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Katharine Biele wins The Salt Lake Tribune readers’ vote for 2024 Utahn of the Year

As president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, she stood at the front of the battle for fair voting districts and citizen initiatives.

(League of Women Voters of Utah) Katherine Biele is photographed at a press conference at the Utah Capitol on Jan. 26, 2023.

(League of Women Voters of Utah) Katherine Biele is photographed at a press conference at the Utah Capitol on Jan. 26, 2023.

  | Dec. 26, 2024, 1:04 p.m.
| Updated: 4:54 p.m.

The people have spoken. Katharine Biele was voted by you, our readers, as The Salt Lake Tribune’s 2024 Utahn of the Year.

As president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, Biele has stood at the front of a years-long battle for fair voting districts and citizen initiatives. In July, when the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the Utah Legislature overstepped its authority by rewriting a 2018 voter-approved ballot initiative, Biele said it was “a win for all Utahns.”

Read more about the editorial board’s pick for the 2024 Utahn of the Year, and learn more about who it has named Utahn of the Year since 1997 below.

  • 2024 • Justices of the Utah Supreme Court
  • 2023 • The new Salt Lake City International Airport
  • 2022 • Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham
  • 2021 • The Great Salt Lake
  • 2020 • Health care workers
  • 2019 • Utah Jazz owner and philanthropist Gail Miller
  • 2018 • Former North Ogden Mayor and fallen soldier Brent Taylor
  • 2017 • Longtime U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch
  • 2016 • Madi Barney, who brought attention to how Brigham Young University was handling reports of sexual assaults
  • 2015 • Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes
  • 2014 • Same-sex marriage plaintiffs
  • 2013 • Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill
  • 2012 • Mormons Building Bridges
  • 2011 • Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank
  • 2010 • Elizabeth, Lois and Mary Smart
  • 2009 • Elizabeth Smart
  • 2008 • Utah Jazz owner and businessman Larry Miller
  • 2007 • First responders to tragedies, including the Trolley Square shooting rampage and the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster
  • 2006 • Latino leaders Jorge Fierro, Andrew Valdez, Ruby Chacon and Alma Armendariz
  • 2005 • Pamela Atkinson, advocate for the poor and homeless
  • 2004 • Utahns killed in Iraq and Afghanistan
  • 2003 • Gov. Olene Walker
  • 2002 • LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley
  • 2001 • Winter Games organizer Mitt Romney
  • 2000 • Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson
  • 1999 • The letter that sparked the Olympic bribery scandal
  • 1998 • Mary Ann Kingston, who suffered a brutal beating after escaping plural marriage
  • 1997 • NBA MVP Karl Malone
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