Vol 8. Issue 17 / May 19, 2008

A Brief Biography of Claudia Skaggs Luttrell

Claudia Skaggs Luttrell is a lifetime member of the Salt Lake City, Utah, community, where she grew up and received her education. She is a businesswoman, an accomplished equestrian who has won two U.S. national championships and a Canadian national title, and a leader in her local—as well as national and global—community. She is the founder and former C.E.O. of Meadowlands Veterinary Hospital and has been active on a number of civic and national boards, including those of Utah Museum of Fine Arts, The Natural History Museum, Salt Lake Symphony, and Roman Catholic Charities. She also served on the University of Utah Board of Trustees and is currently serving on the National Advisory Boards of both the University of Utah and University of California, San Diego. Luttrell closely follows the tradition of her father, Sam Skaggs, in her devotion to providing education to minority children through the building of Catholic schools.

Luttrell promotes scientific collaboration in her capacity as president of the Skaggs Institute for Research at The Scripps Research Institute and as chair of the Skaggs Oxford Scholarship Program, where she has been actively involved as a liaison in developing the joint academic training program at Scripps Research and Oxford University. Her belief in the Skaggs Institute's potential to advance science is demonstrated by her dedication to this remarkable research collaboration, which combines the thrill of discovery in biology with the ingenuity of innovation in chemistry.

She serves on several philanthropic boards, including The Alsam Foundation, where she is secretary and a member of its Grants Committee. She is also executive vice president of Community Outreach, Research Education, a division of Scripps Research involved in medical research and health education awareness. She strongly believes in the principle established by her father that the pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences are critically important for bringing new disease-fighting medicines to people's lives more quickly and less expensively.

In 2007, Luttrell was awarded The Lawrence C. and Delores M. Weaver College of Pharmacy Recognition Award, the highest award presented by the University of Utah's College of Pharmacy. In 2008, she was a recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Utah.

 

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