Howard Stephenson
National Education Coordinator for the Utah State Senate
Howard Stephenson served in the Utah Senate between 1993 and 2018 where for 26 years he was a leader in education and tax policy. He chose not to seek reelection to devote more time as a national evangelist for early learning, digital teaching and learning, dual language immersion, and post secondary workforce alignment.
Senator Stephenson’s efforts have resulted in Utah leading the nation in the number and percentage of students involved in Dual Language Immersion in six languages, and the percentage of students involved in daily personalized learning through adaptive computer assisted instruction.
Senator Stephenson served as the National Education Coordinator for the Utah State Senate. He was a member of the Senate Education Committee, the Higher Education and Public Education Appropriations Subcommittees and Chair of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee and Administrative Rules Review Committee. Nationally, he has served as the Chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures Education Standing Committee and is the Public Sector Chair of the Education Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council and has served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Education Commission of the States.
Senator Stephenson is nationally recognized as a legislative expert on digital teaching and learning. He has addressed hundreds of state legislators and thousands of school administrators regarding the power of immediate interactive feedback through digital learning tools and how effective implementation of those tools can more than double the rate of student learning.
He received his B.S. degree in Psychology and Master of Public Administration degree, both from Brigham Young University and currently serves as president of Utah’s only statewide taxpayer advocacy group, the Utah Taxpayers Association.
Senator Stephenson resides in Draper, Utah with his wife Julie. They have 5 children and 12 grandchildren. Howard and his family love exploring Utah’s backcountry on mountain bikes and their four Missouri Foxtrotter horses.
In addition to his other duties, he co-hosts a radio show in its eleventh year, Red Meat Radio "Inside Utah Politics - Setting the Record Straight" (860 AM), every Saturday morning from 8 to 10.