Faculty Profile

Jeff has recently been called and set-apart as a special assistant to the First Presidency of the Church in the writing of an official biography for the Church on the life of Joseph Smith. He leads a team of scholars with Richard Turley (former assistant church historian) in this effort. It is anticipated this project will take between eight and ten years to complete.

Jeff is also currently a professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University where he teaches courses on legal history. He also taught for several years in the Department of Church History and Doctrine at BYU. Jeff served as the assistant managing editor for the Joseph Smith Papers for the Church for five years, as well the general editor over all business and legal matters for the project for fourteen years.

Jeff is a trustee and serves on the executive committee as treasurer of the Ensign Peak Foundation (formerly the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation), as well as managing editor for LDS Historic Studies (formerly Mormon Historic Studies), an academic journal. With the passing of Richard Anderson, Jeff is also the caretaker and anticipates publishing upon completion the Papers of Oliver Cowdery. Finally, Jeff is the chairman for the Brigham Young Center Foundation, whose purpose is to make available all the known papers of Brigham Young.

Jeff has spoken and published widely on Church history. He is often a feature scholar on the History of the Saints television series, at BYU’s Education Week, the Mormon History Association Annual Meetings, and history symposiums throughout the country.

He is married to the former Elizabeth Hepburn, and they have four children and most importantly eleven grandchildren.