Pat Jones

by John Blodgett

Utah State Senator and Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones, the first woman in state history to hold the latter title, never expected to receive the 2008 Athena Award.

“I was blown away,” she says.

Presented annually, the Athena Award is sponsored by Wells Fargo Women’s Financial Services. It was established in 1982 to recognize women’s contributions to Chambers of Commerce across the United States, Canada and a handful of other countries.

A Democrat representing Salt Lake County’s 4th Senate District, Jones is unusually privy to what’s on her constituents’ minds. As president and co-owner of Dan Jones & Associates, the Salt Lake City-based market research and public opinion firm, she gets paid to listen to people — which makes her both public servant and pollster.

“The public is much smarter than we give them credit for,” she says. “I’ve learned that everybody has a reason for acting and feeling the way they do.”

Jones has discovered that people tend to be more open-minded the more informed they are. She offers herself as an example. Facing periodic gun bills during legislative sessions, she says she never understood why people wanted to carry guns. “One day, I asked a [fellow] Senator why it was important to him,” she recalls. “He shared an experience of when he was threatened by someone. I understood better.”

Prior to serving in the Senate, Jones served six years in the Utah State House of Representatives. It was Jan Graham, then Utah Attorney General, who encouraged her to run for the Senate in 1999, stating a need on Capitol Hill for women with executive business experience. Jones jokes that she agreed to run to get Graham “off her back.”

That business experience, coupled with her years of public service, is what influenced the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce to present to Jones the 2008 Athena Award. “She is a great example to aspiring businesswomen,” says Lane Beattie, the Chamber’s president and CEO.

Jones takes the accolade in stride. “You simply grab opportunities that come to you, and do the best you can,” she says.