OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma House of Representatives Speaker Charles McCall has appointed local banker and former Oklahoma state representative Wes Hilliard to the Oklahoma Commission for Rehabilitation Services. The Commission is the governing board for the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS).

Hilliard currently serves as president at Landmark Bank in Sulphur and Davis. He served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 2004 to 2012.

SULPHUR, Okla. – Chris Dvorak from Ardmore will serve as the new superintendent at Oklahoma School for the Deaf.

OSD is a division of the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services.

“Chris became the high school principal at Oklahoma School for the Deaf in August 2016 and has brought a progressive influence to the learning environment,” DRS Executive Director Melinda Fruendt wrote in an email announcement to staff.

Dvorak is currently a member of the Oklahoma Deaf and Hard of Hearing Transition Coalition.

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Bartlesville native Beverly Bates once struggled to find a job where skills and work ethic were more important than her vision and hearing losses.

Bates, age 54, was born with profound hearing loss and developed Stargardt macular dystrophy, which causes progressive central vision loss.

She describes herself as DeafBlind.

Today Bates is happy to work 12-hour shifts as the dishwasher in the dietary department at Adams Post Acute Recovery (PARC) Center in Bartlesville.