Last week, I was honored to welcome Project Overwatch to Park City, a nonprofit supporting our first responders and veterans. The LIFE program they brought to the National Ability Center (Lift, Inspire, Focus, Empower) focused on women firefighters, law enforcement officers and veterans.
For me, meeting these dedicated local women who carry their life-and-death responsibilities each day with such incredible poise was deeply inspiring. They deserve our admiration and support for their skill, decisiveness and leadership (sometimes literally) under fire.
The experiences of the military and public safety veterans of Project Overwatch inform the components of LIFE. Tailored to the unique stresses first responders encounter and taught by others who “speak the language,” the trauma assessment, mindfulness training and leadership exercises are undoubtedly meaningful for the women participants.
The encounter set me thinking about the role of women in business and leadership in Park City, especially after learning of local women who own practically adjacent wellness-related businesses in Kimball Junction, namely, PC Yoga Collective, Club Pilates and Salt Pilates studios, and Prime IV.
Building equitable economic opportunity and sustainable tourism is the first objective of the Chamber Strategic Plan, adopted last year. The growth of minority-owned and women businesses is a critical metric. In pursuit of this objective, the Chamber & Visitors Bureau will seek to discover more about the overall number of women-owned businesses in the region and what percentage of total companies they represent, as well as if some business types have a higher rate of women ownership, such as, broadly in the example above, fitness and wellness.
One thing is for sure; women are well represented in Park City’s civic, political, government, and business picture. Our elected Chamber board has many women voices; our executive committee is majority female. In chambers of commerce and tourism management around the state, I see women leaders everywhere I look. For example, Vicki Varela leads the Utah State Tourism Office and Virginia Pearce heads up the Utah Film Office.
A far from complete list of women holding high-profile leadership positions in our community includes our Park City Mayor and two City Council members, two Summit County Council members and the deputy county manager, the Park City Schools superintendent and School Board vice president.
Women head up many of our major nonprofit corporations, such as: KPCW, Swaner Preserve and Eco Center, Summit Land Conservancy, EATS Park City & Summit County Community Gardens, Mountain Trails Foundation, Intermountain Park City Hospital, Summit County Arts Council, Recycle Utah, Alf Engen Ski Museum, Wasatch Back Hospitals Community Board, Park City Board of Realtors, Habitat for Humanity, Sundance Institute, Park City Institute, and Peace House.
Dozens of Chamber partner businesses are women-owned, far too many to list here. However, we should note major local entities have women in top management, such as Park City Mountain Vice President and COO Deirdra Walsh and Deer Valley Vice President Susie English.
Women in leadership is something to celebrate, but we have more to do. Park City’s commitment to diversity means advancing inclusion and equity. We must engage diverse voices from our ethnic communities, people from diverse spiritual backgrounds, those who identify as LGBTQ+, live with physical or intellectual challenges, those who have immigrated to the U.S. and Park City (many of whom are refugees), and others. Balance and sustainability are as critical in our civic and business spheres as they are in our economy, quality of life and environmental management.