Pat has ancestry with the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek Indian tribes and has been a USDA employee since 1974. He is an employee of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). He has worked at the field level in 5 counties in 2 states and at a Plant Materials Center .

Pat received BS and MS degrees from Oklahoma State University in agriculture and natural resources. He is a certified “Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Specialist”.

Pat was on the Board for 7 years of the NRCS American Indian/Alaska Native employees association. He was instrumental in putting together their last 2 training sessions. Pat has been a Board member of SAIGE since its inception. Other organizations Pat has been an officer of include the Soil and Water Conservation Society and the Society for Range Management.

Prior to attending college Pat served as a Vietnamese linguist/interpreter for the U.S. Army Military Intelligence.

SAIGE has come from literally nothing in its inception to a voice that many agencies are now recognizing. Our annual training sessions are becoming better all the time and better attended. I would work towards furthering these achievements as well as recruiting new members.