Meet this year’s 2022 Accomplished Under 40 award winners

Lauren Bonneau//March 3, 2022

The current median age of individuals living in Idaho is 36.9, and 26% of the state’s population is between the ages of 20 and 39, according to the Census Reporter. That means there were potentially more than 470,000 residents (of a professional/working age) who could be eligible for an Accomplished Under 40 (AU40) award this year.

2019 Accomplished Under 40 honorees — Photo by Pete Grady Photography

To shine a spotlight on this valued segment of the state, each year, the Idaho Business Review (IBR) through its AU40 awards program rightly honors 40 dynamic people in industry, government and the nonprofit sector who will be the decision-makers of tomorrow. The AU40 awards rules are simple: Prospective honorees must be a resident of Idaho or working in the state, and they must be under the age of 40 (as of June 2, 2022 for this year’s awards).

The awards finalist determination involves a two-step nomination and application process: First, an individual must be nominated by the community at large. This nomination could come from anyone who knows the individual well — be that colleagues, friends or family members. Self-nominations are also accepted.

The second step requires the person who is nominated to fill out an application for consideration and to submit letters of recommendation, resumes and other pertinent background information. Once the application window closes, a judging panel of past winners undertakes the major task of scoring the many qualified candidates, taking into account the categories of professional achievement, leadership, mentorship and community service. The top-scoring candidates, based on a unified scoring system, are then named the 40 finalists.

“It is a privilege to recognize these young talented individuals, and we are thrilled to be able to celebrate all their accomplishments in person this year with the support from program presenting sponsor, Boise State University College of Business and Economics (COBE),” said IBR Publisher Cindy Suffa.

An exciting change to announce for this year’s program is that the AU40 awards will be co-located with IBR’s Icon Awards, which honor Idaho’s change-makers over the age of 50 — pioneers who are in a class of their own, continue to kick-start innovation and champion their industry through professional creativity and leadership. It’s a great opportunity for these two generations to get in a room together to network and learn from each other.

This year’s awards program to honor the AU40 and Icon Award winners will be held in person at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 2 at Boise Centre East. If you’d like to attend the ceremony and networking event, tickets are available now. The leaders will be profiled in a printed magazine (two separate publications for AU40 winners and Icon Award finalists) to be distributed at the awards event and then released to subscribers on June 10.

Be sure to congratulate the 40 accomplished individuals listed below. The 2022 Icon Award honorees will be announced on March 10.

2022 AU40 honorees

TJ Bliss, Idaho State Board of Education

Lindsey Brist, KeyBank

Allison Bruce, TalentSpark

Catherine Cantley, University of Idaho/ TechHelp

Rachel Flachbart, Bishop Kelly High School

Catherine Freeman, Gjording Fouser PLLC

Stephany Galbreaith, City of Meridian

Mike Garcia, Idaho Trust Bank

Cristina Gonzalez Froude, Spark! Strategic Solutions

Crispin Gravatt, Idaho STEM Action Center