OIGA Conference and Trade Show slated for Aug. 9-11 in Tulsa

The 2022 Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association (OIGA) Conference and Trade Show, otherwise known as ‘the biggest little show in Indian Gaming,’ will be held in Tulsa Aug. 9-11, in Tulsa’s Cox Business Convention Center. and will draw nearly 3,000 vendors, visitors and guest speakers to downtown Tulsa to celebrate and advance our industry.
The event begins bright and early on Tuesday with the annual John Marley Golf Tournament, an event which raises scholarship funds for folks who work in the gaming industry and their dependents. Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association established the John Marley Scholarship in 2008 to provide educational opportunities for OIGA member employees and their families. The John Marley Scholarships are dedicated to the search for knowledge and the provision of scholarships for eligible individuals in order to attend accredited colleges, universities and trade schools in Oklahoma or other states. Since 2014, OIGA has awarded 54 scholarships. Learn more about the history of the Tournament here.
In Oklahoma, Tribal Gaming has yielded countless contributions, large and small, to Oklahoma’s job market, economy, educational offerings and quality of life. OIGA Chairman Matthew L. Morgan, explains: “Tribes are wonderful community partners in Oklahoma. We create jobs, build roads and hospitals, invest in our public schools and universities, support nonprofits and create programs to serve citizens, Tribal and non-Tribal, who need assistance within our communities. Each year, when we gather at our Conference and Trade Show, we celebrate this industry which has allowed us to do so much. We are proud of our past, excited about things happening right now, and determined to leave the next generation an industry and an Oklahoma that they can take pride in.”
Conference sessions begin Wednesday at 9:30AM, and continue until noon, when attendees and vendors will celebrate the official opening of the Trade Show floor. From noon to 4PM, the floor will be open to attendees. New this year, the welcome party will transform into a Stay and Play reception on the Trade Show floor, from 4:00-6:30 PM. View the entire agenda here.
Conference session topics will include:

– National Landscape on Sports Betting: Bills, Stakeholders and the
Outcome
– SCOTUS and District Court Decisions: Impact to Indian Country
– Oklahoma Tribal Economic Impact Report Review
– Diversity and Inclusion in STEAM Career Development
– Active Shooter: Preparations Saves Live
Oklahoma is home to one of the largest gaming markets in the United States with more than 80,000 electronic machines on the floors of our over 130 operations. The OIGA Conference and Trade Show has always been the largest regional show in the country and is looking forward to hitting that mark again.
To register or for more information visit oiga.org.

SSM Health at Home is proud to announce the health ministry now offers hospice service to people living in Oklahoma City and surrounding communities including Canadian, Cleveland, Grady, Lincoln, Logan, McClain, Oklahoma, Pottawatomie and Seminole Counties.
On May 26, 2022, SSM Health at Home achieved accreditation through the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), demonstrating the organization’s commitment to delivering high quality care through compliance with ACHC Accreditation Standards, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Conditions of Participation and Oklahoma state regulations.
“We have been providing home health services to the greater Oklahoma City area for many years. Offering hospice care will allow us to be there for patients throughout their entire health care journey,” said Melody McCormick, Branch Manager for SSM Health at Home’s hospice services in Oklahoma. “Adding hospice services will allow us to focus on providing compassionate care and improve quality of life for our patients at a time when they need it the most.”
“We are honored to expand our services to patients and families who need us at one of the most difficult points in life and are blessed to have a tremendous team of staff ready to provide the best care possible,” said Denise (dg) Gloede, President of Post-Acute at SSM Health.
“Hospice is the ultimate form of comprehensive care at the end of life. It is the combination of exceptional medical service, compassion, dignity and faith. It is an essential part of SSM Health’s ministry and Mission,” said Dr. Waddah Nassar, SSM Health at Home Medical Director and SSM Health Medical Group family practice physician.
To learn more about how hospice care can provide support to you or your family, please call 405-231-3755 or visit ssmhealth.com/athome.

The Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma has made a $1 million donation to Mercy Health Foundation in support of the new Love Family Women’s Center under construction on the campus of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City.
“We know the new Love Family Women’s Center will be a great asset to the state,” said Neil Stitt, board president of the Masonic Charity Foundation. “Many rural Oklahomans are without access to family planning and much-needed prenatal care. The new women’s center will be a great place for moms and families to come and receive the best care.”
When construction is complete in fall 2023, Mercy will have a total of 73 patient rooms to serve women in the new center, increasing the capacity for deliveries by 40%.
Mercy coworkers and donors recently celebrated a construction milestone on campus as crews installed the first horizontal steel beam at the site. That beam was the beginning of an elevator that will allow families of newborns needing a higher level of care direct access from the women’s center to the existing fifth-floor neonatal intensive care unit in the hospital.
“We are so grateful for the Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma for their incredibly generous gift which will allow us to provide innovative new services and introduce a new gold standard of care for women and families across the state of Oklahoma,” said Lori Cummins, vice president of development at Mercy Health Foundation in Oklahoma.
The existing Mercy BirthPlace is original to the hospital, which was built in the 1970s and designed to handle around 3,000 births per year. More than 4,000 babies were delivered in the space last year.
The Love Family Women’s Center will be a 175,000-square-foot, four-story building featuring an obstetrics emergency department staffed by obstetricians, the state’s first hospital-based low intervention birthing unit staffed by certified midwives, C-section suites, birthing units, postpartum rooms, a dedicated area for women recovering from surgeries and outpatient therapy services.

Liam Sasser was no stranger to research when he arrived at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation last month for the John H. Saxon Service Academy Summer Research Program.
The West Point cadet studies Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases during the academic year. However, Sasser said he was humbled and a bit overwhelmed in the lab of OMRF scientist Sathish Srinivasan, Ph.D., who focuses on the lymphatic system.
Lymphatic vessels transport blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. When they stop functioning properly, fluid buildup results in a chronic and potentially life-threatening condition called lymphedema. Srinivasan’s lab is working to understand the mechanisms that promote the healthy growth of lymphatic vessels to combat lymphedema.
“The breadth of this field surprised me,” Sasser said. “I was surprised at how unexplored it is and how much this work this lab is producing to improve the understanding of lymphatics.”
OMRF’s Saxon program compresses an intensive summer internship into three to four weeks, culminating in a presentation of their research. John Saxon III, M.D., a Muskogee physician and OMRF board member since 2000, established the program to honor his father, a West Point graduate who was a career Air Force pilot and taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
“Some people may not think of basic science and the military as linked,” said Saxon. “But I thought that I could use OMRF’s work as an opportunity to stimulate some basic bench science interest with cadets at service academies.”
Now in its 12th year, the program has hosted 37 cadets since its inception. In addition to Sasser, a life science major from Cape Carteret, North Carolina, this summer’s students include Naval Academy Midshipmen Alexandra Foreman of Denver and Zoe Scooter of Boulder, Colorado, and Air Force Academy Cadet Philip Golder of Greenwood, Indiana.
Srinivasan, Sasser’s mentor, welcomed the opportunity to host his second Saxon student. “They are so focused, disciplined, respectful and so motivated,” he said, “and they bring such a positive aura that it bleeds over into the rest of the lab.”
After leaving ORMF, Sasser returned to campus to serve as a basic training platoon leader for new cadets before starting his senior year. With medical school in his sights, Sasser also departed OMRF with some essential experimental techniques.
“They apply these techniques to so many problems, and once I’ve mastered them, I can apply them to a variety of problems in my own research,” Sasser said. “This experience has been amazing.”