Dr. Kristian Heal has been appointed to serve as the Maxwell Institute’s new director of advancement (fundraising). He succeeds in this position Professor Daniel C. Peterson, who has elected to step down and return to full-time teaching as professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in BYU’s Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages. Professor Peterson will continue to serve as editor-in-chief of the Institute’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative series.

Dr. Heal is a native of the United Kingdom and received his education at the Universities of London, Oxford, and Birmingham. He is a specialist in the early literature of the Christian Middle East and coordinates the Institute’s work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as several projects in Syriac studies, in his capacity as the director of the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts. “Dan has been a wonderful advocate for the Institute,” says Dr. Heal, “and it has been a real pleasure serving with him and others in the Institute’s development team over the past year. I’m delighted to now have an opportunity to devote more time to working with our donors and staff in my new capacity.”