(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Third District Judge Dianna Gibson holds a hearing on Utah’s congressional maps in Salt Lake City on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.
The people have spoken. Utah Judge Dianna Gibson was voted by you, our readers, as The Salt Lake Tribune’s 2025 Utahn of the Year.
Gibson rejected a new congressional map drawn by Republican state lawmakers in a landmark decision issued Nov. 10, instead ordering that a map drawn by plaintiffs with a district favoring Democrats be put in place ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The ruling came after a yearslong legal battle since the state Legislature repealed Proposition 4, an anti-gerrymandering initiative passed by voters in 2018.
Gibson faced a number of threats after the decision, prompting Utah’s top judicial officers to “call on everyone to approach concerns involving the courts with civility, respect and constructive dialogue.”
Read more about the editorial board’s pick for the 2025 Utahns of the Year, and learn more about whom it has named Utahn of the Year since 1997 below.
2025 * Protect Utah Workers members.
2024 * Justices of the Utah Supreme Court.
2023 * The new Salt Lake City International Airport.
2022 * Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham.
2021 * The Great Salt Lake.
2020 * Health care workers.
2019 * Utah Jazz owner and philanthropist Gail Miller.
2018 * Former North Ogden Mayor and fallen soldier Brent Taylor.
2017 * Longtime U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch.
2016 * Madi Barney, who brought attention to how Brigham Young University was handling reports of sexual assaults.
2015 * Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes.
2014 * Same-sex marriage plaintiffs.
2013 * Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
2012 * Mormons Building Bridges.
2011 * Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank.
2010 * Elizabeth, Lois and Mary Smart.
2009 * Elizabeth Smart.
2008 * Utah Jazz owner and businessman Larry Miller.
2007 * First responders to tragedies, including the Trolley Square shooting rampage and the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster.
2006 * Latino leaders Jorge Fierro, Andrew Valdez, Ruby Chacon and Alma Armendariz.
2005 * Pamela Atkinson, advocate for the poor and homeless.
2004 * Utahns killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2003 * Gov. Olene Walker.
2002 * LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley.
2001 * Winter Games organizer Mitt Romney.
2000 * Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.
1999 * The letter that sparked the Olympic bribery scandal.
1998 * Mary Ann Kingston, who suffered a brutal beating after escaping plural marriage.
1997 * NBA MVP Karl Malone.
Read more on The Salt Lake Tribune
