Taylor Petrey

Editor in Chief

Kalamazoo, MI

Taylor Petrey is the editor of Dialogue: a journal of Mormon thought. Petrey holds a BA in philosophy and religion from Pace University, and both an MTSE and a Th.D. degree from Harvard Divinity School in New Testament and Early Christianity. He joined the faculty of Kalamazoo College in 2010 and served as the Director of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality program from 2012 through 2016. He is currently chair of the Religion Department. Petrey is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on Mormonism, gender, sexuality, and early Christian thought. His essay Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology received Dialogue’s Best Article award in 2011 and has become one of the most downloaded and cited articles in the journal’s history.

Joe Plicka

Fiction

Hau'ula, HI

Joe Plicka has taught at BYU-Hawaii since 2012. His work can be found in the anthology, Fire in the Pasture: twenty-first century mormon poets and, more recently, in Christianity Today’s literary offshoot, Ekstasis Magazine, as well as venues like Brevity, Booth, Psaltery and Lyre, and others (https://linktr.ee/joeplicka)

Ryan Shoemaker

Fiction

Cedar City, UT

Ryan Shoemaker’s debut story collection, Beyond the Lights, is available through No Record Press. T.C. Boyle called it a collection that “moves effortlessly from brilliant comedic pieces to stories of deep emotional resonance.” Ryan’s forthcoming story collection, The Righteous Road: Stories, will be available in 2025 through BCC Press. His short fiction has appeared in Gulf Stream, Santa Monica Review, Booth, New Ohio Review, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Juked, among others. Find him at RyanShoemaker.net.

Terresa Wellborn

Poetry

SLC, UT

TERRESA WELLBORN {[email protected]} has been published in various journals including BYU Studies and Otis Nebula and several anthologies including Fire in the Pasture and Dove Song. Former associate poetry editor and submissions editor for Segullah, she now serves on their poetry board. She has degrees in English literature and library science. A bricoleur, her trademarks are red lipstick, running, and covert accordion playing. When not on a mountaintop, she dwells in possibility. She blogs at thechocolatechipwaffle.blogspot.com.

Charlotte Hansen Terry

Personal Voices

Davis, CA

Margaret Olsen Hemming

Art

Chapel Hill, NC

MARGARET OLSEN HEMMING {[email protected]} is the former editor in chief of Exponent II and the coauthor of The Book of Mormon for the Least of These. She sits on the advisory board for the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and is currently curating an exhibit on art about Heavenly Mother for the Center Gallery in New York City. She lives in North Carolina with her spouse, three children, and a large vegetable garden.

Adam McLain

Assistant Web Editor

Lenexa, KS

ADAM MCLAIN {[email protected]} recently graduated from Harvard Divinity School with a master’s degree in theological studies, emphasizing in women, gender, sexuality, and religion. He plans to apply to graduate programs in law and literature. He blogs at amclain.com and socials @adamjmclain

Caroline Kline

Reviews (Non-fiction)

Irvine, CA

CAROLINE KLINE received her doctorate in religion from Claremont Graduate University, where she is currently the assistant director of the Center for Global Mormon Studies. Her first book, Mormon Women at the Crossroads: Global Narratives and the Power of Connectedness, received the Mormon History Association’s Best International Book award.

Andrew Hall

Reviews (Literature)

Fukuoka, Japan

Andrew Hall is an Associate Professor of East Asian History at Kyushu University, in Fukuoka Japan. He writes about Japanese colonial history, Mormon history, and Mormon literature. Recently he has been the co-editor of A Craving For Beauty: The Collected Writings of Maurine Whipple (BCC Press, 2020), Education, Language, and the Intellectual Underpinnings of Modern Korea (Brill, 2023), and The Path and the Gate: Mormon Short Fiction (Signature Books, 2023). He is the literature book review editor at Dialogue.

Daniel Foster Smith

Production Editor

South Salt Lake, UT

Daniel Foster Smith is the Production Editor at Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. He holds a BA in English UVU and MA in Film and Literature from the University of York. He has produced the Dialogue Out Loud podcast series since 2020, adapting pieces from the quarterly journal into an audio format. He is a prolific musician and composer, often inspired to write and record original music to accompany episodes in the series. He is also a filmmaker and digital storyteller, working with the multimedia company Merry Thieves to create content for interactive arts and history apps. In his spare time, he likes to hike and bakes a mean sourdough.

Emily W. Jensen

Web Editor

Bountiful, UT

EmilyW. Jensen {[email protected]} writes, edits, and mothers five children, often simultaneously. For five years, Emily covered the online world of Mormonism for the Deseret News and currently webedits Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. She blogs for By Common Consent and moderated the Round￾Table and a podcast about Mormon women’s issues. She has edited various published fiction and non-fiction works and worked on a curriculum committee for the LDS Church official magazines. She hails from the small northern Utah town of Deweyville and now makes her home in Farmington, Utah.

J. Kirk Richards

Woodland Hills, UT

Joel Kirk Richards is a contemporary artist whose work engages with themes of antiquity, religion, spirituality, equality, and love. His work asks questions about modern application and implementation of religion as it relates to historical narratives and mythologies. The work often prioritizes the poetry of religious text over dogma or historical accuracy. Stylistically it often bridges or walks a tightrope between classical and abstract expression.

Kirk lives and works at his studios in Woodland Hills, Redmond, and Provo, Utah, and in Bondsville, Massachusetts. He and his wife Amy Tolk Richards have four children. https://www.jkirkrichards.com/

Jana Riess

Cincinnati

Jana Riess is the author of numerous books, including The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church, published by Oxford University Press in 2019. She has a PhD in American religious history from Columbia University, writes a weekly column for Religion News Service, and has 25 years of experience as an editor in the publishing industry. With political scientist Benjamin Knoll, she is currently working on a book about people who leave the LDS Church.

Blair Hodges

Salt Lake City, uT

Karla Stirling

Bountiful, UT

Karla Stirling serves as chair of the Dialogue Board of Directors. She received a BA from Brigham Young University and JD and MBA degrees from the University of Utah. She practiced business and commercial law in California from 2006 to 2010, with a focus on real estate and construction litigation. Prior to that she worked for Utah Legal Services, assisting indigent clients facing administrative proceedings by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She has also volunteered with the Internal Revenue Service VITA program, offering tax help for qualifying taxpayers. She is currently a stay-at-home mom and advisor to a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting responsible land use in southern Utah. Karla and her husband, David Arteaga, live on Bountiful, Utah, and they have three young sons.

Rebecca de Schweinitz

Provo, UT

Originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, Rebecca is an Associate Professor of History and Global Women’s Studies at Brigham Young University where she has taught since 2006. She received her PhD from the University of Virginia, has been a fellow at Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center, and is the author of IF We Could Change the World: Young People and America’s Long Struggle for Racial Equality (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009). Rebecca’s other publications have explored American slavery, the movement to lower the voting age to 18, Mormon women’s history, and the history of children and youth in the LDS Church. She and her spouse, Peter, have three children.

Molly McLellan Bennion

Seattle, WA

Molly McLellan Bennion is an attorney and investor. She earned her degrees at Smith College and the University of Houston, where she was an editor of the law review, and attended the University of Washington in between. She taught business law at the University of St. Thomas in Houston prior to practicing law, specializing in commercial litigation. Today she manages capital for two family businesses, one engaged in commercial land development and the other in marine engine distributorship including boatyard and repair services. She has served on the BYU Law School Board of Visitors and the Dialogue Board, twice as its Chair. She has published essays inÊDialogue, the anthologyÊWhy I Stay, (ed. by Robert A. Rees), and the upcomingÊThe Mormon World, (ed. by Richard Sherlock and Carl Mosser). Molly and her husband, Roy, live in Seattle. They are parents of four children and grandparents of six.

Taylor Petrey

Editor

Kalamazoo, MI

Taylor Petrey is the editor of Dialogue: a journal of Mormon thought. Petrey holds a BA in philosophy and religion from Pace University, and both an MTSE and a Th.D. degree from Harvard Divinity School in New Testament and Early Christianity. He joined the faculty of Kalamazoo College in 2010 and served as the Director of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality program from 2012 through 2016. He is currently chair of the Religion Department. Petrey is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on Mormonism, gender, sexuality, and early Christian thought. His essay Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology receivedDialogue’s Best Article award in 2011 and has become one of the most downloaded and cited articles in the journal’s history.

Michael Austin

Ephraim, UT

Michael Austin, who serves on the Dialogue Board of Directors, is Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. He received his BA and MA in English from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including the AML-Award winning Re-reading Job and the recent trade book, We Must Not Be Enemies: Restoring America’s Civic Tradition.

Morris Thurston

Villa Park, CA

Morris Thurston hosts the Dialogue podcasts. He is a graduate of BYU and Harvard Law School and is a retired partner of the global law firm Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in trademark and copyright litigation. He is an avid personal and family historian and frequently lectures on those subjects. He has published two family histories and authored, with his wife, Dawn, Breathe Life into Your Life Story: How to Write a Story People Will Want to Read (Signature Books 2007). He has served as a contributor to the Joseph Smith Papers (Legal Series) and has been an adjunct assistant professor at the BYU Law School. His article in BYU Studies titled “The Boggs Assault and Attempted Extradition: Joseph Smith’s Most Famous Case,” received an award of excellence from the Mormon History Association. He contributed a chapter to Why I Stay: The Challenge of Discipleship for Contemporary Mormons(2011) and the foreword to The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes by John Dinger (2012). He has written and participated in conferences at UVU and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government on same-sex marriage legal issues. He and Dawn live in Villa Park, California and are parents of six children, two of whom are deceased, and grandparents of five.

Aaron Brown

Seattle, WA

Aaron C. Brown is an attorney, investor, and active participant in Seattle’s international non-profit sector. He earned his B.A. from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He has worked as a corporate lawyer and insurance lawyer, but he currently handles only political asylum cases, otherwise eschewing the practice of law. He serves on the board of the World Affairs Council of Seattle, and was a co-founder of the popular Mormon blog, By Common Consent. Aaron lives in Seattle with his wife, Stina, and two young daughters, Annika and Grethe.

Linda Hoffman Kimball

Woodland Hills, UT

Linda Hoffman Kimball is an author, artist, poet and an accidental activist. She has written, compiled or illustrated 16 books and has had her work included in many more. She holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA from Boston University. She has served on the boards of the Chicago Metro History Education Center, Exponent II, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, and Segullah.org. As well as serving on the board of Dialogue, she is currently Art Director of Segullah, and Co-Founder of Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Reared in the Chicago area and educated in New England, Linda flourished in her Christian faith and, to her surprise, felt herself called to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a student at Wellesley College. She is a joyful attender of LDS women’s gatherings and retreats – especially Midwest Pilgrims and Exponent II. She currently resides high on a mountain top in Woodland, UT.

Matthew Bowman

Claremont, CA

Matthew Bowman is the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, and the author of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith (Random House, 2012) and Christian: The Politics of a Word in America (Harvard, 2018). He received his PhD at Georgetown University, and watches a lot of professional basketball.

Stephen Bradford

Berkeley, CA

Steve Bradford’s mother served as the editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought from the basement while Steve was a teenager in that same basement (the walls – for better or worse – were thin). Simultaneously, Steve’s father served upstairs as the bishop of the Arlington (VA) Ward. This experience has colored Steve’s view of the world ever since. (See Bradford, Mary L.: “BIG D/Little d: The View from the Basement”, Dialogue 20 (Fall 1987): 13-23). Initially agreeing to a Dialogue board position while serving as bishop of the East Pasadena (CA) Ward, Steve retreated from the board when he realized time wouldn’t allow for him to be at once – upstairs and downstairs. Now recently released as bishop and having tagged along with his wife to be closer to an amazing granddaughter and her parents in Berkeley, CA, Steve is all-in on the board while continuing to practice law (until he gets it right) with a California-based law firm, and dabbling in other Mormon Studies ventures at Claremont Graduate University and the Graduate Theological Union.

Zachary Davis

Boston, MA

Zachary Davis is the founder and President of Lyceum, an educational audio platform, network and production studio headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Davis is also the host and executive producer of the Harvard podcast Ministry of Ideas, a founding member of the Hub & Spoke audio collective and the organizer of the Sound Education conference. Before founding Lyceum, Davis was a producer at HarvardX where he focused on producing massive open online courses (MOOCs) for the edX education platform. Ranging from Shakespeare to American Government, his courses have been taken by more than 500,000 people. Davis is a graduate of Harvard and Brigham Young University and lives in Boston with his wife and two children.

Josh Penrod

Orem, UT

Josh Penrod is a technology executive who has been working in software since 1999 when, as a BYU student, the first website he worked on was the BYU Speeches site. He was so excited about the potential of the internet that he dropped out of college and joined a startup. To the relief of his History Professor father and English teacher mother, he went back to school and graduated from BYU with a BS in Psychology in 2001. He is currently Chief Product Officer at Podium, and prior to that, he was Vice President of User Experience at Ancestry.com. Josh is passionate about helping refugees, and due to connections made during his time as a missionary in Venezuela, he has focused on assisting Venezuelans refugees. Josh and his wife Adrienne live in Orem, Utah and are the parents of four children.

Rebecca England

Treasurer

Salt Lake City, UT

Christian Kimball

Chair

Woodland Hills, UT

Chris Kimball is a partner at Jenner & Block, LLP. His legal career has included partnership in two major law firms, teaching full-time at Boston University School of Law and as an adjunct at several programs offering an LLM in Taxation, and serving as Chief Legal Officer (and other titles) for a global advertising firm. He is a graduate of Harvard University (BA Applied Mathematics) and the University of Chicago Law School (JD). He is the co-author of Organizing the Corporate Venture, has published a number of articles (related to tax law) in professional and academic journals, and is a regular contributor (but not related to tax law) in the Mormon blogosphere. Chris and Linda are parents of three children and grandparents of seven.