2022 Service Awards

Annually, as Christmas nears, the Oklahoma Conservation Commission typically holds its final quarterly full-staff meeting of the calendar year.

This year’s meeting, held at the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives offices in Oklahoma City, included service anniversary recognition of several outstanding employees.

OCC Executive Director Trey Lam shares his appreciation of each of these incredible individuals:

Rebecca Bond, Director of the Blue Thumb Water Quality Education Program – 5 years

“Rebecca brings so much knowledge, energy and professional leadership to the agency. This includes her ability to continually strengthen an already outstanding Blue Thumb group. She also has taken the volunteer monitoring program to another step by considering what comes after gaining data. Plus, she is great at recognizing her staff members individual strengths and encouraging them in that direction and helping them to grow.”

Megan Knight, Monitoring Specialist, Water Quality Monitoring Program  – 5 years

“Megan is a hard worker who strives to achieve great things. She is dedicated to furthering conservation through water quality and biological monitoring. Megan has persevered through a vast variety of conditions during field work. These include the summers with intense heat, cold winters, droughts, and prolonged floods. Her dedication makes her an invaluable asset to the Commission.”

Jeannie Parsley, Financial Manager/Comptroller – 15 years

“Although Jeannie is new to our agency, she has long been committed to her service to the state of Oklahoma. Before coming to OCC, she had more than five years experience as Senior Management Analyst/Premium Tax Manager at the Oklahoma Insurance Department in Oklahoma City and 10 years with the Adult Protective Services division of DHS. She had several years of experience in the private sector before that. We are excited that she is a part of our OCC team.”

Monty Ramming, Watershed Project Coordinator and Supervisor of OCC’s USDA feral swine eradication projects – 20 years

“He can and he will. Monty can handle any task and he will gladly take it on and set a productive, successful course for whatever it may be. Monty has used his experience and knowledge of working on special projects with conservation districts to mentor OCC’s feral swine techs. The feral swine techs jobs are unique and geographically remote, but Monty has found ways to work closely with the techs. Having Monty on any team makes a huge difference; even when things get tough, he continues to have a great attitude.”

Shellie Willoughby , Office of Geographic Information and Technical Services Specialist – 25 years

“Highly productive and consistently pleasant are just two ways to describe Shellie. Given a task, she will see it through not only to completion, but to a standard that others strive to attain. She has many roles and is outstanding at each whether that involves 911, producing maps for State Legislative or Congressional Districts or creating the Blue Thumb data entry App and also the data viewable App Map. She conducts a lot of research on her own to make projects successful, she is a pleasure to work with and she is always self -motivated.”

Wes Shockley, Monitoring Specialist, Water Quality Monitoring Program – 30 years

“Actions that lead to respect is a good way to describe Wes. His data collection standards and understanding of aquatic systems have helped bring recognition to the OCC and the respect of stakeholders at a local, state, and national level. He is always willing to share his knowledge in a way that others can understand, whether this is through speaking or through demonstrations. Wes is certainly a strong proponent of conservation. Through the  years he has voluntarily supported it in numerous ways including writing articles and visiting with landowners regarding water quality and related issues on their behalf.”

Johnny Pelley, OCC Watershed Technician, Conservation Programs – 35 years

“A true friend takes care of others no matter how many years pass. Johnny Pelley has been a true friend to Oklahoma’s nation-leading 2,107 upstream flood control dams through his hands-on commitment to their operation and maintenance. He provides technical support to conservation districts and participates in performing necessary work. Johnny responds quickly and efficiently to emergencies involving watershed structures and assists districts to mitigate damages. Not only can he operate machinery very effectively, he’s created and repaired a lot of tools to keep projects moving forward. Johnny is a team player who is very valuable to the agency and to Oklahoma.”