POCATELLO — Journalist, author, health care liaison, wife, mom, grandma, gourmet cook and cancer survivor. Brenda Stanley wears all those hats and now she’s adding child advocate to the list.

    Stanley, the mother of five and grandmother of three, was just appointed by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter to the board of directors for the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund.

    The Idaho Children’s Trust Fund is the lead agency in the state for child abuse and neglect prevention.

    Word that she was being considered for the position made its way back to her early on, but Stanley said she wasn’t sure if she would accept the appointment. Stanley, best known for being a former TV news anchor, had just published her third cookbook (she’s also written and sold three novels) and she works full-time as the public information director at Portneuf Medical Center.

    “I’m pretty busy and I don’t take on anything that I can’t do well,” Stanley said. “But I enjoy being an advocate, especially for children.”

    The Idaho Children’s Trust Fund Board of Directors administrates funds for organizations and groups to educate and implement programs aimed at child abuse and neglect prevention.

    Stanley said local programs that receive funding through the trust include Bright Tomorrows and Family Services Alliance.

    She is personable and calm. She has a well-grounded, quiet manner that makes people comfortable and maybe belies her diverse background.

    Originally from San Diego, Stanley’s father was an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

“And he had to look the part. He could look pretty scary,” Stanley said.

    Today, her father teaches criminal law at Weber State University. He earned his doctorate at Idaho State University, Stanley said.

    Stanley wrote her first novel, “I Am Nuchu,” when she was 17. It is a murder mystery about a homicide at Utah’s Fort Duchesne Indian reservation, where she lived at the time.

    “I carried it around with me for three decades before it was published,” Stanley said.

    Stanley’s second book, “Like Ravens in Winter,” was written in 1991 when she lived in Washington, D.C., and worked for ABC News. Also a murder mystery, Stanley said the novel was set in the nation’s capital, Philadelphia, and the Middle East.

    Her latest novel, “The Color of Snow,” is set in Southeast Idaho and Stanley said it’s a twisted tale of dark family secrets.

    Stanley also just published her third cookbook, “Vegetarian Meals in Minutes.” The cookbook is on sale at most booksellers for $13.99 and it reflects her passion and connection to cooking.

    “My mother was a cook and my grandmother was a cook, and I think it’s more of an expression of love than anything else,” Stanley said. “I love to cook.”

    Stanley said while her brood, which includes two sets of twins just 20 months apart, was growing up, the family had dinner together at the table every night. And she still cooks a family dinner on Sundays.

    “It was a busy, chaotic, fun time,” Stanley said. “(Dinner on Sunday) is my way of continuing that.”

    Her vegetarian lifestyle started while she was being treated for breast cancer four years ago.

    “I researched and I wanted to be able to feel like I was doing something to prevent reoccurrence,” Stanley said.

    But she said her cookbook is not advocating a vegetarian lifestyle, rather it aims to make it easier for people who have chosen it.

    All three cookbooks were published by Cedar Fort Publishing in Springville, Utah.

    Stanley and her husband, Dave Stanley, a veterinarian in Blackfoot, have been married for 10 years.

    “He married a widow with five preteen and teenaged kids,” Brenda said. “That tells you what kind of guy he is.”

    Brenda has a lot of irons in the fire, but it doesn’t look like she’ll slow down anytime soon.

    In November, Brenda is putting her creative writing to music. She wrote a story about birds and is set to narrate the piece at an Idaho State Civic Symphony performance of “The Incredible Flutist” in November.

    “That’s going to be so exciting,” Stanley said.