On behalf of the Nomination Committee, we’d like to thank the board for the recommendations made for candidates to be presented at this fall’s meetings for consideration to serve for the following year with JWHA. We also received some nominations from the membership at large. These were generally duplicates of those recommended by the board with some great additional possibilities. Not everyone recommended was able to serve on the board and after reducing the number of candidates to those willing to be considered, the Nomination Committee met this spring and discussed each recommendation. We have nominated the following candidates for office in JWHA. Members will vote on the slate at the September business meeting in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
President Elect
Eric Paul Rogers
Eric’s greatest asset is his willingness to serve. He has played a significant role in helping keep our organization going behind the scenes at the last four or five conferences. He is also a top tier scholar. His strength is education and institutional research with an international focus—the primary interests of our organization. Eric holds a PhD in Instructional Psychology and Technology with MA and BA degrees in German Studies and Foreign Language Education. As a scholar of the Restoration movement, he has looked at the development, divergence, and institutionalization of Restoration traditions. In addition to an academic interest in the Community of Christ and LDS Church, he’s also studied the Church of the Firstborn (Morrisite) and Apostolic United Brethren (AUB). Eric has published in John Whitmer Book’s series on the Persistence of Polygamy (vol. III) in addition to the Journal of Mormon History, Educating about Religious Diversity and Interfaith Engagement: A Handbook for Student Affairs, Religious Educator, and in other venues.
Board Members
Magan Edvalson
Known to us as Mags, she has already served one term as a board member where she’s played a critical role in helping us as the Social Media Chair. She has also worked for six years as the coordinator for the Community of Christ Oral History Project, and has been helping us think more strategically about preserving the history of our organization. They have recently published a short manual “Doing Oral History as Ministry” for the Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation to help improve this work. Mags holds an MA from Utah State University in American Studies and a BFA in Theatre Production and Design with additional work in Classics and History. They have published several book reviews and continue to pursue research interests in Mormon and paranormal legendry, ExMormon folklore, textile material culture, and narratology studies. In their free time, Mags enjoys textile arts, reading, swimming, and spending time with their spouse and two dogs on the coast while their two cats guard the homefront in Silverton, Oregon.
Roger Rose
Roger holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Diversity Studies. He also taught psychology and social science for 35 years, both at the secondary and post-secondary levels. While attending Graceland University in the early 1980s, he served as a summer intern in Nauvoo, Illinois, and Kirtland, Ohio. He also acted as an adjunct instructor for the “Kirtland Internship.” When he retired in 2021, Community of Christ recruited him to serve as the historic site Director for the Kirtland Temple Historic Site. He currently serves as the Minister of Hospitality at The Temple in Independence, Missouri.
Board Member filling a 2-year position
Taunalyn Ford
Taunalyn brings an international perspective to her work and has done extensive research on the Restoration movement in Southeast Asia. She holds a PhD in History of Religion from Claremont Graduate University and has completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Brigham Young University Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. She has a forthcoming volume with Patrick Mason and Andrew Bolton (University of Illinois Press) that examines the radical origins of the Latter Day Saint movement. She also has a monograph in production on the history of Mormonism in India. Taunalyn has been part of an ongoing interfaith dialogue with scholars from Community of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has been attending and presenting at JWHA conferences since 2015 and has also been involved in MHA where she served on the board and as program committee cochair for annual meetings in 2019. She specializes in global, mission and women’s histories and also serves as a writer for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints global histories project.
All these individuals bring an incredible range of skills that can help us grow and serve our audience better. We’re excited they are willing to serve.
— Mark Staker
Past President JWHA
Nominations Committee Chair
