15 things Mary Heers can't live without during a pandemic

Mary got hooked on oral histories while visiting Ellis Island and hearing the recorded voices of immigrants that had passed through. StoryCorps drew her to UPR. After she retired from teaching at Preston High, she walked into the station and said she wanted to help. Kerry put her to work taking the best 3 minutes out of the 30 minute interviews recorded in Vernal. Passion kicked in. Mary went on to collect more and more stories and return them to the community on UPR's radio waves. Major credits to date: Utah Works, One Small Step, and the award winning documentary Ride the Rails.

Katie grew up in Orem, Utah but moved to Logan after high school to attend Utah State University. She graduated in 2015 with a BS in journalism and communications, and a BFA in drawing and painting. Katie got her start at UPR first as an intern while she was still attending USU. She worked as a producer for Access Utah and then as a weekend host after she graduated. In September of 2016 joined the full-time staff of UPR as a development officer over membership and couldn’t be happier to be a part of Utah Public Radio.