Sophia DiCaro: working to keep Utah's economy growing.

• Author: Olson, Pamela M.
• Position: Around Utah

As a younger woman, Sophia DiCaro, deputy director of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED), wanted to work for the U.S. State Department. She adored political science and studied abroad, but instead destiny led DiCaro to discover she had a way with numbers and budgets.

"I kept getting these jobs putting me in finance roles," she says, from managing an Arby's to overseeing the books for the Utah State Capitol Preservation project. Now she's working to keep Utah's economy growing.

DiCaro grew up in Price, her father's home town, where he worked as a coal miner and her mother a seamstress. DiCaro earned a scholarship to the College of Eastern Utah and began on the path that led her to GOED today. Her father met her mother when he was stationed in Japan, and that's where DiCaro studied abroad, focusing on East Asia relations.

"I've always been fascinated with political science." She says. "I had my heart set on earning a law degree and working overseas." Instead she earned her Master's in Public Administration from the University of Utah.

DiCaro says her biggest accomplishment during her first year at GOED is moving its offices to the new World Trade Center at City Creek and the accompanying restructuring of the department. She says the new space is...