Board of Directors
Josh Kanter
Board Chair
Josh Kanter is the founder and current Board President of the Alliance for a Better Utah. In addition to his duties at Better UTAH, Josh serves as President of Chicago Investments, Inc., Vice-President of Windy City, Inc., Vice President and a Director of the Kanter Family Foundation, President and a Director of Art Enterprises, Ltd, and counsel to the Chicago law firm, Barack, Ferrazzano, Kirschbaum & Nagelberg. He currently serves as a trustee at the Roland Hall St. Mark’s School, and is a member of the Young Benefactors Council at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Temple Har Shalom Art Committee, and the University of Chicago Law School Campaign Planning Group. Prior to launch ABU, Josh was a trustee of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, served on Governor Huntsman’s Utah Methamphetamine Joint Task Force Subcommittee on Public Awareness, and co-chaired the Corroon for Governor Finance Committee. In 2011, Josh received a Heart and Hands Award from the Utah Nonprofits Association, and was named to the Community Foundation of Utah’s E-5-0, an annual selection of 50 “enlightened entrepreneurs.”
Andrea Himoff
Board Member
Andrea Himoff is the former executive director of Action Utah, a nonpartisan community advocacy organization that she co-founded in 2016 to answer the call of Utahns from both sides of the aisle who, like her, wanted to get civically engaged to impact the issues they care about most. Action Utah came into the Better Utah fold in late 2020. Prior to that, Andrea was an award-winning independent film producer and screenwriter, shooting films in Los Angeles and Eastern Europe and coordinating multi-national crews. In 2002 she co-founded the animation production company Jellyman Productions. She was formerly Creative Director at Weintraub Kuhn Productions and an Associate at Bright Sun Consulting in New York City. She also wrote the blog Everyday Earthiness to help teach everyday people small ways to make a big environmental impact. In 2018, Andrea was named the Utah Nonprofits Association Emerging Nonprofit Leader of the Year in 2018. Andrea received a bachelor’s degree in classical studies from Dartmouth College, graduating summa cum laude. She lives in Park City with her family.
Rochelle Kaplan
Board Member
Rochelle Kaplan is a transplant from NYC who moved to Utah in 1998, following her husband, Art Lipson. She dedicated her career to teaching students with learning disabilities in high school in New York City and at Granite High School in Utah. Rochelle recently taught gardening and tomato growing courses with the Osher Institute through the University of Utah.
Rochelle is an avid skier, hiker, gardener, amateur genealogist, and political junkie. She loves to read, watch films, practice photography, listen to music, travel, and in her spare time conducts research into the early history of Jews in Utah. Rochelle serves as a member on the board of the Utah Film Center and the National Council of Jewish Women, Utah Section, and volunteers with Utah Votes.
Crystal Young-Otterstrom
Board Member
Crystal Young-Otterstrom is a composer and coloratura soprano. She received her BA in Music Theory from BYU in 2002 (with minors in marketing, economics, and humanities), and her MA in Musicology/Composition from Queens College (City University of New York) in 2004. She is the founder of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera’s Vivace, and the co-founder and Marketing Director of The Salty Cricket Composers Collective. Crystal is the Utah chair of LDS Democrats, vice-chair of LDS Democrats of America, and serves on the boards or steering committees of UTOPIA Early Music, Planned Parenthood’s Political Action Committee, LDS Composers Network, Studio D, and the North American Association of Young Professionals. Past Board service includes: the Human Rights Campaign, Young Benefactors at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the OPERA America Young Friends of Opera steering committee, the Messaging, Women’s, and Platform committees for the Utah Democratic Party, Cottonwood Forum, the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus, Mormons for Equality and Social Justice (MESJ), Utah Cultural Alliance, and former Communications Director of Young Democrats of Utah.