Janessa-Michelle Purcell, President of the Utah International Mountain Forum (UIMF), a coalition of student clubs at Utah Valley University (UVU) is graduating with Honors from UVU at the end of April 2026. Native of Honolulu and proud of her joint Samoan Hawaiian mountain ancestral heritage, on Thursday, April 16, 2026, she was honored with the UVU Club President of the Year Award. She was recognized as the second woman president of the UIMF to lead her student club coalition in the advocacy and implementation of sustainable mountain development in the State of Utah and elsewhere, including the Kyrgyz Republic and the United Nations. UIMF does this through the student-engaged learning (SEL) model, by encouraging both traditional and non-traditional students to work together as a group on resolving problems facing mountain communities with faculty mentoring them. Non-traditional students are learners, who are, like Purcell, older than 25 years, and combine their education with work and family responsibilities.
Under Purcell’s leadership, club members have used SEL to serve their local mountain communities in the Utah County and State of Utah by building an enduring partnership with both local Orem-Lindon Rotary Club and the Utah District Rotarians. They volunteered at the Conservative Climate Change Summit at UVU, cleaned the Provo River Delta, planted trees, collected and distributed coats to Title I schools in Utah County, and assembled and donated hygiene kits to local organizations to help the underserved communities. As a result, Purcell was recognized as 2025 Student Champion of UVU for advancing exceptional care within the campus community. Under Purcell lead UIMF members through SEL advocated together with their peers from Osh Technological University, the Kyrgyz Republic for mountain women and girls’ rights at the 68th, 69th and 70th sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women. She moderated side events, hosted by the Permanent Missions of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United Nations and parallel events, hosted by UIMF and UVU during each session from 2024 to 2026.
On October 24th, 2024, Purcell and her team were proud to host Ambassador Michele J Sison, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs bureau at UVU, when VIP guests recognized UIMF club members for their efforts in advocating for mountain women and girls at the CSW sessions. Expanding the reach of mountain advocacy initiatives, Purcell presented Air Pollution in Salt Lake County Research at Oxford University in July 2025. In September 2025, Purcell also collaborated with the Mountain Youth Hub in hosting an event, “Empowering Mountain Youth”, at the International Mountain Conference in Innsbruck, Austria. The engagement of youth in mountain communities has been a priority for the UIMF and Purcell to empower the mountain women voices that often go unheard.
