The Westside Coalition is comprised of 18 Directors, six of which are the current chairs (or their designees) of the six Community Councils comprising the Coalition. The next six are Community Appointees selected by each westside community council. The remaining six are At-Large seats are elected from community residents, local community and business leaders and representatives from other community-based organizations on the Westside. These are two year positions with elections conducted at the annual meeting. Nominations are accepted at any time for open positions. Coalition Officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) are then elected by the Board subsequent to the election. The current leadership is shown below:
 Dan R. Strong President | Dan was elected President of the Westside Coalition in March of 2022. Dan has been an advocate for the Westside and his Rose Park neighborhood since moving there in 2012. Dan has served as Secretary and Chair of the Rose Park Community Council and Communications Director for the Westside Coalition. In his day job, Dan works as the Director of the Utah Sentencing Commission, coming to that job after ten years as a prosecutor. Dan believes West Salt Lake City's neighborhoods are the best in the state. Dan is eager to help build on their potential, while preserving what makes them great. |
 Jason Wessel 1st Vice President | Jason Wessel has resided in Rose Park since 1993. After graduating from West High School he proceeded to acquire several expensive pieces of paper at the University of Utah culminating in a PhD. In addition to the Westside Coalition he currently serves as the vice chair on the Rose Park Community Council executive board and is the vice chair of the Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission. He has a bunch of letters and credentials that can be listed after his name that really only make sense to people who have the same ones. In between degrees Jason has worked at the Department of State, managed too many political campaigns, was a public school teacher, a failed small business owner, worked for a nonprofit, and squeezed a term of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA in there somewhere. For fun, Jason is a co-host of the SLC chapter of Drinking Liberally and manages to hold a weekly D&D session as well as a weekly Star Trek watch party, when coordinating several people's adult schedules does not interfere. |
 Charlotte Fife-Jepperson 2nd Vice President | Charlotte Fife-Jepperson has deep roots in Poplar Grove, having lived there for nearly 50 years. Her three boys are 5th generation Westside residents. Charlotte's parents, Fred and Ila Rose Fife, taught her the importance of volunteerism through their example of service on numerous civic boards and commissions throughout their lives. Charlotte has always sought out ways to apply her talents and skills to help improve her beloved community. She co-founded The West View community paper in 2001, and after graduating from the first class of the Westside Leadership Institute in 2004, developed it into the nonprofit organization, West View Media. She recently retired as Managing Editor of The West View after 15 years of service. Charlotte invests countless hours enriching the lives of local youth. She has taught several generations of piano students (privately and in local schools) for over 30 years, coached the Junior Panthers Swim Team and several Junior Jazz teams, and helped run the Rose Park Baseball little league when her boys were young. These days, she spends her time passing on the joy of piano to Glendale Middle School students as well as maintaining a private piano studio, helping develop the Westside Coalition, and serving on the Fairpark’s International Market Planning Committee. She also loves to bike or walk the Jordan River Parkway Trail. Her past board service includes: |
 Jake Erickson Secretary | I recently moved to the Salt Lake City area to take on the role of Community Engagement Coordinator at Neighborhood House. While my job requires me to work on the Westside in a professional capacity, I believe it is even more important to have a personal relationship with the communities I serve. For this reason, I joined the Westside Coalition to immerse myself in my new home. |
 Rick Silver Treasurer | I was born in, and have spent the majority of my life in Salt Lake City, I am the father of one and I live in Poplar Grove. In my personal journey, I have experienced both success and failure and although I have never made a fortune. I feel like Salt Lake City has provided me opportunities to develop the way I wanted to. When I was nineteen, I joined the Navy and spent the next six years traveling the world including patrolling the Persian Gulf shortly after Desert Storm. I left the Navy to go to college, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Utah. I worked for L-3 Communications (now L-3/Harris) for the next 9 years holding positions of increasing responsibility in design engineering, intellectual property, and program management. While working at L-3 I earned an MBA from Westminster College. After L-3 I worked for Moog Aircraft as a product line engineer and then transferred to their Space and Defense division working as a program administrator. I continued at Moog until I was advised to retire from full time work. My goal in working with the Westside Coalition is to help to build and develop Salt Lake City in such a way that it allows all residents here to reach and develop their full potential regardless of political ideology, race, religion, sexual orientation or starting position on the socioeconomic ladder. |
 Billy Palmer | A resident of Salt Lake City’s Glendale neighborhood, and father of three adult children, Billy enjoys spending time with family, live performances of many sorts, film festivals and traveling as often as possible. Billy Palmer joined the ACLU of Utah as a Community Organizer in January of 2022 after spending five years as a host and associate producer of the public affairs show RadioACTive on KRCL 90.9 FM. While at KRCL, he also served as the Director of Civic Engagement. Billy also has a background in filmmaking, music promotion, as well as swing dance performance and choreography. Billy comes to the WestSide Coalition with 20 years of activism and grassroots movement building on a local and national level. Among many focuses he has worked around issues of economic equality, human rights, gender equity, anti-black and indigenous policy, youth empowerment, and advocacy for survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse. |
 C.J. Hellige | I’m a new face around Rose Park, but I’ve always proudly called the Salt Lake valley Home. After graduating from Hillcrest High School, I attended the University of Utah for my bachelor’s degree in Architecture. From there, I’ve spent the last 5 years designing affordable housing across the Wasatch Front at a local firm called Giv. From our little office on North Temple, I’ve watched the dramatic changes of the Fairpark and Guadalupe neighborhoods. Now that I also live in Rose Park, I realize how these changes are happening across the entire west side. I have seen first-hand that as a collective, the west side can not only react to our challenges, but also proactively offer a vision of what our community wants to become. In the face of rapidly developing neighborhoods, I believe the Coalition can have an impact on the future of housing, development, and gentrification. I’m excited to put my skills and energy towards building a Westside that invests in, and keeps, the community I’ve come to cherish. |
 Chaise Ware | Chaise has been a Utah resident for 20 years. After graduating from Utah State University with a bachelors in science, he relocated to SLC and has been a West Side resident for the past 7 years. He now works and lives in the Guadalupe Neighborhood as the Managing Director for Signature properties, a sister company to Signature Books. In the short time he has lived in the area he has become deeply involved in the community. In addition to his service as a Vice Chair on the Fairpark Community Council, Chaise coaches swimming for both the Northwest Recreation Center and West High School. Chaise has really grown to love living on the West Side. With its diversity, and deep roots to Salt Lake’s past, he has gained an appreciation and passion for historic preservation and considerate, thoughtful Community development. Chaise and his husband currently live in the historic Nelson Wheeler Whipple House. In his spare time he enjoys working with his various animals, working on house projects, tending bees, and spending time with his neighbors and friends. |
 Daniel Tuutau | Daniel Tuutau is originally from Los Angeles, California, and has been a resident of Poplar Grove for the past decade. He currently works with the Pacific Island Chamber of Commerce, a PIK2AR program, along with running a small videography & photography business. He holds BA & MM degrees in music from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Utah in Vocal Performance. He is also an active performer and voice instructor, frequently performing with the Utah Opera Chorus and other local venues. He ran for Salt Lake City Council District 2 in 2021 with a goal to raise community involvement for the west side of Salt Lake and hopes to continue to lead by example. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Brandy, and their four children. |
 Dorothy P. Owen | Bio will be posted soon. |
 Esther Jackson-Stowell | With years of working in the real estate industry, Esther pivoted her career path to better serve her family and community. She opened her property management business in 2010 and later, her real estate brokerage in 2015. This shift in career provided the much needed time for her to dedicate to raising their children. Esther has several years of property management experience; three of which were spent working for a housing coalition in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to that, she received a masters degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in Public Management, from California State University, East Bay. Her undergraduate years were spent fine-tuning her business skills, which earned her a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Marketing. She is a Realtor in the State of Utah and a Certified Occupancy Specialist through the National Center for Housing Management (NCHM). When she isn't putting in the time and effort to highlight the good in her wonderful community, as the Community Council Chair, or assisting to ward off occurrences of discrimination, as the Chair for the Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission, she can be found serving the children in her church, with great joy, as a Primary Leader. Aside from her professional titles, Esther is a proud mother of two beautiful boys, along with their adorable girl, and she is, according to her husband, the best wife ever! |
 Kevin Parke | I have lived in Rose Park in Salt Lake City's West Side since 1999. My wife and I chose Rose Park because it was a good location between where I was working in Ogden, and the University of Utah where my wife was attending school. We quickly fell in love with Rose Park and decided this was where we wanted to raise our family. Four kids, a daughter in law and a grandson later we still love the westside and continue to look for ways to serve our community. I ran for Salt Lake City Council District 1 in 2013, and while the outcome was unsuccessful, I had some wonderful experiences and met some amazing people while knocking on doors and attending community events. This experience renewed my commitment to my neighborhood. I have served on the Rose Park Community Council since 2014, serving as Chair since 2019. I have also served on the Police Civilian Review Board for Salt Lake City since 2016. |
 Nigel Swaby | Nigel Swaby was born in Jamaica, but grew up on Salt Lake City's Westside. A graduate of South High School, he attended Willamette University majoring in Speech Communications. Swaby has worked in retail management, sports marketing, mortgage lending, internet marketing and has been a licensed Realtor since 2015. He has been actively involved in his Fairpark Community, serving on the Council Board since 2018 and was also the Chair of the River District Chamber for two years. Swaby serves professionally as the Elections Chair for the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. In his spare time, he enjoys working on his house, golf and playing poker. |
 Terry Marasco | Born and raised in Manhattan of first-generation Italian-American parents whose grandparents parents immigrated from the poverty of Southern Italy in about 1896.. Terry has been an educator with 2.9 Education degrees. He left education to go into business – retail, wholesale, production, the digital economy as a Senior Project Manager setting 2 banks and 10 Internet startups online. He bought a small resort in Baker NV by Great Basin National Park in 2004 then sold it in 2017 when he moved to Salt Lake full time. He has been a community activist ever since he was one of the leading figures in defeating the Las Vegas Pipeline project. For the past four years, he has been focused on westside issues particularly the Inland Port project which has the potential to pollute the westside already the most polluted large community in Utah. He has over 25 OPEDs published by the Salt Lake Tribune and Desert News, has appeared on national and local TV, and written OPEDs in other states. Terry knows how to manage the media to bring issues to the public, and served as a legislative lobbyist for Air Quality, pollution, and motorcycle safety issues. He serves as the Chair of Jordan Meadows Community Council, on the Advisory Board of Salt Lake City Public Utilities, and on Fairpark International Market Advisory Committee. |
 Turner Bitton | A lifelong Utahn, Turner fell in love with public service at a very young age. Turner’s life has been defined by a commitment to the people around him and he spends his time in service to his community. Driven by a deep sense of compassion and justice, Turner believes in the power of bringing people together to solve complex problems. He is recognized as a leader and serves on the board of directors of over a dozen nonprofit organizations as well as in appointed positions in local and state government. Turner has a certificate in public policy design from the Harvard Kennedy School and attended Arizona State University for a BS in Political Science. An unapologetic conversationalist, it is likely you’ll strike up a conversation with him that will last too long and make you late for your next appointment. |
 Joseph Arrington (Associate Member) | Joseph has served on the Jordan Meadows Community Council since 2020 with two years as Chair, currently serving the first of two years as the Immediate Past Chair. He also previously served as President of Westside Coalition's Board of Directors from 2021-2022. His other service work on the Westside of Salt Lake includes his current roles as President of the West High Alumni Association and Chair of West View Media, as well as his work with the Red Cross GSL Chapter as Chair of Mission & Diversity. He currently works in administration at Intermountain Medical Center, specifically in operations for academic/research physicians. He also runs a small start-up, Beacon Sleep Solutions. He is a doctoral candidate in Drexel University's Executive Doctorate in Business Administration, having previously received an MBA from Westminster College and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Utah (majoring in Exercise and Sport Science, with a minor in Pediatric Clinical Research). With aspirations to career-change and become a physician to both treat patients directly as well as do health systems research to help ensure evidence based strategies are used in healthcare administration and improve patient care, as well as helping his community through service, Joseph ensures his professional life revolves around these tenets. He is a published scientific researcher, a USPTO patented inventor, and serial community volunteer. His Westside service includes helping foundations give hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to students in need for college, organize and run blood drives and vaccine clinics, fight against medical misinformation, campaigns to help the undocumented, host several community clean-up and exercise events, and more. In all of this, the part of his life he treasures is living with his family. He's been with his wife, Krischa, since 2009 and they have six lovely children together, born between 2010 to 2021: Brianne, Madison, Dinah, Audrey, Adam, and Declan. |