Jolene Day Weston’s two children can practically ski circles around her, even though they’re only three and a half. Her career path and journey to motherhood have taken a similar circuitous course.
As a single woman Weston climbed the corporate ladder, finding great success in the HR field. In 2004 she became senior VP of human resources for Supplemental Health Care, headquartered in Park City, Utah. Several years into the position, she met and married her husband, Bret.
“Life was great,” Weston says. “We got married, and then we found out we couldn’t have children.” She’s quick to follow up with a joke, though, about God not wanting to pass on her genes.
The couple began looking into adoption, and, to their surprise, it happened very quickly. With less than six weeks’ notice and no guarantees, they prepared for the arrival of a new baby, Tyler, who came with a few health problems. Weston took a hard look at the travel she was doing for her job, the needs of her new son, and her own personality. She decided to take a lesser position, which she was then laid off from.
“In hindsight, that was beautiful,” she says. Losing her job became a blessing in disguise when another twist happened. They were notified they would be receiving another baby, Bella, who was six months old—the same age as Tyler.
One more surprise came in 2012 after life had settled a bit for the family. Weston was contacted by Park City Municipal, which had an urgent need for some HR consulting. The temporary position has since transformed; Weston is now the city’s organizational development manager. She’s currently using her twenty years of HR experience to revamp values within the city’s hierarchy through her development program.
“They can’t get rid of me,” she jokes. “Two and a half years later, I’m still here. The beautiful thing is that I work part-time, so I get to spend plenty of time with my kiddos. It’s a win-win situation.”
And a lot of that time is spent on Park City’s slopes. Bret is a professional ski instructor, and the entire family has season passes to Deer Valley. “We first took them up when they were two,” Weston says of the kids. “Bret teaches our children, and I just try to keep up and stay out of the way.”
Weston, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the Marriott School in 1992, keeps involved volunteering with community events, though she now has to tote a double stroller everywhere. Her newest passion is promoting adoption. In addition to speaking at events about the benefits and realities of adoption, she spent this past summer helping plan the Frontier Days celebration in Francis, Utah, where her family lives.
Between Francis and Park City, the family finds a wide array of outdoor activities to keep them busy. “I’m big into road biking, so I’m trying to get my kids to hurry up and learn to bike,” she says. “We’re not as advanced on biking as we are the skiing, just for the record. Not even close.”
