Through her Show Up initiative, First Lady of Utah, Abby Cox, has created a deeply personal platform that addresses some of Utah’s most urgent needs: inclusive education, teacher wellness, foster care support, and community service.
Here’s a look at how Show Up came to life, what makes it work, and the lessons it holds for anyone trying to lead with purpose.
Developing a Passion for Education
For Abby, this work started long before she had a formal platform. As a child growing up in Mount Pleasant, Utah, she was surrounded by educators: her mother, grandmother, and even great-grandmother were teachers.
Books were everywhere. Reading wasn’t just encouraged, it was embedded in daily life, even in mundane farm chores, where Abby and her sisters took turns reading while the others sprayed thistles.
But the spark for her passion came in elementary school, when a classmate named John, who had Down syndrome, joined her local school following the implementation of federal inclusion laws. “He became one of my dearest friends,” she said. “He was a light to everyone. He had this warmth about him. He teased me and I teased him.” That early friendship stayed with her and inspired her to study special education at Utah State University.
After decades spent raising her own children, the opportunity to re-engage with public life through the role of First Lady offered her a moment of clarity. “I asked myself: Where can I have the most impact? And it was so obvious. It had to be with education and with people like John.”
Building the Show Up Initiative
Rather than rushing to roll out programs, Abby spent her first months listening. She sat down with educators, students, parents, nonprofit leaders, and experts in disability inclusion.
One of her early advisors was Tammy Pyfer, former education advisor to Governor Herbert and a special education teacher. “She talked to me about the needs of educators,” Abby said. “She talked to me about Unified Sports and Special Olympics and how powerful it is. So that's really where I started to formulate what I wanted to do.”
Show Up consists of 4 core initiatives
Show Up for Unified Sports: Supports inclusive school athletic programs that pair students with and without intellectual disabilities on the same teams. Abby emphasizes that these activities allow students to be celebrated by their peers, often becoming the emotional heart of school communities. The Show Up initiative seeks to normalize these programs in every Utah school.
Show Up for Educator Wellness: Provides resources, conferences, and community engagement to uplift and retain Utah teachers, who feel strained by today’s unique emotional and political climate.
Show Up for Foster Care: Works to build “care communities” around foster families. These are groups of 8–10 volunteers surrounding each foster family, offering logistical, emotional, and practical support, from meals and transportation to trauma-informed care training. Her goal is to ensure that no foster family ever feels invisible again.
She reiterates that children in foster care are the legal responsibility of the state, and by extension, of her and Governor Cox. “If I’m the First Lady, I’m also the mama, and I have got to make sure that these kids have what they need.” she explains.
Show Up for Service: While Utah ranks high in charitable giving and volunteerism nationally, she warns that such status isn’t guaranteed unless intentionally cultivated. Her initiative aims to inspire Utahns, especially youth and newcomers, to view service as a cultural norm and a pathway to personal well-being.
Abby champions youth involvement through university service summits and family-oriented service fairs featuring 60+ nonprofit organizations. These events foster volunteerism, donations, and active engagement with community causes. Service is the thread that ties all the initiatives together. It connects people across differences, offers dignity to those who feel unseen, and builds the type of resilient, compassionate community Utah is known for.
What Makes It Work
Abby’s priority was creating something that genuinely made life better for people, and to do that, she started by asking a lot of questions and letting others lead, even when she didn’t have all the answers herself.
Here are a few lessons from the architecture of the initiative:
Start with listening: Abby didn’t guess what people needed - she asked.
Center lived experience: From special education teachers to foster parents, those most impacted were always part of the conversation.
Don’t reinvent the wheel: Rather than creating redundant nonprofits, Abby worked with existing organizations, amplifying their reach through her platform.
Create joy, not just relief: Events like the Unified Sports tournaments aren’t just about equity, they’re about celebration. That emotion is a big part of why people come back.
On Overcoming Doubts
Every meaningful effort has its shaky beginning, and for Abby, one came during the height of the pandemic. As she launched the first virtual Educator Wellness Conference, she couldn’t help but worry: would anyone show up, and would it truly make a difference for the educators who needed it most?
But shortly after the event, she received a message that confirmed exactly how important this work is: “We had a teacher reach out to us after that virtual conference to tell us that she was in the parking lot at one point, ready to take her own life. And because of this conference and because of the help and resources that she got from it, that she was going to be okay.” Abby said. “It really was that moment where I thought, we can't not do this. We have to make sure that these teachers feel supported.”
Advice for Anyone Wanting to Start Something That Matters
We concluded with a question for Abby: what would she say to someone who wants to make a difference but has no idea where to start.
Her answer was clear and generous:
Look inward: “Go back to your passions, even if it’s been years since you thought about them.”
Ask better questions: “Talk to the people you want to help. Don’t assume. Listen.”
Start where you are: “Volunteer with someone doing the work. Learn from them. You don’t have to start something new.”
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Abby’s journey from stay-at-home mom to statewide changemaker is the kind of transformation that reminds us what’s possible when purpose meets action.
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