Kevin J. Worthen served as BYU’s 13th president. Previous roles at the university included advancement vice president and dean of the Law School. In these roles, he oversaw such areas as athletics, BYU Broadcasting, LDS Philanthropies, alumni, and communications. Worthen was also The Hugh W. Colton Professor of Law, specializing in federal Indian law and the rights of indigenous peoples. He spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar studying the cultural and ethnic assimilation of Chile's native populations.
After graduating with both his bachelor's and juris doctor degrees from BYU in 1982, Worthen clerked for Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey of the D.C. Circuit Court and then for Justice Byron R. White of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1984, Worthen joined the respected law firm Jennings Strouss & Salmon in Arizona. In 1987, he accepted an opportunity to return to the J. Reuben Clark Law School as a faculty member.
Worthen is now a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School and the first BYU Wheatley Institute Distinguished Fellow in Constitutional Government.
Worthen was born and raised in Utah and has been an avid and vocal fan of Cougar sports since his childhood. He and his wife Peggy have three children and five grandchildren.