Reid Larkin Neilson is the assistant academic vice president (AAVP) for religious scholarly publications at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(BYU)."New BYU assistant academic vice president position created,"
News, BYU, 11 April 2022
"Reid L. Neilson,"
biography, Office of the Academic Vice President, Brigham Young University, accessed 13 August 2023. He was the Assistant Church Historian and Recorder for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church) from 2015 to 2019, and the managing director of the church's history department from 2010 to 2019.

Early life and education

Neilson was raised in

Orange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

. After graduating from BYU in 1996 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in international relations, he worked for

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen LLP was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corpo ...

and

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

's Strategic Planning Division in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, where he had served years previously as an LDS Church missionary in Japan. He returned to BYU for

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

s in American history and business administration, which he received in 2001 and 2002. While a graduate student at BYU, Neilson was part of a summer seminar on Mormon History with

Richard Bushman Richard Lyman Bushman (born June 20, 1931) is an American historian and Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, having previously taught at Brigham Young University, Harvard University, Boston University, and th ...

, which ran over several years, and has produced many of the leading figures in the production of scholarly Mormon history in the early 21st-century. Neilson completed a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in American religious history from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

in 2006. He also completed

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

's General Management Program.

Career

From 2006 to 2009, Neilson was a professor in BYU's Church History and Doctrine Department. Neilson started working for the Church History Department in 2009. In addition to working on the creation of books and editing new document collections, Neilson works on the creation of web-resources and historical sites by the department. He is also involved in the dedication of expanded and refurbished historical sites. In January 2019, the LDS Church announced that he would begin service in July 2019 as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the Washington DC North

Mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

. In August 2022, he began serving as the AAVP for religious scholarly publications at BYU, overseeing three publication groups at the university: the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, the Religious Studies Center, and BYU Studies.

Family

Neilson is married to the former Shelly Anderson. They are the parents of five children.

Publications

Neilson has written and edited more than twenty books. Some of his frequent topics are the travels of Mormon figures, such as

Andrew Jenson Andrew Jenson, born Anders Jensen, (December 11, 1850 – November 18, 1941) was a Danish immigrant to the United States who acted as an Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for much of the ...

and David O. McKay. Many of his books have been published by major university presses. *''Peter Neilson Sr.: A Consecrated Life.'' Community Press, 1997. author *''From the Green Hills of England to the Red Hills of Dixie: The Story of William and Rachel Thompson Atkin.'' Red Rock Publishing, 2000. Author. *''The Japanese Missionary Journals of Elder Alma O. Taylor, 1901–10.'' BYU Studies, 2001. . Editor. *''Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays.'' Columbia University Press, 2004. Co-editor along with Jed Woodworth, Richard L. Bushman was the author. Author. *''The Rise of Mormonism.'' Columbia University Press, 2005. Book by

Rodney Stark Rodney William Stark (July 8, 1934 – July 21, 2022) was an American sociologist of religion who was a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington. At the time of his death he was the Distinguished ...

with Neilson as editor of this volume. *''Taking the Gospel to the Japanese, 1901–2001.'' Brigham Young University Press, 2006. author *''The Mormon History Association's Tanner Lectures: The First Twenty Years.'' University of Illinois Press, 2006. Neilson was co-editor along with

Dean L. May Dean Lowe May (April 6, 1938 – May 6, 2003) was an American academic, author and documentary filmmaker and professor of History at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. May specialized in nineteenth- and twentieth-century social and c ...

. *''Reflections of a Mormon Historian: Leonard J. Arrington on the New Mormon History.'' Arthur H. Clark Company at the University of Oklahoma Press, 2006. . Co-editor along with Sarah Prete and

Ronald W. Walker Ronald Warren Walker (1939 – May 9, 2016) was an American History of the Latter Day Saint movement, historian of the Latter Day Saint movement and a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) and president of the Mormon History Association. Hi ...

. *''Global Mormonism in the Twenty-First Century.'' Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 2008. . Sole listed editor, was contributor or co-contributor of some of the contents. *''Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: The Pacific Isles.'' Religious Studies Center, 2008. *''Proclamation to the People: Nineteenth-Century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin Frontier.'' University of Utah Press, 2008. *''Joseph Smith Jr.: Reappraisals after Two Centuries.'' Oxford University Press, 2009. *''Early Mormon Missionary Activities in Japan, 1901–1924.'' University of Utah Press, 2010. *''To the Peripheries of Mormondom: The Apostolic Around-the-World Journey of David O. McKay, 1920–1921.'' University of Utah Press, 2010. *''Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.'' Oxford University Press, 2011. *''In the Whirlpool: The Pre-Manifesto Letters of President Wilford Woodruff to the William Atkin Family, 1885–1890.'' Arthur H. Clark Company, 2011. *''Tales from the World Tour: The 1895–1897 Travel Writings of Mormon Historian Andrew Jenson.'' Religious Studies Center, 2012. *''Go Ye Into All the World: The Growth and Development of Mormon Missionary Work.'' Religious Studies Center, 2012. *''Religion, Food, and Eating in North America.'' Columbia University Press, 2014. *''Exploring Book of Mormon Lands: The 1923 Travel Writings of Mormon Historian Andrew Jenson.'' Religious Studies Center, 2014. *''A Zion Canyon Reader.'' University of Utah Press, 2014. *''The Columbia Sourcebook of Mormons in the United States.'' Columbia University Press, 2014. . Edited with Terryl L. Givens. Received the 2015

Mormon History Association The Mormon History Association (MHA) is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the study and understanding of all aspects of Mormon history to promote understanding, scholarly research, and publication in the field. MHA was founded in ...

Best Document Editing/Bibliography Award. *''Conversations with Mormon Historians.'' Religious Studies Center, 2015. . Edited with Alexander L. Baugh. *''Rediscovering the Sites of the Restoration: The 1888 Travel Writings of Mormon Historian Andrew Jenson, Edward Stevenson, and Joseph S. Black.'' Religious Studies Center, 2015. . Edited with Justin R. Bray and Alan D. Johnson. *''From the Outside Looking In: Essays on Mormon History, Theology, and Culture.'' Oxford University Press, 2015. . Coeditor with Matthew J. Grow. *''A Historian in Zion: The Autobiography of Andrew Jenson, Assistant Church Historian.'' Religious Studies Center, 2016. Coeditor with R. Mark Melville. *''Settling the Valley, Proclaiming the Gospel: The General Epistles of the Mormon First Presidency.'' Oxford University Press, 2017. Coeditor with Nathan N. Waite. *''A Voice in the Wilderness: The 1888-1930 General Conference Sermons of Mormon Historian Andrew Jenson.'' Oxford University Press, 2018. Coeditor with Scott D. Marianno. *''The Saints Abroad: Missionaries Who Answered Brigham Young's 1852 Call to the Nations of the World.'' Religious Studies Center, 2019. Coeditor with R. Mark Melville. *''Pacific Apostle: The 1920-21 Diary of David O. McKay in the Latter-day Saint Island Missions.'' University of Illinois Press, 2020. Coeditor with Carson V. Teuscher. *''Restless Pilgrim: Andrew Jenson's Quest for Latter-day Saint History.'' University of Illinois Press, 2022. Coauthor with Scott D. Marianno.

References

External links