engineering
facility charged with producing first-in-the-world downhole tools. During
this time, he earned a master’s degree in engineering from Utah State
University.
Changing career directions, Derrel earned teacher certification and taught
in three schools, beginning as a middle school mathematics teacher and then
becoming a director of technology. Because he wanted to become a better
teacher, he obtained a master’s degree in educational technology from
Pepperdine University while teaching. In order to better serve more students
and schools, he returned to Pepperdine and earned a doctorate in education.
Derrel has presented at conferences in Oklahoma, nationally, and internationally
on research and practice in education. He was also the South America coordinator
for the U.S. Department of State project for planning school continuity
in the event an American overseas school had to temporarily close due to
political events or natural disasters.
Derrel currently holds industry certification in education technology leadership
and has Oklahoma teaching certifications in elementary education and advanced
mathematics.
Most recently, Derrel worked in several Oklahoma state agencies to help
schools across the state improve classroom technology and their connection
to the digital world. He also worked with health care providers to improve
their ability to remotely deliver critical services to their patients.
Supporting that work were his leadership roles in the Oklahoma Rural Schools
Research Alliance, the interagency Oklahoma Connect and Learn Initiative,
and his connections to other state agencies. Another asset was his collaboration
with national organizations of educators and policy makers from all states,
including work with the national State Educational Technology Directors
Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National
Governors Association. He has also worked with federal agencies to advocate
on behalf of Oklahoma schools and libraries.
Derrel's wife of 42 years, Bridgette, is a thirty-one-year veteran of K-12
classroom teaching. She left the classroom to earn a doctorate from the
University of Arkansas and is now an elementary science and mathematics
university professor preparing future teachers. Derrel and Bridgette are
proud parents and proud grandparents of their fifth-generation Bartian grandchildren,
and they are active members of the First Presbyterian Church of Bartlesville.
EDUCATION:
Oklahoma State University – B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Utah State University – M.S. Mechanical Engineering
The College of New Jersey – Teacher Certification
Pepperdine University – M.A. Educational Technology
Pepperdine University – Ed.D. Educational Technology