ADA, Okla. – East Central University (ECU), in conjunction with the ECU Black Alumni Association (BAA), recently hosted the Annual Alumni Gala Dinner and Dance during Homecoming weekend inside the Chickasaw Business and Conference Center.

The 2025 event featured the presentation of one ECU Distinguished Alumni Award and three BAA Scholarship recipients as well as this year’s ECU Rising Star Awards presented to Andrea Sifers, Dr. Carlee Henderson Cox and Samuel Malchar.

Sifers is a 2009 graduate of ECU, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education. She later returned to earn her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Education Administration in 2019.

“I am honored and humbled to receive the Rising Star Award from East Central University,” said Sifers during her acceptance speech. “To be recognized by the place that helped shape me so much into who I am today is incredibly meaningful. When I walked through the doors of ECU, I had dreams but also a lot of questions. It was the faculty, my peers and the support of this community that gave me the confidence to pursue those dreams with determination and heart.”

Sifers has been an educator for sixteen years, nine as a classroom teacher and seven as an elementary principal with the Fort Gibson Public School system.

She has been the State Representative from Oklahoma to the National Association of Elementary School Principals since 2023. In this role, Sifers gets the opportunity to tell leaders from across the country the great things that are happening in Oklahoma classrooms, as well as advocate for students and public school funding.

Sifers is currently enrolled with ECU once again as a member of the university’s first Doctoral program in Rural Education.

Her husband, Dusty, is the principal at Tahlequah Middle School and she has one son, Cooper, who is a senior at Fort Gibson High School.

“I’m proud to be a Tiger, even prouder to represent the legacy of East Central University.”

Cutline: ECU President Wendell Godwin presents the 2025 Rising Star Award to Andrea Sifers.

 

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