Contributors

Warren P. Aston is an independent researcher whose explorations in Yemen and Oman since 1984 have helped lay the foundation for a better understanding of Lehi's journey across Arabia. He is the author or coauthor of many studies, including In the Footsteps of Lehi (1994) and Lehi in Arabia: The Old World Origins of the Book of Mormon (forthcoming, 2007).

S. Kent Brown is the current director of FARMS and a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University (since 1971). He was the director the BYU Jerusalem Center (1993–96) and has published a number of studies on the book of First Nephi. He was a fellow of the American Research Center in Egypt and received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to microfilm more than 1,500 early Christian manuscripts in Cairo and Jerusalem.

Stephen L. Carr received a BS in zoology with an emphasis in ornithology from the University of Utah in 1961. He then earned an MD from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1963. He is a member of the board of directors of the Utah Ornithological Society and continues a lifetime study of birds.

Jeffrey R. Chadwick is an associate professor of Church history at Brigham Young University. He also teaches at BYU's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. He holds a PhD in archaeology from the University of Utah Middle East Center and has worked at several excavations in Israel, including Tel Miqne (biblical Ekron). He currently serves as senior field archaeologist with the Tell es-Safi (biblical Gath) Archaeological Expedition.

Lynn M. Hilton served as a B-24 bomber pilot during World War II. He later earned a PhD from the University of Chicago and became a professor of education at Brigham Young University and then superintendent of the Foreign Study League School. In 1975 the editors of the Ensign magazine commissioned Lynn and his late wife Hope to explore Lehi's trail in Arabia (the first Latter-day Saints to do so). Their work appeared in the Ensign in 1976. Lynn's latest book is The Kolob Theorem.

Nancy Goldberg Hilton was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned a BS in fine arts from the University of Texas at Austin. She owned a title insurance company in Dallas at the time she joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1996. Her latest book is My Burning Bush. She is currently serving a senior mission with her husband, former BYU professor Lynn M. Hilton, in New York.

Dave LeFevre, an instructor at the Bellevue Washington Institute of Religion, graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in history. He works as a senior learning and development program manager for Microsoft.

Wm. Revell Phillips, emeritus professor of geology at Brigham Young University and past chairman of that department, received a PhD in mineralogy from the University of Utah. For 10 years he assisted Wilford Griggs in excavations in Egypt. He has also taught at universities in the Middle East and elsewhere and directed a number of BYU Travel Study tours worldwide.

George D. Potter received an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and became a certified public accountant. His later work in management and consulting took him to more than 50 countries. He is the executive general manager for a Saudi holding company. His extensive research and travels in Arabia resulted in the books Lehi in the Wilderness (2000), The Wisemen of Bountiful (2004), and Ten More Amazing Discoveries (2005) and the production of 12 documentary films on Book of Mormon and Bible subjects.

John L. Sorenson is emeritus professor of anthropology at Brigham Young University. His major interest has been in applied sociocultural anthropology. He earned his PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles. He served as head social scientist at General Research Corporation in Santa Barbara, California, and was founder and president of Bonneville Research Corporation in Provo, Utah. He has published extensively in Mesoamerican archaeology.

Richard Wellington earned his MA in conservative dentistry from the Eastman Dental Institute in London and his CDT (certified dental technician) from the National Board for Certification (USA). He is in private dental practice in the UK. For more than 18 years he lived in Saudi Arabia, where he worked as a prothodontist for the Arabian American Oil Company. His hobbies include ornithology and photography.