On the day of this photoshoot, Teresa Rose had to be scheduled last. She was coming directly off a flight from Paris the night before. Earlier that week, a group of prominent Oklahoma City residents went to the Olympics together in Paris.
These people were not only spectators—they were taking notes, learning lessons and making plans to host their own international competitions in just four short years, pending the official vote from the Los Angeles City Council.
Oklahoma City hosting a portion of the Olympics? The actual Olympics? How in the world did we get here? How did we even get to a point where we are included in the conversation? With dynamic, smart, and determined people like Teresa Rose seeing our city’s potential and rising to the occasion. “I try to focus most of my decisions on ‘How can I have the greatest impact on where I am living?’” said Rose.
Rose arrived in OKC by way of North Dallas to attend law school in 1990. With her parents as educators, a career in education law seemed natural. She practiced for years before taking a job as Director of Community Relations at Chesapeake Energy, Inc. It was a role she flourished in, stating, “Smart philanthropy is so important and it’s not as easy as it looks.”
Currently Rose serves as the Executive Director of Communities Foundation of Oklahoma (CFO). CFO is a philanthropic organization that serves the charitable needs of rural communities across the great state of Oklahoma. It assists hundreds of efforts in more than 45 counties.
After over a decade as an active Greater Oklahoma City Chamber member, Rose was officially installed as the new Chamber Chair, only the second female ever to hold the position. The Chamber, the leadership of the City of Oklahoma City, Riversport OKC and USA Softball have been working closely with the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Committee to develop a plan to support the delivery of the 2028 summer Olympics by hosting all Canoe Slalom and Women’s Softball events in Oklahoma City.
In addition to the above, Rose is the current Chairperson of the MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board. MAPS 4 is a debt-free public improvement program funded by a temporary penny sales tax that will raise a projected $1.1 billion over eight years. More than 70% of MAPS 4 funding is dedicated to neighborhood and human needs such as youth and senior centers and animal shelters; the rest of the funding will go to quality of life and job-creating initiatives. She follows in the footsteps of community greats such as Tom McDaniel, who recently had a lake named after him at Scissortail Park.
“I did not grow up here, but this is my home. Oklahoma City adopted me—a Texan. Oklahoma City has been very good to me, it has been good to my daughters; and being able to see things that I have been a part of directly or indirectly, it’s a huge sense of pride that I played some small part in advancing a community so quickly. I tell my girls all the time, there are very few times in a city’s life that it gets to recreate itself. And I feel like Oklahoma City has,” said Rose.
As good as the city has been to her, Rose has shown love and devotion right back. The years of service and the uncountable hours of meetings, organizing, strategizing and implementing amount to one thing always at the center of Rose’s vision—maximum impact.
Decades from now when the 2028 Olympics have come and gone and the MAPS4 projects have broken ground, opened and are serving citizens, it would not be surprising for Teresa Rose to take a stroll with her grandchildren on a downtown street named after her and her incredible tenacity.
