Color Oklahoma is a committee of the Oklahoma Native Plant Society. The 100% volunteer organization is governed by a diverse Board of Directors.

Monica Bartling, Chairman

Monica Bartling has been a member of the Color Oklahoma Board of Directors since 2018 and has served as Board Chairman since 2022 when the founder of the organization, Pearl Garrison, became Chairman Emeritus. Bartling has a passion for wildflowers and native plants that was fostered early in life by growing up on a small farm in Okemah and having parents with green thumbs who loved to garden and used environmentally friendly techniques before they were popular.

Professionally Bartling was a media company marketer and advertising manager serving as Director of Sales and Marketing in Duncan, Oklahoma; Advertising Director in Lancaster, PA; Director of sales and marketing for Booth Newspapers in Michigan and as the Vice President of Advertising for the Miami (Fl) Herald Companies. In 1997, she founded a database marketing company, Marketing Solutions Group, that served more than 200 media brands across the United States for more than 20 years. In 2001 she remarried and moved to a ranch in South Central Oklahoma and lives 6 miles from the Texas border in Waurika, OK. She and her husband, Roy, have researched and tested farming techniques that focus on native plants and grasses to attract pollinators.

“Preserve the environment” has become a family mantra for the Bartling’s and their blended family of 5 adult children and 11 grandchildren (ages 2 to 34).

“Working with Color Oklahoma has provided a retirement outlet for me that allows for continuing my gardening interests and education and sharpening my social media skills and continuing to learn more and more about native plants and grasses.”

Bartling serves on many local and church organizations and boards as well as being the President-Elect of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) of Oklahoma.

Most days you will find Monica playing in the plants somewhere, presenting a program on Color Oklahoma or attending an GFWC meeting somewhere near or far!