CHES inducts Hudecki into Hall of Fame

Phyllis Hudecki, executive director for the Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition, will be inducted into the Oklahoma State University College of Human Environmental Sciences Hall of Fame on Friday, April 20, at the Wes Watkins Center.

Hudecki has been involved in the education profession throughout the country since graduating from the college in 1971. As executive director for a business-led coalition, she directs efforts to improve and strengthen education in Oklahoma. The organization’s initiatives have resulted in higher graduation standards for high school students as well as more rigorous courses of study and rewards for students who participate. 

Hudecki has served as the associate director of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education at the University of California, Berkeley, as state director for Career, Technical and Vocational Education for the Iowa State Department of Education and state director of Vocational Home Economics Education, Missouri State Department of Education. 

In addition to her work on school-to-work transition and integration of vocational and academic education, she is a certified trainer in educational leadership for effective school reform and has provided testimony at Congressional hearings on the issue. 

In 2004, Hudecki received the “Dispelling the Myth” Award in Washington, D.C., presented by the Education Trust for work on closing the academic achievement gap for all students. This was the first time the award had been made to anyone other than a school district.  

Her education includes a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut, educational specialist degree from the University of Missouri Kansas City, and doctor of education from OSU.

Hudecki was named a 2006 recipient of the Journal Record “50 Making a Difference” award given to women in Oklahoma and Woman of the Year finalists.  She currently serves on the OSU Foundation Board of Governors, Southwest Education Research Lab Governing Board, Oklahoma A+ Schools Advisory Board and the GEAR-UP Advisory Board of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. She also is a member of the American Diploma Project-Oklahoma Team; board member of Public Works Inc., an education evaluation nonprofit agency in Pasadena, Calif.; and has served as chair of the of the College of Human Environmental Sciences Associates Executive Committee.

A graduate and current board member of Leadership Oklahoma, Hudecki also is a member of Rotary International Club 29 and a member of the boards of Oklahoma Methodist Children's Home in Tahlequah and the Okmulgee County Homeless Shelter.

Hudecki and her husband Norman reside in Okmulgee and her daughter Stacey Herriage lives in Tulsa.