Republican Derrel Fincher announced Monday he is running for House District 11. The seat is currently held by Earl Sears who is term limited. A graduate of Bartlesville Sooner High School and Oklahoma State University, Fincher has proven career expertise in industry, education, technology, and public service.
Fincher said, “We need to act now to make positive change. We need new thinking and certainly better judgement at the capitol. We cannot solve the problems of now and the future with the same mentality that created these problems.”
Like many in District 11, Fincher has U.S. and international experience. With oilfield service company Schlumberger, Fincher worked in the oilfields of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Wyoming as a field engineer, and as a manufacturing engineer and engineering project manager in Texas. He also served as an engineering manager at Schlumberger’s Japan research and engineering facility charged with producing first-in-the-world downhole tools. During this time, he earned a master’s degree in engineering from Utah State University.
Most recently, Fincher worked in several Oklahoma state agencies to help schools across the state improve classroom technology and their connection to the digital world. He also worked with health care providers to improve their ability to remotely deliver critical services to their patients. Fincher continued, “I intend to use my experience of working in schools and business, to move Oklahoma toward a more prosperous tomorrow. We must embrace the traditional values of our community, the innovation of our business leaders, and the research of our education leaders to correct the course of this great state.”
Fincher spent many years teaching and leading in schools, and he earned advanced degrees in education to complement his degrees in engineering. “Our education system requires representatives who truly understand how education in Oklahoma works, what happens in the classroom, and what local control means. We also need representatives who can work on modernizing our education system to be ready for our future students’ needs. I will be that representative,” Fincher said.
Fincher’s wife of 39 years, Bridgette, is a thirty-one-year veteran of K-12 classroom teaching. She left the classroom to earn a doctorate from the University of Arkansas and is now an elementary science and mathematics university professor preparing future teachers. Both are proud parents and proud grandparents of their fifth-generation Bartian grandchildren, and they are active members at First Presbyterian church.
Please visit fincherforhouse.org for more information.
