“I’ve always loved museums. I remember being really little, standing in front of a painting, and my mom saying, ‘Someone made that - with a brush.’” For Kathleen Bodenlos, that moment stuck. Raised in Pittsburgh by a mother who found ways to expose her daughters to art, science, and culture despite limited means, Kathleen learned early on that museums were places of possibility. “We didn’t have a lot, but my mom made sure we had the arts,” she said. “Looking back, I realize how much she sacrificed, but she lit a spark in me that’s still burning.” Today, as CEO of Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum, Kathleen is paying that gift forward - revitalizing the museum into one of Utah’s most dynamic cultural institutions. But the path was far from linear.

At the end of the day, we are here for young people. To see them. To believe in them. And to give them a space where their voices are not just heard but celebrated.” That is how Larissa Trout, Executive Director of Spy Hop, summed up the heart of an organization that has been quietly and powerfully transforming the lives of Utah’s youth for over twenty-five years. “I don’t know if I’ve ever worked anywhere else that centers young people as intentionally and as fully as this place does.”