Current source roster
Mayor of Tulsa
Mayor
December 2, 2024–present
People / Government & civic life
Monroe Nichols IV
Mayor of Tulsa
A public career linking City Hall, education, organized business and philanthropy.
Tulsa’s 41st mayor took office on December 2, 2024. His documented connections include Kathy Taylor’s administration and campaign, ImpactTulsa, Tulsa Community Foundation, StriveTogether and several governing boards.
A career across government, education and philanthropy
Nichols came to Tulsa as a University of Tulsa student and earned degrees in political science and economics, followed by a master’s in public administration at the University of Oklahoma. His career connects municipal administration, higher education, workforce development, business recruitment and education nonprofits. His state House service preceded his December 2024 inauguration as Tulsa’s first Black mayor.
Career & public service
- 2006–2009 administration
Work for Kathy Taylor
Mayoral staff role; later managed Taylor’s 2013 campaign.
- Before 2016 · sequence partly undated
Higher education, workforce and business
Chief of staff to OU–Tulsa president Gerry Clancy; economic development work at CareerTech; business retention and expansion at the Tulsa Regional Chamber.
- 2014–2016
Education governance and nonprofit work
Tulsa Tech board service; ImpactTulsa co-founder in 2014 and COO in its 2015 report; TCF program officer in 2015 IRS data.
- 2016–2024
State representative
House District 72. Subsequent StriveTogether sources document policy and partnerships work in 2023 and a state infrastructure title in 2024.
- December 2024 onward
Mayor and governing-board roles
City administration alongside separately documented seats at TAEO, TCF, INCOG, Tulsa Stadium Trust and Greenwood Trust.
People, institutions and the relationships between them
Following the connections
Each step below represents a documented relationship. Dates and roles belong to the individual links; a path can span different periods.
personMonroe Nichols IV
nonprofitImpactTulsa
personKathy Taylor
Nichols and Taylor held executive roles in the same organization in 2015.
personMonroe Nichols IV
foundationTulsa Community Foundation
personGeorge Kaiser
A current office-linked trusteeship and a 1998 founding role. This path does not imply Kaiser directs the mayor.
personMonroe Nichols IV
charitable trustGreenwood Trust
personAlaina C. Beverly
The mayor is a trustee; Beverly is executive director. Nichols’s October 2025 appointment announcement documents a specific action.
The Kathy Taylor connection
Taylor employed Nichols in her mayoral administration. He later managed her unsuccessful 2013 mayoral campaign, and she endorsed his own mayoral run in August 2024. Their working relationship also extended into education philanthropy: ImpactTulsa’s 2015 report names Taylor as CEO and Nichols as COO. The organization’s founding history lists both among its April 2014 founders. These are separate, dated relationships, rather than a single vague association.
The Tulsa Community Foundation connection
Tulsa Community Foundation’s 2015 IRS return data list Nichols as a program officer. Today its board page identifies him as an ex-officio trustee by virtue of his mayoral office. TCF’s history identifies George Kaiser as the principal organizer of its 1998 creation and names a wider group of original trustees. The historical job, the current board seat and Kaiser’s founding role should remain separate links. TCF and George Kaiser Family Foundation are distinct named organizations in this directory.
Documented relationships
34 documented relationships · Historical and current roles remain distinct.
Historical record
Kathy Taylor
Mayoral aide
Taylor administration, 2006–2009
Employment in Taylor’s city administration; not private employment by Taylor.
Historical record
Kathy Taylor
Campaign manager
2013 mayoral campaign
Historical record
Kathy Taylor
Endorsed for mayor
Historical record
ImpactTulsa
Co-founder
April 2014
Historical record
ImpactTulsa
Chief operating officer
Documented in 2015
A dated role, not an assertion of continued employment.
Institutional context
Kathy Taylor
Chief executive officer · ImpactTulsa
Documented in 2015
Historical record
Tulsa Community Foundation
Program officer
2015 tax year
IRS compensation data establish the reported employment title and year; exact hire and departure dates not established.
Current source roster
Tulsa Community Foundation
Ex-officio trustee as mayor
Current roster checked September 26, 2026
Seat attaches to the mayoral office; this is distinct from the historical staff role.
Institutional context
George Kaiser
Founding organizer and original trustee · Tulsa Community Foundation
1998
TCF identifies Kaiser as the main architect of its creation, alongside other original trustees. This does not establish unilateral present control.
Historical record
StriveTogether
Director of policy and partnerships
Documented in 2023
Historical record
StriveTogether
Director, state infrastructure
2024 tax year
Tax-year employment evidence; does not establish post-inauguration employment or an exact departure date.
Current source roster
Tulsa Authority for Economic Opportunity / PartnerTulsa
Board chair as mayor
Current roster checked September 26, 2026
PartnerTulsa identifies the mayor as chair. The city seat roster separately lists a mayoral designee; those are not silently equated.
Current source roster
INCOG
Tulsa mayoral representative
Roster dated August 17, 2026
Current source roster
Tulsa Stadium Trust
Trustee No. 1, Mayor/Designee
Since December 2, 2024 in city roster
Current source roster
Greenwood Trust
Trustee
Current roster checked September 26, 2026
Institutional context
Alaina C. Beverly
Executive director · Greenwood Trust
Appointed October 24, 2025
Historical record
Alaina C. Beverly
Appointed Greenwood Trust executive director
October 24, 2025
Historical record
University of Oklahoma–Tulsa
Chief of staff to university president
Before state legislative service
Historical record
Gerry Clancy
Chief of staff
At OU–Tulsa, before legislative service
Historical record
Tulsa Regional Chamber
Director, business retention and expansion
Before state legislative service
Historical record
Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education
Economic development manager
Before state legislative service
Historical record
Tulsa Tech
Board of Education member
Historical record
Oklahoma House of Representatives
House District 72 representative
Historical record
Collegiate Hall
Founding board member
Legacy founding-board page; date unstated
Historical record
Monroe for Mayor 2024
Candidate
2024 mayoral election
Historical record
Dana Walton
Appointed deputy chief of staff
December 2, 2024; now listed as chief of staff
Appointment event and subsequent current title are distinct.
Institutional context
Dana Walton
Campaign manager · Monroe for Mayor 2024
2024 mayoral campaign
Historical record
Gene Bulmash
Appointed senior housing advisor
December 2, 2024; still listed on management roster
Institutional context
George Kaiser Family Foundation
Launch grant announced · Tulsa Office of Health and Well-being
August 19, 2025
$50,000 · Grant announced by city; not a personal payment or campaign donation
Institutional context
CommunityCare
Multi-year launch funding announced · Tulsa Office of Health and Well-being
August 19, 2025
$210,000 · Multi-year program funding announced by city
Institutional context
Local 344 Voluntary PAC Fund
Reported campaign contribution · Monroe for Mayor 2024
November 14, 2024
Post-election contribution to the campaign committee. Selected transaction, not a donor ranking or a complete donor list. Report PDF p. 7.
$5,000 · single reported contribution
Institutional context
Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 430 PAC
Reported campaign contribution · Monroe for Mayor 2024
November 14, 2024
Post-election contribution to the campaign committee. Selected transaction, not a donor ranking or a complete donor list. Report PDF p. 7.
$2,500 · single reported contribution
Institutional context
Tulsa Firefighters Local 176
Reported campaign contribution · Monroe for Mayor 2024
November 14, 2024
Post-election contribution to the campaign committee. Selected transaction, not a donor ranking or a complete donor list. Report PDF p. 7.
$5,000 · single reported contribution
Dated public records
Compensation & campaign finance
Mayoral salary rate authorized for the term beginning December 2024
$190,000 / year
Council action: April 17, 2024
Authorized salary rate; not a calculation of actual pay, benefits or take-home income.
Tulsa Community Foundation · program officer
$132,500
2015 tax year
Reported compensation in IRS data reproduced by ProPublica; $16,452 additional “other” compensation and $0 related-organization compensation. Historical employment.
StriveTogether · director, state infrastructure
$136,111
2024 tax year
Form 990 reportable compensation; $7,733 estimated other compensation and $0 from related organizations. This annual return does not establish an exact departure date.
2024 mayoral campaign
Aggregate totals through December 31, 2024
| Reported category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual monetary contributions | $858,631.75 |
| PAC monetary contributions | $55,500.00 |
| Loans received | $16,736.55 |
| Total funds received, including loans | $930,868.30 |
| In-kind contributions | $2,629.71 |
| Funds plus in-kind support | $933,498.01 |
| Campaign expenditures | $906,073.63 |
| Ending cash balance | $24,794.67 |
Figures transcribed from the report’s aggregate column, not summed across overlapping filings. This is a historical election snapshot; the clerk’s index includes later reports. Loans and in-kind support remain separate from cash contributions. Individual donors have not been ranked or attached to organizations without transaction-level review.
Greenwood: public office and a charitable trust
Nichols is listed as a Greenwood Trust trustee. In October 2025, acting in that capacity, he announced Alaina C. Beverly’s appointment as executive director. The city’s original plan set a $105 million asset target: $24 million for housing, $60 million for cultural preservation and $21 million for a legacy fund. These are planned allocations, not verified receipts. The trust’s leadership page now names its trustees and a separate national advisory board.
People brought into the administration
Nichols appointed his 2024 campaign manager, Dana Walton, as deputy chief of staff when he took office; the current city roster lists Walton as chief of staff. Gene Bulmash, appointed senior advisor for housing at the same time, remains on that roster. These links connect campaign work and policy implementation to the administration, with appointment events recorded separately from current job titles.
Philanthropy supporting city programs
The city’s August 2025 launch announcement for its Office of Health and Well-being identified $210,000 in multi-year CommunityCare support and a $50,000 George Kaiser Family Foundation grant. This establishes a publicly announced funding relationship with a city initiative. It does not establish a donation to Nichols personally or to his campaign.
Reported policy dispute
A live policy dispute: homelessness
In August 2026, Public Radio Tulsa reported that the governor’s office sought reimbursement from Tulsa and Oklahoma City for state-led encampment operations. Nichols disputed Tulsa’s responsibility for costs incurred on state property. He contrasted those operations with the city’s Safe Move program. His reported claims about people housed and encampments closed are administration claims; this profile does not treat them as an independently audited outcome measure.
A judicial limit on the tribal settlement
On May 27, 2026, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held that Tulsa’s June 2025 settlement with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation lacked required state approvals. Nichols had represented Tulsa in the agreement, which addressed municipal prosecution of Native defendants on the reservation. The majority declared the settlement unenforceable until approval by the governor and the Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations. Tulsa argued that the settlement extended an existing cross-deputization agreement; the court rejected that argument. Nichols was named in his official capacity. The decision concerned the agreement’s validity, rather than resolving every underlying question of criminal jurisdiction. The official docket lists the case as closed.
Interpretation
What these connections help explain
Nichols’s documented career places him at the intersection of elected government, education reform, organized business and philanthropy. His current mayoral and trustee roles create formal places where those sectors meet. The Taylor relationship adds a long-running political and professional connection. This pattern suggests experience convening institutions and access to their decision makers. Establishing influence over a particular outcome would require the next layer of evidence: proposals, votes, grants, contracts, correspondence and implementation results. Shared affiliations alone do not establish coordinated action, favoritism or control.
Check the record
Sources & corrections
Research checked 2026-09-26. Roles and financial figures retain their source dates. Sections appear only when supported material is available; an omitted section is not a finding that no such relationship exists.
- City of Tulsa · About Mayor Nichols ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
- Tulsa City Council · Government branches and responsibilities ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
- Oklahoma House · Historical Nichols biography ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
Historical biography; its old employer title is not a current employment claim.
- Public Radio Tulsa · Taylor endorses Nichols ↗
Independent reporting · Source date 2024-08-15 · Checked 2026-09-26
- ImpactTulsa · 2015 Community Impact Report ↗
Primary source · Source date 2015 · Checked 2026-09-26
Printed pp. 20 and 22 / PDF pp. 22 and 24: Leadership Council and staff.
- ImpactTulsa · Gathering Voices report ↗
Primary source · Source date 2019 · Checked 2026-09-26
Printed p. 4 / PDF p. 6: April 2014 founders.
- Tulsa Community Foundation · 2015 IRS return data ↗
IRS data reproduced by ProPublica · Source date 2015 · Checked 2026-09-26
Fiscal year ending December 2015; compensation table. Filing dated November 15, 2016. Full XML retrieval was unavailable; figures checked in the extracted IRS table.
- Tulsa Community Foundation · Board of Trustees ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
Monroe Nichols and footnote 1: ex-officio trustee as Mayor of Tulsa.
- Tulsa Community Foundation · History ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
Our beginnings and original trustees; foundation established in 1998.
- StriveTogether · The Bold Vision of Our North Star ↗
Primary source · Source date 2023 · Checked 2026-09-26
Host credit and transcript; describes the 2023 convening.
- StriveTogether · 2024 Form 990 ↗
Primary source · Source date 2024 · Checked 2026-09-26
Part VII, printed p. 7 / PDF p. 8, row 13.
- PartnerTulsa · Board of Trustees ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
- INCOG · Board of Directors ↗
Primary source · Source date 2026-08-17 · Checked 2026-09-26
- City of Tulsa · Authorities, boards and commissions ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
Tulsa Stadium Trust, Trustee No. 1, Mayor/Designee; start December 2, 2024.
- Greenwood Trust · Our People ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
- City of Tulsa · Greenwood Trust plan ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
Original $105m target and October 24, 2025 executive director appointment; target is not money raised.
- City of Tulsa · Mayor’s management team ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-30
Named management and department-head entries. Rechecked September 30, 2026: Anna America still has combined deputy/director title despite reported August reassignment; Dennis Larsen succession remains separately held for October 1 verification.
- City of Tulsa · Initial Nichols appointments ↗
Primary source · Source date 2024-12-02 · Checked 2026-09-26
- Tulsa City Council · April 17, 2024 recap ↗
Primary source · Source date 2024-04-17 · Checked 2026-09-26
- City Clerk · Nichols post-general campaign report ↗
Primary source · Source date 2025-02-03 · Checked 2026-09-26
PDF p. 1, aggregate column through December 31, 2024; visually verified. Signed January 31, filed February 3, 2025.
- City Clerk · Mayoral campaign filings ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
Index contains later 2025 reports. The sample financial summary covers the 2024 election report only.
- City of Tulsa · Office of Health and Well-being launch ↗
Primary source · Source date 2025-08-19 · Checked 2026-09-26
- Public Radio Tulsa · State billing dispute over Operation SAFE ↗
Independent reporting · Source date 2026-08-14 · Checked 2026-09-26
- Collegiate Hall · Founding board biography ↗
Primary source · Checked 2026-09-26
Legacy founding-board page. Retained as historical evidence only; no current board membership inferred.
- Oklahoma Supreme Court · 2026 OK 39 ↗
Court opinion reproduced by Justia · Source date 2026-05-27 · Checked 2026-09-26
Majority opinion, paragraphs 2, 6–16. See official docket for subsequent entries.
- OSCN · Case PR-123368 docket ↗
Official court docket · Checked 2026-09-26
May 27 opinion; June 29 release-card entry. Case marked closed June 19, 2026.