The Utah Historical Society’s annual awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made a significant contribution to history, historic preservation, community history and scholarship in Utah. Whether these efforts are quiet or prominent, they benefit the state’s citizens. The awards given out during our Annual Awards Ceremony reflect the year prior. Our 2026 Awards Ceremony recognized our 2025 recipients.
Congratulations to our 2025 award recipients! Browse the full gallery of event photos here.
2025 Mike Johnson National History Day in Utah Teacher of the Year Award
The National History Day in Utah Teacher of the Year award is named for former state coordinator Mike Johnson, who developed History Day into a robust statewide program from 1991 until cancer forced him to step down in 2007. Mike left a tremendous legacy that we are honored to steward. The National History Day in Utah’s Mike Johnson Teacher of the Year for 2025 is Krista White from St. George. Krista is an NHD coordinator and teacher who has dedicated more than 10 years to supporting student learning through NHD.
The Errol Jones Service Award
Scott Lambert is the social studies specialist for Canyons School District. Over the last 10 years, Scott has been instrumental in the success and growth of National History Day in Canyons District schools.
Raquel Jones is a teacher at James Moss Elementary in South Salt Lake and has been the coordinator of Utah’s largest regional contest for 11 years. In her role as the Salt Lake Regional National History Day Coordinator, she has worked on behalf of students and teachers to provide a meaningful and well organized event.
Outstanding Achievement Award Winners
Al-Mustafa Foundation | Awarded for its exceptional efforts in documenting, preserving, and sharing the history of Utah’s Muslim community. Their groundbreaking exhibition, “Utah Muslim Heritage: 100+ Years of History – In the Homes of Utah Muslims,” hosted at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, offered an immersive experience showcasing personal items, heirlooms, religious artifacts, and artworks, providing a deeply relatable and unique perspective on the lives of Muslim Utahns and successfully blending past and present to portray the community’s rich heritage.
Brigham City Museum of History & Art | Awarded for its exceptional work on the “Uncovering the Journey: Japanese American Pioneers in Box Elder County” project. Through two years of authentic community outreach, staff and volunteers developed a 2,000 sq. ft. exhibit that was the first-ever professional public history representation of local Japanese American history. This project involved building a new permanent collection, securing family heirloom loans, and curating hundreds of images and videos to intimately portray the community’s lives and livelihoods. The initial work has also become the foundation for the “Continuing the Journey” project, an online showcase of the interactive exhibition, family history materials, and academic guides.
Buffalo Soldier Heritage Trail | Through a collaboration between Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation, the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, and the Utah Cultural Site Stewardship Program, they created a statewide heritage trail with interpretive signs, research, an in-depth booklet, and community engagement. This project connects historic sites and research, highlights the contributions of African American regiments, and provides lasting educational resources for teachers, students, descendants, and the public, ensuring that the Buffalo Soldiers’ legacy is honored, accessible, and central to Utah’s history.
Dave Brewer | Awarded for assisting in stewarding the historic Ladies’ Literary Clubhouse since 2016. Under his leadership and working with organizations such as Better Days, the building has been preserved, restored, and reactivated as “Clubhouse SLC” — a model of adaptive reuse that honors its origins while making it newly relevant to today’s audiences. Beyond structural preservation, Dave has created a visual photographic gallery inside the Clubhouse that documents and celebrates its 100-year history. Programming under Dave’s leadership has drawn thousands of people. By making preservation visible and access equitable, the Clubhouse demonstrates how historic places can be catalysts for civic dialogue, inclusion, and creativity far into the future.
Aaron D. Clark | Awarded for his leadership of the Hill Aerospace Museum since 2016, which has resulted in a visitor experience which is welcoming, well-structured, educational, and fun. The new gallery, the reorganized collection, the laser focus on all things Hill Air Force Base and Utah, a robust and well-trained volunteer force, and an exceptional education program have combined to make the museum a focal point of community life and civic pride in northern Utah.
Driven 2 Teach | Awarded for giving teachers an extended, hands-on learning experience unlike any other – at no cost to the teachers or the school. Each field experience is led by a content expert with a PhD in history and pedagogy specialist with recognized expertise in teaching. Locations have included Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. This program continues to be supported by Gail Miller, the Larry H. Miller Company, and Zions Bank. It is estimated that over a million Utah students have been impacted in the way they learn history as a result of teachers going through this program.
Ronald Fox | Awarded for dedicating countless hours to researching, preserving, and sharing Utah’s rich history. Through his passionate efforts, he has located, cataloged, and published hundreds of historic photographs—ranging from 19th-century images of Utah communities to rare photographs of U.S. presidents and national figures who visited the state. Ron’s ability to bring forgotten stories and images into public awareness has immeasurably enriched Utah’s cultural, historical and political heritage. Ron has been instrumental in positioning Utah as a leader in planning for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. Thanks to his early vision and advocacy, Utah was one of the first states to establish a semiquincentennial commission—giving us a valuable head start before many others had even begun.
Michelle Fuller | Awarded for her more than 20 years of dedication to preserving and stewarding the rich history of the Uinta Basin and surrounding areas. Michelle has managed the production of the biannual Outlaw Trail Journal, contributed to significant community events, including the 100th anniversary of the Doughboy Monument celebration, and recently established a public “Scan and Share Space” to safeguard personal and local histories. As a Regional History Clerk for Uinta County, Michelle has supported countless researchers and history enthusiasts and fostered vital connections that have reserved and shared our history. Her collaborative spirit has built bridges among local historians, members of the Ute Tribe, genealogists, and educators. Through her efforts, the history of Northeast Utah is more accessible, more representative, and more deeply appreciated.
Fanny Guadalupe Blauer | Awarded for her service and leadership in Artes de Mexico en Utah. For more than a decade, through her service to and leadership in Artes de Mexico en Utah, Fanny Guadalupe Blauer has dedicated herself to sharing with Utahns our state’s deep history as part of Spain and Mexico. Her goal has always been about building community. She has developed traveling exhibits, contests to promote artwork and poetry, podcasts, public classes, writing workshops, film screenings, panel discussions, and more.
Sheila Nadimi | Awarded for preserving and presenting the visual and cultural history of the Intermountain Indian School through her Eagle Village project. Sheila documented the school’s transformation and demolition over 25 years, capturing murals and student expressions in striking photographic detail. Her work culminated in a 2024–2025 solo exhibition at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art and a limited-edition book, Eagle Village: A Deep Mapping of Fallow Architecture, which not only preserved vital records of Indigenous resilience and creativity but also fostered collaboration with school alumni, tribal communities, and scholars, deepening public understanding of a complex chapter of Utah’s history and creating lasting resources for education, reflection, and remembrance.
A Tale of Two Camps | Awarded to the Division of State Parks, Dr. Justina Parsons-Bernstein, and Monica Stamm. Known for having one of the largest dinosaur bone beds, the Utahraptor State Park now has enhanced historical significance thanks to Dr. Justina Parsons-Bernstein and Monica Stamm’s “A Tale of Two Camps.” This exhibit in the Visitor Center documents two historic, life-changing initiatives on the site: the Dalton Wells Civilian Conservation Camp and the Moab Citizen Isolation Center. Using meticulous research from news, physical remains, photographs, oral histories, and personal accounts, Justina and Monica bring the events to life with compassion, understanding, and unflinching honesty. While many know of the Great Depression, fewer understand the role of the Civilian Conservation Corps in employing young men and supporting their families. Similarly, while World War II is familiar, many are unaware of the US government program that removed people of Japanese descent, most of whom were US citizens, from west coastal zones to interior detention centers.
Ryan Paul | Ryan is an Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History, Sociology, and Anthropology, where he teaches a variety of introductory and upper-division courses on things like American History, Utah History, African American History, the History of Rock & Roll, the History of the National Parks, and others. He has developed a series of videos called “Main Street Minutes” focused on Cedar City’s history, and he serves on the Cedar City Historic Preservation Committee. He served as the Museum Curator at Frontier Homestead State Park for eight years and authored the text of numerous historical markers around the state. In addition to his SUU commitments, Ryan is coordinating a series of speakers to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Through his work, Ryan has touched the lives of thousands of students during his time at SUU, imparting to them an appreciation for the past while inspiring them to engage in the present.
David Peterson | On March 6, 1935, tragedy struck southern Utah when an oil well exploded, killing 10 local residents of St. George. Many years later, David Peterson came into contact with descendants of those who died in the explosion. He learned that there was no memorial at the site of the disaster. He led a grassroots effort to erect two memorials, one at the oil well site and the other at the property’s entrance. He subsequently coordinated a memorial dedication at the tragedy’s location on November 9, 2024. Nearly all of the individuals who died in the accident were represented by descendants and their families at this event. Through David’s efforts, the oil well tragedy is not forgotten but memorialized instead.
The Plains Production Company | Awarded for preserving and sharing Utah’s history through film. Their projects, including the feature-length documentary The Streak, Spirit of the Art City, and American Seams, make Utah stories accessible, engaging, and deeply meaningful for audiences of all kinds. They excel at finding and interpreting archival materials, conducting thoughtful oral histories, and weaving primary sources into compelling, historically accurate, and visually stunning films that celebrate Utah’s rich cultural heritage
JoAnna Sorensen | As the Elementary Social Studies Specialist for the Utah State Board of Education, JoAnna Sorensen is a fierce and dedicated advocate for the teaching of history as part of every day instruction. Joanna works to ensure the inclusion of social studies in the elementary classroom. To that end, she pioneered two week-long summer content tours integrated with professional learning opportunities for Utah teachers. She did not need to pursue the creation of these experiences, but brought them into reality because going above and beyond is par for the course for Joanna. JoAnna worked with teams of content experts in both the Four Corners region and in Northern Utah respectively to bring the past alive for her teachers, and to foster dialogue and discussions about topics as varied as how we manage water, how we remember and honor Native American traditions, and how we can best capture what it must have been like to be some of the first European-American settlers in what is now Utah.
Acacia Yuan | Acacia has shown there’s no age minimum to contribute to the historical landscape. For more than a decade, she has preserved the oral histories of Utah WWII heroes, including Gail Halvorsen, Lloyd Hicken, Boyd Campbell, and Casey Kunimura, through award-winning documentary films. Descendants of these veterans expressed deep gratitude for her work. Her research corrected inaccuracies in museum exhibits and official records, uncovered six boxes of valuable primary source materials, and contributed to the formation of an international community devoted to Helen Snow Foster research. While researching the 1869 transcontinental railroad in Box County, Utah, she learned about a living legacy left behind by Chinese railroad workers more than 150 years ago: the Utah Goji plant. Her recent research contributed to understanding the modern issues of farming, health, and sustainability and as a result her work went on to win both state and national science competitions.
Publication Award Winners
Best Student Paper in Utah Women’s History Award | Awarded to Emma Webb for her paper, “Women in the Oquirrh Mountains.” Stories of mining in Utah tend to place men at the center, but Emma Webb’s project, “Women in the Oquirrh Mountains,” available on ArcGIS StoryMaps, shows how women were active participants in the industry—helping discover mineral deposits, filling roles and jobs in the mining community, organizing cultural events, and lending aid during challenging times.
Best Scholarly Article Award | Awarded to Emily Marie Crumpton-Deason for, “Mammy Chloe: Removing Fiction from Nonfictional Family Stories,” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in summer 2024. For decades, the descendants of Mary Bland Ewell Jones told the story of “Mammy Chloe,” an enslaved Black woman who traveled to Utah with their ancestor and stayed loyal to the family, even after she received her freedom. But the article, “Mammy Chloe: Removing Fiction from Nonfictional Family Stories,” tells the truth about this story: Chloe never existed.
Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Award | Awarded to Matthew C. Godfrey for, “A West Side (Sugar) Story: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Amalgamated Sugar Company, and the West Cache Sugar Company,” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in fall 2024. For much of the twentieth century, sugar beets were an important element of Utah’s economy. Though industry officials often belonged to the same religion, they sometimes had feelings of greed and jealousy against their competitors. “A West Side (Sugar) Story” tells how one company, Amalgamated Sugar, drove a smaller, newer company, West Cache Sugar, out of business.
Editors’ Choice Award | Awarded to Michael L. Shamo for, “The Majestic Virgin Forgot Her Promise”: “An Environmental History of Irrigating Southern Utah, 1849–1910,” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in spring 2024. In, “The Majestic Virgin Forgot Her Promise,” Michael L. Shamo presents an environmental history of irrigation in southern Utah, from the mid-nineteenth century to the opening decade of the twentieth century. Settlers in the region persisted longer and worked harder than many of their contemporaries to shape the environment to their needs, as was the case with their efforts to harness the Virgin River.
General Utah History Article Award | Awarded to the late Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye and Joseph Soderborg for, “‘We Had a Symbiotic Relationship’: The Structure and Texture of Chinese-White Relationships in Depression-Era Utah,” Journal of Mormon History (2024). In 2021, Melissa Inouye and Joseph Soderborg attended the conference of the Mormon History Association and discovered that their families, the Jus and the Soderborgs, were neighbors in Utah during the Great Depression. The article, “‘We Had a Symbiotic Relationship,’” relies on oral histories to tell how the two families, one Chinese and one Euro-American, shared their culture and their food with each other.
Finalist for the Best Book in Utah History | Awarded to Benjamin E. Park for “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” published by the Liveright Publishing Corporation. “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism” traces the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—from its origins in the Eastern United States, to its exodus to the Salt Lake Valley, to its expansion into a global faith. The book has a comprehensive scope, following the religion’s most important individuals, movements, programs, and controversies. This includes key moments in Utah history, such as Euro-American settlement, interactions with Indigenous peoples, and statehood.
Best Book in Utah History Award | Awarded to W. Paul Reeve, Christopher B. Rich, LaJean Purcell Carruth for “This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah” published by the Oxford University Press in 2024. “This Abominable Slavery” sheds new light on the often-overlooked topic of slavery in Utah Territory. The book relies on newly available primary sources from the 1852 legislative session, which LaJean Purcell Carruth transcribed from the original Pitman shorthand after more than a century and a half. The authors provide the legal, cultural, and religious context for Utah’s slavery laws, including “An Act in Relation to Service” from 1852.
The Utah Historical Society has a long tradition of providing special recognition for scholarship and extraordinary contributions to Utah history. At our 2026 Awards Ceremony, we recognized Dr. Larry Gerlach as a Fellow of the Utah Historical Society. Dr. Gerlach received his B.S. in Education and an M.A. in History from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. He went on to earn his PhD in History from Rutgers University. He is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Utah, where he taught for 45 years from 1968 to 2013.
Thank you to our award sponsors: The Charles Redd Center for Western History, the Smith-Pettit Foundation, the Suitter-Axland Foundation, Linda Thatcher, Patricia Scott, and Ron Yengich. We appreciate their generous contributions and their support of our work that allows us to acknowledge the ongoing research and scholarship exploring Utah’s history.
Learn more at history.utah.gov/awards.
