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Home › News › 2006 › Southeastern to Honor Three Distinguished Alumni at Homecoming

Dr. Jimmy Ballard is a Bryan County native who grew up in Silo and graduated from Silo High School in 1984. He graduated from Southeastern in 1988 with majors in Chemistry and Biology. While at SOSU, he developed a passion for science and biomedical research. He credits many former Southeastern professors for their teaching skills and compassionate interest in their students.

In 1993, Dr. Ballard he earned his Ph.D. in the field of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Oklahoma. He served as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and in 1997 joined the faculty at OU. He is now a Presidential Professor in the College of Medicine.

His accomplishments include numerous publications on anthrax disease and bio-terrorism. His research has brought more than $5 million dollars in federal funding to Oklahoma. He has served on numerous boards and commissions and as a reviewer for prominent scientific journals.

Billie Letts, a 1975 graduate of Southeastern, has skyrocketed to national and international recognition since starting her first novel at age 54. The award-winning author is a native Oklahoman who was born in Tulsa. She retired as an English instructor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 1995, is the author of four screenplays, including the recently filmed “Veritas, Prince of Truth,” and numerous short stories. “Where The Heart Is” was her first novel and it reached the coveted No. 1 slot on The New York Times’ paperback bestseller list.

Her other novels are “Honk And Holler Opening Soon” and “Shoot The Moon.”

“Where The Heart Is” has been published in 14 countries with more than three million copies sold and was made into a movie by 20th Century Fox in 2000.

Letts won the prestigious Walker Percy Literary Award at the 1994 New Orleans Writers Conference and the Oklahoma Book Award for fiction in 1996 and 1999. “Honk and Holler Opening Soon” was chosen as the “Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma” book in 2004.

Fans of Letts’ works will have the opportunity to obtain autographed copies of her books at a book signing on Friday, Oct. 13, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. in the SOSU Fine Arts Recital Hall.

Dr. Joe Wiley was named president of Rogers State University on January 1, 1999. RSU was accredited as a four-year, baccalaureate-granting university in August 2000. He provided leadership during the transition, and in 2002 earned the John L. Blackburn Award for Exemplary Administrative Leadership from the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). This is the most prestigious award given by the AAUA and is the nation’s single-highest honor given to a university administrator.

A native of Ardmore, Okla., he graduated from AHS in 1968. He received his B.S. from Southeastern in 1972; his M.S. from the University of Arkansas in 1974; and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Arkansas in 1979. He was a Professor and Chair of the Computer Science Department at SOSU from 1981 to 1988. He served as Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs at SOSU from 1995 to 1998, when he accepted the position as president of RSU.

Dr. Wiley currently serves as Chairman of the 24-member Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Council of Presidents.

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