Connie Hanks and her husband, Gordon, are both alumni of the University of Utah. Gordon and Connie have been involved in the College of Fine Arts, the College of Music, the Honors College, and the Athletic Department, providing scholarships and other support. They also created and grew the JazzSLC/GAM Foundation, a nonprofit Jazz series in Salt Lake City.

Jon is the managing partner for Lear & Lear.  His practice areas include natural resources and renewable energy development with a focus on renewable natural gas and geothermal issues.

In recent years, Jon’s work has primarily focused on the use of alternative fuels in the nation’s transportation fleet, focusing on all aspects of renewable natural gas development, including environmental credit sales, CO2, and methane liquefaction. Jon has also organized and implemented projects across a broad range of natural resource and energy issues.

Ms. Matis teaches part-time at the Honors College, where she has originated several courses, including “Women and the Law.” She is a retired lawyer. She earned her J.D. in 1983 from the Columbia University School of Law, where she was a member of the Law Review. Ms. Matis practiced in New York City in the 1980s and was a partner in the Salt Lake City firm of VanCott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy, where she focused on corporate and transactional issues, public offerings, and securities compliance. She obtained her undergraduate education at the University of Utah, where she was a member of the Honors program (now the Honors College) and graduated in 1980 with a B.A. in Political Science. She credits her experience writing her undergraduate Honors thesis with helping her to succeed in graduate school.

Ms. Matis is from Ogden, Utah. She has three children and three grandchildren, is an accomplished gardener, and is active in a variety of community, state and international organizations.

Dr. Anna Parks is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology & Hematologic Malignancies at the University of Utah and a Center on Aging faculty member. She specializes in non-malignant hematologic disorders, with a particular interest in thrombotic disorders. Dr. Parks is dedicated to advancing her patients' care through clinical practice and research. Her research focuses on the intersection of aging and hematology, exploring how we can improve outcomes for older adults with blood disorders. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Society of Hematology. Dr. Parks is also committed to teaching and mentoring the next generation of leaders in hematology.

I am a native Utahn, born in Logan. I spent my childhood and teenage years in a military family, where my father was an army officer. We moved frequently for his periodic transfers from military station to station. We resided in Livorno (Leghorn), Italy; Narsarssuak, Greenland; and Berlin, Germany, on our overseas postings; and in Minneapolis, New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco twice, and Detroit when posted in the continental United States. My maternal mother’s family came to Utah in 1847. My father and mother met at Utah State University in the 1930s. We lived in Berlin, Germany, for four years and were there when the Wall was built, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and when President Kennedy visited in 1963. I attended and graduated from Berlin American High School.

I attended Weber State College for my Freshman year, served a mission in West Germany for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and returned to the University of Utah for my undergraduate work. I graduated in 1969 with an Honors Bachelor of Arts in History and a minor in German. I served as chairman of the Honors Student Advisory Committee. I received a commission as an Ensign in the United States Navy in 1969 and was stationed aboard the destroyer USS Rich, DD-820, during the Vietnam Era.

I returned to law school in 1972 and finished my JD degree in 1975. I then officed in Salt Lake City for 41 years, focusing my practice in natural resources law with an emphasis on mineral extraction. I am licensed in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming and practiced before the courts in those states, the Ninth and Ten United States Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, the United States Court of Claims, and the United States Supreme Court. I resided in Sandy, Salt Lake City, and Park City during my professional career. I am now an emeritus attorney affiliated with the law firm of Lear & Lear PLLC. I published frequently during my years as an active attorney and presented at local and national seminars and institutes on topics pertaining to mineral extraction and Indian and public lands law.

I have mentored honors students over those years and currently serve on the Honors College National Advisory Board and as a chaplain with the Park City Police Department. I am married with three adult children and seven grandchildren. I travel frequently with my wife, Doreen. I am a passionate armchair historian and skier.

Jasmine graduated from The University of Utah in 2019 with an H.B.S. in Peace and Conflict Studies (Emphasis in Social Justice), a B.S. in Psychology, and a minor in Human Development and Family Studies. Her thesis, “The Black Perspective: Historical and Structural Violence to the Black Community,” won the Marriott Library Honors Thesis Award and the Monson Prize for Social Change. This work led to the creation of the Honors College Praxis Lab, Black Perspectives: From Theory to Praxis, in the 2020–2021 academic year.

Afterward, she worked as a Behavior Therapist for children with autism at the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center in Phoenix, AZ, before attending UCLA School of Law from 2020 to 2023 and earning a Juris Doctor specializing in Public Interest Law and Policy and Critical Race Studies. During law school, she externed for the Honorable Judge Fernando Olguin on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, interned for Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and contributed to the California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, where she helped draft policy recommendations that informed the passage of AB-2243 (Cal. 2022). Additionally, she spent a semester at Columbia Law School as a consultant intern for education law and policy issues.

After graduating, Jasmine received an Equal Justice Works Fellowship and spent a year at the legal nonprofit Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability in Fresno, CA, focusing on fair housing and civil rights legal advocacy for rural low-income communities of color.

Chris Williams is a communications executive with extensive experience helping organizations and individuals tell their stories. He has worked across a range of sectors, successfully creating and implementing strategic programs to raise corporate and institutional visibility and drive perception change. He has worked in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom and led teams worldwide.

He was most recently the Chief Communications Officer at Compass Pathways, a London-based biotechnology company focused on developing psilocybin for the treatment of difficult-to-treat mental health disorders. He oversaw all aspects of the communications function and provided strategic advice and partnerships for the company's investor relations and public policy work. Prior to Compass, he was Head of Corporate Communications and Brand at Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company based in Paris. During his tenure at the company, he led a rebranding that streamlined its narrative, aligned it more closely to international business strategy, and created a new visual identity. Chris has also held senior communications positions at Juno Therapeutics, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Goldman Sachs & Co.

Chris graduated from the U with an Honors B.A. in history in 1995 and earned a master's degree in international relations at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in 1999. He resides in London and Seattle with his husband, Joel Sekuta.

José E Rodríguez, MD, FAAFP, is the Associate Vice President for Health Sciences Workforce Excellence at the University of Utah Health and a tenured professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. Through the Workforce Excellence office, Dr. Rodríguez and his team are working to eliminate the geographic and economic disparities affecting Utahns' health access and outcomes. For most of his career, Dr. Rodríguez has provided primary care for underserved minority communities in New York, Florida, and Utah. His main area of scholarship has been in the equity, diversity, and inclusion realm, specifically in the area of underrepresented minority faculty in academic medicine.

Dr. Rodríguez founded and co-directed the Center for Underrepresented Minorities in Academic Medicine at Florida State University, where he produced scholarship highlighting the disparities in academic medicine for minority faculty, elucidated the systemic barriers to recruitment of URM faculty, and identified essential components of successful URM faculty development. That work led to additional scholarship in the faculty development space with solutions to mitigate and address the minority tax.

Currently, he and his team are funded by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) and the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) to direct the Leadership through Scholarship Fellowship at STFM. It is now in its 5th year, focused on teaching academic skill to early career underrepresented in medicine family medicine faculty. He is associate editor at Annals of Family Medicine—the #1 primary care journal in the world—to lead their editorial team in the areas of racism and health disparities. Dr. Rodríguez is president of the Family Physicians Inquiries Network, an organization dedicated to teaching residents and faculty how to critically appraise the literature and answer clinical questions with the best evidence possible. Dr. Rodríguez is also currently working with the National Academy of Medicine, producing a chapter on the Culture of Health, specifically pertaining to those who identify as Latino or Hispanic.

Olivia Juarez (they/them) is a lifelong Utahn currently based in Salt Lake City, UT, as GreenLatinos’ Public Land Program Director. Through work with Latino Outdoors, the Utah Coalition of La Raza, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Olivia has nurtured Latinx joy and leadership in conserving nuestra tierra pública. Olivia was recognized as one of the “10 Under 40” in 2021 by the National Parks Conservation Association for their commitment to creating safe, equitable access to public lands for Latino community health. Olivia holds an Honors Peace and Conflict Studies degree from the University of Utah. They enjoy camping with family, loud music, playing in the snow, bicycling, yoga, and gazing at cryptobiotic soils.

Kristy Lindquist is Co-Founder and Partner of Chasm Partners, a leading healthcare talent solutions provider. Kristy found her niche as a global turnaround specialist in organizational development and operations. Kristy has over 25 years of experience helping international companies in pharma and consumer products grow through challenging circumstances. Kristy graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and received her Master of International Management from Thunderbird Global School of Management.  She is fluent in German, enjoys globetrotting with her two young adult children, and enjoys running and hiking outdoors, especially since moving to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Moses Namkung is the Director of Data Science at Google / YouTube. Over the past decade, he has worked on launching and growing products such as YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV. He leads a team and works with product and engineering leadership to improve human and machine decision-making with science. He graduated from Columbia University. He is also a music photographer and has been published in many national and local outlets.

Rachel Sweet grew up in the candy industry. As a fourth-generation family member, her current position as Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Sweet Candy Company is her dream job. Shortly after earning bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and German from Santa Clara University, Rachel worked as Executive Assistant to Representative Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18) in Washington, DC. In 1998, Rachel received an MBA from the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business and began her career in the family business, Sweet Candy Company. She has served in a multitude of positions, ranging from cost-accounting, marketing, and purchasing, and is currently VP of Corporate Affairs and a Director on the Company’s Board.

Rachel currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her three teenagers and two dogs. She loves showing her children the beauty of the mountains, rivers, and deserts in the Western States.