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OUR EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
Jim O'Brien
THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Hired in October, 2005, Jim O’Brien has definitely made a difference in the
Center
of
Family Love
. Not only is
Jim O’Brien a Catholic, he also has a solid background in accounting and finance
as well as experience administering a non-profit organization. Besides being the
first Catholic to lead the Center, he’s also the first executive director to
actually live in Okarche. He and his wife moved to the small tradition-rich
farming community on the
Kingfisher-Canadian
County
line shortly after he was hired.
The new director pokes his head into the Center at all hours of the day and is
already on a first name basis with employees and residents.
Moving from
Chickasha
,
Oklahoma
, O’Brien served as
executive director of a non-profit organization known as Special Young Adults.
He was in that position for five years and before that served as director of a
similar organization in
Duncan
. Before that he had been living in
Texas
and
working for Halliburton. The energy giant then transferred him to
Duncan
. Soon after the
move the bottom fell out of the energy sector and O’Brien along with 400 other
Halliburton workers joined the ranks of the unemployed. Looking back, O’Brien
said it was the best thing that ever happened to him, in terms of his
career.
“I got involved with not-for-profits and working with and for people and I
have loved it ever since,” he said.
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