Nellie Sanders has been working in her new position since January, but she had a message on Thursday.

“The bottom line is, the real work begins now,” she said.

That directive came one day after Sanders was unanimously approved by the Oklahoma Senate as the new Secretary of Education.

The 42-0 vote came one day after the Senate Education Committee voted 13-0 to recommend Sanders’ appointment to the full Senate.

Sanders sat before the committee for a confirmation hearing alongside Sen. Darcy Jech (R-Kingfisher), who carried her nomination for the position in Governor Kevin Stitt’s cabinet.

“She’s enthusiastic, she’s a go-getter and she hit the ground running when she was appointed,” Jech told the Times & Free Press. “And she handled this process the same way. Nellie presented herself very well and handled all the committee’s questions just find.

“I think Nellie will do a great job.”

Sanders was appointed to the position by Stitt in January. She will be his chief adviser on education issues.

“People ask Governor Stitt: What does Nellie do?” she said. “And his answer is always ‘people and policy.’ You work a lot to bring people together and develop policy.”

She and her husband, Mike Sanders, live in Kingfi sher with their two sons. Mike Sanders is the executive director of the Oklahoma Broadband Office.

In addition to getting to work on her new role, Sanders knew the confirmation hearing was looming.

“I’ve been preparing for this since Jan. 24 when I was appointed,” she told the Times & Free Press.

Sanders said she met with every member of the committee in the weeks leading up to the hearing.

“It was important for me to understand the issues in their districts,” she said. “I want to understand ways to bring people together in their district and ways we can work together on policies.”

As Jech made his introduction of her to the committee, Sanders said she was humbled.

“I was super appreciative of all the things he said and his confidence in my ability to do the job to represent all of our students and teachers in the state,” she said. I felt really confident going into the hearing, but having somebody you’ve known for a really longtime like Senator Jech gave me a lot of peace.”

Now with the interim tag removed, Sanders said she’ll resume her work on future education initiatives.

Sanders is a longtime education advocate, especially for young readers.

Diagnosed as dyslexic herself, Sanders has focused a lot on young readers who are neurodivergent or intellectually or developmentally disabled.

“Now with the hearing behind me, we can spend a lot of time working with members of all different branches of education to start prioritizing ways we need to work together to get our children reading, frankly.

“There’s a lot of work to be done.”