Chad Hawkins
Chad S. Hawkins began his series of temple artwork in 1989, at the age of seventeen to support his two-year mission in Frankfurt, Germany, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Upon his return in 1993, he continued with his artwork while pursuing his education of becoming a dentist. Just prior to his application to dental school, Chad realized that he would be sacrificing his art career to the discipline required in dental school. It was at that time that he made the adjustment from being a zoology and chemistry major to an art major, graduating from Weber State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Mark Ogletree
Mark D. Ogletree was raised in Texas and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age 18. He served an LDS mission from 1982-1984 in Seattle, Washington. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1987 from Brigham Young University; Master of Arts in Educational Psychology from Northern Arizona University, 1990; Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling in 1994 from Northern Arizona University; and a Ph.D. in Family and Human Development from Utah State University in May 2000.
Mark worked for 20 years in the seminary and institute program. He taught both seminary and institute in Mesa, Arizona, Logan, Utah, and later became the institute director in Dallas, Texas.
In 2010, Mark accepted a position at Brigham Young University as an Associate Professor in the Department of Church History and Doctrine. At BYU, he teaches courses on the Eternal Family and Living Prophets. Mark is now a full professor in the Department of Church History and Doctrine.
Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat
Gerrit J. Dirkmaat is an assistant professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD in American History from the University of Colorado in 2010 where he studied nineteenth-century American expansionism and foreign relations. His dissertation was titled “Enemies Foreign and Domestic: US Relations with Mormons in the US Empire in North America, 1844–1854.”
He worked as a historian and writer for the Church History Department from 2010 to 2014 with the Joseph Smith Papers Project and served as a volume editor/historian for Documents Volume 1, the lead historian/volume editor on Documents Volume 3, and as a historian/editor on Administrative Volume 1, Council of Fifty, Minutes. He continues to work on the Joseph Smith Papers on the forthcoming Documents Volume 8.
Prior to his work at the Church History Department, he served as the senior assistant editor of Diplomatic History from 2003 to 2009. He currently serves as Editor of the academic journal Mormon Historical Studies, published by the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, as the Co-Research Director for the Religious Studies Center, on the Executive Council for the Brigham Young Center, and on the Church History editorial board for BYU Studies.