He earned his BS in Zoology at Weber State College (1986), his MA in Near Eastern Studies at BYU (1991), and his PhD in American History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1996). He teaches classes in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and nineteenth-century church history. He is a co-editor of the Journals 2 and Journals 3 volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers, and served for a time as managing historian of that project. He has authored and edited numerous other books and articles dealing with LDS history and doctrine, and is currently researching the history of Mormons, wetlands, and marshes in the Salt Lake valley.