Southeastern communications director elected vice chair of state council

August 3, 2022

By UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern’s Alan Burton was recently elected vice chairman of the Communicators Council, a statewide panel of chief public relations professionals from Oklahoma colleges, universities, technical branches and higher education programs.

Burton is special assistant to the president/director of university communications at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and has been associated with the Durant school for 22 years.

Scott Cloud, director of public information at Northern Oklahoma College, was elected chair of the Council’s Executive Committee for 2022-23.

The Communicators Council serves as a forum where higher education public relations professionals meet to discuss matters of common interest and implement strategies designed to communicate the benefits Oklahoma and Oklahomans receive from the state’s investment in its higher education system. The Council develops and implements strategies that convey the value, quality, efficiency, diversity and unity of the state system of higher education.

The Council is a key advisor to the chancellor, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education staff, and other state officials. It holds monthly meetings at the State Regents office in Oklahoma City.

Burton is a graduate of Sherman High School, Grayson College, and Texas Tech University. He is the author of eight books, with the most recent – “Vol. II Squib-Kick It To A Fat Guy…and 701 more memorable quotes from the playbook of Coach Mike Leach’’ – being published in 2021.

He is a former sports editor of the “Sherman Democrat,’’ and was also public information officer for the Sherman Independent School District for 11 years, before joining the staff at Southeastern in 1999. His writing has earned awards from the Associated Press, the Texas School Public Relations Association, and Oklahoma College Public Relations Association.