Kate Holbrook

Kathleen Holbrook (January 13, 1972 – August 20, 2022) was an American historian and writer. She worked as the managing historian of women's history in the Church History Department (CHD) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Early life Holbrook was born in Santa Barbara, California, on January 13, 1972, to Kathleen Stewart and Robert Holbrook. and she was raised by her mother and grandmother, Belle Fillmore Stewart. While at Harvard College, she was voted Teaching Fellow of the Year.

Church History Department When she was hired by the CHD in 2011, Holbrook became the first historian hired to specialize in women's history. Historians Jennifer Reeder and Brittany Chapman Nash were later hired to join the research team. During her time in the CHD, the LDS Church has seen the role of women expand and evolve. This includes prayers offered by women in the church's general conferences, leadership assignments on executive councils, and writings about Heavenly Mother. Holbrook 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 women's organization of the LDS Church. Along with Matthew Bowman, she also edited Women and Mormonism, a collection of primary documents and oral histories exploring perspectives of Latter-day Saint women.

In 2017, At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-Day Saint Women, which was co-edited by Reeder, was published to document public prayers and preaching of 54 women—including biographical information and the context of the material.

Posthumous Work On August 1, 2023, nearly one year after her death, BYU Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book Company published Holbrook’s book Both Things Are True. The book consists of five essays examining a series of seemingly contrary ideas that Holbrook suggests Latter-day Saints hold in tension as they navigate their faith.

Personal life Holbrook was married to Samuel Brown and they had three daughters. They met while she was studying in Boston and went back to Utah during their thirties.

Publications At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-Day Saint Women edited by Kate Holbrook and Jennifer Reeder (Church Historian's Press, March 1, 2017, ) The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History edited by Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow (Church Historian's Press, February 19, 2016, ) Both Things Are True by Kate Holbrook (BYU Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book Company, August 1, 2023, )