Of course this is, first and foremost, a story about Kelley Barnes. It’s also more: a story of friendships, life and death, beginnings and endings, giving our time and attention to causes greater than ourselves. Heartbreak and joy.

As Dr. Kelli Mosteller, incoming executive director and CEO of Oklahoma City’s First Americans Museum (FAM), chats with Luxiere from her office at Harvard University, it’s clear that Mosteller—whose job was once “auntie for the eagles at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Eagle Aviary”—is precisely the right person to meet this moment in FAM’s existence.

Maud, Oklahoma, by some stroke of cosmic genius, is the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll royalty. Wanda LaVonne Jackson was born on Oct. 20, 1937, the only child of Tom and Nellie Jackson. Her dad, an amateur musician, held a variety of jobs — delivery driver, gas station attendant and cab driver among them.

Trisha Finnegan is prone to bold, life-changing moves, moments of exuberance and using quirky ’80s slang like “super rad.” Her X (formerly Twitter) handle is peppy: @DashOfGood. Seismic shifts and embracing optimism are her jam. Making positive change is her life’s purpose and her energy crackles with intensity. This is a woman whose desire to do good and live her life on her own terms has led her to upend (almost) everything — twice.

Teena Belcik is living proof that life loves to laugh at our best-laid plans, like Belcik’s roadmap for her first 100 days as president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County. She submitted her meticulous plan to her board in February 2020, only to turn around and toss it in the bin when the world shut down on March 16. Then, Belcik and team jumped into action — and they’re still running.

Looking back, it’s clear as a bell that City Rescue Mission President and CEO Erin Goodin was born to serve. It’s her calling; where she feels she’s meant to be. In elementary school, she was the child who raised her hand to be partnered with the children in special ed classes who needed the most help. Today, she’s parlayed that passion — and that compassion — into a career that allows her to help thousands of the most vulnerable Oklahomans find shelter, kindness and the strength to push through.

Debbie Espinosa radiates a beautiful, serene, buoyant peace — even in a Zoom interview that’s late on a busy day, at the end of a super hectic week. She laughs easily, shares personal stories unreservedly and seeks nothing more than to be of service, however the Divine should choose to place her.

Sody Clements, the current and five-time mayor of Nichols Hills, dearly loves her hometown. “When I was growing up, there were 44 children on my one block, and we were all in and out of each other’s houses,”

The historic investiture in November 2022 of the 11th president of Oklahoma City Community College, Dr. Mautra Staley Jones, marked the moment the first woman, and the first person of color, took the helm of the 50-year-old institution.

Debby Hampton is one of those people who, when she tells what kind of kid she was growing up, it makes perfect sense. The woman is a born leader and connector. She’s just wrapped her 12th year as president and CEO of United Way of Central Oklahoma, after having spent 16 years as CEO at American Red Cross of Oklahoma. In between, she spent four years leading the charge at the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits.

Dr. Kayse Shrum became the first female president of Oklahoma State University on July 1, 2021. She is, frankly, fascinating: She’s a compassionate leader, an impressive fundraiser, a tireless champion and role model for young people and someone whose small-town Oklahoma roots run deep. Growing up in Coweta, near Tulsa, Shrum and her sister heard from their parents that if they worked hard enough, they could do anything.

In 2013, Cecilia Robinson-Woods, a fourth-generation educator, returned home to Oklahoma City to become the superintendent of a then-struggling Millwood Public School District. Under her leadership, Millwood Public Schools has become one of the first “Charter Conversion” schools in the state.

You’ve seen her in the media, social and otherwise, easily hundreds of times: petite, beautifully turned-out and smiling, graciously attending events, dinners, grand openings, Thunder games and even dinner with Martha Stewart at Cheever’s Café with her husband, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

Dr. Valerie Thompson is the CEO of Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City, Inc., which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. Thompson came to the agency in 1993, and was initially selected to serve as director of its Minority Business Development Center, although she wasn’t sure about abandoning her blossoming finance career to work in the nonprofit sector.

If a pregnant Kim Garrett hadn’t had a fierce craving for brownies, Oklahoma City’s groundbreaking nonprofit collaborative, Palomar Family Justice Center, might not exist. It’s true. Well, it was the brownies, plus her expertise and diligence.

In case you were wondering, 1950s South Bend, Indiana, was not a hotbed of activity for the women’s empowerment movement. South Bend women, generally limited to a handful of career choices acceptable for ladies, tended to become teachers or nurses. Little girls growing up then and there had likely never seen or heard of a woman who was, say, a scientist or a doctor.

Because she’s so lithe, beautifully dressed and elegant, it would be easy to miss Ann Gilliland Felton’s defining trait. It’s her empathy. A close second? Her tenacity. This woman has been the driving force behind Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity and its executive director for more than three decades, and under her watch the nonprofit has built more than 1,000 homes for Oklahomans.

Fewer than 900 people call Pond Creek home, and, when James was growing up, few kids in her class aspired to be doctors. But one definitely did. “I always knew I wanted to be a physician,” Dr. James says. Dr. Judith James is the Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.