State Health Commissioner Gains Committee Approval After 10 Months On the Job

Interim state Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye stood before a Senate committee on Monday. 

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee was considering whether Frye should be confirmed to the job he has held for nearly a year. 

It is the first time the committee heard from a Gov. Kevin Stitt health commissioner nominee. Stitt's 2019 nominee Gary Cox never got a hearing. On Monday, Frye passed 10 to 0. 

In May 2020 during the first wave of COVID-19 infections, state senators made it known they would not hold a hearing for the former Tulsa County and Oklahoma City-County Health Department Director Gary Cox.

Senators cited his lack of a master's degree, and deemed him unqualified to do the job. 

That's when Dr. Frye took over. 

With a doctorate in medicine and deployments in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, Frye’s nomination was unanimously advanced by the committee. 

Lawmakers praised Frye for leading the state's response to COVID-19 and rolling out a plan to place Oklahoma among the highest vaccinators in the country. 

“Do you feel like your military experience and or your experience as a clinician have prepared you in regard to COVID?” Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, asked. 

“You learn how to work through stressful environments as a team and do it in a calm and orderly way. The military just complemented that as well,” Frye responded in part. “I've deployed all over the world, done all types of things and it's made me who I am as a person today."

The committee also unanimously approved Kevin Corbett as the state Secretary of Health and Mental Health. Both nominations now go to the full Senate.