Little Axe Health Center News

The grand opening of the new clinic at Little Axe was a huge success. Our guest speakers were Absentee Shawnee Gov. George Blanchard and IHS Area Director Kevin Meeks. We were also blessed to hear the Shawnee language spoken by tribal elder Isaac Gibson, Sr. He opened up the grand opening with a prayer in his native language. We also had the Absentee Shawnee Tribal Veteran’s Association raise the flags and the Scissortail Drum group performing. Thank you to these two groups who made the day even more special. Other special guests were representatives from the AST Health Board of Directors, the Norman Police Departments, Nabholz Construction Company, BancFirst, Childers Architects, and ADG Project Management Group. We also had visitors from the tribe, local businesses, members from other tribes’ health programs, and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Thank you to everyone who came out to make this day very special not only to the employees of the health program but to the Absentee Shawnee Tribe. 

We have been very busy filling positions at the new clinic. We received a resignation from Dr. Nathan Boren who will be leaving us at the end of May. We also received a resignation from Jack Ogden, pharmacist. Dr. Boren and Jack are both leaving us to fulfill their goals of going into the mission field. They both will be going out of the country to different areas to do mission work. We wish them both well in their new adventures and safe journeys. They both will be greatly missed. We also received the resignation from our Executive Director of Health, Gary Wabaunsee in April. He decided to retire to spend more time with his family.

We are adding new providers to both the Shawnee and Little Axe locations. Marla Throckmorton, Shawnee clinic administrator is actively searching for new providers for the Shawnee location. The pediatrician, a nurse practitioner and a physician assistant are on staff to see patients. Behavioral Health is located in Shawnee with Virginia Kinkade is in charge of the Shawnee office with the help of Monte Blake, counselor. Luis Almanza is the administrative assistance for the Shawnee Behavioral Health office. All other behavioral health staff are located at the Little Axe Clinic. We continue to have x-ray and lab procedures done in the Shawnee clinic. We are not closing the Shawnee clinic, we are making improvements to the facility. You should be seeing changes when you go to your appointment in the Shawnee Clinic. 

If you have any comments or questions, you can contact Marla Throckmorton at 405.878.4702 or Beverly Felton, 405.447.0300. These are the two clinic administrators for Shawnee and Little Axe. Due to the retirement of Mr. Wabaunsee, Ms. Felton is also the Interim Executive Director of Health.