M. Gerald Bradford will be the new Executive Director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University, effective July 1. He will replace Andrew C. Skinner, who is returning to teaching and research.
Bradford has served as the Institute's associate executive director for several years.
"We express deep appreciation to Andrew Skinner for his service as Executive Director of the Maxwell Institute for the past three years. Jerry Bradford's experience as an administrator and researcher have prepared him well to assume this role," said BYU Academic Vice President John S. Tanner. "We're confident that he will continue to inspire his colleagues to preserve and study critical texts and promote faithful Latter-day Saint scholarship of the highest order."
The Maxwell Institute, previously known as the Institute for Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts, includes the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts, and the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, among other projects.
Bradford joined FARMS in 1995 as director of research. Prior to that role he was executive director of the Western Center of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, with offices on the campus of the University of California, Irvine. He also has taught courses in religious education and philosophy at BYU and religious studies courses at UC-Santa Barbara.
Bradford received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from UCSB in 1977. He has a M.A. in
Religious Studies, also from UCSB, and an M.S. in Business Administration and Finance from San Francisco State University. He is a graduate of the University of Utah.
