Sean Burrage will take office as Oklahoma’s 10th chancellor of public higher education on Dec. 2, 2024. He succeeds Chancellor Allison D. Garrett, who will retire Dec. 1.
Chancellor-Elect Burrage is an educator, civic leader and attorney. He previously served as vice president for executive affairs and chief of staff at the University of Oklahoma, where he was responsible for leading and directing strategic projects, including matters involving university officials, community, and government leaders.
He is a past president of Southeastern Oklahoma State University (SEOSU) in Durant and was managing partner with the Taylor Burrage Law Firm in Claremore. He served two terms in the Oklahoma State Senate, representing Rogers and Mayes counties, during which he served as minority floor leader from 2011-14.
Under Burrage’s leadership, SEOSU streamlined operations, including establishing a shared vice president position with Murray State College, and significantly increased both undergraduate and graduate enrollment and annual giving.
During his tenure as a state senator, Burrage represented approximately 80,000 constituents, authored or co-authored over 50 bills that were enacted into law, and served on several legislative committees and task forces, including the 2008 legislative task force on Oklahoma’s Promise. In 2007, he was voted the Higher Education Alumni Council’s “Best Newcomer Legislator of the Year” and was named “2013 Legislator of the Year’’ by the Oklahoma Association for Justice.
Burrage has been a member of numerous boards, councils and committees, including the State Regents’ Blueprint 2030 Strategic Planning Committee and the 2017 Task Force on the Future of Higher Education; Gov. Mary Fallin’s Education Advisory Committee; the Rogers State University Foundation; the University Hospitals Authority and Trust; the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence; the Durant Economic Development Council; and the Durant Industrial Authority Board. He served as associate bar examiner for the Oklahoma Bar Association and was named among the Best Lawyers in America and as a Super Lawyer, both designations conferred by his peers. He was a Litigation Counsel of America Fellow and an Aspen-Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership.
Born in Durant and raised in Antlers, Burrage is a member of the Choctaw Nation and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a juris doctorate from OU. He and his wife, Julie, a Tulsa native and nonprofit consultant, have four sons.
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