Press Release
March 4, 2025
Contact: Jessica Brogdon
Oklahoma Historical Society
Office: 405-522-0780
jessica.brogdon@history.ok.gov
www.okhistory.org/awardsbanquet
Cameron University Professor to be Inducted Into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame
OKLAHOMA CITY — Cameron University professor Dr. Sarah Eppler Janda will be inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City on Thursday, March 20, at 6 p.m. Instituted in 1993, the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame is the highest honor awarded by the Oklahoma Historical Society. This honor recognizes distinguished and long-term contributions to Oklahoma history through demonstrated excellence.
Dr. Sarah Eppler Janda was born in Blanchard. Her grandmother was a family historian who first inspired Janda’s interest in history. Janda earned degrees from the University of Oklahoma. She met her husband, Lance, during graduate school, and they’ve both taught history at Cameron University for more than two decades. They have one daughter.
Janda has worked at Cameron University since 2001 and is currently a history professor. She is the author of “Beloved Women: The Political Lives of LaDonna Harris and Wilma Mankiller,” “Pride of the Wichitas: A History of Cameron University” and “Prairie Power: Student Activism, Counterculture, and Backlash in Oklahoma, 1962–1972.” Janda co-edited “This Land Is Herland: Gendered Activism in Oklahoma, from the 1870s to the 2010s” with OHS board member Patti Loughlin. Janda and Loughlin recently co-authored a high school textbook won Oklahoma history, entitled “Making Oklahoma: A History.” Janda and Loughlin spent five years painstakingly working on “Making Oklahoma” so it would be out in time for the 2025-2026 textbook adoption cycle. As a native of Oklahoma who teaches Oklahoma history and helps train future social studies teachers, Janda said it has been deeply rewarding to provide a textbook that chronicles the state’s rich history, with particular emphasis on the 20th and 21st centuries.
Janda’s commitment to researching and writing about the history of Oklahoma has expanded to other areas of historical work as well. Janda and fellow historians Heather Clemmer, Sunu Kodumthara and Patti Loughlin founded Redbud Historical Consulting last year. The four Oklahoma historians recently completed their first historic preservation project. They drafted the nomination form to get the Johnson Family Home in Lawton listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This new company will be one of the only Oklahoma-based consulting firms engaged in this type of work.
Janda is an active member of the Western History Association, the Coalition for Western Women’s History and the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians. She has served on multiple boards, including the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections Dale Society Board of Trustees, the OSLEP Advisory Board, the Faculty Advisory Council to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, The Oklahoma Council on History Education Advisory Board and the “Western Historical Quarterly” editorial board. Most recently, she joined the editorial board for “The Chronicles of Oklahoma.” At Cameron University, Janda has twice served as chair of the Faculty Senate and served a two-year term as president of the Cameron chapter of the American Association of University Professors. As much as Janda enjoys researching and writing about Oklahoma history, she said there is nothing more meaningful to her academic career than the privilege of teaching history to students at Cameron University.
Janda will be inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame during the Oklahoma Historical Society Awards Banquet on Thursday, March 20, along with Carolyn G. Hanneman and Dr. Rachel Caroline Eaton (posthumously). Inductees receive the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame medal, and their biography is published in “The Chronicles of Oklahoma.” Tickets can be purchased online. The event will be held at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City. Guests are asked to RSVP by Monday, March 10. Dr. AJ Griffin will be the keynote speaker. Griffin spent six years in the Oklahoma State Senate and is now the CEO of the Potts Family Foundation. Joe Dorman, a former state representative and current CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, will serve as emcee for this event.
The mission of the Oklahoma Historical Society is to collect, preserve and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people. Founded in 1893 by members of the Territorial Press Association, the OHS maintains museums, historic sites and affiliates across the state. Through its research archives, exhibits, educational programs and publications the OHS chronicles the rich history of Oklahoma. For more information about the OHS, please visit www.okhistory.org.
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