Kelly (Burgar) Payne, a 2006 graduate of Southwestern College, has won The Employee of the Year award at FOX 25 in Oklahoma City.

Payne has been at FOX 25 for 14 years.  For 11 years she was a director and for the past three years, she has been the executive producer for the lifestyle show “Living Oklahoma.” 

The Employee of the Year award is voted on by the employees of FOX 25. 

“It was a shock that I won the 2025 EOY award which was given out at our Holiday party,” Payne says. “I love my job and enjoy working with my peers and working with clients every day. I wear a lot of hats at the station; executive producer for ‘Living Oklahoma,’ organizing all the anniversaries at the station and I am a committee member of our party planning committee.”

Since “Living Oklahoma” is a lifestyle show, Payne also works in sales as clients pay to be on the show.  Payne says that the show is unique because it airs on FOX 25 in Oklahoma City and also on KTUL in Tulsa at the same time, 9 to 10 a.m. 

Payne grew up in Pittsburgh, Kan., and now lives in Oklahoma City.  While she was at Southwestern, Payne took four years of television experience which prepared her for what to expect to see in the TV business. She graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in mass communications and film. 

“I started as a graphic designer, to technical director, to director and now executive producer,” Payne says.  “I learned to work as a team and collaborate to get the story out. I also used my video production experience when recording segments for clients and news. It’s interesting that the video production at SC that we used was AVID editing software. My first station I worked at didn’t use that software, but funny enough, when I came to FOX 25, they were using AVID software to edit, which was nice. The business has evolved greatly since 2006 and now I am learning to use A.I. and making content that is for digital platforms.”