Hall of Fame Member Biographies

Jeanetta Davis Sims

Jeanetta Davis Sims is the daughter of parents with a combined 71 years of service to the state of Oklahoma. She graduated from Chandler High School in 1989 as valedictorian. Sims earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational communication from Oklahoma Christian University in 1993. She earned a master’s degree in communication from Abilene Christian University in 1995, accreditation in public relations in 2007, and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Oklahoma in 2008. She blazed a trail of firsts in each institution as an African-American woman, earning distinguished research awards and leading her peers. As founder of Diverse Student Scholars in 2007, Dr. Sims cultivated a robust, award-winning interdisciplinary student research program.
Throughout her time at the University of Central Oklahoma, Sims has enhanced institutional programming. As the first female Dean of the Jackson College of Graduate Studies, her teams launched new online degrees, grew accelerated degree programs, revamped the admissions platform amid the pandemic, and maintained exceptional prospective graduate student evaluations ranging from 93% to 98%. As the founding Dean of the University College, she created two initiatives for student success—Broncho Blueprint, a retention program for first-year students, and the Broncho Education and Learning Lab (BELL), a new home for peer tutoring and supplemental instruction. As director of the one-of-a-kind Swansea@UCO Ph.D. program, she strengthened international relations while mentoring students earning doctorates from Swansea University in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Sims is an award-winning scholar with more than 100 publications and funded research projects, including books on transformative learning, diversity, and an award-winning book of poetry. She was elected president of the National Communication Association in 2025. This follows her 2017 presidency of the North American Management Society and her 2020 presidency of the Marketing Management Association. She serves on the Higher Learning Commission Peer Corps, Council on Undergraduate Research, Oklahoma Christian University Board of Trustees, Integris Baptist Medical Center Board of Trustees, and Citius USA Baseball Board.

Since 1995, she has been married to Damon Sims, himself a member of the OC Athletics Hall of Fame and an FBI retiree with 21 years of distinguished service. They had four children: Anthony, Maicel, Savion, and Jaxon.