On April 11, the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum and the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum hosted “From Darkness to Light,” a 30th anniversary commemoration of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Panel 1: The Tragedy and Response
  • Rodney Slater, Secretary of Transportation, Clinton Administration
  • Stephanie S. Streett, Executive Director, Clinton Foundation
  • James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Panel 2: The Recovery and Justice
  • Don Baer, Assistant to the President, White House Communications and Strategy Director, Chief Speechwriter, and Director of Speechwriting and Research; Clinton Administration
  • Dr. Jay Barth, Director, Clinton Presidential Library and Museum 
  • Frank Keating, former Governor of Oklahoma
  • Cathy Keating, former First Lady of Oklahoma
Panel 3: The Path Forward
  • Susan Chambers, Chair, Board of Trustees, Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum
  • David Holt, Mayor, Oklahoma City
  • Ron Norick, Former Mayor, Oklahoma City
  • Kari Watkins, President & CEO, Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

ASL interpretation is available during our programs.

This program is presented by the Clinton Foundation, Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, and Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

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Rodney Slater, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, helps clients integrate their interests in the overall vision for the transportation system of the 21st century – a vision he set as Transportation Secretary to promote a safer, more efficient, environmentally sound, and sustainable worldwide transportation infrastructure.

Secretary Slater also helps state and local government clients address the vexing challenge of closing the gap between transportation demand and capacity by employing public-private strategies and innovative financing solutions. As an industry group leader of our Automotive & Transportation Group, Secretary Slater focuses on many of the policy and transportation objectives that were set under his leadership, including automobile use and development, aviation competition and congestion mitigation, maritime initiatives, high-speed rail corridor development, and overall transportation safety and funding. He continues to embrace the framework he established as secretary for making transportation decisions that called for more open, collaborative and flexible decision making across the transportation enterprise here and abroad.

Secretary Slater’s bipartisan and inclusive approach to problem solving has earned him tremendous respect and admiration on both sides of the aisle, enabling him to have one of the best relationships with the White House, Congress and business, labor and political leaders worldwide in the history of the US Department of Transportation (DOT). His work at DOT forever altered America’s and the world’s appreciation of transportation as more than just concrete, asphalt and steel. Secretary Slater brings the same strategic, results-oriented and collaborative approach to the practice of law to his public policy practice.

As U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President Bill Clinton, Secretary Slater passed several historic legislative initiatives over his tenure, including the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Under his leadership, the federal transportation budget doubled and in the department’s “best in government” strategic and performance plans, the scope and definition of transportation was expanded to include a focus on safety, mobility and access, economic development and trade, the environment and national security.

Prior to his tenure as Transportation Secretary, Secretary Slater served as Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, where – as the agency’s first African-American Administrator in its century-long history – he oversaw the development of an innovative financing program that resulted in hundreds of transportation projects being completed two to three years ahead of schedule with greater cost efficiencies. Over that time, the federal transportation budget increased an unprecedented 104%. Secretary Slater is one of the leaders of the firm’s best-in-class practice in Corporate Compliance Advice, ensuring best-business practices for various companies. Secretary Slater led Toyota’s Safety Advisory Panel, serves an Independent Monitor for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and was recently selected by NHTSA to serve as the Independent Monitor of FCA. He is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation, which promotes the role of public service and pro bono work in the practice of law and the development of public policy. Additionally, Secretary Slater is a founding partner of the Washington DC Nationals Baseball team and Chair Emeritus of the Washington DC Nationals Youth Baseball Academy. He is also an NCAA Silver Anniversary Recipient (2002) for football.

Stephanie S. Streett is executive director of the Clinton Foundation. She has served in this role since 2001 and oversees the strategy and management of the Clinton Presidential Center. She also serves as Corporate Secretary for the Clinton Foundation Board of Directors. Streett oversees the Presidential Leadership Scholars program on behalf of the Clinton Foundation.

In addition to her extensive career in the nonprofit sector, Streett also has considerable government experience. Before joining the Clinton Foundation, she served in the Clinton Administration for eight years on the White House staff, first as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Scheduling and then as Assistant to the President.

Previously, Streett worked on Capitol Hill as a staff member for the United States Senate Committee on the Budget. Currently, Streett is a member of the Board of Advisors for City Year Little Rock, a member of the International Women’s Forum Arkansas, and the Rotary Club of Little Rock, where she was named a Paul Harris Fellow. She previously served as President of the University of Arkansas Alumni Association National Board of Directors. Streett received the 2015 Sandra Wilson Cherry Award, the 2018 City Year Little Rock Lifetime of Service Award, and the 2019 University of Arkansas Alumni Association Community Service Award. Streett earned her B.S. in Political Science from the University of Arkansas. She and her husband Don Erbach are the proud parents of three daughters.

James Lee Witt served as the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under President Bill Clinton and is often credited with raising the agency’s level of professionalism and ability to respond to disasters. Since his departure from FEMA, he has worked as a consultant on emergency management issues across the nation and world.

Don Baer served as a senior advisor and White House director of strategic planning and communications under former President Bill Clinton. He also was worldwide chair and CEO of Burson-Marsteller and chair of the PBS board of directors. He is currently a senior partner with Brunswick Group and founder and CEO of Palisades Strategic Advisors.

Dr. Jay Barth, appointed in March 2022, is the third Director of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. A native of Arkansas, Dr. Barth gained his Ph.D. in political science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and B.A. from Hendrix College.

From the start of 2020 until his arrival at the Clinton Library, Barth was Chief Education Officer for the City of Little Rock, coordinating the City’s work to support education from birth through higher education in Little Rock. Barth is also the M.E. and Ima Graves Peace Emeritus Professor of Politics at Hendrix College, where he taught for 26 years.

In 2007, Barth was named Arkansas Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), in 2014 was named winner of the Southern Political Science Association’s Diane Blair Award for Outstanding Achievement in Politics and Government, in 2018 received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Arkansas Political Science Association, and gained the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of State Boards of Education.

In 2000-01, Barth received the Steiger Congressional Fellowship from the American Political Science Association and served on the staff of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (MN), working on education and civil rights policy. From 2012 to 2019, Barth was a member of the Arkansas State Board of Education, chairing that body for two years. He also holds and has held leadership roles in national, state, and local nonprofit organizations.

Frank Keating is an attorney by training and a former partner of Holland and Knight. He grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma. His 30-year career in law enforcement and public service included service as an FBI agent; U.S. Attorney and state prosecutor; and Oklahoma House and Senate member, including service as a Republican senate leader.

He served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the Treasury, Justice, and Housing departments. As assistant secretary of Treasury and general counsel and acting deputy secretary of HUD, Keating’s work included housing finance, lending practices, securitization and Bank Secrecy Act issues.

In 1993 Keating returned to Oklahoma to run for Governor. He won a three-way race by a landslide and was easily re-elected in 1998, becoming only the second governor in Oklahoma history to serve two consecutive terms.

As the governor of Oklahoma, Keating won national acclaim in 1995 for his compassionate and professional handling of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. In the aftermath of the tragedy, he helped raise more than six million dollars to fund scholarships for the nearly 200 children left with only one or no parents. His accomplishments as Governor include winning a successful public vote on right-to-work, tort reform, tax cuts, and major road building and education reform.

Cathy Keating is a fourth-generation Oklahoman whose great grandparents came to Oklahoma on the 1894 Land Run. Like those family members who came before her, she has focused much of her energy in her life on community service, most prominently while she was First Lady of Oklahoma, 1995 – 2003. After the Oklahoma City Bombing, she organized and implemented the international Prayer Service and subsequently spent much of her energy helping those who were affected by the bombing heal. Keating wrote “In Their Name, The Oklahoma City Bombing,” which was on the New York Times best seller list, with all the proceeds going to Project Recovery. She has also published “Our Governors’ Mansions” (a coffee table book on each of America’s Governors’ Mansions) and “Ooh La La: Cuisine Presented in a Stately Manner,” with all proceeds directed to Friends of the Oklahoma Governor’s Mansion.

Keating currently serves on the boards of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Friends of the Oklahoma Governor’s Mansion and is on the National Advisory Board of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Palomar Family Justice Center. She has co-chaired the OKC Salvation Army Capital Campaign, as well as the Washington, D.C. American Red Cross Capital Campaign. As a member of the Cowboy board of directors, she co-founded the Annie Oakley Society, a women’s leadership organization at the museum. She is also a former member of the Board of Directors of Express Employment Professionals and, in that capacity, chaired their International Philanthropy.

Keating, along with her husband Frank, is the recipient of such awards as the Salvation Army’s “William Booth” Award, Tom Brokaw’s “People of the Week” honor, the David and Sybil Yurman Foundation’s “Thoroughbred” Award and was named an “Outstanding Southerner” in Southern Living. She is also in the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame and has been inducted into the Oklahoma Commerce and Industry Hall of Honor.

Susan Chambers worked in the medical tents in the days following the bombing and has been on the board for more than six years. She has previously served on several committees in leadership roles. Dr. Chambers was one of the founding doctors in Lakeside Women’s Hospital and is currently the Chair of the Board for the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

Mayor David Holt became Oklahoma City’s 38th mayor in 2018. He was elected in 2018 with 78.5 percent of the vote, the largest percentage achieved by a non-incumbent since 1947. In 2022, he was re-elected with more votes than any candidate for Mayor since 1959. Holt is the first Native American mayor of Oklahoma City. At the time he took office, Holt was the youngest mayor of Oklahoma City since 1923 and the youngest mayor of a U.S. city with more 500,000 residents.

Ron Norick was born and raised in Oklahoma City and was the city’s mayor from 1987 to 1998. In 2008, he was inducted in the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

During Norick’s eleven years in office, he and the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce conceived the original Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS), nine major Oklahoma City projects funded by a dedicated five-year, one-cent sales tax. MAPS is credited with leading Oklahoma City through a “renaissance” that has made the city one of the most livable in the country. While in office, Norick also guided the city through the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995.

Since leaving public office, Norick has remained an ardent supporter of MAPs and many community initiatives and organizations. He is chairman of the Oklahoma City Downtown TIF Review Committee and of the Oklahoma State Fair, serves as vice-chairman of the Oklahoma Industries Authority, and sits on the board of directors of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and BancFirst. Norick is also former chairman of the Board of Trustees at Oklahoma City University.

Kari Watkins became the Memorial’s first staff member as the Communications Director in March 1996. Kari oversaw the design competition of the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial and the building of the Memorial Museum and worked with the board and staff to raise $29 million dollars for construction. She was named Executive Director in 1999. Today, she oversees the operations of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, one of Oklahoma’s most visited sites, and is Race Director for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. She currently serves as President and CEO of the Memorial & Museum.