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OFE News Release

Steve Holton of Poteau Named President of Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence

September 10, 2008

Loyd Benson (left), immediate past president of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, welcomes Poteau banker Steve Holton as new president during the foundation’s recent Board of Trustees meeting in Oklahoma City.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Steve Holton, a POTEAU banker and community leader, has been named president of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.

Founded in 1985 by then-U.S. Sen. David L. Boren, the foundation is a nonprofit organization that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma's public schools. Holton joined the foundation as a founding trustee in 1985 and has since served as co-chair of its Fall Forum committee, chairman of board development and as an executive committee member.

“When I received a letter 23 years ago from U.S. Sen. David Boren offering me the opportunity to be a trustee of a new statewide education foundation, I knew that if David Boren was leading, I wanted to follow,” Holton said. “Since then, I have treasured my work with the Foundation for Excellence, from founding a local education foundation in Poteau to presenting Academic All-State flags to students throughout southeastern Oklahoma. I look forward to the opportunity to serve as president of this extraordinary organization.”

Through its Academic Awards Program, the foundation provides $260,000 in scholarships and cash awards annually to honor outstanding high school seniors as Academic All-Staters and exceptional educators as Medal for Excellence winners. Through its Local Education Foundation Outreach Program, the foundation provides free technical support and training to local education foundations across the state and sponsors the annual Fall Forum for Local Education Foundations, Oklahoma’s premiere training and networking event for school foundation volunteers, educators and public school supporters.

Among its other initiatives, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence coordinates a program to send Oklahoma teachers to the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute each summer and provides subscriptions for schools to receive Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trips. The award-winning field trips help students to experience 18th-century colonial life through live television broadcasts, Web site activities and toll-free access to Williamsburg historians.

In 2005, the foundation launched the David and Molly Boren Mentoring Initiative to promote the growth and establishment of school-based mentoring programs throughout Oklahoma. The Foundation also administers Professional Development Grants for Teachers to attend national conferences and institutes and, in 2006, partnered with the national Fund for Teachers and the Tulsa Community Foundation to provide grants of up to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for teams of teachers for self-designed summer professional development opportunities in locations around the world. Thanks to generous bridge funding from the national Fund for Teachers, 363 Oklahoma educators have received grants totaling $1.1 million in the past three years.

A Poteau native, Holton is chief executive officer of Central National Bank. He is active in many Poteau community organizations and charitable endeavors, with a special interest in education and rural healthcare. Holton is founder and president of the Poteau Schools Education Foundation, for which he helped develop the award-winning Academic Quest Program. He is building chairman for the new shelter for Women’s Crisis Services of LeFlore County.

Holton has served as vice chairman of the LeFlore County Hospital Authority, for which he has served more than 20 years as a trustee. He has served as president of the Poteau Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club, LeFlore County Youth Services, the LeFlore County OSU Alumni Club and the First Christian Church board. He also has been president of the Eastern Oklahoma Health Care Corporation and the Southeastern Oklahoma Bankers Association. On the state level, Holton has served on the board of the Oklahoma Bankers Association and the OSU Alumni Association Executive Committee. He currently serves on the Nature Conservancy Oklahoma Board of Trustees.

Holton is a 1966 graduate of Poteau High School and a 1970 graduate of Oklahoma State University. He and his wife, Pam, have three grown children and seven grandchildren.