Retired Brigadier General Hopper Smith has a B.S. in geology from Oklahoma State University. He is also a graduate of the National Defense Intelligence College and the Army War College, receiving master’s degrees from both.  

Hopper has 35 years of military and civilian executive experience in multiple professional domains. He was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1996, serving on House Energy and Appropriations committees and House Minority Leadership. In 2003, he resigned from the House when his National Guard unit was mobilized for deployment to Afghanistan.   

 

After returning to Oklahoma from his deployment, Hopper went on to serve in several capacities, including Director of Government Relations for Chesapeake Energy, president of OCPA - Oklahoma’s free-market think tank, and Director of Public Affairs for Devon Energy. Hopper also served a second combat deployment to Afghanistan.  

 

In 2012, Hopper was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned as Assistant Adjutant General, Oklahoma National Guard. Then in 2018, he was named Executive Director of Oklahoma’s Workers’ Compensation Commission.