Elder Gerrit W. Gong currently serves as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He previously served as a member of the Asia Area Presidency and member of the Presidency of the Seventy.
During his 20 years in Washington, D.C., he served as special assistant to the undersecretary of state at the U.S. State Department, as special assistant to the U.S. ambassador in Beijing, China, and in several positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He was also assistant to the president for planning and assessment at BYU.
Elder Gong holds a doctorate in international relations and a master’s degree in philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar. He also holds a bachelor's degree in Asian and university studies from BYU.
His remarks will be broadcast live on BYUtv, BYUtv.org. Video, text and audio are archived on speeches.byu.edu