The Norman Transcript

Barbara Wright and Anna-Mary Suggs are not only professional and have good business sense, they both contribute a lot to the Norman community.

The both belong to the American Business and Professional Women and have been chosen by their colleagues as the 2007 American Business and Professional Woman of the Year.

Wright is a member of the Norman American Business and Professional Women. She is a licensed professional counselor with the Norman Behavioral Health Group and is a certified child and parenting specialist and an authority in the field of child development.

She has been married for 36 years and her children have recently completed college and graduate school. She has won the "You Made a Difference Award" for outstanding faculty at Tulsa Community College and "Outstanding Service Award" from the Mental Health Association in Tulsa. She appears on local television and radio and regularly is interviewed by a variety of newspapers and other publications.

She has a wide range of experience, seeing children in both in-patient and out-patient settings. Her services include working with mild behavioral disturbances to severe adjustment problems such as death or divorce, autistic spectrum disorders, cancer, burns, diabetes, grief, anxiety, mood disorders, learning problems and attention span issues. She works with preschool children through teenagers and their parents.

Wright received her bachelor of science in education and master's degree in guidance and counseling from the University of Tulsa. She has taken several doctorate level classes in psychology at Oklahoma State Univeristy. She has been in private practice, worked at Hillcrest and Children's medical centers in Tulsa, has taught at Tulsa Community College and was a teacher, counselor and adminsitrator in the Broken Arrow Public Schools. She also is an adjunct instructor with The University of Oklahoma's Center for Early Childhood Professional Development and OU's Health Sciences Center.

Her memberships include American Counseling Association, Oklahoma Counseling Association, Parenting Education Network, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Attachment Network, Kappa Delta, Kappa Kappa Iota, Oklahoma Family Resource Coalition, Friends of Early Childhood Education, Professional Board Member of Central Oklahoma CHADD and Mental Health Association in Tulsa.

She serves on the Institutional Review Board of Integris Southwest Medical Center. She is a board member of the Oklahoma Family Resource Coalition and is participating in the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative to help reduce divorce rates in Oklahoma. She does many public speaking engagements. She has coordinated and taught staff development and training sessions for many organizations, including The University of Tulsa School for Gifted Children, Mental Health Association in Tulsa, Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, National Resource Center for Youth, Friends of Early Childhood Education, Oklahoma School Nurse's Association, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), Mother's of Preschoolers, CHADD (Children and Adults Having Attention Deficit Disorders) and many church and school related parenting groups.

Suggs is the Norman Hi-Noon American Business and Progessional Woman of the Year. She has been the executive director of the Norman Chamber of Commerce since 1990 and has been a resident of Norman since 1972.

She is is a CPA and was a partner in the firm of Murrell, Hall, McIntosh -- Company, where she was employed 14 years prior to coming to the Chamber.

Going into chamber work was Suggs' second major career change. She earned a bachelor's degree in theatre from Brandeis University in 1970 and worked in professional theatre prior to receiving her accounting training in the Masters of Accountancy program at OU in the early seventies.

At the Chamber, Suggs staffs many committees including the Executive Committed, Finance Committee, Aviation Committee, Transportation Committee, Cleveland County Business -- Industry Council, Weather Committee, and most recently the Imagine Norman initiative.

As executive director, Suggs has hired and centered countless staff members, plugging them into the community and acting as a stepping stone to further their careers.

She is active in the community through her work with the chamber and a variety of other organizations.Suggs is a member of the board of the Norman Economic Development Coalition, the board of the Cleveland County Workforce Development, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Michael F. Price College of Business and the Oklahoma Commission on Teacher Preparation. She also values the opportunity she had to serve the community tl?ough her five years on the Norman Regional Hospital Authority. She is a member of the Norman Rotary Club.

As a six-year survivor, she is also a supporter of charities benefiting breast cancer research.

Suggs has been married to Charley for 38 years. Her interests and hobbies include gardening, the arts, Russian wolfhounds and baking bread from scratch.