Fallin appoints Natalie Shirley to OU Board of Regents

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Gov. Mary Fallin has appointed a former member of her cabinet to the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents.

Fallin says in a news release that Natalie Shirley will serve a seven-year term on the board that oversees OU, Cameron University and Rogers State University, pending state Senate approval.

Shirley is a former president of Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City and spent three years as Fallin’s secretary of education and workforce development. She resigned in January to become president and CEO of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

OU Regent Clay Bennett was originally reappointed to the board, but asked for a shorter term and was instead appointed to fill the unexpired term of Kirk Humphreys.

Humphreys resigned in January after he compared gay people to pedophiles during a local TV show.