Richard Mullins
True Crime Author
After serving in the U.S. Navy, Richard worked a variety of jobs including in the oil fields as a roughneck in the scorching sun and in freezing Oklahoma weather. In 1964 a recruiter from the Oklahoma City Police Department came to Tulsa, Oklahoma providing testing for needed new recruits. Richard passed the test to became a proud member of the department that fall. His career began riding the downtown streets of OKC in a scout car. Within four years he was promoted to Detective. He would go on to serve 21 years rising to the rank the of Detective Sergeant in seven years. In the next fourteen years he headed up the first ever Sex Crimes Unit as well as overseeing the Auto Theft and Crime Analysis Units.
After retirement from the OKC Police Department Richard was employed as by the state of Oklahoma as the first Environmental Criminal Investigator in Oklahoma State History. Over the years since leaving law enforcement, he began to gather research notes and ponder ideas for True Crime books. Using firsthand knowledge of criminal investigation and a number of interviews with survivors and family of the perpetrators and victims of the incidents that interested him, Richard began work on a series of books.
Things back then were very different from the high-tech world of today for the uniformed men who guarded the citizens of a fast-growing metropolis. From worn out old patrol cars with standard shifts, no power steering or air conditioning to fist fights with drunks, to low pay and long hours, this was a tough time to be an officer of the law. Fact is often stranger than fiction – so are the real stories of the events in Richard’s time on patrol, before he traded his uniform in for a suit and hidden .38 snub nose.
405-824-2445 [email protected]
Speaking Date: Friday, September 29th @ 12:00pm
James “David” Gordon
Humana Medicare Advantage Programs
David Gordon is a licensed insurance agent for over ten years and works in both the OKC metro area as well as Chickasha and Lawton too. His focus in Medicare Advantage Programs and he loves taking care of our senior population insurance needs to ensure they have great coverage that meets their healthcare needs.
405-535-8359 [email protected]
Speaking Date: Friday, October 6th @ 12:00pm
Breena Wesley, TSgt, USAF
Technical Sergeant Breena Wesley is Line Recruiter at 507th Airlift Refueling Wing, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. She is responsible for inspiring, engaging, and
recruiting future Airmen to enhance warfighting capabilities.
TSgt Wesley enlisted in the Air Force Reserve in April 2012. She graduated from Air Force Recruiting Service Course from Lackland Air Force Base in October 2022.
Her most notable skills have benefited her organization to bring Air Force Reserve awareness through speaking engagements, community outreach efforts and
voluntarism. Prior to her current position, TSgt Wesley was Medical Logistician, 94th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.
In her civilian capacity, TSgt Wesley worked in different Human Resources roles for various companies since 2013.
405-409-6311 [email protected]
Speaking Date: Friday, October 13th @ 12:00pm
D’Anna Pulliam
Buck$ 4 Bikes
Each Christmas, hundreds of families rely on The Salvation Army to help provide a merry Christmas for children in their households. One of the most common Christmas wishes is to recieve a brand new bicycle.
The Salvation Army of Central Oklahoma wants to fulfill as many Christmas wishes as possible by providing a new bicycle for as many children as we can. Since 2006, over 13,000 children have recieved a bike through the Buck$ 4 Bikes program.
When you donate to the Buck$ 4 Bikes program, every dollar raised will go towards the purchase of a new bike for our Angel Tree children, bringing joy to hundreds of households on Christmas morning.
405-408-5457 [email protected]
Speaking Date: Friday, October 27th @ 12:00pm
Emmanuel Rivera
The Come Up Martial Arts for Youth
Emmanuel “El Punisher” Rivera, a former street kid from Chicago, is now the executive director of The Come Up Foundation in Oklahoma City and an MMA analyst on Sports Animal.
A former professional MMA fighter and dance instructor, Rivera has practiced martial arts for 13 years, and says it helped turn his life around. He’s now giving back to disadvantaged youth to keep them off the streets and on the right path.
Proficient in striking, Rivera’s health challenges put a hold on his career as a professional MMA fighter but sparked a new passion to “pay forward” the valuable lessons he learned. Rivera continues to train fighters, and to learn new lessons in life and business while he teaches and mentors The Come Up kids.
As a proud second-generation Mexican-American, Rivera prefers to say he’s an American of Mexican descent. Rivera works with disadvantaged youth across Oklahoma, partnering with other nonprofits and churches with plans to expand into schools. He works daily to grow the program to create a culture of mentorship in the martial arts community. Rivera says kids need to be addicted to martial arts disciplines and healthy living instead of cellphones and game consoles. He says martial arts is a lifestyle.
A former small business owner and MMA and color commentator, Rivera spent his early childhood roaming the streets of Chicago, but credits his single Mom with moving him to Henryetta, Oklahoma, because she feared him affiliating with gangs.
Rivera said he still found trouble and moved out on his own at 16 and left for Las Vegas at 17, where he ran around with the wrong people but his love for his family and desire to pursue boxing caused him to return home and get on the right track.
Rivera learned boxing from his uncles in the yard of his family home in Henryetta. He practiced relentlessly, sparring with cousins and anyone willing to go a few rounds. He started fighting in public in Toughman competitions in his early twenties. After he won three straight tournaments, he turned his focus to mixed martial arts. Rivera quickly learned that martial arts is about more than fighting – it helps with stress relief, mental balance, overcoming unhealthy habits, and more.
Rivera had a promising career. He had 15 amateur and 8 professional fights in the cage (and one professional boxing bout), losing only four times.
But winning in life is the message he hopes to spread to youth. Come Up kids are asked to “commit and oblige” themselves to be honest, hard-working, strong
and respectful. It’s a personal contract recited during training sessions.
“I want to impact kids like me, so they don’t make the mistakes I made. I want to give them the same opportunities I have had.”
The Come Up Kids already are turning their lives around. Rivera’s Come Up kids are important to him, too. He’s also a mentor for the Young Latino Professionals. And he has a message to Oklahoma City:
“Watch out, because we are ‘The Come Up Kids,’ and we are OKC’s leaders of the future.”
918-607-3449 [email protected]
Speaking Date: Friday, November 3rd @ 12:00pm