OKLAHOMA CITY - Two Lawtonians and a Jackson County resident are among the 52 people from across the state selected to participate in Class 33 of Leadership Oklahoma. The class members will include banker Mark L. Brace and state Rep. Daniel Pae, both of Lawton, and Candace Willingham Braddock of Altus.
The principal program of Leadership Oklahoma is its annual educational, issues-oriented 10-month class program. Each year Oklahoma leaders who represent a wide geographic base and who have diverse backgrounds and vocations are selected to participate. Class members meet and talk with Oklahoma’s current leaders and explore the state’s opportunities, needs, issues and resources.
Orientation will be held in August, and then the class members will visit nine communities to discuss the many social, environmental and economic complexities of Oklahoma “in an effort to stimulate inquiry, analysis and solutions for the public good,” said Marion Paden, president and chief executive officer of Leadership Oklahoma.
Towns that will be toured this year include Lawton Fort Sill, Seminole, Tulsa, Tahlequah, Oklahoma City, McAlester, Bartlesville, Guymon and Norman.
DANIEL PAE
Pae, who turns 24 this month, was born and reared in Lawton; he was graduated from Lawton High School in 2013. He was president of the Student Government Association at the University of Oklahoma, where he graduated summa cum laude with majors in economics, political science, international studies and history plus a master’s degree in public administration. He also worked as an assistant to the city manager and the mayor of Lawton.
Pae was elected District 62 State Representative in the 2018 statewide general election. He joins the ranks of Asian Americans such as state Rep. Cyndi Munson and former state Sen. Ervin Yen who have served in the Oklahoma Legislature.
MARK BRACE
Brace, 59, has been the president at BancFirst in Lawton for nearly four years. Previously he was the regional president of First National Bank & Trust Co. in Lawton for six years, and prior to that he was a bank executive in Woodward for 25 years.
Brace earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva and graduated with honors from the ABA’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking. He is the immediate past president of the Greater Lawton Rotary Club. Participating in Leadership Oklahoma requires “a big commitment of time and energy,” Brace said. “I just made the decision that I would work my schedule to make it happen.”
CANDACE BRADDOCK
Ms. Braddock is vice president of Sheryl Homes in Altus, which is affiliated with Willingham Enterprises, a general contracting operation that started when her father got into the remodeling business many years ago. Sheryl Homes (which is named for her mother) “is our building corporation,” Ms. Braddock said. “We build 10 to 12 homes a year, on average.”
She is the wife of David Braddock, a former state legislator who is chairman of the board of Frazer Bank in Altus and is an insurance producer with Dobbs & Braddock in Altus.