OCAST’S Michael Carolina to speak at TCC’s 42nd annual commencement

More than 1,000 students will listen to C. Michael Carolina give the keynote address at Tulsa Community College’s commencement ceremony at 7 p.m. May 4 at the Oral Roberts University Mabee Center before they receive their associate degrees and/or certificates of achievement. Carolina is the executive director of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and a former employee at TCC.

Carolina began at OCAST in 2005. A native of Oklahoma, he received his bachelor’s degree in biological science from Oklahoma State University and his master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Oklahoma. He completed AT&T’s Executive Development Program in Princeton, N.J., in 1986.

Carolina was program coordinator and a faculty member at TCC from 1972 to 1976. He held management and executive positions with the Western Electric Co., AT&T and Lucent Technologies. He served in several of AT&T’s New Jersey-based operations, including technology transfer of Bell Laboratories-designed telecommunications products to AT&T’s and Lucent Technologies’ joint ventures in Korea, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Spain and Brazil.

He also was engineering director for Lucent Technologies’ Oklahoma City Global Provisioning Center. After his retirement from Lucent Technologies in 2001, he became consultant with the OSU Center for Innovation and Economic Development Foundation. He also was an adjunct professor in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology.

Carolina serves on numerous boards of directors andwas appointed to Gov. Mary Fallin’s Task Force for Economic Development, the Governor’s Science and Technology Council, and the Governor’s International Team. He is a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma City Class XXVI and a graduate of the 2009 FBI Citizens' Academy. Michael and his wife, Sharon, live in Edmond.