Elder James R. Rasband is the new head of education for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a news release issued Wednesday.
Elder Rasband, a Harvard Law School graduate, will serve as the 21st commissioner of the Church Educational System. He replaces Elder Clark G. Gilbert, who was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Feb. 12.
President Dallin H. Oaks and his counselors in the First Presidency, President Henry B. Eyring and President D. Todd Christofferson, made the announcement in a letter to general authorities and other church leaders.
“Elder Rasband comes to this assignment with extensive academic experience, including an undergraduate degree from BYU and law degree from Harvard University, service as dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, and as the academic vice president of Brigham Young University,” the First Presidency stated.
Elder Rasband has served as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2019.
He was serving as an assistant executive director in the Temple Department at the time of Wednesday’s announcement. In that role, he led media on a tour of the new Lindon Utah Temple on Monday.
Elder Rasband is a former attorney and academic leader who served as dean of BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School from 2009 to 2016. He then served as academic vice president.
His background makes him very familiar with the governance of church schools by the Church Board of Education and church leaders.
The commissioner of Church Education oversees:
- Brigham Young University.
- BYU-Idaho.
- BYU-Hawaii.
- Ensign College.
- BYU-Pathway Worldwide.
- Seminaries & Institutes.
Since Karl G. Maeser was appointed as the superintendent of church schools in 1888, commissioners of Church Education have served as watchmen who ensure that church schools maintain their focus on faith alongside secular learning.
“LDS scholars can and should speak in the tongue of scholarship,” said the late Elder Neal A. Maxwell, who served as the 11th commissioner, “but without coming to prefer it and without losing the mother tongue of faith.”
President Oaks, the new church president and chair of the Church Board of Education, reemphasized the point at BYU last month.
“Never let your secular learning limit your horizons,” he said.
Elder Rasband earned a bachelor of arts degree in English and Near Eastern studies from BYU in 1986 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1989.
After working in a law firm in Seattle, Washington, he joined the BYU law school faculty in 1995.