(Washington, DC) - The White House announced Thursday the appointment of Elder Steven E. Snow to President Obama's Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Advisory Council.

There are 25 members of the Council, each serving a 1-year term. The Advisory Council is charged with: indentifying best practices for delivering social services, improving the implementation of public policies related to faith-based groups, and recommending changes to polices, programs and practices to the president, according to the White House.

Elder Snow is the first Mormon named to the faith-based advisory council. President Obama also appointed Maria T. Nagorski, executive director of the non-profit group Fair Chance to the council.

Elder Snow currently serves as Church Historian, Recorder, and Church History Department Executive Director for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Previously, Elder Snow served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, supervising the Utah Areas and the North America Central Area from 2007 to 2012. Prior to this, he served as Executive Director of the Church’s Priesthood Department from 2006 to 2007 and as President of the Church’s Africa Southeast Area from 2001 to 2005. Elder Snow first joined the Church’s First Quorum of the Seventy in 2001. Prior to his work with the Church,

Elder Snow was a Senior Partner in the St. George, Utah law firm of Snow & Nuffer from 1979 to 2001 and a county prosecutor in Washington County, Utah, from 1977 to 1979. Elder Snow has also served as a member and President of the Washington County, Utah, School Board; Chairman of the Utah State Board of Regents; and Chairman of the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education. Elder Snow received his B.S. in Accounting from Utah State University and his J.D. from Brigham Young University.

White House Announcement