Paul Mero

When The Sutherland Institute first hit Utah’s political landscape in 1995, it issued a host of “position papers” and “policy statements,” many espousing the virtues of free-market mechanisms in the then hotly disputed arena of health care. Since Mero took the helm in December 2000, The Sutherland Institute has made a marked shift into debates surrounding moral issues, poverty and, first and foremost, education. Mero fervently believes the most lasting solutions are family-based, and other solutions—including those that rely on nontraditional families—can no longer hold back society’s problems. It’s time, he said, for families to reassert their role as comprehensive social providers. It’s also time for government to back off. read more

There are not many families who can claim four boys who are all exceptionally gifted basketball players. Furthermore, the Mero family is set apart by one additional discriminating factor: They are home schooled.

From Deseret News

It hasn’t been business as usual at the Sutherland Institute in hopes of upending politics as usual in Utah.

In three years on the job, President Paul T. Mero has almost completely turned over the staff and the boards of trustees and scholars at the conservative, free-market think tank. And in ridding Sutherland of its stubborn ideologues, he has brought a new ethic to the obscure organization.

Deseret News

by Michael Owen, September 11, 2003, The City Weekly.

The tenants of Independence Square, a colonial-style office building in a quiet Sandy neighborhood not far from State Street, include a doctor’s office, an investment firm, and a conservative think tank called The Sutherland Institute. A Utah-based nonprofit concerned with influencing public policy, Sutherland churns through the social issues of the day, assessing the issues of poverty, education, and the family—especially the family, which Institute President Paul T. Mero calls “the fundamental unit of society.” read more