“Weigh success not in gain, but in improvements to the world.”

It has been a singular honor and privilege to serve for the past nearly twelve years as director of the Wheatley Institute. Not everyone has the opportunity to expend his or her professional efforts in a cause to which they can freely and eagerly give their heart and soul. But this has been my extreme good fortune.

After 12 years of service, founding director Richard Williams, will be returning to full-time teaching and research in Counseling, Psychology and Special Education in the David O. McKay School of Education.

Tyson Reeder, an Affiliated Scholar for Wheatley Institute's Constitution Initiative, was awarded the prestegious George Washington Prize for his book Serpent in Eden. The book is an exploration of foreign meddling in early American politics, analyzing both the ways in which foreign powers swayed American democracy and the ways the new republic attempted to respond. The work was praised as "a blend of wonderful storytelling and intriguing characters along with perceptive historical analysis. . . . This important contribution stands out as an incredibly timely and relevant book for how we can use the past to understand the present."

I am not legally bound to honor the holy spaces of others, to make room for their beliefs and practices, or to respond to their religious speech with peace, tolerance and respect. But the norm of religious freedom creates a powerful social force encouraging me to do so.

Differences of opinion are part of life and differences of conviction are part of life too. I think we need to have the expectation that we're not always going to agree, even on the most important, even on the most personal, down-to-the-heart type of things. And that is okay. The way that we disagree is what's important.