Jennifer Reeder (historian)

Jennifer Reeder is a historian and writer and is currently the nineteenth-century women’s history specialist at the Church History Department (CHD) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Reeder obtained degrees from Brigham Young University, Arizona State University, and New York University. She has worked at the New York Historical Society, the Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives, the American Jewish Historical Society, the Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York Archive, and the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History. She has a PhD in American history from George Mason University, specializing in women’s history.[1]

When Reeder was hired by the CHD in 2013 she became one of the first historians hired to specialize on women’s history.[2] During her time at the CHD, the LDS Church has seen the role of women expand and evolve.[3] These include prayers being given by women in the church's general conference, leadership positions in executive councils, and writings about Heavenly Mother. Reeder was a collaborator on The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, a collection of original documents that explores nineteenth-century history of the Relief Society—the LDS Church's women's organization.[4] Reeder collaborated with Kate Holbrook as editors on At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women, a collection of important speeches by women in the LDS Church.[5]

Reeder served as an LDS Church missionary in Italy. She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010.