A strategically-minded and accomplished leader with a Master's in Strategic Communications, Tonia Day serves as Chief Executive Officer of Advocates for School Trust Lands. Her thirty-year career as a leader in K-12 and higher education defines her ability to lead organizational revitalization, translate high-level strategic objectives into actionable plans, and drive organizational awareness.
Tonia's background in Institutional Advancement at Salt Lake Community College included the leadership of the "I'm In" capital campaign, which raised more than $44.4 million for student scholarships, workforce-training facilities, and program endowments. The campaign stands as one of the larger comprehensive efforts in SLCC's history and reflects her practiced ability to align donors, board members, and institutional leadership around a shared, measurable goal.
At ASTL she leads day-to-day operations and the public-facing voice of the organization. Over the past year she has rebuilt the ASTL website from the ground up, reorganized state-by-state reporting, and helped stand up the publication infrastructure that carries the founder's doctrine — fiduciary duty, undivided loyalty, the punctilio of honor — into a form that policymakers, beneficiaries, and the press can use.
Tonia is based in Utah. She works closely with founder Margaret Bird, with state chapter presidents across the West, and with the legal and historical scholars who supply the organization's substrate. Her posture is operational and unflinching: the trust is a chain of duty, and the work of ASTL is to keep that chain visible, named, and enforceable.