Reid L. Neilson was born and reared in Southern California. He received his BA degree in international relations from Brigham Young University in 1996. After graduation he worked for Arthur Andersen’s Strategy, Finance, and Economics Division in Los Angeles and London, consulted for Walt Disney’s Strategic Planning Division in Tokyo, and researched for the University of Michigan Business School’s Asia-Pacific Human Resources Partnership in Hong Kong. He also took graduate degrees in American history and business administration at Brigham Young University in 2001 and 2002 respectively. In 2006 he completed his PhD in religious studies (American religious history emphasis) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was named an International Studies Scholar for Tomorrow Fellow.

Dr. Neilson is the author of several books, including Strangers in a Strange Land: Early Mormon Missionary Explorations and Realities in East Asia (University of Utah Press, forthcoming), and the editor or coeditor of more than a dozen academic books, including Joseph Smith: Reappraisals after Two Centuries (Oxford University Press), The Rise of Mormonism (Columbia University Press), The Mormon History Association’s Tanner Lectures: The First Twenty Years (University of Illinois Press), Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays (Columbia University Press), and Taking the Gospel to the Japanese (Brigham Young University Press). He has also written many essays, book chapters, and introductions and presented dozens of papers on religion, history, and business at a variety of academic conferences. He is currently writing a history of Mormon Missionary Work entitled God's Army to be published by Oxford University Press.

After serving a full-time mission in the Japan Sapporo Mission, Dr. Neilson married Shelly Anderson. They are the parents of three children and enjoy snow skiing and international travel as a family. He began his career as an Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. He now leads as the Managing Director of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Neilson's C.V. is available here.