Celebrating Our Board of Education

January is School Board Appreciation Month! 

We're thrilled to chat with Board of Education President, Mark Griffin. He shares his career path and gives an inside look at how the board works to make sure they keep students at the forefront of decisions.

Transcript

Announcer: From Tulsa Tech, helping you make your own path with insights and information about the world of career training, the Tech Times Podcast starts right now.

Ryan Williams (Host): Hey everyone, welcome to the Tech Times podcast. Welcome to 2026 and the first episode of the New Year. I'm your host, Ryan Williams. In case you didn't know, January is also School Board Appreciation Month and at Tulsa Tech we are incredibly thankful for our amazing and dedicated board of education members joining us to chat today about all things district policy and procedures.

Ryan Williams (Host): Just kidding, but definitely all things related to our governance is our board president. Mr. Mark Griffin, welcome. Thanks for joining us. 

Mark Griffin: Ryan, thank you for inviting me. This is, , gonna be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it. 

Ryan Williams (Host): I hope so. Let's get started by getting to know you just a little bit.

Ryan Williams (Host): You're in a retired Tulsa tech instructor who spent many years in education, both in the classroom and now in leadership. What inspired you to become a teacher? 

Mark Griffin: It was never anything that I really set out intentionally to do. My dad was in education. Okay. And I really wasn't that interested in wearing dad's clothes.

Mark Griffin: But, a series of events. I am, I'm big into music and I'm big into airplanes. And so I guess I wanted to be a musical pilot. I don't know,

Ryan Williams (Host): that's, yeah, that's a dichotomy. 

Mark Griffin: I still wonder when I grow up, what I might become, and that may still be it. But, , at any rate of going through school, , a young starving student at University of Tulsa, a, what happened was a, , we had a new band director, , come in over at Nathan Hale High School.

Mark Griffin: He was from a smaller program in this huge operation was, he was very successful and great teacher, but just needed a little bit of help just with the scope of this program. Sure. So he was looking for an assistant band director, someone to come in and help him out during the, they were paying actual money and I needed some of that as usual.

Mark Griffin: And, and with the musical battle that might be fun. And so that's was my first kind of entree in that thing. And I hate to say it, but that started. Started making an itch that needed to be scratched when I started to realize, Hey, you know what? There's something to this teaching thing, and, really inspired me.

Mark Griffin: I didn't go directly, I didn't just change directions immediately. It was a sort of a process. , My major. Training is more an RF electoral engineering, sp specifically RF engineering. So anything that has to do with a radio wave, I'm your guy. And that's what I was actually working on. It was at Tulsa Public Schools full-time in those days, designing cable TV systems.

Mark Griffin: Actually. But, , as it worked out, I, we also had about maybe 30 or so, these newly invented little personal computer things. They were mostly the radio shacks. We had a handful of the really old Apple two plus machines. Which was the only difference between that and the original Apple, which was a kit you built yourself, was that these were actually preassembled.

Mark Griffin: They were already built for you. . You didn't have to solder 'em together. But anyway, long story. , But, just to help out, my buddy who was working on those and needed to, was getting a little behind and needed some help. I got into that and before long I just happened to wake up one morning, look in the mirror, and I thought, my gosh, you've become a geek.

Ryan Williams (Host): Now you got into the family business. 

Mark Griffin: You did. And so anyway, so that was the process. I, and but anyway, ultimately that got me and Dr. Lemley actually called me up one day. I was involved pretty heavily with Apple at the time 'cause we were supporting all of our own computers.

Mark Griffin: So I had gone down and gotten affiliated with any kind of part-time, if you will, with Apple. But, anyway, having gained some of that expertise, Dr. Lemley asked, Hey, we're gonna, we wanna start teaching those, then we, there's never gonna. These aren't really real computers. Real computers have punch cards and tape drives and all this that look like NASA take up a whole room.

Mark Griffin: This might be a really great part-time program if you would be interested in doing that. And. I said certainly would. So that was my entree at Tulsa Tech. That was probably where I crossed the Rubicon because never looked back. Came fulltime at Tulsa Tech in, the late nineties and ultimately got involved in the Cisco Academy program, which is where I did.

Mark Griffin: And as I was actually involved in that, primarily focused on teaching teachers. And supporting teachers how to do this, but obviously loved working with the students. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Yeah. 

Mark Griffin: So anyway, so that was what I did up until the end of my classroom career. The opportunity to move into this role, occurred at the very beautiful little dovetail with that.

Mark Griffin: And anyway, what a, an honor, a blessing. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be able to serve in this capacity now. 

Ryan Williams (Host): But it's amazing how, you thought at one point you were gonna be a pilot musician, and then all those little curve balls turned it into a really great career. 

Mark Griffin: Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan Williams (Host): Looking back, speaking of, what's a memorable moment from your teaching career that still makes you smile today? 

Mark Griffin: Wow. I don't know. I, there's so many that I could go on. I, oh boy. They, I guess probably all together I would just quantify it as the fact that to this good day, and I'm so blessed for this, I still hear from former students.

Mark Griffin: And, to have known I've been able to make a great impact. I think one of my favorite incidents, maybe I can think of top of my head and say they were dozens, but one of 'em was, , we, , we had, . It was at Riverside. A lot of things we do were very competitive. We had our pumpkin contest, you know Falls Festival.

Mark Griffin: We had the holiday decorations around the, holidays and different things like that. And it became very competitive on these things 

Ryan Williams (Host): for sure. 

Mark Griffin: So one of my favorite ones, we took a Griswold approach and tried to get as many lights as we could get without blowing all the circuit breakers out.

Mark Griffin: But one of my colleagues though, and I thought this was a great one, had, Had set up, had a chalk outline of a reindeer on the floor, and then a table set up, with, , carefully wrapped fresh freshly, like a meat market. And it was like Rudolph rump roast. And blitz and burgers and thought that was pretty, that's pleasure.

Mark Griffin: Those kinds of things. I love that. But the, . Yeah. One great incident was, , one of my, , one of my students had, , had gone into a summer internship and a company here, a great company here in Tulsa, was doing extremely well. And, anyway, she would call occasionally needing some help to talk her through some things, but it was going really great.

Mark Griffin: She called me, it was in August about the time school was getting ready to start, and she called me in tears and she goes the, this, girl I shared the office with. She the other intern. They came in and gave her a box to get her stuff and told her thank you and have a nice life and all.

Mark Griffin: And then she was in there, and she was, I guess I'm next. And I said hang on. I'm not gonna say I had inside information, but I did. But anyway, so what happened in her case was her boss came in and said we've really enjoyed having you here this summer. , How about if, we would like you to stay and we will be willing to pay you?

Mark Griffin: 'cause she was going on to, to, work on her bachelor's degree. We'll be more than happy to keep you on board. We'd like to have you work for us. We'll pay your tuition. And support you and . And that and everything. If you'll stay, which she did and so anyway, and so those kinds of things that you look back on, you realize that you've been able to play some part anyway and getting somebody's life established, really launched and really going.

Mark Griffin: And I can think of so many of those that the most satisfying thing. 

Ryan Williams (Host): And we have thousands of those stories we do every single year here at Tulsa Tech. and, I'm not in the classroom, but you get to see. The impact that the institution, the district has. For all of those students. And it's so tremendous to see each every year.

Mark Griffin: It is, and I often comment about how much I miss the classroom because I miss that interaction with the students and also with my teacher colleagues. I miss that, part as well. A great camaraderie there. But I, one of the things we do in our board meetings that, that, we got start a few years back.

Mark Griffin: Is that we begin all of our board meetings with a pledge of allegiance and moment of silence led by some of our students. And that to me is so important and so focusing because some of my, I understand it 'cause I lived that life for many years. Some of my colleagues come from a little bit different perspective and I said they, they'll appreciate and understand it.

Mark Griffin: But to actually have those students there, to my mind it always, when I can see them, I can see their faces and their teachers. The, then keeping the faces of our students and our faculty and staff in our minds when we are making the decisions we make is, so fundamental that if we're not doing that, we're not doing our job.

Ryan Williams (Host): Sure. 

Mark Griffin: And so having those students and access to those students, it's so vital. And so that's, 

Ryan Williams (Host): yeah. And it's always so great to see them, . Really open up and talk about their programs and what their plans are for the future. And , it's really great to hear those stories as well. 

Mark Griffin: It's very enthusiastic.

Mark Griffin: I love their enthusiasm, which is infectious. It's very infectious and also very affirming because we get to understand, at least in seeing these small snapshots, we're doing what we need to be doing. . We're doing. . Vital. 

Ryan Williams (Host): How does your classroom experience shape your approach to your role on the board today?

Mark Griffin: I guess I segued into that and it's, simply because I just try to look at everything through that lens and try to understand how does this affect, the teacher in the classroom, how does this filter down to the student? I've had something that has been a mantra of mine all along for, a long time since I've been doing this.

Mark Griffin: This role is that if you cannot draw a straight line. Direct straight line from what you do to a student in a seat in a classroom, we need to really contemplate how necessary you are to this organization that has frightened some people in some ways. But really and truly. But if you stop and think about it, the whole point of saying something that, that bold is simply to make all of us stop and focus and reflect on just what it is.

Mark Griffin: You have an enormous impact on students in the classroom, Ryan, you and your colleagues here, because many of the things you do are the things that are ultimately going to attract students to come here. And you're also being able to tell our story to others. In the community so we get the word out.

Mark Griffin: We couldn't do that. Those students wouldn't be in those seats in the classroom doing what they're doing, if not for you. So I can very easily see that line. And what you do. And I appreciate that. But for everybody to start thinking in those terms, that's, fundamental. 

Ryan Williams (Host): I appreciate you outlining that connection.

Ryan Williams (Host): 'cause we see it every day, but maybe not everybody does so well. 

Mark Griffin: It's believe me, we do and we appreciate it. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Yeah. All of the pieces of a puzzle. Yeah. Make the one big That's right. , Thing come together. 

Mark Griffin: There's a lot of pieces. 

Ryan Williams (Host): That's right. That's right. What part of serving on the board has been the most rewarding for you?

Mark Griffin: Oh, wow. Again it's hard to say. I think some of the things that are most, in some ways very satisfying, is the fact that I have led the facilities committee for. Almost my entire time here and have built everything from storage sheds to this enormous, , building that's coming across here at Lemley and all these, that has been very satisfying.

Mark Griffin: But I think more I think that the best thing to me is to understand. , I, , recently attended, , the A CTE National Conference, and I'll tell you what really boosts me is to look around at A CTE. To realize, first of all, the incredible leadership role that Oklahoma plays nationally in the in, in career tech.

Mark Griffin: And then to also reflect on how Tulsa Tech has such a strong leadership role in the state of Oklahoma. And I am so honored to be a part of that and to keep that to, to true. And, that we are in fact probably the leading, it's probably not a stretch to say the leading career tech in the entire United States, we're the very, the tip we're the, we breaking the water on that other folks around the country are looking to us to see how we are doing things and what we're doing and how we're.

Mark Griffin: Moving around. And so we certainly can learn a lot from others, but so many people tend to look at us first for that kind of a thing. How. Incredibly satisfying it is to know that I can place them even a very small part in making that possible. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Hopefully our staff and everybody recognizes that as well, and they walk around with some pride.

Ryan Williams (Host): Let's talk a little bit more about this. Committee work. I don't think a lot of people realize that our seven elected board members also serve on committees. Talk a little bit about some of those committees and how they work. 

Mark Griffin: Yeah, absolutely. I thank you so much, Ryan, for mentioning that.

Mark Griffin: Yeah, because probably I would call it the heavy lifting, , that we do takes place in, committees. Since there are seven of us, we can only have three of us present in any one place at any one time. So that. It doesn't constitute a quorum, which would require open meeting laws that, those sort of things to be involved.

Ryan Williams (Host): So all the rules and. All the rules and regulations and things. Yeah, of course. 

Mark Griffin: Yeah. Yeah. So it is interesting to reflect on the regulation, the how, the regulatory environment we operate in and have comply with. And certainly, sunshine laws and things like that. Open, open records, open meetings and all those . Those things. But, so we have several committees dealing with finance, dealing with, . With policy, obviously, which is the heart and soul to some extent of what we do. Facilities where we take care of buildings and property and including building new ones, but even more significantly taking care of the ones that we have which is vital in incredibly important.

Mark Griffin: , And, , who am I'm leaving one out off the top of my head here. I'm gonna feel really stupid and I remember. We mentioned, programs go right out loud. , We try to get people on those committees who have some involvements, some backgrounds in those. And, but a lot of the things talking about, I would call it the real weeds of this stuff, the real heavy lift that all takes place in, in the committee work.

Mark Griffin: And we spend a, honestly, sometimes an enormous amount of time, and effort devoted into those. A lot of research, a lot of things on policy and facilities and all of these programs and all these things as well. Enormous amount of time and effort and research and make sure that we're in the right place.

Mark Griffin: So what ultimately happens when the committee comes out and says, makes a recommendation to the board, that shows up as a motion basically before the rest of the board. But I think we have the level of confidence and with each other to know that if the committee thinks this is a good idea, there's been very little.

Mark Griffin: There is occasionally, at least for clarification, but there's very little. De debate or very little doubt among the other board members that if the committee. Recommends this is probably what we need to do because all that background work, hours and hours of background work has, been being placed.

Ryan Williams (Host): I'm sorry for all the cliches, but I think this is something where we can see that when people sing the same song, when they're rowing the boat the same way, you know all those cliches, yes. All that work in the backend really amplifies the outcomes. Of the work, once those decisions are made. So 

Mark Griffin: yeah, I agree.

Mark Griffin: And that is in, my role as president, I think probably the most significant thing that I want to accomplish and doing that is unity. Yeah. Establishing that unity of purpose and go even beyond that unity, but a real comradery and a real collegial kind of a so that we're not only. Members of the team, were all rolling the boat, but we're actually friends.

Mark Griffin: Sure. We actually like each other and we actually have the relationship 

Ryan Williams (Host): and it's like family, families disagree, but at the Of course, certain, at some point we all have to come together. Sure. 

Mark Griffin: And if in fact you wouldn't be, if, if we all agreed on everything, some of us are not very essential, are we?

Ryan Williams (Host): Sure. 

Ryan Williams (Host): As, someone who's seen education evolve, and we may be a bit biased here, of course, at Tulsa Tech, but how do you view the role of career and technical education training in preparing students for today's workforce? 

Mark Griffin: It, and is we're watching a thing right now that affirming what we've, I think we've been saying for.

Mark Griffin: 30, 40, 50 years now is our mantra is, our motto is make your own path. 

Mark Griffin: And we have to realize that there are a lot more pathways. We then might, sometimes everybody has, a certain sort of a paradigm and how they look at, what I wanna do when I grow up.

Mark Griffin: But there's an awful lot of wonderful ways and diverse ways to get there and to do that, and gracefully and importantly, the, I love, I gotta tell a sappy story, if you don't mind. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Oh, of course. 

Mark Griffin: A a rather prominent, well known physician had a problem on his plumbing problem.

Mark Griffin: Anyway, he called the plumber, and plumber, came out and fixed it and gave him his bill. And this physician looks, said, golly. man, said I've been, an orthopedic surgeon now for 25 years and I don't make this kind of money. And the plumber said when I was practicing medicine, I didn't either.

Mark Griffin: So that's there are a lot of paths and a lot of ways to get, but appreciating, talking about plumbers, I'll throw this out. People don't think about this. Plumbers are the very first piece of the public health. Puzzle. 

Mark Griffin: When you think about it,

Ryan Williams (Host): I remember this during the pandemic, they were doing all kinds of testing through the sewage system.

Ryan Williams (Host): Absolutely. Yeah. 

Mark Griffin: Yeah, absolutely. And we don't think about that. We have access to clean water, and we have a way to eliminate soil, water, dirty water out of our, and keep those separate. and think about that. That's, step one, 

Ryan Williams (Host): right? 

Mark Griffin: And, we contribute, I think a lot of things is thinking a little bit different about what we do, but the idea is that you do not have to have a bachelor's degree, to be successful.

Mark Griffin: You don't have to have a bachelor's degree to change the world. And, there are a lot of pathways and maybe there are some things that perhaps a degree down the road maybe is a good thing, but there are intermediate steps to achieve that. in fact, just recently had a a, one of our students I was talking about who led our Pledge of Allegiance in the board meeting is actually in a nursing bridge program.

Mark Griffin: So she has an extant set of skills and certification, but she's enrolled in this to help her advance on to another level, to the next level in her. Yeah. Career and more than likely we'll continue to do that progression. Being able to do that and to see things differently. Mike Rowe likes to say, the folks who make civilized life possible for the rest of us.

Mark Griffin: Sure. Very much a true statement. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Can you share a moment when you felt especially proud of the board's work, or a decision that made a real difference for students? 

Mark Griffin: a let me give you one and. This is close to my heart. I hope it's not too abstract or obstru, for you. But, the design process for our new building 

Ryan Williams (Host): Okay.

Mark Griffin: For the career education center that is right now, it's gigantic mud hole was defective dirt. Yeah. Long story. We'll talk about that sometime. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Yeah. 

Mark Griffin: At any rate, as I reflect on my teaching career. I realized what I was teaching at the end of my career hadn't, not only, hadn't been in invented, hadn't even been ideated when I began my teaching career.

Mark Griffin: And so to have watched that progression, to watch things develop and to be a part of that, over the years really inculcated in me this real desire to look. And part of the reason why and 'cause I started over at the original, as I mentioned, Lemley, campus, and built in 1965. And now by the time we're in the eighties and nineties, we built a brand new computer lab.

Mark Griffin: This is in the early 1990s. I think We built a brand new computer lab in there. Okay. Design the plan was it could hold like 20 computers. It had four electrical outlets. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Oh, no. 

Mark Griffin: Yeah. Which, because the, thinking, the thinking and a lot of the processes lagged tend to lag behind the state of the art and then the technology.

Mark Griffin: So yeah, so we had the world record number of power strips and extension course around. So anyway, but what I mentioned that, just to say with this new building that we're building, you gotta realize that we're spending the taxpayer's money. To do that and in order to exercise the best stewardship on that, okay, we have to provide the taxpayers with the best return on their investment.

Mark Griffin: We have to be able to take, this building is gonna last I hope, at least 50 years, and I hope that we will be able, 50 years from now, we'll be able to teach things in that building and have this building suitable to teach. Subjects and things and technologies that have not even been dreamed of where we sit now in the year 2026.

Mark Griffin: That and so how do you do that successfully? And that is what has been wonderful is those who've been involved in this, have shared that vision. My colleagues on the board have shared that. And so I won't know, I'll be long gone by the time we actually figure out if we were successful or not.

Mark Griffin: But I really hope that to me is one of the most satisfying things, we can able to serve, not just serve today's students, but we can serve the students who are gonna be coming along 20, 30, 40, who knows how many, 

Ryan Williams (Host): Hopefully in the first couple of years, once we see the completion of the building, we'll be able to see that pattern start to develop in those students.

Mark Griffin: So I, I appreciate that. Yeah. I look forward to that. 

Ryan Williams (Host): We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with Board of Education President Mark Griffin.

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Ryan Williams (Host): Okay, we are back. Before the break, we chatted a little about board President Mark Griffin's career as and as an elected board member. Mark, if you could go back and give advice to your first year teacher self, what would you say? 

Mark Griffin: Probably the thing and, I have passed this along to others as well as I've mentored them, the most important thing that you Can, can get. The most important thing you can have is one year of experience. As a first year teacher, I remember every blindsided, every time I turned around oh no. Oh no. I'm going, everybody else already takes this stuff for granted. That, skills locals are coming up and they're, what?

Mark Griffin: I didn't even know what that was. I did, but not, and there's so all these different things and all the different things that come at you from all these different directions and, so you just, the only way to understand that and to get through that. And to get on the same page as everybody else is just simply to walk that path for a good 12 months and to experience that and to, so that is probably the most important thing I can say.

Mark Griffin: Be patient, be prepared. you're, gonna get bopped and you're going to step in potholes and other stuff and it's just, it's an ongoing process. But having gotten through that first year. You're gonna it very quickly. You start to, to make it all work. You start to know, you get the feel for just the general flow of how it goes.

Mark Griffin: I would say one more thing too. A lot of people come in, especially new to the teaching field, we have a lot of people who are very successful in their professional careers who aren't necessarily teachers and, sometimes the, feeling that they can bring as well. I know how to.

Mark Griffin: To do this. I'm really good at what I do, but I don't know how am I gonna do as I'm trying to teach others how to do this. I was gonna 

Ryan Williams (Host): ask about the classroom management piece. Yeah. From people that are experts in their industry. That would be the thing that would scare me. 

Mark Griffin: Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

Mark Griffin: Yeah. not only the management 

Ryan Williams (Host): managing my classroom, but also then managing. 15 to 25 different personalities and things like that. 

Mark Griffin: Yeah. That process and how am I gonna get that? Can I get this across? And I always assure them very important. And this is a kinda another kind of mantra of mine. He or she who teaches learns twice.

Mark Griffin: You are not, so true. You know this stuff, you already know these things. That's so true. But yeah. Oh, absolutely. But the start gonna really come together when you start actually presenting this to others. Dealing with the questions, being gonna answer the questions. And don't be afraid to say, I'm not sure I have to.

Mark Griffin: That's okay. but, that challenge and that, so that is a little bit of reassurance. As you get into that process and you start to learn, you're gonna find you're learning as much as your students are. So that those would be the, I think, the, best words of guidance I could give to someone just coming in.

Mark Griffin: You need a year of experience and, the teaching process is going to establish and actually grow as a result of just simply having done it. 

Ryan Williams (Host): How do you stay hopeful and energized about the future of education and vis-a-vis the future of Tulsa Tech? 

Mark Griffin: I think, is number one to look at the kind of growth, the biggest problem not the biggest one of.

Mark Griffin: The biggest problems or issues that we, face on the board is the incredible growth and demand, to, look at the growth, the number of students we've served, students and clients. I will include that, over the, just the past few years has just been almost, it's almost exponential.

Mark Griffin: That growth and that need is going to continue. The demand is gonna continue to grow. The ability to try to stay ahead of that has really made us get real innovative in how we try to accommodate that of students in different environments. So it has led obviously it has driven a lot of construction programs to build the brick and mortar presence that we have.

Mark Griffin: It has also kinda gotten us into. Probably even more maybe than even the pandemic did, has gotten us to explore effective use of, virtual devices and technologies to teach. We teach technology, right? That's our middle name, right? So can we use that? And some cases now, in a lot of cases you can't, in a lot of cases, there is no substitute for a guide on the side.

Mark Griffin: But but there are cases when that can do at least as a supplement or at least as, as another tool, in that, most importantly I think innovative, I think most significant has been our our extension programs. Where we're actually going out into. The K 12 schools themselves 

Ryan Williams (Host): embedding those foundational programs.

Ryan Williams (Host): Absolutely. Get a taste of it all. Yeah. 

Mark Griffin: yes. And getting a Tulsa tech, but getting our presence, our identity out there. I think there remains and probably will for some time. There remains a little bit of a disconnect between the philosophies perhaps of career tech and the K 12 community, and I don't think.

Mark Griffin: That they completely understand what we do all the time. I don't think they entirely appreciate. There was some districts, some schools, some folks are a little better, I think, have a little bit fuller understanding than others do. But there are still some, I think, some discrepancy in mission and vision in that.

Mark Griffin: And it's been, that goes a long way. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Interesting. I don't know, 20, 30, probably 40 years now of everybody needs to go to college, that mentality. And so I think there's that present still. But yeah. What's really shifting, and you've noticed this, is that the baby boomers, the largest generation ever are all retiring, and so there's this need.

Ryan Williams (Host): This inherent need in all of these services across the country for people that have the skills to do the job. 

Mark Griffin: Yes. 

Ryan Williams (Host): And they've even started calling millennials the, tool belt generation.

Ryan Williams (Host): because they're shifting that mindset from college for everyone to, nah, I really just need the skills to go to work and here's how I'm gonna do it.

Ryan Williams (Host): And so they made their own path that way. But, yes, I think that's a very interesting paradigm that's. That, shift that's happening right now? 

Mark Griffin: It's, it is, and I think it's coming. It's getting more widespread and more understood, I think by the community. Certainly the community at large. It is, there are certain, we're all like one of my favorite stories, especially in Tulsa Tech, how many Tulsa Tech board members is it take to change the light bulb.

Mark Griffin: Change, nobody wants to change it. Gosh, no. It hurts and I understand that. And that's certainly true with us. It's true at any institution any, organ, any individual. We all have that innate sort of resistance to that, but I think people are starting to understand that.

Mark Griffin: No. That one size fits all my experience, one size fits all is one size, doesn't really fit anybody very well. Sure. And so this is just another option in a way that people can really get. Get prepared for a really wonderful career to really provide, for themselves and their families and do some things that maybe might look a little non-traditional to some, but obviously a wonderful path 

Ryan Williams (Host): could be very lucrative as well.

Mark Griffin: You bet. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Do you have a book or movie that always inspires you? 

Mark Griffin: Oh, I don't know. probably, yeah. Twilight Zone. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Oh, wow. Really? That's an inspiration for you? 

Mark Griffin: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. First of all, because I feel like I live there every day half the time. But I will say this though, the the, Twilight Zone.

Mark Griffin: The all of those great stories, I'm talking about the old, rod Sterling, black and white versions, every one of those has a really important lesson and I'll find some, be in a situation or somebody will be talking about something that happened or something this, something the other.

Mark Griffin: And I will instantly think of a Twilight Zone episode if that sounds exactly and then I look around and sure enough, rod Erling is walking in the door. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Yeah, 

Mark Griffin: sure feels like that a lot of times. But I would probably say. Maybe of anything That may be actually, probably, yeah, I'm gonna stick with that.

Ryan Williams (Host): Okay, that sounds good. You probably already mentioned this, but if you weren't involved in education, what career might you have you chosen instead? 

Mark Griffin: I don't know. I'm thinking about that at this point because, I'm, I don't think I'm gonna do this forever, and so I'm trying to think, I feel like such a kid doing what I'm doing now.

Mark Griffin: What am I gonna do when I actually grow up? 

Ryan Williams (Host): I don't know. Ham radio. 

Mark Griffin: I do that actually. I guess you knew that. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Yeah. A little bit, but Yeah, I do. That Do you still chase tornadoes? 

Mark Griffin: I do. I do.

Ryan Williams (Host): You do. 

Mark Griffin: I gotta say that this is, no, I don't. And as a, in that field, I'll make this really important distinction.

Mark Griffin: I am a spotter, not a chaser chase. Okay. There is a difference there. There is a difference. Yeah. Yeah. As a spotter, our job is more the public, 

Mark Griffin: safety. 

Ryan Williams (Host): You just, you stand on the porch and point. 

Mark Griffin: Yeah. To the interesting thing I'll say, little technology for you here. Okay. My RF background, the, improvements in technology, the Doppler.

Mark Griffin: Radar, for example. Huge. I remember the old ancient analog where you actually sat down and watched this thing go around, like you see in the movies. And you had a like onion skin paper overlay on that. And you would literally draw along there. That's how you kept records Okay. Of, of, storm lines and stuff like that.

Mark Griffin: It literally, there was some photography, but it's generally, it was officially, it was those little tracing. The outline you made. Wow. Anyway, so obviously the new radars, we have the Doppler effect. All that's the computer assisting in that. The problem with that is that at least that old analog radar we were looking at real time, what we saw was what that radar dish saw at that instant.

Mark Griffin: So we're right up to date, we're right. Within one second. Okay. With the new Doppler radars, the problem is with all the cool digital things that we can have those do for us, dual polarity and all the other stuff, what the, newest image that meteorologist can see on the screen. Is about four minutes old.

Mark Griffin: Because of all the processing it takes. Lemme tell you something. In a tornado 

Ryan Williams (Host): that matters,

Mark Griffin: a situation like that, four minutes is forever. And so the eyes of the spotter out there in the field watching these storms has been incredibly, even more important now than it used to be. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Sure. 

Mark Griffin: to supplement that the technology is fantastic, but to keep it in real time, that's what we do.

Mark Griffin: So it's, it is wonderful to get to do that. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Any other hobbies outside of your board duties?

Mark Griffin: Model railroading.

Ryan Williams (Host): Get outta here, really? 

Mark Griffin: Oh, Yeah, I love my model railroad. And one of the things I did, this is obviously again, my inner geek coming out. I have my railroad set up so that it's basically a network, so the rails actually carry a network signal.

Ryan Williams (Host): Oh, that is so cool. 

Mark Griffin: And the locomotives and whatnot actually have basically a network card in them that's capable of, in other words, like digital sounds and control. I can make the lights come on and off. I can blow the horn. I can as accelerates. You can hear the engines rev up and that sort of thing breaks 

Ryan Williams (Host): and you have to set up at your house.

Mark Griffin: Oh. Oh, I actually have it set. It was crazy. I have it set up in my garage in such a way that I can drive my car inside. I still get my car inside and park it in the garage with my railroads around. so I am so grateful that Lisa puts up with me. 

Ryan Williams (Host): I love that so much. I've been to the Chicago Museum of Industry and they have all of those That's amazing.

Ryan Williams (Host): That Chicago Little Railroad in there and I

Mark Griffin: Isn't amazing. Love that exhibit. Yeah, I love that. Another really great one. If you get a chance in San Diego. At Balboa Park. Oh yeah. There, there's an enormous model of railroad. There is one of the finest around. It's really a sight to see, so that's cool. 

Ryan Williams (Host): There you go.

Ryan Williams (Host): You're here to make your own path. 

Mark Griffin: Pretty much. 

Ryan Williams (Host): Mark Griffin, thanks so much for joining us today. We appreciate you being here. Thanks to all of our elected Board of Education members for their dedicated service to Tulsa Tech. And again, thank you for being here today. 

Mark Griffin: Ryan, thank you so much for inviting me and what a.

Mark Griffin: The honor it is to do this and to represent my other colleagues on the board. It's we are, a great team. We're really a great family and what an honor it is to to be able to serve 

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