Mayor Kaufusi was the keynote speaker at the Utah Women in Higher Education Network, UVU Leadership Luncheon. Her speech was candid and vulnerable.
Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi can step out of the new Provo City Hall built partly because of her tenacity and see the building where she scrubbed the floor and washed dishes for about $5 an hour. She was just 14 when she landed that job and had lied about her age because she desperately needed the money to help replace the bald tires on her mother’s car.
“I think, wow, who would have thought that that little girl, just trying to live normal and trying to fit in, is the mayor?” said Kaufusi.
Kaufusi was the keynote speaker at the Utah Women in Higher Education Network UVU Leadership Luncheon. Her speech was candid and vulnerable.
Kaufusi was an unlikely recipient of a leadership position. She was born and raised in Provo with seven children in her family.
“My father was an alcoholic, and we weren’t members of the predominant church, so who were we? We were the oddballs; we lived in a little tiny home — two and a half bedrooms off of Center Street,” she said. “My mom said she literally put me in the bottom drawer when I came home from the hospital. My dad was just a mess. He was in and out and just abusive. Because, you know, alcoholism comes with a lot of problems with self-control and things like that.”
Her mother recognized the lifestyle was unsustainable.
“She didn’t want her seven kids to have to stay in this lifestyle, so she started going to the beginning of the nursing program at Trade Tech, which has evolved into UVU,” Kaufusi said. “This was when it was in a parking lot just south of the BYU campus, and my mom started going to night school because she knew something had to change.”
Her grandfather visited their two-bedroom, one-bathroom home and decided more needed to change for the eight people there. He built a house on the east bench of Provo in the Oak Hills neighborhood.
“So here we come from this little tiny Center Street house, and suddenly we are in this neighborhood where I swear everyone has a full family — mom and dad present, every dad is a doctor, and if they are not a doctor, a professor at BYU— and here comes this rug rat family into the neighborhood,” Kaufusi said. “My mom had separated from my dad, and there were restraining orders. Just think of everything horrible if you have ever had this in your life. That was us.”
The across-the-street neighbor was a doctor, and I ran into him a few years ago,” Kaufasi continued. “He stopped and held both of my elbows, and tears came to his eyes, and he said, ‘I can’t believe how much you have accomplished. The first night you guys slept in the home, we woke up to six police cars in front of your house, your dad handcuffed, your mom’s nose broken and bleeding, your arm was in a cast.’” At the time, Kaufusi was four years old. The doctor wondered “who are our neighbors?”
Kaufusi said her grandparents prevented her and her siblings from entering the foster care system. Still, Kaufusi said her love for community and service began with that neighborhood. It was there she found tender mercies.
Kaufusi’s mother eventually graduated and worked the graveyard shift at Utah Valley Hospital.
“She would pull up in the driveway after working a full graveyard shift in the newborn nursery at Utah Valley Hospital,” she said. “She handed out Tab (it was like Diet Coke) and Pop-Tarts for each of us as we were racing to the bus stop in whatever we were wearing. She was in survival mode. So, I would take my Pop-Tart and my Tab, and I would get to the line, and everyone else has their mom walking them to school, and I was like, ‘babies.’”
In the line, she said she “could sense the murmuring, but once I was on that bus, kids were like, can I have a bite of that Pop-Tart?”
She learned it was okay to be different and make the best of every situation.
“Every year, we would go to the JC Penney in downtown Provo and get two pairs of pants, a bag of underwear, a bag of socks, and a bag of T-shirts, and those were our school clothes,” Kaufusi said.
Because of their circumstances, every child in their family was required to have a job by age 12.
“For me, it was cleaning houses — neighbors' homes — it was babysitting for a dollar; it was ‘Hey, it's summertime. Come and read to my kids, Michelle.’ These neighbors, I know now they didn’t need that — they knew I needed it,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Years later, married with her own children, she sought out places to serve. It began with the PTA in her children’s elementary school, junior high school, and Timpview High School in Provo.
“I was always looking for those who were underserved,” she said. “I was always looking for that kid who was like me. I was looking for the kid who sometimes came to school with bruises on their wrists from a dad who wasn’t supposed to show up but did. The kid who always wore the same clothes or, like me, only had one pair of shoes. I would get up every morning and scrub them with a toothbrush so they would look new.”
Her opportunity to help those students came from a conversation she overheard while in the PTA.
“I remember sitting at Timpview, and I heard the moms talking about this ACT thing and how you must take this course and hire a tutor or take this class for $800,” she said. “So where does my mind go? These kids will be fine. They have a mom who adores them and a dad who loves them — a family of love. When I heard this conversation, I thought of my mom [who] could never afford a private tutor for the ACT. She could never afford that BYU course. So, it was bugging me.”
Kaufusi became certified to teach ACT courses and administer tests to help underprivileged students pass the exam. All she needed was a venue. She stood before the school board and begged them to open the Timpview High School library on Saturday mornings. The answer was no. Then, she decided to run for the school board to “get it done.” She ousted the incumbent. The program she created still exists, and eventually, she lobbied the state to offer free ACTs for all Utah students and won.
When she ran for Provo mayor, it was with the same desire to “get things done.” She viewed it as a long shot. Now, in the second year of her second term, she tells her directors and everyone she works with to “swing for the fences. Think big.” That attitude and a strong work ethic have led to significant changes for Provo, including a new airport, a new city hall, and a $50 million grant from FEMA to build water-conserving aquifers. Provo was also named the nation’s “best-performing city” by the Milken Institute.
Kaufusi told the women who attended the UWHEN UVU event to “swing for the fences.”
“It has been the most amazing privilege to serve, and now women and little girls know they can do it too. If you can see it, you can be it, right?” she said.