The COVID-19 pandemic has made issues of educational equity and access glaringly obvious, but the issues aren't new — people have been working on them for decades within Utah and across the United States. In this episode, we share the stories of two such women who spent their lives championing equity in education:

Lily Eskelsen García, former Utah Teacher of the Year, former president of the National Education Association, and shortlist candidate for President Joe Biden's Secretary of Education

Alberta Henry, a consultant for the Salt Lake City School District and President of the Salt Lake City NAACP from 1980-1992

Both women felt called to their work, which altered the educational landscape in Utah for hundreds of thousands of students. And both felt like their work was never finished.

Play Like a Girl: Natalie Williams and Norma Carr

THIS IS HER PLACE tells the remarkable stories of Utah women, past and present, in all their diversity. Businesswomen and religious leaders, poets and politicians, healers and homemakers, artists and activists, women in the Beehive state have never fit into easy stereotypes. 

Through interviews and lively narrative retellings, each episode features at least two women, one historical and one contemporary, whose stories are distinct but whose lives illuminate a common theme. These subjects encompass the range of women’s lives and experiences—famous and forgotten, rich and poor, believers and skeptics, feminists and traditionalists, from all races and every part of the state. Their stories will make you laugh, cry, and, most of all, think. 

After getting to know these compelling women, you’ll be inspired by the unique ways each of them has made Utah her place.