Keynote speaker surprised with Superintendent of the Year award

SYRACUSE — It was a complete surprise when Davis School District Superintendent Dan Linford was presented with the Superintendent of the Year award on Wednesday during a leadership conference.

Linford was originally at Syracuse High School as a keynote speaker during Davis School District's Annual Summer Leadership Conference. Once Linford was finished with his speech, he was asked to come back on stage in front of at least 500 Davis School District administrators and department leaders.

On stage alongside Linford was his family, Juab School District Superintendent Kodey Hughes, Utah School Superintendents Association Executive Director Lexi Cunningham and Davis School District Board member Brigit Gerrard.

That's when Cunningham announced Linford was selected by the Utah School Superintendents Association as the 2026 Utah Superintendent of the Year.

"It's an honor, but I also, I know what it really means, and I know it's me being recognized for the work of a lot of others," Linford told KSL after his acceptance speech.

To him, the award is a reflection of all the work Davis School District administrators, department leaders and thousands of teachers give every day in the classroom.

Linford also gave credit to his fellow superintendents across Utah who gave him the knowledge he's needed to take on a superintendent role.

"Every single day I know my work is meaningful," Linford said. "And it affects the lives of children, so it's such a great motivator."

Linford said he's worked in construction, which has shown him the values in saying, "I'm gonna build something."

"I'll know when I'm done 'cause it will be built," Linford said. "For a superintendent, the work is never done, but it's always meaningful."

Hughes said he's worked with Linford for three years in a leadership group where they've trained superintendents and worked on state legislation, among other things.

Hughes said he was impressed by the keynote presentation Linford gave and how it focused on what's happening in schools throughout the U.S., what's happening nationally and how educational leaders use the information.

"He's speaking to all these principals here saying, 'Guys these things matter,'" Hughes said. "But he's doing it in a way that they can understand and they can hit the ground running with their teachers."

Hughes said Linford was his first choice for the Superintendent of the Year because of his tireless efforts supporting Utah's educators.

"Dan doesn't care if it's a private student, public education student, a Charter student," Hughes said. "He wants kids to have the best. And this last year he sat down across some legislators, worked on legislation and tried to inform them about it."

Hughes added that it takes a great leader to focus on the many kids attending schools within the Davis School District. He said he's watched Linford deal with the pressure his position brings and felt he carries a large load.

"He never shows it, but he really does balance it so well, and he is just really great at taking that broad of a community and putting them together," Hughes said.

When Linford was an assistant principal, he focused his doctoral research on the superintendency in Utah. The more research he did, the more he actually thought he never wanted to be a superintendent.

"Over time, serving as principal, serving as a school director and seeing some things that I could add, some things that we could do to make small changes to improve our systems for children," Linford explained. "And I got pretty excited about that work."

That excitement continued to grow into a passion surrounding the work of a superintendent's job and the work of a school district.

Linford said a recurring theme for him is how people need to solve their own problems in order to get those people to believe in themselves.

"We need to teach young people to solve their own problems, that we have an internal belief in ourselves that we can fix these things, and that we don't need to wait for someone else to come in and solve these issues," Linford said. "That we have the talent, and the energy and the commitment to solve our own challenges."

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