M. Susan Savage

M. Susan Savage

Chief Executive Officer

Organization: Morton Comprehensive Health Services

M. Susan Savage is a native Tulsan elected as Tulsa’s first woman mayor in 1992. Her unprecedented tenure of service as mayor ended in 2002, after which Savage was appointed Oklahoma’s Secretary of State by Governor Brad Henry from 2003 until January of 2011.

Savage has been recognized locally and nationally for her decades of public service, organizational management, and her leadership. She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Morton Comprehensive Health Services, the largest health center system in northeastern Oklahoma.

Savage’s leadership and management expertise as Tulsa’s mayor produced a decade of job growth, community revitalization and improved standards of living, financial stability and long-range planning, public safety enhancements and environmental initiatives. She was one of eight U.S. mayors selected by the Aspen Institute to join French and German mayors to discuss the impact of globalization on cities.

President Bill Clinton appointed Savage to the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and to the National Recreation Lakes Commission. Savage was recognized by Newsweek Magazine as one of the nation’s “25 Mayors to Watch” for her leadership in addressing air and water quality issues.

Savage served as the city’s and state’s chief diplomat for international relations, advanced and implemented policy initiatives from health care and education to infrastructure and government reform. As Oklahoma’s Secretary of State, Savage served as a member of Governor Henry’s cabinet with broad policy and executive duties at the federal, state and local levels. Her service includes decades of appointments to community and civic boards.

Savage was honored by the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice for leadership and for promoting diversity, tolerance and freedom.

She has received Honorary Doctorates from Oklahoma City University and her alma mater, Arcadia University. She has been inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame for City and Town Officials, Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, and has received the Peace & Dialogue award for government service from the Institute of Interfaith Dialogue.

Savage currently resides in Tulsa, where she is serving as Morton Comprehensive Health Services’ CEO for, leading an organizational realignment that has resulted in unprecedented stability and improved service delivery. She is the mother of two exceptional young women, claims a terrific son-in-law, and is the proud grandmother of two.

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