MHA Board Members

John G. Turner

President

I am Professor of Religious Studies and History at George Mason University. For me, Mormon History is local history. I grew up just outside of Rochester, NY, not too far from Palmyra. One of my encounters with Latter-day Saint history came through the Hill Cumorah Pageant, my graduate studies in American religious history then kindled an abiding passion in the subject, and I remain captivated by its human drama, theological and social innovation, and archival richness. The fruits of this passion are three books: Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (winner of MHA's 2012 Best Biography Award); The Mormon Jesus: A Biography (2016); Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet (2025).

One of the things I love about MHA is its openness. It's not just for folks with PhDs. It's for anyone who takes an interest in the subject, and it's best when people from all sorts of backgrounds get involved, even people who have no current or past affiliation or connection with the churches that have their origin in Joseph Smith's visions and revelations. I'm Presbyterian, but when I attended my first MHA meeting back in 2007, I immediately felt welcome. My wish is that newcomers and oldtimers alike have that same experience.

Ben Park

Past President

Benjamin E. Park received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, as the inaugural postdoctoral fellow in constitutional democracy at the University of Missouri, and is currently an associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University. He is the editor of A Companion to American Religious History (Blackwell, 2021) and DNA Mormon: Perspectives on the Legacy of Historian D. Michael Quinn (Signature Books, 2022), co-editor of the journal Mormon Studies Review, and author of American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in the Age of Revolutions, 1783-1833 (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier(Liveright, 2020; winner of the MHA Best Book Award). He has published over fifty popular essays in various national venues, including Time Magazine, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Slate, and Washington Post. His most recent book is American Zion: A New History of Mormonism(Liveright, 2024).

After attending his first MHA conference as an undergraduate student in 2008, Dr. Park has participated in every annual conference since then but one. The association is his home; its members are his favorite people. He has been honored to spend time on the board of directors, twice receive the association's "Article of Excellence" award, and is now deeply humbled yet excited to serve in another capacity.

Farina King

President Elect

Farina King (Navajo Nation citizen) is the Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and Full Professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Trained as a historian at Arizona State University, her scholarship bridges Native American studies, oral history, environmental humanities, and Mormon studies. She is the author of Diné dóó Gáamalii: Navajo Latter-day Saint Experiences in the Twentieth Century and The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century, and co-author of Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School. Her research foregrounds Indigenous Latter-day Saint histories, Native education, and community-centered oral history, including work with the Latter-day Saint Native American Oral History Project.

Dr. King has presented regularly at Mormon History Association conferences and has previously served on the MHA Board and the Nominations Committee. She has also served on the steering committee for Global Mormon Studies and has been active with Women in Mormon Studies. Her editorial service includes serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought; Mormon Studies Review (2024–present); Utah Historical Quarterly (2022–2025), and the Journal of Arizona History (2020–2023). In addition, she is co-editor of The Lyda Conley Series on Trailblazing Indigenous Futures (University Press of Kansas), co-editor of Palgrave Studies in Oral History, and Editor in Chief of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Indigenous Studies.

Christine Blythe

Executive Director

Christine Elyse Blythe earned her MA in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a BA in Religious Studies from Utah State University. Her Master's thesis "Vernacular theology: home birth and the Mormon tradition" examined the personal narratives and beliefs of Latter Saint women--home birthing mothers, midwives, and doulas. She is co-editor of the forthcoming collection, Open Canon: Scriptures of the Latter Day Saint Tradition (University of Utah, 2022).

Christine is the archivist of the William A. Wilson Folklore Archives at Brigham Young University's L. Tom Perry Special Collections. In 2020, she collected over six hundred narratives from members of the LDS and Restoration churches about their experiences navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. She has served as co-president of the Folklore Society of Utah and editor of the Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies housed at the Religious Studies Program at Utah State University.

James Goldberg

Publications Chair

James Goldberg is a writer and historian. At the Church History Department, he's been an important contributor to the Global histories,Saints, Revelations in Context, Carry On, and other projects. As a literary writer, he's a five-time Association for Mormon Letters Award winner and recipient of the Orson F. Whitney Outstanding Achievement Award from Storymakers.

Diana Duan

Global Outreach Chair

Diana Duan primarily focuses on the borderlands of modern China and mainland Southeast Asia while maintaining strong research interests in the ethnic Chinese LDS women in the U.S West, China’s ethnic policies, and the history of the Communist Party of China. In 2024, she presented “Many Possibilities under One Faith: the LDS Women from Taiwan and Their Narratives of Varied Identities” at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Mormon History Association. In 2025, she conducted “Narratives of Identities: A Round-table Conversation between the LDS Women from Taiwan and their Non-LDS Counterparts from Mainland China” at the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (WCAAS). Currently, she is collaborating with LDS Taiwanese women to collect their life and family stories for publishing.

Hovan Lawton

Student Representative

Hovan Lawton is a PhD student at Baylor University studying twentieth-century Latin American history. His research focuses on the experiences of Central American minority Christian religious groups during the Cold War era, including Latter-day Saints. He previously received a BA in history from Brigham Young University and an MA in history from Utah State University, where he held the Leonard J. Arrington Fellowship. His master's thesis, entitled "Central American Saints: The Formation and Preservation of Latter-day Saint Community and Identity in El Salvador and Guatemala, 1960-1992," won the Best Thesis Award from MHA in 2024. Hovan has also been an intern with the Joseph Smith Papers Project, and he has written and co-written published articles on nineteenth and twentieth century Latter-day Saint history. He has been attending MHA since 2021 and appreciates the vibrant and supportive scholarly community that exists within the organization.

Brittany "Bri" Romanello

Publicity Chair

Brittany “Bri” Romanello earned her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology at ASU. Using mixed ethnographic methods, her research explores how race, ethnicity, legal status, and religion shape Mormon Latina immigrants' lives, social networks, families, parenting, and identity.

Bri is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Latin American/ Latino Studies at University of Arkansas-Fayettville. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology at ASU. Using mixed ethnographic methods, her research explores how race, ethnicity, legal status, and religion shape LDS and other religious community experiences. Utilizing sociocultural and ethnographic research methods, she focuses on developing community-based projects that connect the public to the richness of the historical and lived experiences in the borderlands and beyond.

Liaison

Kristine Haglund

Kristine Haglund holds degrees in German Studies and German Literature from Harvard and the University of Michigan. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in American Studies at St. Louis University, planning a dissertation on Mormon business history at the turn of the 20th century. She is the author of Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal, part of the series "Introductions to Mormon Thought," published by the University of Illinois Press. She was the editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought from 2009 to 2015. She has been active in the Mormon blogging community since its inception and currently blogs (very occasionally!) at By Common Consent. Haglund has served as Vice President of Mormon Scholars in the Humanities and on the board of Common Consent Press. She was Program Co-Chair with Richard Bushman for the 2022 Mormon History Association conference in Logan, Utah. A Southern girl who lived most of her adult life in Boston, where she raised three children, she is now trying to figure out whether her current hometown of St. Louis is in the South or the Midwest, and whether kittens are more destructive than toddlers.

Matthew C. Godfrey

Awards Chair

Matthew C. Godfrey is a senior managing historian in the Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has a Ph.D. in American and Public History from Washington State University. Matt is a general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers (JSP). From 2013-2021 he was also the managing historian for the JSP. He co-edited three volumes in the JSP's Documents series and contributed to two others. With Jed Rogers, he co-edited The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden: Essays on Mormon Environmental History (University of Utah Press, 2019). He is also the author of Religion, Politics, and Sugar: The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1907-1921 (Utah State University Press, 2007). Matt has published several scholarly articles in journals such as Agricultural History, The Public Historian, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Utah Historical Quarterly, Journal of Mormon History, BYU Studies, and Latter-day Saints Historical Studies.

Greg Kofford

Finance Chair

After growing up in the LDS publishing community, Greg Kofford founded Greg Kofford Books in 2000. As one of the preeminent independent publishers focusing on Mormon Studies, many of the titles have won book awards from MHA and other academically based organizations. Greg has an MBA degree from MIT. He is founder of Sorbie Bornholm LP, a London based investment partnership. Sorbie invests in small public companies listed in Australia, Canada, UK and US. As a lifelong passionate reader and book collector Greg has amassed one of the larger private collections of Mormon related material. Over the years some decent sized portions of the collection have been sold or donated to institutional libraries. In 2023 Greg was called to a service mission at the LDS Church Archives and is tasked with finding the “unknown unknowns,” items that the Archives are not looking for because they don’t know they exist. He spends 2 days per week at the LDS Church Archives going through mission records, financial records, journals, and other records seeking the undiscovered.

Amy Tanner Thiriot

Membership Chair

Amy Tanner Thiriot is an independent historian, university instructor,
and genealogical editor specializing in the recovery of enslaved and
free African American family histories. She is the author of Slavery in
Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black
Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847–1862 (University of Utah Press), which
identifies and documents around one hundred individuals mostly
overlooked in the historical record. Her research demonstrates how
legal, social, and family history intersect to reconstruct Black
American lineages.

Thiriot is an editor for a genealogical company and an adjunct
instructor in the Family History Research program at BYU-Idaho. She
holds a master's degree in Family and Local History from the University
of Dundee. Her current project is a social history of the women of early
St. George, Utah, alongside a compilation of early St. George diaries.
Through her research and teaching, she is dedicated to giving voice to
those silenced by time.