After 17 years in the banking industry and supporting causes around Lawton and across the region, Albert Rivas took a step back. Several, actually.
The former bank executive was able to take time to reflect on issues that matter the most to him: advocating for the arts, LGBTQIA+ community, expanding mental health services and his peace of mind.
Professionally, Rivas had climbed the ladder from his bank teller position in high school to become a district manager and assistant vice president for City National Bank. He became active in several civic groups and nonprofit organizations, working for the Arts for All Festival, Arts for All Gala and the Freedom Festival. He also took on both directing and acting roles for productions with the Lawton Community Theatre. For Rivas’ contributions to the arts, he was awarded The Roma Clift Montgomery Citizen of the Arts Award from the City of Lawton and Lawton Arts and Humanities Council, which honors artists, educators, citizens, and businesses and organizations who have made a difference in the community, he told Southwest Ledger in 2020.
A past president for Young Professionals of Lawton, Rivas is member of Leadership Lawton-Fort Sill Class XXVII. He has served on the organizations’ boards as well as the boards for Armed Forces YMCA, Lawton Philharmonic Orchestra, Lawton Food Bank, United Way of Southwest Oklahoma, and Leadership Lawton Fort Sill. Recognized for his continuing volunteerism throughout the community, he was awarded the Lawton Enhancement Trust Authority’s Champion Volunteer Award for Comanche County and has earned a proclamation from the Extra Mile Heroes of America for helping fellow citizens, promoting positivity within the community and supporting initiatives in the arts, education and nonprofit sectors. He was also selected as Comanche County’s Citizen of the Month for Dec. 2018.
Again being honored for his passion for community and the arts, a “humbled” Rivas received the 44th Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award from the Oklahoma Arts Council in Nov. 2021. Rivas was one of six recipients of the Community Service Award for leadership and volunteerism. He reeled at being selected for the award and being honored alongside Oklahoma actress Kristin Chenoweth and poet laureate Joy Harjo.
“It’s the arts that make our community thrive,” he said shortly after receiving the award in 2021. “People who are in the arts are devoted and passionate about what they do,” he said. “There’s no bond like that of a theatre family,” he said. “A theatre family is a place where everyone—no matter what race, creed, religion, sexuality, whatever it may be—feels accepted.
Agreeing that theatre provides a positive means of self-expression, Rivas did his first show for Lawton Community Theatre in 2007 and “fell in love with it,” he said. “I was a butcher in Cinderella,” he recalled.
For 15 years I’ve been doing it with LCT and Blue Moon Productions specifically. I’ve served on the boards for Arts For All, Lawton Community Theatre, Lawton Philharmonic, and for Oklahoma A+ Schools Institute, which is specifically for the arts in schools—STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics)
“Each of the arts organizations impact not just the arts, but more importantly, they impact the youth through the arts,” he said.
Rivas needed an opportunity to change his focus and prioritize. And he took it.
“I was very fortunate that I could do that,” he said about the break. “For the first time in years, I didn’t know what I was going to do. And that was the most liberating feeling.”
Where many would consider the life change terrifying, Rivas considers his step back as a successful period for introspect in his journey for personal wellbeing.
“My priorities have changed,” he said. “I’m being honest with myself and everyone else. I’m discovering who I am and I’m becoming comfortable with who I am.”
Coming out as a nonbinary pansexual in November 2021, Rivas advocates for the LGBTQIA+. Dealing with his own mental wellbeing, he strongly advocates for increased access to mental health services.
“Mental health is not Oklahoma’s priority,” he said. “And unfortunately, there is a stigma behind mental health. Whenever I tell someone I’m going through a mental health ordeal, they always apologize. ‘No. It’s something that I live with and have to maintain.’”
Considering himself a spiritualist for most of his life, Rivas has recently launched Ascension Mindset to promote positivity and spiritual wellbeing.
“My [maternal] grandma always had this healing touch about her,” he said.
“I’ve always sensed other things there or have experienced situations that have been terrifying for other people, but I knew what was going on. I was just not in control. I feel as though when my grandma passed, those types of senses heightened a little more because we were so spiritually connected.”
Although he stepped away from countless obligations that once filled his schedule, he continues to freely lend support to many organizations’ missions. However, his true passion is the arts—namely the theatre.
Rivas continues to serve on the board for Oklahoma A+ Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. “That’s the only committee I currently serve,” he said calmly.
“No matter how challenging it may have been or how much doubt came with it,” he said of his break, “I was able to come out a stronger, more confident, authentic version of myself.”