Barbara Barrington Jones
Mission Focus: Education, Career Exploration/Preparation, Personal Development, Professional Development
Barbara has spoken with the Church Education System for over 25 years. She has been a session director for Especially For Youth, Academy for Girls, A Look at You, Be the Best You, and “A New You” Retreat for Women.
Traveling worldwide, Barbara speaks to women, teens, and couples. She sponsors seminars in South America on, “La Verdera Belleza” The True Beauty, supports four preschools in Africa, and provides assistance for Chinese orphanages with special needs children.
In addition, Barbara is a member of the National Association of Female Executives and is a 17year member of the National Speakers Association; she is the director of the International Institute of Professional Protocol and serves on the President’s Leadership Council at BYU-Hawaii. Barbara is an active board member of the Portland Ballet and the President’s Leadership Committee at Brigham Young University. Barbara was recently named “Utah’s Women Making a Difference.” She is the mother of two children and six grandchildren. Guiding all with her mind for service and heart for the world.
April WMDA Recipient
Larissa Davis
Mission Focus: Support of the Chamber of Commerce
Mission Focus: Support of the Chamber of Commerce
Larissa grew up in Austin, TX and Woodbridge, VA. She loves
outdoor adventures and being with family and friends. She plays the violin and
performed with the BYU Symphony and the Utah Valley Symphony. She graduated
with a degree in public relations from BYU. Working with the Chamber has given
her the opportunity to become part of the community and to utilize the skills
she gained at BYU and previous internships. She has enjoyed meeting and
learning from the women involved with the Chamber’s Women’s Division and WBN.
She loves to take photos for both groups and enjoys promoting their events to
the Chamber members and her friends. July’s Taste of the Valley event will be
her last with the Chamber, but she is excited to continue to be involved with
the community. She is especially grateful for the strong and positive examples
of the women she has met through the Women’s Division and feels very humbled by
this recognition.
June WMDA Recipients
Anne Swenson:
Mission Focus: Encourage support of the arts, humanities, and
recreational activities that bring families and communities together
Anne Swenson was born and raised in a very normal,
non-theatrical family. She successfully dabbled in theater in High School, but
tried very hard to leave it behind her and get a “real career” at the
University of Utah. However, the call of the stage was too much for her,
and in 1987 she auditioned for a show at the Hale Center Theater in South Salt
Lake, got the part, and just kind of stayed.
She married Ruth and Nathan Hale’s grandson, Cody Swenson,
in January of 1990 and five months later, (along with Cody and Linda Hale)
founded the Hale Center Theater Orem.
Anne has spent the last 22 years serving as Managing
Director/Executive Producer at HCTO, has managed to stay married to that Hale
grandson, Cody, and has 4 beautiful kids to show for it. (Oh, she can
occasionally can talk her normal, non-theatrical parents into coming and seeing
a show.)
Linda Hale:
Mission Focus: Encourage support of the arts, humanities, and
recreational activities that bring families and communities together
Thomas Edison once said, "There is no substitute for
hard work". That is a truth that Linda Hale lives to the hilt.
Life for Linda is full of hard work, interesting people, and lots of fun.
And the Hale Center Theate, mixed with a bit of skiing is at the core of
it.
As a busy mother of five children, owning a theater was the
last thing that she thought she would do. But for the last 22 years that is
exactly what she has done. She married into a theater family by marrying
Cody Hale, the youngest son of the late Nathan and Ruth Hale. Nathan and
Ruth are the founders of the Hale Center Theaters in California, Utah, and
Arizona. Soon, Linda found herself learning how to run a theater from
Ruth Hale herself. When learning how to find props for the stage Ruth
taught her how not to be too fussy. "A blind man would be glad to
see it"; she always used to say. Humorously giving Linda the
reassurance that running a theater with seven shows a year would be
possible.
While theater is a dominant aspect of Linda's life, she also
has a full career at Sundance ski resort. What started as a passion for
skiing turned into a life-long career. She started 30 years ago as a ski
instructor and is now the director of programs. In 2005 she was awarded
for her hard work by being chosen as Employee of the Year. Balancing
theater with skiing, church callings, and motherhood will always remain a
challenge but parting with any of them will most likely leave Linda
off-balance. Being a mother, her favorite career of all, has given her
children many opportunities both at the theater and at Sundance.
If there is no substitute for hard work there is no
substitute for the joy that comes from it. Linda feels truly blessed by
the wonderful patrons, actors, and employees that have made her life so full of
joy. Linda believes that if all her hard work pays off by making people
forget about their problems, even if it's for the length of a play, or an
afternoon on the slopes, then she has truly made a difference.
July WMDA Recipient
Mia Bourdeau Love
Mission Focus: Encourage learning about government
July WMDA Recipient
Karen Acerson
Mission Focus: Encourage support of the arts, humanities, and
recreational activities that bring families and communities together
Karen Acerson was born and raised in Moab, Utah. After attending BYU for a couple of years, she married Jeff Acerson and started their family which now includes six children and one grandchild. Along the way, she planned to be a home ec teacher using her skills as a secretary to put herself through school. That path proved to be a blessing when WordPerfect Corporation came along. They recognized her love and enthusiasm for their word processor, and invited her to join their team so she could help others successfully use their products. She went on to write their users' manual, do a video training, and run their customer support department. Later, Osborne/Mcgraw-Hill and Ziff-Davis Press publish five of her books, one becoming a New York Times bestseller.
In the meantime, she has been a 4-H teacher, teaching sewing and cooking to her daughters and their friends, volunteering in the PTA, and helping a volunteer committee run the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Now in its 23rd year, the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is the second-largest festival of its kind in the nation and is the preferred event for many well-known storytellers because of the family audience, the happy atmosphere, and the care that is shown to the tellers.
Karen served with her husband in the Italy Rome Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2007-2010. She current serves on the board of trustees for Utah Valley University.
She is grateful for all those who work hard to make this world-and especially our community-a better place to live.
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