Kevin Perry has studied the impacts of mineral dust for more than two decades, a research focus that took on major importance with the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake. Perry, riding a fat-tire bicycle, surveyed the 800-square mile exposed lakebed and found dust from the lake contains high concentrations of toxic metals. To date, Perry has shared his research in three documentary films and more than 115 print, radio and TV interviews, including Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Outside Magazine, Newsweek, CNN, Le Monde and The Guardian. He has presented his findings to numerous policy-making organizations, such as the Utah Air Quality Board, Utah Clean Air Caucus, and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. Perry has presented to many health care groups, including the Utah Public Health Association and the Central Utah Healthcare Coalition. He also serves as a member of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team and the Dust Alliance for North America. Perry also has participated in educational outreach activities, focused mostly on high school students.

V. Kim Martinez has transformed both public spaces and individual lives as a renowned muralist and painter. Martinez is co-developing the YAP (Youth Arts Program), which, along with Urban Arts class, is giving U art majors and high school students alike the opportunity to create murals that beautify public spaces throughout the Salt Lake Valley. For the young artists, these opportunities expose them to community service and give them an early college experience, while art majors at the U gain artistic and teaching skills through mentoring youth. Over the past decade, Martinez has worked with more than 250 U students and 1,500 community members on 36 community-based murals, including a series for the Murray School District. She has exhibited her art in numerous galleries, from Ephraim, Utah, to Los Angeles to Odesa, Ukraine, and Sarajevo, Bosnia. Martinez also has presented more than four dozen workshops and public lectures on topics such as community-engaged learning, leadership and community murals.

Amberly Johnson became director of the Utah Poison Control Center in late 2019—just a few months before COVID-19 spread worldwide. The pandemic led to an additional assignment: director of the Utah Coronavirus Hotline, a partnership with the Utah Department of Health that provided science-based, expert advice on the safety and effectiveness for various approaches to prevent and treat the virus. As a widely recognized expert on toxicological issues, Johnson has given over 30 presentations, sharing her knowledge with groups that include Utah health departments, emergency responders and local and national associations. The Utah Poison Control Center manages over 40,000 poison cases annually and provides information about health threats posed by a wide range of substances, from harmful algal blooms to Tide Pods and glow sticks. Johnson serves as a member of the Fatality Review Team of America’s Poison Centers as well as on four state review and advisory committees that monitor substance abuse and related deaths.

Baodong Liu is a nationally recognized expert on race, voting rights and U.S. elections. He provided key expert witness testimony in court hearings on the state of Alabama’s redistricting map, testimony that made its way into a subsequent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that found the map unconstitutional. Liu also provided his expert opinions and/or performed empirical analyses for other federal voting rights cases as well as a landmark Utah case, Navajo Nation, et al, vs. San Juan County, et al. He has given numerous presentations to community and non-profit advocacy groups and helped train several groups on quantitative analysis of racially polarized voting. Liu has provided research services to such entities as the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Science Foundation and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has been quoted in media locally and nationally on elections and voter behavior and is the founder of easystates.com, a free website that allows users to search and analyze political data from all U.S. states.