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.

Wheatley Senior Fellow Dan Robinson passed away on September 17, 2018 from heart failure. The following are heartfelt sentiments from current Wheatley Staff about Robinson's impact on them personally and professionally.

"There are many reasons people choose not to have children or not to get married, but false messages about happiness should not be one of them. The articles I read long ago were right that parenting (and marriage) can often be exhausting. But they ignored the sense of meaning that comes from parenthood and the connection of physical touch at the core of family life."

Magnify the Podcast featured Wheatley Family Fellow Jenet Erickson discussing findings from a recent Pew Research study on women of faith. Latter-Day Saint women were found to have very high rates of happiness and spiritual well-being, in sharp contrast to negative pop culture depictions. Pew Research concluded: "“It may be the confluence of the religious values and practices, reinforced by social ties and norms, that give religious communities their powerful effects on so many aspects of human flourishing.”

Brian Willoughby, a Wheatley Institute Family Fellow, contributed an article to the Deseret News about a sharp decline in dating among young American adults. Willoughby cites financial pressures, low confidence, and shifting priorities as factors in this "disconnect from romance, dating and marriage."