Template:Featured Individual
Matthew Scott Holland - General Authority Seventy
Matthew Scott Holland was born on 7 June 1966, in Provo, Utah. He is the son of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a former president of Brigham Young University (BYU) and a current member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His mother is Patricia Terry Holland. Matthew earned the rank of Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1980. In April 1983, at the age of 16, he delivered a message titled "Muddy Feet and White Shirts" at the 153rd annual general conference of the Church.
Matthew was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 4 April 2020, at age 53. He previously served as the sixth president of Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah, from June 2009 to June 2018, succeeding interim president Elizabeth Hitch. Following the transition from a state college to a university in the summer of 2008, he became the first president of the university.
Prior to joining UVU, Matthew was an associate professor in the political science department at BYU in Provo, Utah. In 1991, upon completion of his undergraduate work at BYU, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, he received the honor of being the valedictorian of BYU'’s political science department. He was also on the board of the National Organization for Marriage, which is a political organization which opposes same-sex marriage.
In 1992 he spent an academic year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar. He later studied early American political thought at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He received a Master of Arts degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in political science from Duke University in 1997 and 2001, respectively. He also received an academic fellowship to study at Princeton University as a James Madison Fellow.
Building on his dissertation, Matthew published Bonds of Affection: Civic Charity and the Making of America with Georgetown University Press in 2007.
As a faculty member at BYU, his emphasis on applied learning concepts led to his selection as the institution's "Civically Engaged Scholar of the Year" by Utah Campus Compact. He is a member of the American Political Science Association and the American Historical Association. He also serves on boards, including the Deseret News Editorial Advisory Board, Utah Technology Council, and the Salt Lake Chamber. In 2011, Matthew received the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award through the Utah National Parks Council of BSA.
On 6 November 2017, Matthew announced that he would leave his position at UVU in June 2018 to serve as a mission president for the Church. He was assigned to serve in the Raleigh North Carolina Mission.
Matthew Scott Holland served as a full-time missionary in the Scotland Edinburgh Mission. In 1996, he married Paige Anita Bateman who is also a Utah Valley native, graduating from Timpview High School in Provo, Utah, before enrolling at BYU. The Hollands are the parents of four children. Matthew is currently serving at Church headquarters as an area assistant to the North America Southeast Area.
