Whether you need an interview, photographs, story ideas, media hosting or the scoop on statewide events and attractions, we're here to help.
Leslie Blair
Public Information Officer for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department
Leslie Blair currently serves as the Public Information Officer for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. Prior to Tourism, Leslie served in the same capacity at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Blair, a native of Frederick, received her bachelor's degree in communications from Cameron University and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Oklahoma County 4-H Foundation. She is also a member of Friends of Hackberry Flat and the Junior League of Oklahoma City.
Keli Clark
Oklahoma State Park Marketing Programs Assistant
Keli has been with the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department in the Marketing and Promotions division for the State Parks, Lodges and Golf Courses since May of 2000. Her work involves a variety of jobs including advertising, travel to various locations throughout Oklahoma and frequently out-of-state to promote the state park facilities and surrounding cities and attractions. She also coordinates the marketing efforts for the state park golf courses. She writes a once monthly article that appears in the Destinations section of the Sunday Oklahoman, and creates special events newsletters and flyers for the facilities, as well as a quarterly golf newsletter. In addition to promotions, she plans and coordinates monthly meetings which focus on educational and up-to-date job related training for all of the state park facility managers, administrative assistants, golf course managers and Park Law Enforcement. Keli's background is in broadcast television. She worked for twenty years for all four news networks in the Oklahoma City market, for the most part as a newsroom assignment editor.
Tom Creider
Assistant Director, Oklahoma State Parks
An employee of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department since 1973, Tom Creider is the Programs Manager for Oklahoma State Parks. Tom works with the division’s environmental education and volunteer programs, as well as assists with special projects and customer service. Tom grew up in Tulsa and is a longtime resident of Midwest City. He attended Oklahoma State University, graduating with a B.S. degree in Forestry and a M.S. in Geography.
Joan Henderson
Publisher of Oklahoma Today Magazine
Joan Henderson is the publisher of Oklahoma Today. She is responsible for all aspects of the magazine's operation and has been with the magazine since November 1994. Ms. Henderson is on the board and serves on the president's council of the International Regional Magazine Association, is vice-president of the Oklahoma Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and serves on the board of directors of the Magazine Publishers of America Independent Magazine Advisory Group (MPA-IMAG). Henderson moved to Oklahoma City from Austin, where she worked as account executive for Tocquigny Design. Previously, In the 1980s, Henderson led an award-winning multi-image photography team in Boston, Massachusetts. Born in New York and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Henderson graduated from OSU in 1979 with a BA in Humanities. An accomplished photographer, her hand-tinted black and white images have been featured in numerous periodicals and in photographic exhibitions in Oklahoma, Texas, and Massachusetts.
Dino Lalli
Producer, Discover Oklahoma
Born and raised in McAlester, Oklahoma, Dino Lalli is the producer for Integris’ Discover Oklahoma, a weekly program produced by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism. The show is dedicated to the promotion of Oklahoma tourism by featuring people, destinations and attractions throughout the state. Lalli is also one of the reporters for the program. Prior to working for Discover Oklahoma, Lalli worked in the Oklahoma Film and Music Office for almost nine years as a Field Representative. In that capacity, some of his duties included, location scouting and photographs, production logistics, eliminating red tape for various types of productions, research, acting as a liaison between a production entity and the community and/or state, and point of contact for various production companies. Over a 20-year period, Dino served as the entertainment editor and film critic for three television stations; the ABC and NBC affiliates in Oklahoma City as well as KNBC in Burbank, California. While at Channel 5 in Oklahoma City, he hosted and produced an award winning nationally syndicated program on movies. He is one of just a handful of entertainment reporters in the country ever to be nominated for an Emmy Award. Several of the Academy Awards specials Dino produced and hosted were nominated for regional Emmy Awards while at Channel 5. Dino has also received numerous community awards and citations for his charity work. Dino received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism Radio/TV Broadcasting from the University of Oklahoma in 1978. His freshman year at OU, he was a McMahon Journalism Scholar. He and his wife Laryssa have three children.
Kris Marek
Director of State Parks for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department
Kris Marek is currently the Director of State Parks for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. She also serves as the Oklahoma State Liaison Officer for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and is the Vice President of the National Association of State Outdoor Recreation Liaison Officers. Prior to being the Director of State Parks, she served as the Director of Planning and Development and the Assistant Director of State Parks. Kris is a graduate of Purdue University with a major in park and recreation administration. She has a Master's degree from the University of Oklahoma in Regional and City Planning and a Juris Doctor from Oklahoma City University.
Kimberly Anne Moyer
Director of Communication and Government Affairs
Kim was born in California, and raised in Westcliffe, Colorado where she still has family and friends. While growing up, she enjoyed working in the Colorado travel and tourism industry and held jobs in the ski resort and restaurant industries. In 1989, after receiving a BA in Communications from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, she moved to Oklahoma to work on the newsroom editorial staff at the Oklahoma City NBC television affiliate. That was the start of a journalism career that involved working at the CBS affiliate and in print journalism when she was named the Metro Editor at The Oklahoman newspaper. In September 2008, Kim joined the staff at the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department where she now assists in media affairs direction, internal communications planning and serves as the legislative liaison between the Department, legislators and state officials. Kim is married to Steve Moyer and they live in Edmond with their four children. Kim enjoys outdoor activities, volunteering with local civic groups like the Oklahoma City Arts Council, and spending time with family and friends.
Sandy Pantlik
Director of the Travel Promotion Division of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department
Sandy Pantlik is the Director of the Travel Promotion Division of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. In this role, she oversees a $5.5 million advertising campaign, a division budget of approximately $10 million, and a staff of 90+. Some of the programs under her leadership include the multicounty organization (MCO) matching funds program, the Discover Oklahoma television show, the OklaStrong travel show program, the Traveler Response Information Program, and 12 statewide tourism information centers. In addition, numerous brochures and publications are produced by the division, and various outreach efforts are conducted which provide marketing and development assistance to Oklahoma's travel industry. With more than 16 years experience in Oklahoma's tourism industry, Pantlik previously served as the Director of Public Relations for the Travel & Tourism Division, and has served as the Director of Communications for the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin. She has also held account supervision roles at Ackerman McQueen and Visual Image Advertising firms in Oklahoma City. Pantlik holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism with a minor in marketing and an emphasis on advertising from Oklahoma State University.
Jill Simpson
Director of the Oklahoma Film & Music Office
Jill Simpson serves as Director of the Oklahoma Film & Music Office, overseeing a state industry that has had an economic impact approaching $70 million since her appointment in late 2004. In that role, she markets Oklahoma as a viable location for producing motion picture, television and music projects, providing resources for every aspect of production including personnel, locations, equipment and permitting, as well as serving as liaison to Oklahoma businesses, lawmakers and community leaders. Simpson and her staff of four are a hands-on, motivated and innovative organization widely credited with enhancing Oklahoma's reputation in the industry both within the state and outside our borders. On a daily basis, they work toward increasing awareness of the importance of the film and music industries in diversifying Oklahoma's economy. Since 2005, Simpson and her staff have successfully shepherded the passage of nine new bills into law. Each was designed to enhance the film and music industries, the first of which funded a then-empty Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program up to $5 million per year. In 2008, Simpson was instrumental in the creation and passage of legislation to establish an Oklahoma Creative Industries Task Force, a second bill to incentivize the use of Oklahoma music and musicians in Oklahoma film and television productions and a third providing for the naming of an official Oklahoma rock song. 2009 saw the passage of legislation that more than doubles the state's film rebate program, restoring Oklahoma's competitive edge in the marketplace. Under Simpson's direction, the Film & Music Office's key focus is to develop and grow a self-sustaining production environment within the state, whereby creating avenues for workforce training, development, and the nurturing of local talent. Recent collaborative successes include Oklahoma films being accepted into the 2007 and 2009 Sundance Film Festivals, MoMA's 2009
Lindsay Vidrine
Director of Travel Communications for the Travel Promotion Division of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department
Lindsay Vidrine is the Director of Travel Communications for the Travel Promotion Division of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. In this role, she oversees a variety of media and public relations programs designed to increase visibility of Oklahoma's travel opportunities and communities. In addition, she manages the production of several brochures and annual publications produced by the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. Vidrine is also a program committee member for the Greater Grads Summer Internship Program which was created by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and aims to grow the number of college graduates who live and work in Central Oklahoma. In addition, Vidrine participates in several industry associations, including the national and Oklahoma City chapters of the Public Relations Society of America, and the OU JayMac alumni group. She is also a board member of Sustainable OKC. Before joining the Tourism Department, Vidrine worked as a Senior Account Executive at the St. Louis headquarters of Fleishman-Hillard, one of the world's largest PR firms. In this capacity, she was responsible for managing media and community relations projects for Fortune 500 companies including UPS, AT&T, Abbott, Wal-Mart, and Procter & Gamble among others. Vidrine was also a board member and marketing committee chair for Forest ReLeaf, an urban reforestation non-profit based in St. Louis. Vidrine graduated from the University of Oklahoma, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and mass communications with an emphasis in public relations. She also has a minor in environmental science.
Shel Wagner
Executive Director, Discover Oklahoma
A native of Yukon, Oklahoma, Shel Wagner is thrilled to be “back home” after an 18-year career stint in Los Angeles, where she worked as a scriptwriter, director and producer of more than forty independent films and television dramas, as well as dozens of commercials and educational videos. Shel has spent her share of time around universities. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Film and Television Production from UCLA, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Radio TV Film from Oklahoma State University. Shel received the coveted Jack Nicholson Distinguished Director Award, a Cine Golden Eagle, a Cindy Award, a Telly Award, a Motion Picture Association of America Award, and a bucket-full of prizes and recognitions from film, television and screenplay festivals worldwide.
Hardy Watkins
Executive Director of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department
HARDY WATKINS Hardy Watkins serves as Executive Director of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. Watkins was appointed in March of 2006 by the Tourism and Recreation Commission, after serving one year as President and CEO of the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce. Watkins had served with the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department from November 2002 to April 2005. He was originally appointed as Director of the Travel and Tourism Division, and was responsible for coordination of marketing, advertising, industry relations and other Travel and Tourism Division activities, as well as the day to day operations of the agency. Prior to joining the Tourism and Recreation Department, Watkins was owner's representative for the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the Memorial Center Museum, and coordinated all activities related to the construction, completion and opening. Representing the Memorial Trust and Foundation, Watkins facilitated an on-time and within-budget completion of the outdoor symbolic memorial and Memorial Center Museum. A native Oklahoman, Watkins is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a major in journalism. He is married to Kari Watkins, who along with their son Ford and daughter Caroline, reside in Edmond.
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