Utah Demos give Roosevelt Award to former party head

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Democratic Party has announced that Meghan Holbrook is the 2012 Eleanor Roosevelt Award recipient. Holbrook formerly chaired the state Democratic Party.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Award is given annually by the Utah Democratic Party to a woman who exemplifies the high standards and shares the compassionate philosophies of the former first lady, according to a press release from the party.

Holbrook chaired the state party from 1997 to 2003 as the first woman elected to lead a major political party in Utah. She previously had worked on numerous political campaigns for Democratic candidates in Utah and was on the Clinton-Gore Steering Committee for the West.

She was a Utah delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1996 and chaired the Utah delegation in 2000. She also served on the advisory board of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah.

Holbrook was reared in Oak Ridge, Tenn. She has a degree in English and education from the University of Tennessee. She works in government relations in the Office of the President, Zions Bank. She is a member of the boards of Catholic Community Services and the I.J. and Jeanné Wagner Charitable Foundation. She has been married to James R. Holbrook for 30 years.