Top 100 for NIH Funding

A new national ranking puts OU’s Health Campus in the Top 100 for securing competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding—an Oklahoma first, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. The milestone spotlights OU’s research momentum, driven by collaboration across OU’s health colleges. Strategic research areas include cancer, diabetes, neurosciences and vision, as well as infectious diseases and geroscience. This achievement puts OU Health in the top 3.6 percent of institutions and entities nationwide receiving NIH funding.

History in Your Hands

While researching the origins of OU’s College of Professional and Continuing Studies for our story on pg. 38, Sooner Magazine found University Libraries’ Western History Collections to be full of unexpected materials. Century-old course catalogs, strategic planning correspondence and wartime ephemera offer a glimpse into life in Oklahoma in its earliest years. The collections are open to the public for personal or professional research and are searchable online here.

Collaboration for the Win

OU’s Urban Learning Greenhouse project at John Rex Charter School in Oklahoma City recently earned the 2026 Design Build Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Created through a shared, two-semester design-build curriculum, OU architecture and construction science students teamed up to transform an unused schoolyard corner into a modular greenhouse and outdoor classroom supporting hands-on STEAM lessons in sustainability, pollination and urban farming.

OU Nursing Expands to Tahlequah

The Cherokee Nation and OU’s Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing announced a partnership to extend nursing education to Tahlequah, expanding Oklahoma’s healthcare workforce. The Nation’s investment in healthcare includes $30 million to remodel the current W.W. Hastings Hospital facility into an OU Nursing satellite campus at the Cherokee Nation Nursing and Allied Health Education Center, plus a $5.15 million scholarship endowment and $2 million annually for health field scholarships and non-degree training. Online coursework will launch this fall and the campus will open in 2027.

Give Sooner on April 14

Supporters from across the nation and world will come together to contribute to OU Giving Day, the university’s largest annual fundraising event, on April 14. OU raised more than $30 million during last year’s 24-hour drive, breaking its own record for fundraising in a single day to support OU scholarships, students, programs, faculty and departments.

Sooners at the Grammys

OU alum and Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts School of Music faculty member Christina Giacona was nominated four times for the 2026 Grammy Awards for albums she produced, mixed or engineered. Projects include Se7en Seasons by College of Fine Arts adjunct and OU alumnus Kitt Wakeley and Requieum of Light, co-created by OU alumna Patti Drennan. Giacona’s creative partner and fellow OU alum Patrick Conlon worked with her on the four albums, while OU School of Music faculty members David Howard and Gaye Leblanc and members of the OU Men’s Glee and Vox Lyrica choirs also contributed to several of the nominated works.

Elvis, Rocky and Me

1982 OU College of Medicine alumnus Dr. Leon Serchuk, front row left, has earned back-to-back Grammy nominations in two years. Serchuk and his fellow Los Angeles-based music production team members were recognized for Best Audiobook following the release of Elvis, Rocky and Me: The Carol Connors Story, which chronicles the life of songwriter and former teen pop vocalist Connors, seen here seated next to Serchuk. Connors is the songwriter of hot-rod anthem "Hey, Little Cobra" and co-author of the Academy Award-winning Rocky theme, "Gonna Fly Now."