Mary Kaye Huntsman was born in Orlando, Florida. She moved to Utah when she was 14 years old. She attended Highland High School where she and her husband first met. Mrs. Huntsman is the mother of seven children. She is a passionate advocate for youth.

Mrs. Huntsman has created several programs aimed at helping kids cope emotionally with various challenges. Her first project began as a result of her daughter's diagnosis with juvenile diabetes. Although the doctors and nurses explained the physical impact of the disease, the Huntsman family found the emotional impact to be just as challenging. This prompted Mrs. Huntsman to create a mentoring program to help other children newly diagnosed with diabetes. Together, she and her daughter Liddy made a gift bag filled with items and information her daughter wished she could have accessed at the time of her diagnosis, and they delivered it to a newly-diagnosed patient at a local hospital. This grew into a nationwide program, through the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, known as the "Bag of Hope."

Mrs. Huntsman used this same kid-to-kid, heart-to-heart approach to create programs that provide companionship and hope to children recently diagnosed with cancer, through the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and then for children who are terminally ill. These projects were put together by gathering children who were going through these difficulties, and gaining their perspective on what was most needed.

Mrs. Huntsman has expanded this concept into a statewide program known as Power in You www.powerinyou.org. The initiative focuses on the emotional side of "at risk" behaviors, as well as "life challenges" that teenagers face. The issues covered are substance abuse, eating disorders, harassment, mood disorders, disabilities, cancer, diabetes, ethnic diversity, poverty, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, dating dangers, gang awareness, healthy weight, and Internet bullying. The goal is to help kids know they are not alone and they have the power within to handle whatever challenge they may face. Three or four ambassadors represent each of these areas and share stories of how they have addressed trials in their own lives and how they found that power inside to cope with them.

Mrs. Huntsman currently serves as Honorary Chair of the Literacy Commission and acts as an Honorary Chair of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She has twice co-chaired the annual "Speaking of Women's Health" conference.

She and the Governor have been married for 24 years. They have lived in Taiwan and Singapore where her husband served as a United States ambassador.

First Lady's Initiatives

Power in You focuses on the emotional aspect of life challenges and at-risk behavior in order to bring hope to teens and encourage them to fulfill their lives and education potential.

DrugTALK is a virtual life coach dedicated to helping families, parents and young people overcome the threat and dangers of drugs in the privacy of their homes. Insights, tools and activities are delivered to parents to help them protect their children by putting vital protection principles into practice.

Baby Your Baby is an incredible program. Whether you are a pregnant woman, father-to-be, new parent, grandparent, or community member who cares about families, this program is for you.

Kirilenko's Kids endeavors to enhance the lives of youth in both Utah and Russia through its efforts with local children's hospitals and orphanages and other efforts that can provide critical assistance and make a difference in the lives of children.

Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, a unique coalition of Governors' spouses, Federal agencies, and public and private organizations, is an initiative to prevent the use of alcohol by children ages 9 to 15. It is the only national effort that focuses on alcohol use in this age group.

Speaking of Women's Health is dedicated to educating women to make informed decisions about their health, well-being and personal safety. The goal of the Speaking of Women's Health conference is to enhance the lives and welfare of women, raise funds to support women's health initiatives and health programming on KUED, and honor individuals making a difference in their communities.

Read with a Child, sponsored by the Governor's Commission on Literacy, is a collaborative effort formulated to encourage families and others to read with a child for 20 minutes every day. Research confirms the importance of the "20 Minutes" message as a key tool essential in building lifelong learners.

Gene-O's Club Hope program was established in 1999 by Mary Kaye Huntsman and the Huntsman Cancer Institute. This program was set up to help the newly diagnosed children know they are not alone. Several children with cancer came together to make a video for the newly diagnosed patient, sharing their stories of hope and inspiration.

The "Bag of Hope" program was established by Mary Kaye Huntsman and her daughter Liddy in 1997, in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was adopted by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and is now a nationwide effort to help children emotionally with the diagnosis of juvenile diabetes. This is a kid-to-kid, heart-to-heart way of letting the newly diagnosed patients know they are not alone.