Joe Dorman to run Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy


OKLAHOMA CITY – Former state Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, will become chief executive officer (CEO) of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy on Monday, September 12, the statewide child advocacy organizations announced this week. 
“It is an honor to be part of an organization that plays such an important leadership role in promoting policies, programs and partnerships that improve the lives of our state’s most vulnerable residents – our children and youth,” said Dorman.
“One in four Oklahoma children is growing up in poverty. This is not an ‘Oklahoma Standard’ to be proud of or accept. I look forward to working with policymakers, agencies, organizations and citizens across our state to improve the well-being of our young people,” he said.

Dorman served 12 years in the Oklahoma State House of Representatives from House District 65, which included parts of Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Grady and Stephens counties.
As the Democratic party’s candidate for governor in 2014, he visited all 77 counties. In their release, the group’s leadership said that allowed him to learn “more about their needs, as well as their hopes for their communities and their families – particularly their hopes for their children.”
Dorman has served most recently on the Rush Springs Town Council, and is involved in several civic organizations, and has served as Outreach Director for True Wireless, a mobile communications company.
Reflecting on this new role, Dorman said, “Public service is not about holding a title, it is about what you can do to improve the lives of those around you. Serving as an elected official allowed me to promote better policies for all Oklahomans. I’m looking forward to stepping away from serving in elective office to direct the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.
“This new role offers the opportunity to join a committed network of caring leaders who want to see our state provide the best start it can for our children and youth – knowing that when all of our children and families prosper, our state prospers. I cannot think of a more honorable way to continue in public service than working on behalf of our youngest Oklahomans and their future.”

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy is a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1983 to improve the health, safety, education and economic well-being of the state’s children and youth and provide a voice for their needs when policy and program decisions are made.
The Institute coordinates Oklahoma “KIDS COUNT,” part of a national Data Center, which the organization describes as “a premiere source for hundreds of child well-being indicators.”
For more information, check: oica.org.