By Jessica Neal – Orem New Reporter
About 20 years ago, Quinn Mecham, a member of Orem’s City Council, committed 10 percent of his time to serving in the community.
That journey started with church assignments and youth recreation. Eventually it led him to elected office for a school board.
“I felt like that was a meaningful experience, my kids were young and I felt like I could make a difference in their schools,” he said.
Before his time on the school board, Mecham received a Ph.D. in political science at Stanford in preparation for a career focused on teaching and research about government. He said that his education has helped him prepare for his new role on city council.
“I’ve always been interested in what makes government work well,” he said. “I really don’t like the negative effects that bad governments have on people and their ability to be successful…That, I think, naturally has led me to think a lot about the importance of public service over time,” Mecham said.
Despite his interest in how the government works, Mecham said he has no natural interest in becoming a politician.
“Even though I have a degree in political science, I’ve never been interested in campaigns and elections. I’ve always been trying to find ways of being able to provide public service,” he said.
Mecham first ran for city council in 2022 before taking a new administrative role at BYU. After that came to an end, he decided to run for city council again in 2025.
“I’ve just always been interested in people, and interested in what helps people thrive,” Mecham said.
Mecham studied comparative literature in his undergrad at BYU. He lived in several different states as he received his education and built a career. He came back to work for BYU, moving with his family to Orem 13 years ago.
Mecham and his family have enjoyed all Orem has to offer, particularly the restaurants, nature, recreation center and the people.
“Before I moved to Utah, I lived in a place where there were 15 restaurants within a 15-minute drive, and now there’s 400 in a 15-minute drive, so there are a lot of opportunities to always be able to try something new,” Mecham said.
Beyond the culinary scene, Mecham enjoys hiking and trail running in the area. He said he loves to run down Carterville road and spend time in Hillcrest Park.
When he’s not busy on the council or at BYU, Mecham is learning to cook, loves music, movies and fiction. It’s his responsibility to make the German pancakes on Christmas morning for his family and he likes to listen to audiobooks while exercising.
“For my birthday this year I got a wide variety of specialty pastas, so I can boil a mean pasta,” Mecham said.
He mentioned that one of his recent favorite books is North Woods by Daniel Mason and he loves films by Wes Anderson.
He also studies languages and has a long Duolingo streak. He’s currently studying Spanish and says that “streak freezes are very helpful” to maintain consistency.
His love for learning has prevailed in his personal and professional life.
“I have a boundless curiosity, and I love learning from other people who see things that I can’t yet see,” Mecham said.
His joy in helping people feel a strong community identity is one of his main goals for the council.
“That gives me a lot of purpose and meaning,” he said.
Mecham currently teaches courses in comparative government at BYU. He tries to show his students by example what civic engagement might look like.
“One of my goals is to try to inspire people to participate in their community in any way that they feel like they can,” Mecham said.
While Mecham helps his students learn about government, he said they help him in his life too.
“One of the best things about teaching college is that you are forced to be forever young. The minute that you find yourself in the position that you cannot relate to 20-somethings, bad things happen,” he said.
Mecham has done research on local government, particularly studying what makes people love their community. Through that research, he learned that the more citizens participate and personally identify with their city, the more they will love where they live. He wants to use that type of research in his role on city council.
“I want more members of our community, including people who traditionally haven’t been as involved…to find lots of avenues and joy in being able to do things to make their community better,” he said.
Mecham mentioned that Orem has many strengths that help create a vibrant community. These strengths include the people, city staff, service orientation, family culture, university, parks and retail.
“We have so many strengths to build on…I’m more hopeful than ever about the future of Orem.”