Kari Watkins
Kari Watkins, a fourth-generation journalist, became the first staff member of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. She was named communications director in March 1996 and executive director in 1999. Watkins oversaw the design and construction of the memorial and today oversees all operations of the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial and Museum, one of Oklahoma’s most visited sites.
Locally, she received the Women in Communications Byliner Award in 2000. Nationally, under Watkins’s direction, the Memorial Museum’s video productions were awarded The Videographer Award of Excellence in 2001 and the New York Festivals World Medal of International Film and Video in 2002. Watkins was named The Journal Record Woman of the Year in 2005. In 2006, she was the recipient of Downtown Oklahoma City’s Stanley Draper Award for Community Excellence.
Watkins leads a staff of 29, who were recently recognized with the highest national recognition — accreditation from the American Association of Museums.
Watkins serves on the boards of the Oklahoma Museums Association and is the President of the Frontier Country Marketing Association. Watkins received her MBA from Oklahoma City University and is an adjunct marketing professor there. She and her husband Hardy, who is the executive director of Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, have two children, Ford, five and, Caroline, four.