Joni Bruce, Executive Director of The Oklahoma Family Network, Oklahoma's Parent-to-Parent, Family-to-Family Health Information Center and Family Voices of Oklahoma for families of children with special health care needs and the professionals that serve them.
Joni received her B.S. in Marketing from Oklahoma State University in 1983. She is a 2007 graduate of Partners in Policymaking and a 1999 graduate of Resolve Through Sharing grief counselor training. She is the mother of one child who died due to a genetic disorder after a two month stay in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and two other children. Both of her living children have been diagnosed with special health care needs.
Joni began her work with the Neonatal Parents Network shortly after its creation in June, 1997 and became the part-time Executive Director in December, 1997, which became The Oklahoma Family Network (OFN) in 2002 after merging with the Special Parents Access Network. Joni is responsible for the hiring and training of all staff, fund raising, grant writing, training and is a link to families, social work staff and others seeking resources. Over the past 12 years, Joni has assisted many local hospital Bereavement Committees review and refine their bereavement programs. Nurse and Social Work training in the form of parent panels at state conferences from the parents point of view, and orientation at hospitals of new staff encouraging family-centered care and utilization of the Network, have all been part of Joni*s duties. Identifying and coaching new family leaders who have expertise in their children with special health care needs and matching them with available opportunities, and implementing OFN's Family-to-Family grant are her primary focus at this time. She is a member of the Center for Learning and Leadership Family Advisory Council, the Family Advisory Council at the Children*s Hospital at Saint Francis in Tulsa; the Family Advisory Council at Integris Baptist Hospital in Oklahoma City; the State Department of Education IDEA Part B Advisory Panel, Part C Oversight Committee, Oklahoma Transition Council, the ICC for SoonerStart Family Advisory Committee and the State Advisory Team for Systems of Care.
