Marcie Jenson's boss has only good things to say about her.

“She has been a pleasure to work with since the first day she was hired,” said Duchesne County Attorney Stephen Foote. “Marcie's been really good for our program. She's got it moving in a good direction.”

Jenson has been the director of the county Victim Advocate Office since August, and Foote's not the only one handing out the praise.

On April 29, the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault honored Jenson with one of its seven Sexual Assault Awareness Month Awards. The awards are presented annually to Utahns who have worked to promote awareness of sexual assault in their communities and around the state.

“I felt so inadequate,” said Jenson, who hadn't planned to attend the awards banquet because her daughter had given birth to her first grandchild one day earlier.

“They gave out seven awards in the state. People like state legislators get them,” Jenson said. “And then there's just little old me. It was crazy.”

The individual tapped to present Jenson with her SAAM Award was a teen she had worked with recently.

“It was really, really neat,” she said. “We'd been through the whole process together. He made a victim impact statement that really made an impact in the sentence that the perpetrator received. It was pretty awesome.”

Jenson began working with the Duchesne County Victim Advocate Office in 2006. She said when she first took the job she expected to be in the office, filing paperwork, and answering phones. She never expected to be working one-on-one with domestic violence victims.

She left the program briefly in 2007 but was named last year to replace Carole Monson. Since her return Jenson has busied herself with writing grants for the program, organizing a sexual assault response team in the county, and maintaining a hectic schedule packed with court hearings in Roosevelt and Duchesne.

Foote said Jenson's greatest talent is her ability to promote community involvement with her program – encouraging volunteerism, teamwork, and broader services for victims of crime.

“We're proud of her,” he said. “The people I've talked to in court have really appreciated her.”

Jenson said her primary goal is to help women and men move beyond the emotions that often accompany victimization.

“Through the process that we offer, I want them to be empowered again,” she said. “To do that, it takes a collaborative effort.”

For questions about the services offered by the Duchesne County Victim Advocate Office, call 435-722-8003 or after hours call Central Dispatch at 435-738-2424.