2025 Alumni Awards

Alumnus of the Year: This award recognizes an alumnus who advances the Kingdom of God through noteworthy, long-term accomplishments in professional endeavors, significant service to the church, and a positive impact on the lives of others.

Young Alumnus Award: This award is given to an individual under 40 who displays distinguished leadership in his or her field and shows promise of future growth professionally and personally.

Servant Leader Award: This award honors alumni who exemplify the heart of OKWU’s mission: to develop and send servant leaders who advance the Kingdom of God. Rooted in the principles of OKWU’s Kingdom Path—servanthood, education, community, and transformation—this award recognizes alumni who demonstrate Christlike love, pursue truth through a biblical worldview and lead with wisdom and grace.

2025 Outstanding Alumni Honored

In recognition for their courage, achievement, and commitment to OKWU’s vision and mission, we proudly present this year’s Alumni Awards.

Roger & Marijean Metcalf

Alumni of the Year

For Roger and Marijean Metcalf, their steadfast legacy has never been about awards. When they learned they had been named Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s 2025 Alumni of the Year, they received the news with quiet gratitude, seeing it not as a personal achievement but as a reflection of years spent simply trying to be faithful where God had placed them.

Those who know the Metcalfs would say there’s no better choice.

Roger’s story at OKWU (then Bartlesville Wesleyan College) began in 1972, when he traveled from his hometown in Des Moines, Iowa, following the encouragement of his home church. What he found on campus would change the course of his life: a growing faith, a sharpened sense of purpose, and Marijean—the woman he would marry and walk beside for nearly five decades. “Meeting my wife there was the defining moment,” Roger says simply.

Marijean’s family established strong ties to BWC. She and her twin were the first of eleven siblings to attend the university, where several of them also met their spouses. Marijean’s connection to her family’s legacy of faith and education runs deep. After raising three children—one a graduate of OKWU—Marijean and Roger worked side by side for nearly 30 years in their successful construction company. Their relationship and the impact they have on others are defined by values and faith.

Although Roger’s time at OKWU was brief, its impact shaped everything that followed. A gifted math student, he initially set his sights on accounting. Encouragement from a visiting professor—a professional from Phillips 66—affirmed that path. After two years, Roger transferred and finished his degree in Business Administration and Accounting.

What followed was 47 years of work at a rock-crushing company in Oregon, where Roger rose from employee to part-owner. His leadership style reflected his faith: steady, humble, and others focused. Whether navigating complex business challenges, mentoring younger employees, or serving on OKWU’s Board of Trustees for 27 years, Roger sought to live out values modeled in the university’s classrooms and leaders. “The chapel services, the faculty, the president—they all reinforced the importance of faith,” Roger says. “It wasn’t just taught. It was lived.”

The “Four P’s” championed by OKWU—Primacy of Jesus Christ, Priority of Scripture, Pursuit of Truth, and Practice of Wisdom—continue to guide him.

“There’s hardly a week that goes by that I don’t think about the Four P’s,” he says. “They’re not just ideas. They’re how you live.”

Today, Roger and Marijean’s commitment to OKWU remains strong. Their financial support and leadership testify to a deep belief in the university’s mission to “Send Servant Leaders.”

Zach Kingery

Young Alumnus Award

Zach Kingery (‘10) doesn’t talk about his calling with big words or dramatic stories. Instead, he shares it the way he lives it—humbly, steadily, and with quiet conviction. After graduating from Oklahoma Wesleyan University in 2010 with a degree in pastoral ministry and biblical studies, Zach has spent more than a decade in ministry. The past eight years were focused on rural churches, most recently serving as an Ambassador of the Dirt Roads Network and the Multiplication leader for the Upper Midwest Conference of the Global Methodist Church.

This year, Zach is being honored as OKWU’s Young Alumnus of the Year, recognized for his early leadership and long-term vision in ministry. But if you ask him, it’s less about being celebrated and more about being faithful.

Zach didn’t grow up imagining he’d be a pastor. He didn’t even fully understand what ministry was until high school. But one moment stands out—standing in a church worship service, feeling an unshakable clarity that God was calling him into full-time ministry. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t emotional. It was solid.

When Zach Kingery first stepped onto Oklahoma Wesleyan’s campus, he knew he was being shaped for something bigger than himself. Drawn by a deep sense of calling to ministry, he found in OKWU a place where worship, discipleship, and mentorship pointed him toward God’s mission.

A defining moment came in a freshman speech class when Zach unexpectedly declared he was called “to the dead, the dying, and the forgotten.” That declaration became the heartbeat of his ministry.

His years at OKWU shaped not only his theological understanding but also his view of servant leadership. Through professors, chapel services, and hands-on ministry experiences, Zach grew into a shepherd—not just of churches, but of souls.

Influenced by Professor Dr. Roy Stoltz, Zach embraced missional theology and the importance of contextualizing the gospel while staying rooted in the Spirit. Along the way, he helped ordinary people see their small congregations as “missionary outposts,” where transformation can begin one life at a time.

After graduation, Zach began serving small and rural churches — mission fields often overlooked but desperately in need of hope. His obedience hasn’t always meant comfort. At a career crossroads, Zach chose faithfulness over security, stepping into a risky, self-funded path of rural church planting. “God doesn’t want your success,” he reflects. “He wants your obedience — it’s okay to fail.”

As an Ambassador with the Dirt Roads Network, Zach works with denominations, church leadership, and pastors to be effective in the mission field of rural America. His story embodies OKWU’s mission of raising up servant leaders — men and women who faithfully go where they are called, even to the forgotten places.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article in The Tower contained inaccuracies regarding Zach Kingery’s ministry timeline and current roles. We regret the error and apologize to Zach and our readers. This updated version reflects the correct details of his service and leadership.

Christy McPhail

Servant Leader Award

When Christy McPhail (‘90) reflects on her time at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, a few words surface again and again: belonging, perseverance, and faith.

“OKWU gave me my confidence back,” Christy says. After a difficult start at a large university where she felt lost and anonymous, transferring to OKWU felt like coming home. “The professors knew my name. They believed in me when I struggled to believe in myself.”

That belief planted seeds that would later flourish through Christy’s life of service. After graduating, she stayed rooted in Bartlesville, eventually founding B the Light Mission with her husband, Keith—a center that ministers daily to the hungry, the homeless, and the hurting.

Leading B the Light Mission isn’t glamorous. Christy talks about late nights, answered prayers, and daily encounters with heartbreak. But ask her why she does it, and her answer is simple: “Because God called us to.” Every story—a young woman rebuilding her life after abuse, a man finding freedom from addiction, a former inmate starting fresh—is a reminder of Christ’s call to serve “the least of these.”

Christy credits OKWU for preparing her for this life. It wasn’t just classroom lessons, she says, but the culture—a community where faith, education, and compassion were inseparable. “OKWU taught me that leadership isn’t about a title. It’s about relationship. It’s about showing up when it’s hard.”

That philosophy shines through B the Light Mission. Christy and her team don’t just provide services—they fight for the people they serve. Whether it’s helping someone secure mental health care, standing in court to advocate, or simply offering a warm meal and a prayer, their mission is built on persistence and love.

Receiving the Servant Leader Award surprised Christy. “There are so many others,” she said, tears in her eyes. But those who nominated her knew: her story is the heart of OKWU’s “Sending Servant Leaders” mission in action.

“Being a servant leader means using what God gave you—your experiences, your gifts, even your pain—to lift someone else up,” Christy says. “And when you do, you see the Kingdom grow in the most unexpected ways.”

In a world that often measures success by accolades or numbers, Christy McPhail offers a different picture: a life poured out in love, one person at a time. And in that quiet faithfulness, she is changing lives—and generations—for the glory of God.