Joanna Wheelton moves on from Utah Catholic Schools

Friday, Jun. 03, 2016

OGDEN — After four years as president of Saint Joseph Schools in Ogden, Joanna Wheelton is embarking on a new path that will take her back to where she began her professional career: She is studying for the Utah State bar exam. 

While the change was precipitated by a restructuring at St. Joseph Schools that eliminated the position of president, “just knowing that I’m on the path to returning to law is really exhilarating,” said Wheelton, who also served a year as interim principal at St. Joseph Catholic High School, and previous to that was the advancement director at The Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City.

After obtaining an undergraduate degree in fisheries and wildlife, Wheelton attended law school at Syracuse University, drawn by their environmental program, she said. “When I started law school, it was with the idea that I wanted to save the planet.”

She took a class in estate planning and enjoyed it immensely, she said. Subse-quently she was hired by a general practice law firm in Ithaca, where most of her work was in the areas of estate planning and elder law.

“I loved it,” she said. “I loved my clients; I’ve always had an affinity for elderly people and I felt like I was really serving families – doing good work.”

Because of family concerns, she returned to Utah with her husband and two young children; she now lives in the house where she grew up. Some of her neighbors have lived there since she was young, so “it’s a familial environment – they’re like grandparents,” she said.

She began at the choir school in 2007; being an advancement director was “kind of the other side of estate planning,” she said.

Working at the school also deepened her knowledge of the Catholic Church, she said: “I felt that was an amazing course in theology and the life of the church, the Eucharist.”

She moved to St. Joseph Schools in 2012.  

In both locations “I felt it was a real mission. … I very much believe in Catholic education,” she said. “Both schools, although very different, have a real importance in their community.”

Being able to share God’s living presence with students has been a gift, she said. “I think the opportunity to talk about faith and belief and surrender and joy on a daily basis with young people forming their own ideas of the world themselves [was] the best experience I’ve ever had.” 

While she expects that she will be employed in the secular workplace once she passes the bar exam, she will continue to use her advancement skills through Catholic Community Services of Northern Utah, where she chairs the Advisory Board; she also is a member of the CCS Board of Trustees.  

She is focusing on increasing awareness of CCS in the Ogden area; many people don’t know that they run the largest food pantry in Utah, she said. 

“I have to explain to my friends outside of the church what CCS is every time I say it,” she said. “We need to break that open. That’s the focus right now – we need to let the Ogden community know the service that they’re providing.”

She and her family also volunteer at CCS; they help distribute food at the monthly Bridging the Gap program and participate in the annual backpack drive.

“Getting to help them as a volunteer gives me a lot of personal satisfaction,” she said. “And I just love the work; I think there’s nothing more compelling than helping children.”