About the Foundation

Daniel C. Peterson (PhD, UCLA) is a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University and founder of the university’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative. He has published and spoken extensively on both Islamic and Mormon subjects. Formerly chairman of the board of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and an officer, editor, and author for its successor organization, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, his professional work as an Arabist focuses on the Qur’an and on Islamic philosophical theology. He is the author, among other things, of a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007).

Larry K. Ainsworth (MPA, BYU) is a retired hospital Chief Executive Officer. Most of his career as a healthcare executive was with market-leading faith-based general acute-care hospitals. Larry served as chairman of the board of the Hospital Executives of Southern California and received several industry awards. His most fulfilling achievements related to improving pediatric healthcare. He led a financial turnaround of Orange County’s only children’s hospital, sparing it from bankruptcy, and he led an initiative to use hospital resources to fund the enrollment of all 60,000 uninsured children in Medicaid. He managed several large hospital construction projects, expanding patient care and outpatient specialty centers.

For over fifteen years Larry and his wife Laura served on BYU’s Community Volunteer Councils for the Neal A Maxwell Institute and the Department of Nursing. The exposure they gained to testimony-strengthening scholarly publications that defend the faith developed into a passion. Larry serves as chair of the Interpreter Advisory Council. He served a mission in the British/England East Mission. He and his wife served the YSA in the same mission from 2012-2014. Larry and Laura are the parents of three sons and have 21 grandchildren.

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (PhD, Cognitive Science, University of Washington) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Florida (www.ihmc.us/groups/jbradshaw; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_M._Bradshaw). His professional writings have explored a wide range of topics in human and machine intelligence (www.jeffreymbradshaw.net). Jeff has been the recipient of several awards and patents and has been an adviser for initiatives in science, defense, space, industry, and academia worldwide. Jeff has written detailed commentaries on the Book of Moses and Genesis 1–11 and on temple themes in the scriptures. For Church-related publications, see www.TempleThemes.net. Jeff was a missionary in France and Belgium from 1975–1977, and his family has returned twice to live in France. He and his wife, Kathleen, are the parents of four children and fifteen grandchildren. From July 2016-September 2019, Jeff and Kathleen served missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa Mission office and the DR Congo Kinshasa Temple. They currently live in Nampa, Idaho.

Kristine Wardle Frederickson (PhD, History, University of Utah) has taught over 25 university courses in the History, Women’s Studies, Honors, and Religion departments at Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University. She was an op-ed writer for ten years for The Deseret News and Mormon Times. She is the author of Extraordinary Courage: Women Empowered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She has published on a wide range of historical and religious topics in books, periodicals, and presented at numerous conferences. Her areas of expertise include Modern European History (emphasis on nineteenth-century Britain), American History, Women’s History, and Religious History. She and her husband Reid are the parents of six children and eleven grandchildren.

Jeffrey Dean Lindsay recently returned to the United States after almost 9 years in Shanghai, China. Jeff has been providing online materials defending the LDS faith for over twenty years, primarily at JeffLindsay.com and http://mormanity.blogspot.com.

Jeff has a PhD in chemical engineering from BYU and is a US patent agent. He is currently Senior Advisor for ipCapital Group, assisting clients in creating intellectual property and innovation. He was recently the Head of R&D and IP for a US consumer product company, Lume Deodorant, and from 2011 to 2019 was the Head of Intellectual Property for Asia Pulp and Paper in Shanghai, China, one of the world’s largest forest product companies. Since 2015, Jeff has been recognized as a leading IP strategist by Intellectual Asset Magazine based on peer input. He is also lead author of Conquering Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009). Jeff served a mission in the German speaking Switzerland Zurich Mission. He and his wife Kendra are the parents of four boys and have eleven grandchildren.

Shirley Smith Ricks (PhD, family studies, BYU) has worked since 1989 as an editor at the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, and now the Religious Studies Center at BYU. She has helped produce numerous books and periodicals, including several volumes of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley. Shirley has published a number of articles and reviews. She and her husband, Stephen D. Ricks, have attended all the temples in the United States and Canada and enjoy traveling, especially to visit their six children and spouses and their twenty grandchildren.