OCDA Board candidates
(Ballots will be mailed)

Northwest Representative
     Barbara Myers teaches vocal music grades one through twelve in Turpin Public Schools where she has taught for the last 22 years. Before that she taught 5 years at Balko, Oklahoma and Bird City, Kansas. Between the two stints of public school teaching, she stayed at home with her children for 13 years and taught 50 private voice and piano students. Though not in public school, those 13 years saw her and her students at the state vocal contest each year. Turpin choirs have students in the Western Oklahoma Directors Association choirs (junior high, high school, and women's'), OCDA Junior High All-State, OCDA Women's' High School All-State, OMEA All-State Chorus, All-State Children's Chorus, and Circle The State With Song all-region children's choir. Her students have sung at OMEA Convention as an outstanding perfoiniing choir. Turpin has solos, ensembles, and choirs consistently qualify to compete at the State Vocal Competition.
     Barbara is a member of OCDA, WOCDA, OMEA, and APOE. She has been a member of the Kodaly teachers° association. She has been chosen as a "Teacher of Distinction" by her fellow teachers in WOCDA She teaches a few piano students, but her passion is vocal music.
     Barbara's has a BME from Oklahoma Panhandle State University. She has additional hours at Southwestern State University, Oklahoma University, and Seward County Community College. Her education is not limited to the college classroom, she feels that every day is a learning experience through books, listening, students, friends and other teachers.
Barbara lives on a working ranch with her husband Neill, who also
has a degree in music. They have two grown children and three grand­children. They are both active in their church with music and teaching adult Sunday school classes.

     Since 1990 Gail Simpson has taught vocal music in Weatherford, where she teaches elementary music and directs the high school choral program.  Before coming to Weatherford, Gail taught for eleven years at Broxton School near Apache, six years in California, and in Germany.
     She has been an OCDA member for approximately 20 years and has served as OCDA Women’s Chorus Chairperson.  She has placed 22 students in the OCDA Women’s Chorus and 21 in the OCDA Junior High Chorus.  She has been a member of OMEA for twenty-six years and was honored as an Exemplary Teacher of the Year in 2007.  She has placed 49 students in the OMEA Chorus since 1983.  Her choirs have received eleven Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association Sweepstakes Awards, and in 2003 they received a double Sweepstakes both as a 4-A Choir and an E Choir.  Recently her six high school choirs qualified for State Contest in Class 3-A.
     Gail served as Coordinator of the Northwest Quadrant OMEA Auditions for 8 years.  She has been a presenter at the fall OMEA In-Service Workshop, clinician for Major Music Company summer workshop, and President and Vice-President of Western Oklahoma Choral Director’s Association.
     She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in voice with teacher certification at Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts, the Master of Education degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University as a reading specialist, and Master of Music degree, also from Southwestern.
     Gail is active in her local church and community, where she is pianist at First Baptist Church and plays in the handbell choir.  She sings with the Singing Churchwomen of Oklahoma, and maintains a private voice and piano studio.  Gail currently serves as president of the Weatherford Association of Classroom Teachers.
Southeast
Representative
 
     Deborah Clements is the Director of Vocal Music at Durant High School, where her teaching duties include four choirs and music theory.  Ms. Clements was recently hired at Durant High School in November of 2007 and is originally from Durant, Oklahoma.   The last five years, Ms. Clements directed a 270 member honor choir at Levi Fry Intermediate School in Texas City, Texas, were she was nominated “Teacher of the Year” in 2003.
     Ms. Clements has a total of 26 years of teaching experience and is a member of O.M.E.A., A.C.D.A. and O.C.D.A.   She began her teaching career in Durant Oklahoma in 1981 after graduating from Southeastern Oklahoma State University, S.O.S.U., where she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degrees.  Ms. Clements also attended Oklahoma University taking post graduates classes.   Ms. Clements taught elementary music for one year in the Durant ISD before moving up to the middle school level where she remained until 2002.  While at Durant Middle School, her choirs consistently earned superior ratings at district contests and her women’s choir grew to 160 singers.  During her tenure at Durant, Ms. Clements served as the Southeastern Oklahoma State University All-District Coordinator for eight years and was the O.M.E.A. Children’s All-State Coordinator in 2001-02.  Ms. Clements served as the O.C.D.A. Southeast Representative 2001-02.   Ms. Clements was nominated Durant Middle School “Teacher of the Year” three times, and was named the Durant ISD “Teacher of the Year” in 1994. She was also selected as one of the twelve state finalists for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year in 1995. 
     Ms. Clements is married to Michael Clements and has a 24 year son, Aaron Rains, and a 3 year-old son named Kyle.
     Darin Chapin is a 2002 graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University, where he studied Vocal Music Education and was a conducting student of Dr. Nancy Cobb-Lippens. He previously taught vocal music at Altus Junior High School for 3 years and 1 year of elementary music at Townsend Elementary in Del City. He is currently in his second year as the Associate Choral Director at Norman North High School. His leadership activities include membership in ACDA, MENC, OCDA, and Vice President of the Central Oklahoma Directors Association.