Carri Phippen Jenkins has been serving as Brigham Young University’s primary spokesperson for more than two decades. She also directs the work of BYU’s University Communications office and serves as a member of the university’s President’s Council.
Carri credits her superb English teachers at Hillcrest High School, where she graduated in 1979, with her passion for clear, straightforward, and uncomplicated writing. It was through debate at Hillcrest that she learned the power of information and how to use it wisely. But it was through her classmates that she discovered just how much fun life can be, whether it was doing the bunny hop in the rain at Utah’s invitational track meet or dancing to the great music of the 70s at those Hillcrest Stomps.
Carri left Hillcrest and journeyed with five of her still-to-this-day dearest friends to Rexburg, Idaho, to attend Ricks College. Even in temperatures so cold that your lungs would freeze, it was a life-changing experience. Guided by influential professors, she began to focus on journalism as her major and career. At BYU, Carri served as editor of the Daily Universe and spent time in New York City working for the publishing giant Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
All along the way, Carri was keeping close tabs on Paul Dale Jenkins, whom she had first met in a seminary class her sophomore year. A state champion in the mile, it was not easy keeping up with him, especially when he made the decision to run track for the University of Utah. About a year after Paul returned from serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the two were married. They now have a son and a daughter, who married incredible individuals, and three amazing grandchildren.
Carri received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from BYU in communications. For 12 years, she served as the associate editor of BYU Magazine (now Y Magazine), where she currently serves as the associate publisher. She also has been an instructor in the BYU Communications Department, a university speech writer, and a publicity director. She is the recipient of the university’s Ben E. Lewis management award.
Carri has a long history with CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education), which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. She served as chair of the Western District, culminating in being named the Nancy Treser-Osgood Tribute Award recipient. She has been a member of CASE’s International Commission on Communication and the CASE District VII Board of Directors and Executive Committee.
Carri has been honored by the Public Relations Society of America with Utah’s Professional of the Year Award and was awarded the Board Appreciation Award from the University Photographer’s Association of America. She is a past president of the Consortium for Utah Women in Higher Education and served on the Mountainland Advisory Board of Utah Valley University.
Carri has loved every opportunity she has been given to learn from those much wiser than herself—including a group of four-year-olds—through her service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She still loves running and hiking, but her all-time favorite pastime is snowshoeing with Paul, their children and grandchildren in American Fork Canyon.
Statement of Acceptance:
The greatest gift that has come with this recognition has been the flood of memories that have come with it–all framed in green and white. To be a Husky is an honor in and of itself. I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to attend Hillcrest Hight School. Since leaving Hillcrest, I have shared many times just how special the graduating class of 1979 was and still is. I tell them about the comradery that existed amongst us, the acceptance and appreciation of our differences, the drive to be better without devaluing someone else’s achievements, the sincere desire to improve circumstances for others and the recognition that we all fail at times and need a hand (or a paw, if you’re talking Hillcrest Huskies) to get back up. So, what advice can I offer? It would be to live like my fellow classmates taught me to live!