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PROVO —Brigham Young University will have a new president when it enters the Big 12 Conference on July 1.
Shane Reese, a vice president and statistics professor, will become BYU's 14th president, replacing Kevin Worthen, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles announced at a campus devotional on Tuesday.
Worthen will serve through April, and Reese will take over on May 1.
Elder Holland, who is a member of the BYU board of trustees, noted that Worthen's ninth anniversary as president is May 1.
"This is an incredible turnout," Elder Holland said before a large crowd at the Marriott Center. He called it a devotional with a twist, and said President Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and chairman of the BYU board of trustees, sent him to conduct the business of presenting a new university president.
"There is nothing magical about nine years, but two fellows named Oaks and Holland both served in that position for nine years to the day," Elder Holland said to laughter, referring to himself and President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency.
"Kevin is a man of God and a remarkable university president and a dear friend. He has been recognized as such across the nation. His skill and accomplishment have greatly enhanced the stature of the university. We love him dearly."
Elder Holland also noted that Reese once turned down a front office position with the Philadelphia Eagles to remain at BYU.
Reese has served as academic vice president since June 2019. During that time, he directed the BYU Committee on Race, Equity and Belonging, which found that the university needed to root out individual and systemic racism. The committee offered 26 recommendations, and Reese and others have begun implementing many of them.
BYU opened an Office of Belonging last fall to meet one of the recommendations.
Reese served as dean of the BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences from 2017–2019 while an award-winning, publishing faculty member in BYU's Statistics Department.
He received BYU's Young Scholar Award in 2004 and the BYU Karl G. Maser Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010.
Before returning to BYU, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in statistics, Reese worked in the Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Reese earned a doctoral degree in statistics at Texas A&M University.
At BYU, he earned recognition for his work on football analytics and other statistical models.
Reese uses statistics to attempt to predict the score of every BYU football game, Sister Peggy Worthen said during the devotional.
Kevin Worthen helped BYU navigate the difficult road of independence in college football, playing without a conference affiliation, while the rest of its sports competed in the West Coast Conference.
Last year, the BYU community celebrated when the Big 12 invited all Cougar sports to join the Power 5 conference, bringing new opportunity and legitimacy to the school's athletic program.
Now Reese will lead the way. Elder Holland said he hoped Worthen will return to the BYU law school, where Worthen was a professor prior to taking over the presidency in 2014 and focused among other things on federal Indian law — "It's like constitutional law without the Constitution," he once said.
BYU is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which subsidizes student tuition by an annual amount in the hundreds of millions of dollars. BYU's board of trustees is led by the church's First Presidency and includes several members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other general church officers.
Tuesday's announcement marks the third consecutive time that a new BYU president has been named during a March devotional assembly.
BYU presidents are regularly introduced by Latter-day Saint leaders on the board of trustees.
President Henry B. Eyring, then first counselor in the First Presidency of the church, announced Worthen as BYU's new president in March 2014, and President Gordon B. Hinckley, the church president, announced Elder Cecil O. Samuelson, a general authority seventy, as BYU's new president in March 2003.
Past presidents and principals of Brigham Young Academy/University
- Warren N. Dusenberry, Jan. 1876 – April 1876
- Karl G. Maeser, Aug. 1876 – Jan. 1892
- Benjamin Cluff, Jan. 1892 – Dec. 1903 (BYA became BYU in Oct. 1903)
- George H. Brimhall, April 1904 – July 1921
- Franklin S. Harris, July 1921 – June 1945
- Howard S. McDonald, July 1945 – Oct. 1949
- Ernest L. Wilkinson, February 1951 – July 1971
- Dallin H. Oaks, Aug. 1971 – Aug. 1980
- Jeffrey R. Holland, Sept. 1980 – April 1989
- Rex E. Lee, July 1989 – Dec. 1995
- Merrill J. Bateman, Jan. 1996 – April 2003
- Cecil O. Samuelson, Jr., May 2003 – April 2014
- Kevin J Worthen, May 2014 – April 2023
- Shane Reese, May 2023 -
