Janice Thoumire helps children feel safe in the classroom. Toni Ramos inspires young women to focus on their goals. Gloria Arias connects with first-generation and immigrant students on the higher education landscape. Shayna Talton connects her neighbors to resources.
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we’re highlighting four women who are shaping the eastside in our latest edition of our “Heart of East Tulsa” series.
Principal helps families find stability
Janice Thoumire has been the principal at Dolores Huerta Elementary School for 13 years. She decided to go into administration to provide teachers the support she never received when she was in the classroom.
One of her priorities is to help the roughly 330 enrolled kids feel stable and that they can rely on their teachers in today’s day and age.
She’s tried to develop a safe culture for everyone, including teachers, parents and children. Children hear the struggles of their parents and sometimes bring those worries into the classroom.
“We don’t care about what’s going on out there, but here we want you to feel loved and you can come in here and just focus,” Thoumire said.
Thoumire’s own grandchild is enrolled at Dolores Huerta and another will enroll next year.
“If it’s not good enough for my children, why would it be good enough for anyone else?” she said.
Chief medical officer inspires young women
Toni Ramos, Community Health Connection’s chief medical officer, does it all. She’s a full-time pediatrician and manages a team of roughly 26 people while also training medical students. On top of that, she has five children ranging in age from three to 17.
“God gives me strength to do this,” Ramos said.
Ramos understands that people’s stories may not be easy and people shouldn’t cover up those bumps in the road. Her advice: Use those experiences to learn and improve.
She has a lot of young patients who often say they want to do the type of work she is doing. She wants to remind them to not fall into stereotypes.
“I see a lot of young teen moms and they don’t think they should have aspirations to do anything besides that, and if you’re supposed to be a mom, ‘Hey, be the best mom you can be,’” Ramos said. ”But if you want to do more with your life, don’t let a mistake or don’t let something, a situation, lock you in.”
TCC manager reaches immigrant, first-generation students
Gloria Arias has been the manager at Tulsa Community College’s Education Outreach Center in the eastside for about eight years.
Arias moved to Tulsa from Mexico City in 1994. She started her educational journey at 36 while working at TCC.
She’s passionate about assisting students. Speaking Spanish and understanding the struggles of her students goes a long way. She often helps families simply understand the complexities of the U.S. education system.
Her focus has been encouraging immigrant students to continue their education, especially those who might not see the point. She reminds them of how prestigious a degree from the U.S. can be and how laws can vary from state to state.
Working on her education changed her life.
“It doesn’t matter the age you are, get your education,” Arias said in Spanish.
Community manager sees daily impact of her work
Shayna Talton, Eastside Rise’s community engagement manager, has always wanted to be part of a community and to live in a house. She grew up mostly living in apartments.
She never thought she’d be able to find a job doing community work. A former IT analyst, Talton became involved in the community in 2022.
“It really stemmed from a childhood dream of mine to be like ‘the neighbor,’ greeting the new move-ins with a pie or something like that,” Talton said. “I just didn’t like the narrative that I was hearing, like, ‘Oh, the reason things are the way they are in east Tulsa is because nobody cares,’ … I just don’t believe that.”
She carries her own lived experiences in the day to day as a community engagement manager living in the Columbus neighborhood. Her passion goes beyond working for a nonprofit, but seeing the impact of how the programs benefit her own child.
The organization focuses on four neighborhoods: Disney, Magic Circle, Cooper and Columbus. At first, people questioned why she did this work in east Tulsa rather than in north Tulsa since she’s a Black woman.
“At the end of the day, even though I may not look like the majority of my neighbors, I am their neighbor,” she said.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
Disclosure: Eastside Rise receives financial support from the George Kaiser Family Foundation. GKFF also provided financial support for the Tulsa Flyer. News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
