November 11 - Baxter's Interurban
Registration opens at 11:30am
Program commences at Noon
Ken Wagner (Oklahoma Secretary of Energy and Environment) will visit and speak on the topic "Future of Oklahoma Energy". Great opportunity to meet Secretary Wagner and participate!
We also welcome Ms. Hannah Wharton. Hannah received a 2021 GST Field Camp Scholarship and will share her summer field camp experience with us.
Kenneth E. Wagner Bio
Kenneth Wagner serves as Oklahoma’s Secretary of Energy and Environment where he was appointed in 2019 by Oklahoma’s new Governor J. Kevin Stitt. In this role, he is responsible for over 30 state agencies, boards, compacts, and commissions as well as advancing policies that encourage economic growth, sensible regulation that fosters responsible energy production, protects natural resources, and ensures clean air, land and water for all Oklahomans.
Previously, Mr. Wagner served as the Senior Advisor to the Administrator for Regional and State Affairs within USEPA’s Office of the Administrator where he also served as Director of the Office of Regional Operations. In his duties at EPA, he served as the Administrator’s designee to all 10 regions before regional administrators were appointed, and he continued to coordinate all 10 U.S. EPA Regional Administrators and served as an advocate for the regions at headquarters with all the assistant administrators for each national program and the Administrator’s office.
In addition to his regional duties, he served as the main point of contact in the Administrator’s Office with all 50 states’ top environmental regulators and tribal governments. He lead the efforts to reform and redefine the federal-state relationship and its efforts around cooperative federalism. Mr. Wagner was helped lead numerous policy initiatives for the Administrator.
He was appointed and previously served at the Administrator’s Designee on the Gulf Coast Eco System Restoration Council, also known as the RESTORE Council. EPA and Acting Administrator Wheeler was appointed by President Trump as Chairman of the RESTORE Council which was responsible for implementing the RESTORE Act and administering billions of dollars of settlement funds that were paid by BP as a result of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. During his time at RESTORE, Wagner served as the Chair governing all business and executive meetings of the five gulf states and six federal agencies making up the Council.
Mr. Wagner was also closely involved in the Office of Research & Development’s initiative to better partner with states to solve every day environmental challenges and make their vast inventory of research more readily accessible for states, tribes and the public. He also coordinated the intra-agency working group to tackle the waste discharges entering the U.S. from our border neighbors in Mexico, and assists the Administrator in his goal of bringing certainty to the American people by returning the Agency to its core mission: improving water quality, accelerating land clean ups, modernizing aging water infrastructure and bringing the country back into air attainment by improving air quality.
Before joining the Agency he came from the private sector where he practiced law and held private business interests for nearly 25 years. He was a founding member and managing partner of a successful mid-sized law firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he practiced and managed a diverse practice that included commercial, energy and environmental matters. In addition to running a successful law firm, he was involved in numerous successful business and commercial ventures, including being a minority partner in Oklahoma’s Triple-A baseball team based in Oklahoma City from 2003 to 2010.
He received his degrees from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa College of Law.
Hannah Whorton
University of Tulsa, Class of 2022
Geoscience Major, Energy Management Minor
Abstract: After attending the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Black Hills Field Camp, Hannah has decided to share some of her experience with various groups in the geoscience community in an effort to further encourage students to attend field camp and explain what field camp truly encompasses. Hannah will be taking time to explain what she learned from her field camp experience, as well as explaining what a typical day at field camp looked like, plus sharing some beautiful photos of and samples from the Black Hills region!
Bio: Hannah is currently a senior at the University of Tulsa majoring in Geosciences (on the Geology track) and minoring in Energy Management. She is from Hot Springs, Arkansas and credits the beautiful and interesting geology in her hometown region to part of her passion for what she studies. She plans to attend graduate school after graduating in May, focusing specifically on hydrology and water management. She is very involved on the TU campus, having served as an executive leader in her sorority and an orientation leader for incoming freshmen for the past two years. She loves hiking and camping with friends, playing intramural volleyball, watching the Great British Baking Show, and trying out new restaurants around Tulsa in her free time!
