Vision, Voice, Vote: The First-Ever OEA Legislative Conference

There is something special about being in a room full of people who know exactly what you’ve been through and who are still ready to fight for the next thing anyway.

That energy filled the Embassy Suites in northwest Oklahoma City on as OEA held its first ever Legislative Conference last November. This event was born from a Delegate Assembly new business item to rotate Organizing, Legislative, and Advocacy Conferences every three years. Members showed up ready to learn, ready to lead, and ready to laugh a little, too. And they got all three.

Educators rolled into the Embassy Suites on Friday evening with the usual mix of exhaustion and hope that comes with early November. Registration tables buzzed, people hugged old friends and the FCPE raffle tables started pulling curious crowds. Dinner warmed the room and, of course, Singo happened.

This was the point in the evening when people remembered that advocacy takes energy and sometimes you recharge that energy by singing Britney Spears slightly louder than you intended.

It set exactly the right tone: this conference would be serious about public education, but it would never forget the joy of being in community with people who get it.

Saturday morning began with caucus meetings across the hotel, each of them its own pocket of conversation, identity, and purpose. By the time members gathered for the conference welcome from President Cari Elledge, the room already carried a sense of direction. Something was shifting.

But it was the keynote that officially lit the spark.

NEA Senior Advisor Susana O’Daniel stepped to the front of the room with the casual familiarity of someone who has spent her life around educators. She’s from Mena, Arkansas — not quite Oklahoma, but close enough that she joked she came from a “home-adjacent” place.

Then she delivered the line that would become the unofficial rallying cry of the weekend.

O’Daniel lit up when she told the room how excited she was to be with “the people who got rid of Ryan Walters.”

The roar that followed wasn’t just applause. It was recognition.

It was relief.

It was pride.

O’Daniel paused just long enough to let it land. Then she added, “Thank you for not only enduring that but keeping him accountable and fighting back. Thank you on behalf of a grateful nation for your advocacy.”

A national voice had just told Oklahoma’s educators what they already knew deep down: they survived it, they organized through it, and they helped change the direction of the state.

And that was only the beginning of her message.

O’Daniel spent more than a decade working inside the Arkansas General Assembly and years as NEA’s federal liaison. She has seen the political math up close, and she didn’t sugarcoat it.

“The math ain’t mathing, folks,” she said, a line that immediately earned nods across the room. She explained why engaging across the political spectrum isn’t an optional tactic but a necessary one, especially when the numbers in the Legislature look the way they do.

But she never framed it as moving away from educator values.

Quite the opposite.

“It’s not moving away from values. It’s doubling down on shared values,” she noted. “Educators should be paid more. One job should be enough. Kids shouldn’t learn in classrooms with black mold. Those aren’t partisan positions.”

Her stories about rural lawmakers, firefighters knocking doors, unexpected allies, and Kentucky’s defeat of a statewide voucher amendment made the room lean in. If Kentucky could reject vouchers in every single county, she argued, then Oklahoma shouldn’t underestimate its own power.

She ended with a challenge and an invitation:

Count your votes. Build your coalitions. And don’t count anyone out.

After O’Daniel’s keynote, a panel featuring Rep. Melissa Provenzano, Norman Public Schools board member Alex Ruggiers, and OSU professor Dr. Erin Dyke shifted the room into practical mode. Their message was simple: elections aren’t just won during campaign season; they’re won in the slow, steady work of organizing, mentoring future candidates, and building connections long before anyone files for office.

This was the part of the conference where you could almost feel the gears turning, as educators realized that their relationships, their stories and their credibility were already advocacy tools.

People nodded hard enough to risk neck injuries.

In the second plenary, President Elledge walked attendees through what it actually takes to win elections. It wasn’t theoretical. It was about increasing PAC power, registering voters, supporting pro-public-ed candidates, and understanding that political influence is built long before anyone shows up at the Capitol.

The afternoon was where the conference truly became a choose-your-own-adventure of advocacy.

Members new to advocacy found their footing in Lobbying 101 with Seth Brown, Jo Lynn Love, and Lisa Wada. Things got deeper in Lobbying 201 with Tyler Outlaw and Heather Davis. A different crowd dove into the Raise the Wage session on State Question 832. Others explored coalition-building with Rep. Ellen Pogemiller or learned how to partner with PTA leaders and school board members in It’s Not Just Us.

Rep. Ellen Pogemiller naturally drew a crowd. Rep. Pogemiller is a former OEA staff member who once co-hosted the Fried Okra podcast and now serves in the Oklahoma Legislature — a full-circle moment if ever there was one. Her breakout session on coalitions emphasized the power educators hold outside their classrooms.

“Teachers are huge community members, and when we talk about change in the community, education is always part of that conversation,” Pogemiller said. She explained why educators should not underestimate how valuable their voice is when coalitions form.

She also spoke about why conferences like this matter.

“Change is made through conversations and advocacy. When we help educators feel confident speaking up, the outcomes are better for everyone,” she added.

But her most personal reflection came the moment she walked into the conference.

“As soon as I walked in, it was great to hear how well things were going,” Pogemiller said. “Being here reminded me why the fight still matters and people believing in it gives me hope.”

One of the clearest indicators of the conference’s impact came from Stephanie Cobb, a fifth-grade teacher from Kennedy Elementary in Norman.
She had never been to anything like this before. But she’ll be back.

“This is the first time that I, as a Republican, have heard anyone say that we need to cross the aisle,” Cobb said. “Children are our future, and I feel like they’re being lost. It scares me. Teachers aren’t used to being on the political side of things, and it feels like uncharted waters.”

Her takeaway?

Talking to each other changes things. Avoiding each other never did.

By the time the last raffle ticket numbers were announced and people began heading to the parking lot with tote bags full of notes and new ideas, something felt different.

People didn’t just attend the first OEA Legislative Conference.

It felt like the beginning of a new chapter in Oklahoma education and, as Susana O’Daniel reminded everyone, the nation is paying attention.

Because when Oklahoma educators organize, they don’t just hold their ground.

They move it.