Mary Dickson Stevens- Mary Dickson Stevens has been a computer geek for decades. No matter what job she takes, she always ends up working with computers. Even while taking a break from the working world to return to college, she couldn't resist the lure of cyberspace. For the History Department at Brigham Young University she built departmental, faculty and course websites, and from there moved to creating academic Web Companion sites for several W.W. Norton history textbooks. Soon after the completion of these projects she accepted a full time position at Brigham Young University as an Instructional Designer responsible for developing online courses.

The Ancestors project has been a tremendous opportunity to combine her love of history, writing, and computers. Using a computer, family history becomes easier to accomplish, to organize, and to share with others. It is very satisfying to help people discover the joy of finding their roots.

Mark Phillips- is the producer of the Ancestors Instructional Video, "Ancestors: The Research Process." Mark's 25 year career in broadcasting and video production includes work as a journalist and producer, where he worked for Cable News Network before joining KBYU Television.

He has significant experience producing radio and television documentaries, as well as corporate and educational video presentations.

Megan Smolenyak- has been an avid genealogist since a 6th grade homework assignment sparked her interest. As a result of her genealogical pursuits, she has 8 filing cabinet drawers full of family history nuggets, a trio of family websites, a village newsletter (for Osturna, Slovakia descendants), and fond memories from several family reunions in the U.S. and Europe.

In addition to being one of the researchers for the Ancestors series, Megan wrote the companion book, In Search of Our Ancestors, contributed some of the content for the website, and appeared in the "genealogy and technology" episode. She's thrilled to have been a part of the Ancestors team and wishes everyone lots of serendipity in their own search for roots!

Chris Twitty- produced the new Ancestors web site and has been involved with the project since the initial series in 1997. Chris readily acknowledges that a web site as extensive as Ancestors wouldn't have been possible without the help of many, including lead researcher Megan Smolenyak and an incredible web design team (Cordell Gatherum, Kenneth McKell, Colin Talbot, and Wenbin Zhao).

In addition to Ancestors, Chris has overseen all online activities for KBYU since 1994. KBYU-related web sites now include more than 20,000 pages of content, several hundred hours of on-demand video and audio files, and much more.

Executive Producer-
John L. Reim

Executive Producer-
Marcy Brown

Producer-
Craig Steiner

Director-
Matt Whitaker

Host-
Scott Wilkinson

Instructional Design-
Jim Tyrrell

Other Team
Members