Meet Dr. Tre’ Landrum
For Dr. Tré Landrum, Ada isn’t simply where he practices medicine. It’s home.
His family’s connection to southeastern Oklahoma stretches back to before statehood. Generations of his family have lived, worked, built businesses and served communities throughout Holdenville, Sulphur, Pauls Valley and Ada.
In many ways, they quite literally helped build the area.
One grandfather started RFD Construction by making cinder blocks in his backyard. On his mother’s side, Dr. Landrum’s great-grandfather worked in road construction and helped build many of the roads throughout the area. Another grandfather was the last volunteer fire chief of Pauls Valley. And here in Ada, his father owned Black’s Men’s and Boy’s Wear on Main Street, a familiar part of the downtown community.
That history matters to Dr. Landrum. It shaped his belief that being part of a community means more than simply living or working there. It means contributing to it, serving the people around you and leaving something worthwhile for the generation that follows.
Dr. Landrum was born and raised in Ada—in the same hospital where he now holds medical staff privileges—and is a proud graduate of Ada High School (Go Cougars!), where he played football on a state championship team.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Oklahoma Baptist University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from East Central University before earning his medical degree from Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency training in Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Facial Plastic Surgery at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Dr. Landrum is board certified in otolaryngology and head and neck facial plastic surgery. He also completed advanced fellowship training in otolaryngic allergy and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy (AAOA).
He Chose to Come Home
After years of education and medical training, Dr. Landrum could have built his career in many places.
He chose Ada.
In January 2012, he opened Landrum ENT with the belief that families in rural Oklahoma deserve access to exceptional specialty care close to home.
More than a decade later, one of his greatest joys is caring for generations of the same families.
He may first meet a patient as a child who needs ear tubes, tonsils or adenoids removed—or because that child decided a bead, toy part, popcorn kernel or other interesting object belonged in an ear or nose. In fact, he has a jar filled with some of the more memorable things he has collected over the years, sanitized of course.
As those families grow, the reasons they come through the door change: sinus disease, allergies, hearing and balance concerns, thyroid conditions, surgery, or the difficult process of helping a patient and family navigate a cancer diagnosis.
Sometimes the patient sitting across from him is an old classmate, a former teacher or someone he has known most of his life. Other times, it is the child or grandchild of a patient he has cared for before.
Caring for people in his hometown through every stage of life is a privilege he doesn’t take for granted.
Growing the Next Generation of Rural Healthcare
There is almost always someone learning at Landrum ENT.
High school and college students shadow in the practice to explore careers in healthcare. Medical students, physician assistant students and residents rotate through the office and experience firsthand what high-quality specialty medicine looks like in a rural community.
Dr. Landrum serves as a preceptor and educator for the University of Oklahoma Physician Assistant Program, Chickasaw Nation Family Medicine Residency Program, and Oklahoma State University residency didactic program. As an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University, he also lectures to students, residents, primary care physicians and emergency medicine physicians.
Dr. Landrum has also helped establish and raise funds for housing for medical students completing rotations in Ada, helping remove one of the practical barriers to rural medical education.
The impact can sometimes be seen right inside his own practice. Former Landrum ENT employees have gone on to pursue higher education and healthcare careers—including a former pre-med student who is now completing a family medicine residency at Chickasaw Nation Medical Center.
Dr. Landrum hopes that giving students meaningful experiences in communities like Ada will encourage more of them to someday choose rural medicine for themselves.
Dr. Landrum’s investment in Ada has extended well beyond the walls of his practice.
He previously served on the Ada City Council and as Mayor of Ada from 2019–2022, an opportunity that gave him another way to serve the hometown that has given so much to him.
Today, he continues that community involvement as a member of the Board of Trustees of Oklahoma Baptist University and the Board of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf Foundation. He is a member of Trinity Baptist Church and serves as President of the Ada Schools Aviation Program (ASAP) Foundation, helping provide flight training scholarships for students in Ada High school’s aviation STEM program.
For someone whose family has spent generations building roads, businesses and communities across southeastern Oklahoma, there is a certain continuity to it.
Each generation has found its own way to build.
For Dr. Landrum, that has meant caring for patients, teaching future clinicians, supporting students and, for a few years, helping lead his hometown.
Outside the Office
Dr. Landrum has never been particularly good at having just one hobby.
He is an avid pilot, enjoys baking bread and cakes, is fluent in American Sign Language and can make a pretty good balloon animal.
And his computer science degree hasn’t gone entirely unused. He still codes for fun, tinkering with LaTeX, C, Flex and a little Python.
Most importantly, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Ruth, and their children, Finley and Sam, and being part of the southeastern Oklahoma community his family has called home for generations.
His family helped build this community. He came home to help care for it—and to help build what comes next.
