Kris Campbell has lived in unincorporated western Summit County for 14 years (Summit Park, Timberline and Silver Creek neighborhoods near Park City). He grew up in eastern Wyoming. He then spent some time in central Pennsylvania after college before moving back to the mountains and high valleys of the West. He has two smart, considerate daughters with plenty of personality that keep him on his toes.
After years of feeling frustrated and helpless watching the Utah legislature produce a number of unfair laws, Kris realized he could either let go of his concerns or take action to create positive change. He chose to act by helping to coordinate signature gathering efforts in Summit County for the tax reform referendum in 2019. In 2021, he advocated for fair boundaries during the once-a-decade redistricting process as part of the class project for Leadership Park City, Class 27. He has followed the legislative sessions closely since 2020, advocating for transparent, collaborative processes where legislators work with the people of Utah to meet the needs of all stakeholders.
Community service is important to Kris because it is a way of putting his faith which calls him to love and serve his neighbors into action. He is the program director at Mountain Mediation Center, where he provides communication skills training and plans and facilitates community conversations to build understanding and connection. Kris is on the leadership team of the Utah Braver Angels Alliance where he volunteers as the blue Braver Politics Specialist. As a transgender man, Kris is proud to serve on the leadership team of Park City’s LGBTQ+ Task Force which seeks to create, maintain, and enliven inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ community in order to help the Wasatch Back become a place where all people feel they belong. He has previously served on the executive committee of the Summit County Communities That Care coalition to reduce youth substance use and suicide.
Dr. Campbell earned a bachelors degree in math from the University of Wyoming and a masters in applied math from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was a software and systems engineer for several years, before joining the University of Utah, where he wrote software to study brain images of people with Alzheimer’s in order to understand the trajectory of the disease in the brain. He then spent eight years developing new methods to analyze brain images as part of earning a PhD in Computing at the University of Utah.
Kris loves playing soccer, dancing, solving puzzles, playing games with his kids, volunteering with their school’s art program, and exploring the mountains and deserts of Utah.