Rate My Professor Brad Wilcox

Brad Wilcox is a teaching professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, with extensive experience in education. He earned his B.S. in Elementary Education with a teaching specialty in Spanish from Brigham Young University in 1985. Following graduation, he taught sixth grade at Edgemont Elementary School in the Provo School District from 1985 to 1988. He returned to BYU for an M.Ed. in Elementary Education focusing on teaching and learning in 1990 and obtained his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in reading and language arts from the University of Wyoming in 1994, where his dissertation examined the effects of marginal gloss study guides on expository reading comprehension of fifth-grade students. Wilcox joined the BYU faculty in 1989 as an instructor in the Department of Teacher Education, progressing to assistant professor in 1994 and associate professor in 2000. He served in that department until 2016, when he transitioned to the Department of Ancient Scripture. Throughout his career, he has directed study abroad programs for BYU, including those in New Zealand (2000–2001), Mexico (1995–2001, 2006–2010), Guatemala, and Spain (2014–2015). He also instructed at the University of Wyoming from 1992 to 1993 and has worked as a literacy consultant across multiple Utah school districts since 1990.

Wilcox's academic interests encompass all aspects of literacy, including reading, writing, and children's literature, as well as gospel topics and onomastics, the study of names. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including the books The Continuous Atonement (2009), Changed through His Grace (2017), The Continuous Conversion (2013), Developing Literacy: Reading and Writing to, with, and by Children (2013, with T.G. Morrison), and Practicing for Heaven: The Parable of the Piano Lessons (2015, with W.W. Rosborough). His articles in the Religious Educator include “188 Unexplainable Names: Book of Mormon Names No Fiction Writer Would Choose” (2011) and “Absence of ‘Joseph Smith’ in the Book of Mormon: Lack of the Name Letter Effect in Nephite, Lamanite, and Jaredite Names” (2016). Wilcox delivered the influential BYU devotional “His Grace Is Sufficient” in 2011, which continues to impact audiences worldwide. He has received awards such as the Benjamin Cluff Jr. Award for Excellence in Education for Teacher Preparation from the David O. McKay School of Education (2013), Teacher of the Year from BYU's Student Alumni Association (1998), and Distinguished Educator from the Utah State Office of Education (1999).