Karen Cushing

Karen Cushing was appointed to the Utah Valley University Alumni Board in May 2018. She works as an executive assistant to the senior vice president of academic affairs. Although she did not graduate from UVU, her husband, daughter, and son-in-law are all graduates, and another son is currently attending UVU. She has also taken classes at UVU herself as a nontraditional student.

Cushing says she wanted to serve the university beyond her employment. “I wanted to start really giving back to the university,” she says. “I am very dedicated to UVU. I love what it stands for. I love the integrated mission that we have. We are working to build good, quality programs and pathways so that we can serve not only the community but also our region.”

 

Mark Preston

Mark Preston has recently joined the university’s Alumni Board. In 2000, he graduated from Utah Valley University with a degree in business management and an emphasis in marketing. He has spent most of his career as a digital media executive, with a total of 12 years as a vice president at Bonneville International Corp. and Hubbard Radio.

In 2017, he co-founded Elytics, a technology startup company. It has a vision of providing greater transparency to broadcast advertisers. Its analytics software enables advertisers to track the customer's journey from seeing or hearing broadcast ads to purchasing products. 

His daughter, Karlee, is an ambassador on the UVU Foundation and invited him to several alumni events. “I am very excited to participate on the Alumni Board,” he says. “I had an amazing experience at UVU thanks to the incredible professors.”
 

Rick Moore

A former two-term mayor of Payson, Rick Moore is also new to the UVU Alumni Board. He attended Utah Valley University from 1978 to 1982 and studied refrigeration. He then worked for a family business, Moore Sheet Metal, until he started his own company, BCB Heating and Air.

Moore met then-UVU president Matthew S. Holland about two months after Holland began his role.

“I offered him some property in Payson that day,” Moore says. “I worked with President Holland and the cabinet for eight years about putting a new campus in Payson.”

“UVU has done such neat things,” he said. “It is an honor to be on the board. It is going to be a great thing. I can still be involved with the university and help get the new facility that is going to be in Payson.”