Raised in a military family, Vonnie Anderson credits her personal involvement in the community and her loyalty and positive attitude to her parents, who sacrificed much while raising their two children, but did so graciously.

 

Anderson, 33, has given much of her time to various organizations in the metro area, including United Way of Central Oklahoma, OETA, Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Community Food Drive, Oklahoma City Junior League's "Changing Lives through Literacy" program, Allied Arts Oklahoma City Card Campaign, Girl Scouts and Oklahoma Blood Institute.

 

"I would rather put my efforts in an organization and be able to fully commit to the purpose," she says. "My philosophy, when it comes to serving the community, is quality rather than quantity."

 

True to her word, Anderson has - while working at Bank of Oklahoma for 11 years - become a key person in the United Way campaign.

 

"To me, this is a great accomplishment, as I have established the trust of my co-workers to make major decisions for our largest employee-drive fundraising campaign," she said.

 

In order to keep herself in the know, Anderson spends time networking at various monthly professional development meetings.

 

Anderson also has been involved in The Association for Women in Communications and graduated from Leadership Oklahoma City's LOYAL class this spring.

 

In September, she became a volunteer teacher at Westwood Elementary teaching basic life skill curriculum to young girls in the first grade.

Anderson received her bachelor's degree in 1996 and her master's degree in education at the University of Central Oklahoma in 2001.