Diana Watkins named vice president for NOC Stillwater

STILLWATER —  Diana Watkins, currently serving as instructor in language arts at NOC Stillwater, has been named vice president for NOC Stillwater, replacing Sherry Alexander. She will assume her new duties March 25.

Watkins’ office is located in the new NOC Stillwater classroom building and will report directly to NOC President Dr. Cheryl Evans.  As vice president, she will serve as a member of the NOC Executive Council and provide vision, leadership and strategic direction for NOC operations in Stillwater.

She will work collaboratively with others and provide leadership in the planning, organizing and follow-through of the Stillwater campus’s educational offerings for NOC, a multi-campus institution. Watkins will also represent the institution to a variety of constituencies and promote the overall mission of the college; and will be responsible for ensuring the success of the NOC/OSU Gateway Program.

Dr. Evans announced during the NOC Board of Regents meeting that she is excited for Watkins to join the NOC executive team.

“I am pleased that the search committee unanimously selected an incredible internal candidate to lead the NOC Stillwater,” Dr. Evans said. “I know Diana Watkins to be a natural leader and a student centered employee.  She understands the important mission of the NOC/OSU Gateway Program.  I am confident that she is the right person at the right time to help grow the student population and work with our partners at OSU to help more students start their higher education in Stillwater and finish orange.”

Born in Stillwater and raised in Perry, Diana Morris Watkins began her educational career teaching high school English in Ardmore, Oklahoma.  Her move to post-secondary education came in 2000 when she joined the Oklahoma State University Honors Program, now Honors College, as an academic counselor.

Her tenure at the NOC/OSU Gateway Program began in 2005 as an adjunct instructor in the Language Arts Department.  Since joining that department full-time in 2007, she has been an active member of the NOC community, serving on a number of committees and as sponsor of the Stillwater President’s Leadership Council. Watkins currently serves on the 2019-2023 Strategic Planning Task Force.

Extremely passionate about student success, Watkins is a First Gen Mentor at NOC, a program designed to assist students who are the first in their families to attend college. She has traveled with NOC students to Washington, D.C., to Europe on a number of short-term study tours and has taught on short-term residential programs in London, England and Dublin, Ireland. Watkins developed the NOC Honors Program in an effort to facilitate the successful transfer of NOC students into the OSU Honors College. She has presented at the National Association of Developmental Education Conference and the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference.

Watkins received her master’s degree in Teaching, Learning and Leadership from Oklahoma State University.  Her bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education is an Honors Program Degree from OSU.

Watkins and her husband Wade, NOC’s Dean of Global Education, live in Stillwater with their daughter, Emma, a Stillwater High School senior. A four-time Semester at Sea participant, Watkins enjoys travel, reading, running, and attending concerts and theatre performances.

Watkins said, “As a 14-year member of the Northern family, I have witnessed the life changing impact the NOC/OSU Gateway Program has on students and am thrilled to be taking on this new role which will allow me to work with our amazing faculty and staff as we prepare students to finish Orange.”