President Dieter F. Uchtdorf delivered the historic inaugural Keynote Speech at the John A. Widtsoe Symposium at USC last April. It was hosted by the USC Provost Michael Quick in association with Dr. Varun Soni, Dean of the Office of Religious Life and Dr. Lori Meeks, Director of the School of Religion at USC.
Since this momentous occasion, we have been dedicated to fulfilling President Uchtdorf’s charge to the Foundation and the Chair to create and foster scholarship in association with USC to the greater community of religious academics throughout Southern California “to see each other not as aliens or adversaries but as fellow travelers, brothers and sisters, and children of God,” and to advance the global reach of LDS scholarship utilizing the superior technology available in the Los Angeles corporate and university community.