OCCC welcomes a new vice president after 42 years

The OCCC Human Resources department has a new vice president for the first time since, well, ever.

Angie Christopher started at OCCC on Feb. 3 of this year, taking over the post for Gary Lombard, OCCC’s vice president since opening its doors in 1972.

“ … Those are absolutely huge shoes to fill,” Christopher said. “ … Everyone has been very gracious in embracing [me] — a person that didn’t necessarily have higher education experience, but really [brings in] business knowledge and business experience.”

Christopher certainly knows business, but she is hardly a stranger to Human Resources.

For eight years, she reigned as Vice President of Human Resources for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

She started at the bureau as a training director and was promoted to vice president in her first year.

Before that, she did everything from training to litigation.

Like her predecessor, Christopher is in this position for the long haul.

“I want this to be a lifelong career opportunity,” Christopher said.

In a nutshell, as vice president, Christopher makes sure that Human Resources is in compliance with the law in all of its endeavors.

Christopher’s extensive law background comes in handy for the job.

Christopher said that she does not wish to necessarily make changes to the Human Resources department so much as improvements.

“ … There are some enhancements that we can make to programs that are already flourishing and existing, so I’m really here to take a strong look at the programs we have and make them better,” she said.

Christopher is a firm believer in equal opportunity employment and intends to make sure that all prospective employees will have a fair chance.

“I have an initiative to really focus on diversity in our workforce,” she said. “Try to find different ways to reach out to the community for a diverse group of faculty and staff so that it matches our goals for our college and also it matches the students they’re teaching.

“Another goal is really being able to reach out and communicate with the employees so that they understand everything that they need to know as far as their employment and have that available to them” Christopher is optimistic about OCCC’s future.

“I feel that my ideas and my kind of out-of-the-box thinking are going to be a benefit to this department and this college,” Christopher said.

“ … That’s my ultimate goal: provide quality service and satisfaction to our employees and make [OCCC] a better place to work.”

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