Fred E. Woods completed a BS degree in psychology (1981) and a MS degree in international relations (1985) from Brigham Young University. In 1991, he earned a PhD in Middle East studies from the University of Utah with an emphasis in Hebrew Bible. He has been a professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University since 1998 and feels blessed to teach the great students at BYU. From 2005 to 2010, he held a Richard L. Evans Professorship of Religious Understanding and was appointed in 2019 to a BYU endowed Moral Education Professorship. Dr. Woods has lectured at scores of universities in the United States and internationally. He is the author of numerous academic articles treating a variety of topics and has written many books. His most recent publication is The Saints of Tonga: A Century of Island Faith, a coauthored book which has a companion documentary film by the same name. The past decade he has also produced several documentaries with filmmaker Martin Andersen. Their films include Mormon Yankees: Giants on and off the Court (2011), Finding Refuge in El Paso (2012) and Divine Providence: The Wreck and Rescue of the Julia Ann (2014), Laie: Refuge from the Storm (2015), and Melting the Ice: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Alaska (2018). His most recent film is The Saints of Tonga: A Century of Island Faith, a companion to the book.