Our Story
Oklahoma Challenge was created in 1984 to address the dangers of teen drunk driving and encourage young drivers to wear their seat belts. Following great success in these areas, Oklahoma Challenge turned its attention to a rising concern—the dire problem of distracted driving, especially among people 15-24 years old. Working in partnership with Oklahoma student groups, Oklahoma Challenge now educates novice drivers about the dangers of engaging in distracting activities—such as texting, talking on the phone, and interacting with passengers—while driving.
Look How We Have Grown!
Oklahoma Challenge is unique from other initiatives. Not only do we successfully train virtually and/or in person thousands of Oklahoma middle, high, technical school, and university/college students on traffic safety and gain their personal commitment to driving safely; we also provide support, motivation, and incentives to empower the students to share this message with their peers, their families, their schools, and their entire community. The outcome of this personal commitment and then expanded sharing of this message is that thousands of additional Oklahomans hear this message in a personal, meaningful way from people they know and care about, leading not only to newly acquired traffic-safety information but to true safe driving behavior change.
Meet the Team
Lori Lovett, Executive Director
Lori is a seasoned safety education provider with a strong and successful background in community health, prevention initiatives, and teaching. Specifically, her experience overseeing multiple safety education programs, monitoring grant activities, and integrating state and local prevention strategies, added to her over 20 years of teaching, makes her a perfect fit to work with students and educators across Oklahoma on traffic safety awareness and prevention. Lori holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Mary Washington, graduating Cum Laude, and an associate in arts in General Studies from Florida State College at Jacksonville.
Briana Fewell, Program Coordinator
Briana is a dynamic operations professional with a strong background in nonprofit administration, event coordination, and community engagement. As the Operations Coordinator for a Norman nonprofit, she managed daily organizational tasks, communications, financial reporting, and grant management, ensuring smooth operations and successful events. She was already intermittently working with Oklahoma Challenge facilitating our interactive traffic safety trainings for students statewide. With experience in restaurant management, legal assistance, and corporate leadership, Briana excels in team coordination, stakeholder relations, and process improvement. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a minor in Spanish from the University of Oklahoma.
Linda Terrell
Linda has retired from Oklahoma Challenge! Congratulations!
Linda has been a local, state, and national leader in the areas of injury prevention, traffic safety, sexual violence, community/youth development, substance abuse, child abuse prevention and treatment, advocacy, and health and wellness throughout her over 40-year nonprofit career. She has led organizations as the Executive Director for over 28 of those years.
Terrell continues to provide education/training for law enforcement and citizens concerned with the prevention of crimes and violence. She offers classes, workshops, and participates in conferences held across Oklahoma and the United States.
Ms. Terrell received her BA in Political Science and her MA in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma. Terrell is married to David Wilson and enjoys a blended family of three daughters, a son, and three grandchildren.
Oklahoma Youth Challenge
The Oklahoma Challenge and the Energize for Safety Coalition partnered with Oklahoma SkillsUSA and industry volunteers to spread the message of driver safety to over 600 students from western Oklahoma communities.
We can bring a free 3-4 hour fun, interactive, hands-on traffic safety program for your students and educators to raise awareness about the importance of safe driving. Take a Look at this Video to See a Traffic Safety Day in Action!
Did You Know?
Traffic Crashes are the #1 Cause of Death for Students Ages 16-24. Oklahoma Challenge is a program funded by the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office that brings traffic safety education to youth across Oklahoma. We organize Teen Traffic Safety Days to engage youth in traffic safety. Oklahoma Challenge staff coordinate the whole event, recruit local and statewide traffic safety partners, and provide all the activities. All you do is bring the young people. Our goal is to reduce traffic crash deaths and injuries statewide, with a focus on novice drivers.
We do this work to help SAVE LIVES because it is our passion. We hope you will accept the challenge and join us!
Our Partners and Collaborators
We are so grateful to all our partners and collaborators who help us amplify the impact of our mission. By providing teen crash rate data and a growing list of safe driving activities, the Oklahoma Safe Driving Challenge raises awareness of the need for safe driving programs, provides the tools to find crash-reduction activities, and awards points to schools for completing and submitting their activities.
Oklahoma Challenge in Action.
Interested in an internship opportunity or in becoming a college ambassador? Join the Oklahoma Challenge team and contact us below!
