Oklahoma State School Boards Association
Dr. Keith Ballard
Executive Director
Oklahoma State School Boards Association
Dr. Keith Ballard is the executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. He has more than 35 years of service in public education, having retired as superintendent of Claremore, Oklahoma, Public Schools before assuming his position with the OSSBA on January 1, 2000.
Although he has lived in Oklahoma for his entire professional career, Ballard is a native of Kiowa, Kansas, where he attended K-12. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and Speech from Fort Hays Kansas State University in Hays, Kansas; a Master’s Degree as a reading specialist from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma; and a Doctorate in Educational Administration from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
Ballard began his education career as a teacher in the Coweta, Oklahoma, Public Schools in 1972. After moving to Oologah, Oklahoma, in 1974, he taught and served in several administrative positions and served as Oologah superintendent from 1986 until 1992, when he moved to Claremore. He has also served as an adjunct professor of school law for Southern Nazarene University, Tulsa and Oklahoma City branches, and Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. He currently serves as a professor in Educational Leadership at the University of Oklahoma. Ballard currently serves on the State Superintendent’s Advisory Council, as past chairman of the Oklahoma Education Coalition, and as past chairperson of the Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust. He has also served on the United Suburban Schools Association Executive Committee, where he was the 1996-97 president. In addition, he served on the executive committee of the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators, where he served as president in 1997-98. His honors include being named as one of the National School Boards Association’s “Executive Educator 100” in 1988, “Who’s Who in American Education” and “Who’s Who Among Top Executives.”
His wife Christie is a retired school librarian and works part-time as the executive director of the Rogers County Literacy Council. They have three children: Matthew is an attorney in Claremore, Oklahoma, and his wife Traci, also an attorney, works in the Educational Leadership program at OU-Tulsa; daughter Michelle is a kindergarten teacher in Rio Rancho, New Mexico; and son Michael is a teacher in Sweden. Keith and Christie have two grandchildren, Aston Lewis Andrews and Kizer Isabella Ballard.