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Oklahoma State University

A Legacy of Learning

Julie Weathers
The Weathers family (from left): Son Ryan and his wife Tara, parents Shane and Julie, and younger sons Brendon and Jared.

CEPD Director Julie Weathers continues family tradition of passing on knowledge

by Jeff Joiner

Education is opportunity. For Dr. Julie Weathers and her family, education has opened many doors to opportunity, from long, rewarding careers as teachers and administrators to leading one of Oklahoma State University’s most successful outreach programs.

Weathers is director of the Center for Executive and Professional Development (CEPD) at the Spears School of Business where she’s spent her entire career, the last 25 years as director. CEPD provides more than 240 conferences, seminars, certification professional development programs and many other opportunities to more than 14,500 individuals each year.

Weathers’ mother was a professor for more than 30 years at nearby Langston University while her husband, Shane, is the high school principal and head football coach at Coyle High School, where son Ryan teaches math and coaches the baseball team

“Education has definitely been a love of the family,” she said.

Weathers grew up on the farm northwest of Coyle where her grandparents settled. She was named after her grandmother, Julia Hacker Flasch, who came to Oklahoma from Austria as a 17-yearold to marry John Flasch, the brother of her sister’s husband.

“Julia’s sister was already in Oklahoma, and life looked good in America, so she came over with a marriage proposal in a letter he had written,” Weathers said.

Weathers’ parents, Harold and Dr. Joy Flasch, bought the farm from his parents and there she grew up — a life along the Cimarron River she describes as idyllic. Both Harold and Joy graduated from OSU, he with a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry and Joy with a master’s in English and an Ed.D. with an emphasis in English. Joy taught briefly at OSU, then began a three-decade career as an English professor at Langston University where she was also head of the Department of Communications (including broadcast journalism) and later the first director of the E.P. McCabe Honors Program. Weathers’ parents still live on the farm that Julie and Shane now rent.

With her mother as a guiding example, Weathers started her educational journey at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha, earning a bachelor’s in business administration in 1983 and being named the outstanding graduate. That same year, she started the Master of Business Administration program at OSU, graduating in 1985.

While an MBA student, Weathers worked as a graduate assistant for what later became CEPD. At the time, the program was part of the university extension system. After graduating with her MBA, Weathers was hired as a program coordinator by director Dr. Jim Hromas.

“Jim was my mentor and he loved outreach and the concept of a land-grant university and its heritage in serving the citizens of the state of Oklahoma,” Weathers said.

Weathers was CEPD associate director from 1991-94; she was named director the same year she completed her doctorate from the OSU College of Education.

“I think I was probably very goal oriented growing up,” she said. “I like to accomplish things, and I think we’re very goal-oriented and focused on accomplishing programs and improving here at CEPD. The staff are excellent in bringing together new ideas and accomplishing and implementing quality education programs.”

The center’s accomplishments include this year’s 28th annual Oklahoma Women’s Business Conference and the continued success of the Tulsa Business Forums and the Oklahoma City Executive Management Briefings that have brought such national and international business leaders to Oklahoma as former President George H.W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, industry titans Lee Iacocca and Jack Welch, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Weathers says CEPD’s success in its 66 years is due to business and industry specialists and OSU faculty who provide their expertise in programs as diverse as the newly launched accounting and finance program for Oklahoma Native American tribal members to the Gaming Certification program developed with the University of Nevada- Reno. And those are only a few of the center’s offerings that include hundreds of on-site programs each year at Oklahoma companies and other organizations.

“Our faculty provide information that is based in research,” Weathers said. “The people of Oklahoma see the value in implementing concepts and applying that information to their jobs and careers. That’s the differentiator between CEPD and other organizations.”

For the Weathers family, education has been a differentiator. Her oldest son, Ryan, an OSU alum and the Coyle High math teacher and coach, is the latest to continue in the tradition of his mother, father and grandmother. The Weathers’ other two sons are making their own way along their education journey. Middle son Jared is a student and McCabe Scholar at Langston University who wants to enter the physical therapy program there, while youngest son Brendon is a Coyle senior who plans to attend OSU and study engineering or business.

“God has truly blessed us, and it is important to make the most of your abilities and education to help you expand your talents to the fullest extent,” Weathers said.