Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Governor Spencer J. Cox is a husband, father, farmer, recovering attorney, and Utah’s 18th governor. He served as the 2023-2024 chairman of the National Governors Association.

Gov. Cox has a long track record of public service, serving as a city councilmember, mayor, county commissioner and state legislator before being appointed as Utah’s lieutenant governor in 2013. He was sworn in as governor on Jan. 4, 2021.

During his first term in office, Gov. Cox has cut $1.1 billion in taxes, implemented landmark changes in water law, water conservation and infrastructure planning, locked in record funding for education and teachers, enacted universal school choice, and secured funds for affordable housing. A long-time advocate for suicide prevention and mental health resources, he’s become a national voice on protecting youth from the harms of social media. He also signed early education and workforce program funding, launched the One Utah Health Collaborative, and expanded opportunities for women, diverse communities and those living in rural parts of the state.

With a focus on solutions, Gov. Cox promotes respect in politics and innovation in government, works across party lines to find common ground, and regularly participates in hands-on service projects. These elements are the foundation of his NGA Chair’s Initiative, “Disagree Better: Healthy Conflict for Better Policy.”

A sixth-generation Utahn, Gov. Cox was born and raised in Fairview, a town of 1,200 in the center of the state. He met First Lady Abby Palmer Cox at age 16 and they married after he returned from serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. He attended Snow College, Utah State University, and the Washington and Lee University School of Law, then clerked for U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart and worked at a Salt Lake City law firm. Several years later, Gov. Cox and First Lady Cox moved back to Fairview to raise their four children – Gavin, Kaleb, Adam, and Emma Kate – on the family farm. The governor, first lady and Emma Kate currently reside in the Kearns Mansion, also known as the Governor’s Mansion, in Salt Lake City.

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David Dreier '75 was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980, where he served until January 2013. In Congress, he became the youngest — and the first Californian — chairman of the Rules Committee, playing a pivotal role in shaping all legislation for House debate. Dreier, a former chair of Tribune Publishing and a passionate advocate for press freedom, founded the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to build the first public memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., celebrating press freedom and honoring slain journalists. Dreier received his B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and his M.A. in American government from Claremont Graduate University the following year. He serves as a trustee at CMC.

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Aditya Pai ‘13 is a trial attorney and recent Democratic congressional candidate for CA-45, a perennially ‘purple’ district in north Orange County. The campaign’s platform was Service Over Politics: anti-corruption, pro-choice, with a focus on helping working families afford the American dream.

Pai’s public service includes three years of youth organizing at the Orange County Red Cross, over 2,000 hours of pro bono legal aid to low-income tenants, youth mentorship through Big Brothers Big Sisters, and current board and leadership roles with Dev/Mission, Habitat for Humanity Orange County, and the Dreier Roundtable. His work has garnered service awards from the California Bar, Harvard, the Urban Land Institute, and the Disneyland Resort.

Pai earned a B.A. Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Claremont McKenna College, where he served as student body president, and M.Phil. and J.D. degrees in history and law from Cambridge University and Harvard Law School, under the supervision of Nobel Laureate in Economics Amartya Sen. Previously, he was manager of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, focusing on fiscal analysis.

Pai grew up in Irvine, CA and is a naturalized American citizen from Bombay. He documented his campaign at paiforcongress.com/documentary and now writes about politics and culture at paipolitics.substack.com

This Civility Award and subsequent discussion is sponsored by the Dreier Roundtable at CMC.