Sen. Susan Paddack
April 8th, 2010
Sen. Susan Paddack
Susan Paddack received a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Colorado and a Master of Education Degree in Secondary Education from East Central University. She earned a Certificate of Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Susan was elected in November 2004 as the State Senator for District 13, which includes Pontotoc, Hughes, portions of Garvin and Coal Counties. She serves as a Democratic Whip and Co-Chair of the Judiciary Committee. In addition, she serves on the full Appropriations Committee, Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, the Education Committee, and the Tourism and Wildlife Committee. She represents Oklahoma as a board member on the Southern Regional Education Board, a member of the Annual Meeting Committee for the Council of State Governments, a board member of the Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust, a board member on the Healthcare Workforce Resources Center Board, and serves on the Governor’s Elimination of Health Disparities Task Force, the Task Force on Achieving Classroom Excellence, the State Coverage Initiative to reform healthcare in Oklahoma, and the Governor’s Catastrophic Health Emergency Planning Task Force.
With a passion to promote both education and healthcare in Oklahoma, Senator Paddack has successfully authored numerous pieces of landmark legislation in these areas, resulting in multiple honors for her efforts. Susan was the principal author of the 2005 legislation, Rx Oklahoma, which expands the Prescription Assistance Program to make it available statewide. That same year, she also authored legislation creating a physician assistant scholarship program aimed at helping ensure rural communities have greater access to medical care. She was also instrumental in passing legislation to create the Health Care Workforce Resource Center to help identify shortages in nursing and allied health as well as developing strategies to address those gaps. In addition, she authored laws to ensure that schools provide information about meningococcal meningitis to parents of students in the sixth through twelfth grades and to require vision screenings for elementary students. She also authored a bill which gives lawsuit protection to healthcare providers who provide charitable medical services to medically indigent persons in a free medical clinic setting.
Susan’s honors for her legislation include being named the 2005 Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians Patient Advocate of the Year as well as 2006 Legislator of the Year for the Rural Health Association of Oklahoma. She was also named the Legislative Newcomer award recipient in 2005 by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma. In 2006, Susan was awarded the Oklahoma Nurses Association Friend of Nursing award and the Legislative award from the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. In 2007, she was awarded the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Alumni Association “Amicus Medicinae Award, and the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma Friend of Higher Education Award. Also in 2007, she received the Metropolitan Environmental Trust Legislator of the Year and the Oklahoma Professional Economic Development Council Legislative Advocate of the Year. In 2008, she received the Oklahoma Academy Exceptional Commitment Award and was inducted into the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy’s Child Advocate Hall of Fame. The Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians awarded her the 2008 Legislator of the Year. She also received the 2008 Distinguished Service Award from the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education, 2008 Legislator of the Year from the Oklahoma State Troopers Association-District 13, 2008 Honoree for the Journal Record’s 50 Making a Difference/Woman of the Year. In 2009 she received the Outstanding Member of a State Legislature, Dr. Nathan Davis Award, from the American Medical Association and the Partners in Conservation Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior. She also received the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association’s Legislative Award of Appreciation and the Friend of Retired Educators from the Oklahoma Retired Educators Association.
Prior to her election to the Senate, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence employed Susan for nine years as their Director of Local Education Foundation Outreach. She traveled the state working with LEF boards and tailored presentations and workshops based on each foundation’s specific need. During this tenure, the number of local education foundations grew by 31% and over $22 million was awarded to schools by their LEFs since their formation in the early 1980s. She also consulted with LEFs in states such as Missouri, Indiana, and Arkansas. She was employed as a secondary science teacher in middle and junior high schools in Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. She also served as an adjunct faculty member for East Central University’s Education Department.
Susan serves in various capacities in local, state, and national volunteer organizations. She served as the 2000-2001 president of the American Medical Association Alliance, and traveled to 32 states as a part of their Speakers’ Bureau. Susan served as a representative from the AMAA to the Commission for the Prevention of Youth Violence, which was a call to action from medicine, nursing, and public health to address the epidemic of youth violence in the nation. On the state level, she is a board member for the Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum, a board member for the Oklahoma Academy, a board member for the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence where she was presented with an Honorary Circle of Excellence in 2003, and a board member of the Oklahoma Arts Institute. Susan was a member of the Leadership Oklahoma Class XVI. She was named among the 2004 and 2008 honorees for The Journal Record’s 50 Women Making a Difference. She also was a board member of the Oklahoma Institute of Child Advocacy, having served as Vice-president of Development and Vice-president of Trustees, was a board member of the Center for Nonprofit Management and was on the advisory board of governors for the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma. Susan served as the 1991-92 president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association Alliance.
On the local level, Susan served on the board of the Ada City Schools Foundation where she was previously president, vice-president, and was grant review chair for ten years. She has also served as: president for the Pontotoc County Medical Alliance, board member for the City of Ada’s Board of Adjustments, board member of the Kiwanis Club of Ada and chairman of Young Children - Priority One, parent representative on the Ada City Schools Professional Staff Development Committee, vice-president for the Ada Arts and Humanities Council, the 1992 United Way fund drive chair and board president in 1993, a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Task Force and steering committee on Economic Development, and a member of the 1991 Leadership Ada class. She was named the Ada Education Association’s 1992 Friend of Education. Susan is an elder of First Presbyterian Church of Ada. She is married to Gary, an internal medicine physician.
