About the Speakers
Alexander L. Baugh
Alexander L. Baugh is a professor and former chair of the Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University, where he has been a full-time faculty member since 1995. He received his BS from Utah State University and his MA and PhD degrees from Brigham Young University. He specializes in researching and writing about the Missouri period of early Church history (1831–39). He is the author, editor, or coeditor of twelve books, including three volumes of the Document series of The Joseph Smith Papers (Documents, volumes 4, 5, and 6). In addition, he has published more than eighty historical journal articles, essays, and book chapters. He is a member of the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association, having served as president of the latter organization in 2006–7. He is also the past editor of Mormon Historical Studies and past codirector of research for the BYU Religious Studies Center. Professor Baugh retired as a full-time faculty member at BYU at the end of 2025. He and his wife reside in Highland, Utah.
Mathew K. Richards
Mathew K. Richards is Associate General Counsel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prior to this role, he and his wife, Debby, presided over the Texas Houston South Mission, guiding 638 missionaries over three years. For more than 25 years at Kirton McConkie, he litigated cases and provided outside general counsel services for faith-based organizations. He drafted briefs, lobbied legislatures, published dozens of articles and white papers, and engaged with experts on key religious liberty issues. In this regard, he chaired the Religious Freedom Section of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society (including inaugurating the Religious Freedom Fellows program) and served as an International Fellow at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University.
Alan J. Reinach, Esq.
Alan J. Reinach, Esq. is a civil rights lawyer and Seventh-day Adventist minister who has served as President of the Church State Council, the education, advocacy and legal services ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the western United States, since 1994.
Reinach directs the education and advocacy programs of the Church State Council, primarily focused on the preservation of religious freedom for all peaceful people of faith, as well as preserving the separation of church and state.
Reinach also directs the legal services ministry of the Church State Council offering legal assistance to persons of all faiths complaining of religious discrimination in the workplace. His most notable achievement has been obtaining a 9-0 ruling from the Supreme Court in Groff v DeJoy, establishing vigorous protection for those needing religious accommodation in the workplace.
Reinach is a recognized leader in the legal community on issues of religion and the law and serves as co chair of the American Bar Association’s Religious Freedom committee, part of the ABA’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Section. He has also served for many years on the legislative committee of the California Employment LawyersAssociation, working to advance workers’ rights.
Reinach is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Law in 1987, and of the State University of New York at New Paltz, with special honors in history, in 1984.
Laura Ochs Wibberding
Laura Ochs Wibberding has a degree in Church History, and chairs the department of History and Political Studies at Pacific Union College in Angwin, California. Among her publications are two book chapters and numerous short articles. Her current research studies US Seventh-day Adventists’ political involvement in the Progressive Era. She lives in California with her husband, Jim, and their three children.