Every Tuesday at 11:05 a.m., students, faculty and staff head to the Marriott Center for the weekly Devotional or Forum address. BYU President Kevin J Worthen and his wife Peggy kick off the semester and are followed leadership from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU employees and a range of industry leaders and scientists. Entertainment assemblies celebrating the talent of BYU Arts round out the semester schedule.
Devotional and Forums are open to the public and most are broadcast live on BYUtv, BYUtv.org (and archived for on-demand streaming), KBYU-TV 11, Classical 89 FM, BYUradio and will be archived on speeches.byu.edu.
Winter 2018 Devotional and Forum Schedule
January
- January 9: President Kevin J and Sister Peggy Worthen (Devotional)
- January 16: Elder LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr., General Authority Seventy, LDS Church (Devotional)
- January 23: Sister Sharon Eubank, Relief Society general presidency, LDS Church (Forum)
- January 30: Ben Ogles, BYU College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences (Devotional)
February
- February 6: Performance Devotional
- February 13: Dhanurjay “DJ” Patil, former United States Chief Data Scientist (Forum)
- February 27: Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, General Authority Seventy, LDS Church (Devotional)
March
- March 6: Julie Crockett, Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology (Devotional)
- March 13: Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, LDS Church (Devotional)
- March 20: Elder Kim B. Clark, Church Commissioner of Education, LDS Church (Devotional)
- March 27: Amy Cuddy, American social psychologist, author and lecturer (Forum)
April
- April 3: Michael Dorff, BYU Mathematics (Devotional)
- April 10: Elder Neil L. Andersen, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, LDS Church (Devotional)
- April 17: Unforum
About the Winter 2018 Devotional and Forum Speakers
BYU President Kevin J Worthen
January 9, 2018 Devotional
Kevin J Worthen began serving as the 13th president of Brigham Young University on May 1, 2014. He previously served as BYU's advancement vice president and as dean of its J. Reuben Clark Law School, where he is the Hugh W. Colton Professor of Law.
President Worthen was born in Dragerton (now East Carbon-Sunnyside), Utah, and grew up in nearby Price. After serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Monterrey, Mexico, he earned an associate degree at the College of Eastern Utah (now USU Eastern). He then received his Bachelor of Arts in political science and his Juris Doctorate from BYU.
Following his graduation from the BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School, President Worthen served as a law clerk to Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Byron R. White of the U.S. Supreme Court. After three years of private practice with the law firm of Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in Phoenix, Arizona, President Worthen joined the BYU law school faculty in 1987. In 1994, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Chile Law School in Santiago. He has published extensively on a number of legal topics, with particular emphasis on federal Indian law and the rights of indigenous peoples.
President Worthen currently serves as an area seventy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He previously served as a stake president, bishop, high councilor and early-morning seminary instructor.
President and Sister Worthen have three children and five grandchildren.
Peggy Worthen
January 9, 2018 Devotional
Peggy Sealey Worthen, born and raised in Price, Utah, is the second oldest of five children. She is married to Kevin J Worthen, current president of Brigham Young University.
While she was attending the College of Eastern Utah, she met Kevin Worthen at a church dance and the two soon began dating. Although she grew up three blocks from Kevin and his family, their three-year age difference meant they never went to high school at the same time and didn’t know each other well. In college, she began meeting with the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and when she decided to be baptized, Kevin was able to baptize her. She and Kevin were married in the Provo Utah LDS Temple.
Early in their marriage, Peggy worked in a number of jobs to support their family as Kevin finished his education and started his career, including as a receptionist for U.S. Senator Jake Garn.
She was able to return to school when Kevin began teaching, and she graduated with a degree in English from BYU in 2003, the same year their oldest son graduated from high school. She has taken a number of courses since then, including two years of Norwegian.
Elder LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr.
General Authority Seventy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
January 16, 2018 Devotional
Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 2, 2011. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy in the Utah Salt Lake City Area. He returned from serving as President of the Africa West Area in July 2016 and is now serving in Salt Lake City at Church headquarters.
Elder Curtis received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brigham Young University in 1975. Then in 1978 he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan. His career includes work as an attorney and partner in the law firm of Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar.
Elder Curtis has served in a number of Church callings, including full-time missionary in Italy, bishop, high councilor, counselor in a stake presidency, stake president, mission president in the Italy Padova Mission (1998–2001), and Area Seventy.
LeGrand Raine Curtis Jr. was born in Ogden, Utah, on August 1, 1952. He married Jane Cowan in January 1974. They are the parents of five children.
Sister Sharon Eubank
First Counselor in the General Presidency of the Relief Society, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
January 23, 2018 Forum
Sister Sharon Eubank is the first counselor in the general presidency of the Relief Society, the Church’s organization for its six million female members ages 18 and over. At the time of her call in April 2017, Sister Eubank was employed as the director of LDS Charities, the humanitarian organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and she continues in this role while serving in the Relief Society.
Born in Redding, California, she is the oldest of Mark and Jean Eubank’s seven children. She served as a full-time missionary for the Church in the Finland Helsinki Mission and received a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University. After graduation, she taught English as a second language in Japan, worked as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate and owned a retail education store in Provo, Utah.
Since 1998 she has been employed by the Church’s Welfare Department, helping establish LDS employment offices in Africa and Europe before directing the LDS CHarities wheelchair initiative. In 2008, she was also asked to oversee humanitarian work in the Middle East as the regional director of LDS Charities. In 2011 she was named the director of LDS Charities worldwide. She believes serving others is “the very DNA of being a member of Christ’s Church” and the heart and soul of Relief Society.
Sister Eubank served on the Relief Society general board from 2009 to 2012, chairing the Relief Society presidency’s Public Affairs committee. She has also served in numerous ward (local congregation) and stake (diocese) leadership positions, most often as a teacher to men and women, youth and children in the Church’s Sunday School, Relief Society, Young Women and Primary organizations. She loves history, homemade pie, and crossword puzzles. She has a strong testimony of the happiness that comes from following Christ.
Ben Ogles
College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences
January 30, 2018 Devotional
Ben Ogles was the dean of Arts and Sciences at Ohio University and became dean of the Brigham Young University College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences in July 2011.
Ogles was born in Whittier, California but raised in Brigham City, Utah from the age of five. He graduated from Box Elder High School and then attended Brigham Young University receiving his bachelor's degree in accounting. While at BYU Ogles took two years off to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Norway.
Ogles totally switched his focus and entered a graduate program in clinical psychology at BYU. His Ph.D. advisor was Michael J. Lambert. Ogles did a clinical internship at Indiana University. He completed his Ph.D. in 1990 and that year became a professor of psychology at Ohio University. He would later serve as head of the department of psychology at Ohio University.
Publications co-authored by Ogles have appeared in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice and the Journal of Child and Family Studies among other publications. He was the lead author of the book Essentials in Outcome Management written with Michael J. Lambert and S. Field.
Dhanurjay “DJ” Patil
Former Chief Data Scientist of the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy
February 13, 2018 Forum
Patil is an American mathematician and computer scientist who served as the Chief Data Scientist of the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2015 to 2017. He previously served as the Vice President of Product at RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce.com, as Chief Product Officer of Color Lands, and as the Head of Data Products and Chief Scientist of LinkedIn. His father, Suhas Patil, is a venture capitalist and the founder of Cirrus Logic.
Elder S. Gifford Nielsen
General Authority Seventy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
February 27, 2018 Devotional
Elder S. Gifford Nielsen was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6, 2013. At the time of his call he had been serving as a member of the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy in the North America Southwest Area. Elder Nielsen has served as a member of the Pacific Area Presidency. He is currently serving at Church headquarters as an Assistant Executive Director of the Missionary Department and as an Area Assistant in the North America Northeast Area.
Elder Nielsen received a bachelor’s degree in 1977 from Brigham Young University and was named one of the top-five scholar athletes by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. After becoming an All-American quarterback at BYU, the Houston Oilers selected him in the third round of the 1978 NFL draft. Following a six-year career as quarterback for the Oilers, he worked as the sports director and anchor for KHOU-TV in Houston for twenty-five years. In 1994, Elder Nielsen was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 2003 was given the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award for 25 years of distinguished service after his college athletic career.
Elder Nielsen has served in numerous Church callings, including seminary teacher, elders quorum president, Young Men president, Sunday School president, counselor in a mission presidency, bishop, stake president, and Area Seventy.
Stanley Gifford Nielsen was born in Provo, Utah, on October 25, 1954. He married Wendy Olson in April 1975. They are the parents of six children.
Julie Crockett
Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology
March 6, 2018 Devotional
Julie Crockett came to BYU in 2007. She received her Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Denver, and Masters and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests are in areas of fluid dynamics, including environmental flows, which are often characterized by fluids of differing densities, and passive drag reduction mechanisms. She is interested in the effect of internal waves on global circulations in the ocean and atmosphere in addition to energy harvesting. She uses theory, computational fluid dynamics, experimentation, and ocean data as a part of her research.
She has also spent time at sea collecting data for studying internal waves in the ocean. She is also interested in the fundamentals of heat transfer through and flow dynamics over micro-structured surfaces which have the capability of reducing friction drag.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
March 13, 2018 Devotional
Elder Ronald A. Rasband was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 3, 2015. He had been serving as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy since 2005 and was serving as the senior president of the Presidency of the Seventy when called to the Twelve. Elder Rasband was named a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 1, 2000. He has served as a counselor in the Europe Central Area Presidency, president of the Utah Salt Lake City Area, executive director of the Temple Department; and has supervised the North America West, Northwest, and three Utah areas as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy.
Elder Rasband attended the University of Utah. In 1995, Utah Valley University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Business and Commerce. In 1976 he joined Huntsman Container Company as sales representative, and in 1987, he was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of Huntsman Chemical Corporation.
When he left Huntsman Chemical Corporation in 1996 to serve as a mission president in New York, he was also serving as a member of the Board of Directors.
Elder Rasband has held numerous Church callings, including full-time missionary in the Eastern States Mission (1970-1972), Temple Square missionary guide, bishop, and member of the Church¹s Sesquicentennial Committee. He presided over the New York, New York North Mission from 1996 to 1999.
Elder Rasband was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1951. He married Melanie Twitchell in 1973. They are the parents of five children.
Elder Kim B. Clark
Church Commissioner of Education, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
March 20, 2018 Devotional
Elder Kim B. Clark was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 4, 2015. At the time of his call, he had been serving as the president of Brigham Young University–Idaho since 2005. He served as a member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy, Idaho Area, from 2007 to 2014. He is currently serving as the Church Commissioner of Education.
Elder Clark received a bachelor of arts, a master of arts, and a Ph.D., all in economics, from Harvard University. He became a faculty member at the Harvard Business School in 1978 and was named dean of that school in 1995. He served in that capacity until the summer of 2005, when he was named the president of Brigham Young University–Idaho.
Elder Clark has served in a number of Church callings, including full-time missionary in the South German Mission, elders quorum president, ward executive secretary, counselor in a bishopric, bishop, high councilor, and counselor in a stake mission presidency.
Kim Bryce Clark was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 20, 1949. He married Sue Lorraine Hunt in June 1971. They are the parents of seven children.
Amy Cuddy
Social psychologist, author and lecturer
March 27, 2018 Forum
Social psychologist and bestselling author Amy Cuddy is an expert on the behavioral science of power, presence, and prejudice. Amy earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University and has served on the faculties of Harvard Business School and Northwestern University. She lectures on the psychology of leadership and influence at Harvard University. Amy’s book Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges (Little, Brown, & Co., 2015), is a New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and Globe & Mail bestseller and has been published in 29 languages.
As described in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, “Presence feels at once concrete and inspiring, simple but ambitious--above all, truly powerful.” Amazon selected Presence as the December spotlight pick among its ‘Best Books of December 2015’. Amy’s 2012 TED Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are,” named by The Guardian as ‘One of 20 Online Talks that Could Change Your Life’, has been viewed more than 42 million times and is the second-most-viewed TED Talk. Focusing on the power of nonverbal behavior, prejudice and stereotyping, the delicate balance of trustworthiness and strength, and the ways in which people can affect their own thoughts, feelings, performance, and psychological and physical well-being, she writes and speaks about how we can become more present, influential, compassionate, and satisfied in our professional and personal lives.
Michael Dorff
BYU Mathematics
April 3, 2018 Devotional
Michael Dorff is a professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University. He received his Ph.D. in complex analysis from the University of Kentucky in 1997. He is the founder and director of the $2.6 million NSF-funded Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURM). He started and runs the BYU "Careers in Math" Speaker series and the BYU summer 8-week mathematics REU both funded by NSF grants. He is a popular mathematics expository speaker giving about 25 invited presentations a year at conferences and other universities.
He has received several university and national teaching awards including a Mathematical Association of America's Haimo Teaching Award, the top U.S. award for teaching undergraduate mathematics, and BYU's top teaching award, the Maeser Excellence in Teaching Award, both in 2010. In 2012, he was honored with BYU's Egbert Teaching and Learning Fellowship and was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. He is married with five daughters. His interests include reading, traveling, running, music, and soccer.
Elder Neil L. Andersen
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
April 10, 2018 Devotional
Elder Neil Linden Andersen was named an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 4, 2009.
Elder Andersen was serving as the senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy prior to his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve. He was named a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1993, at age 41. He previously led the work of the Church in southern Brazil and, again as a member of an area presidency, oversaw the Church in western Europe. He has also assisted in supervising the work of the Church in Mexico and Central America. In addition, he supervised Church audiovisual production, including the filming of The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd and managed construction of the broadcast facilities in the Conference Center as the executive director of the Church Audiovisual Department. He speaks French, Portuguese and Spanish in addition to his native English.
Prior to his call as a General Authority, Elder Andersen served as a mission president in the France Bordeaux Mission and as president of the Tampa Florida Stake.
Elder Andersen was born in Logan, Utah, and raised in Pocatello, Idaho, on a dairy farm where he remembers doing "typical Idaho farm work, from morning to night.²
He graduated from Brigham Young University, where he was a Hinckley Scholar, and earned a master of business administration from Harvard University. After completing his education, he settled in Tampa, Florida, where his business interests included advertising, real estate development and healthcare.
Elder Andersen and his wife, Kathy Williams Andersen, are the parents of four children.
