The Jack and Mary Lois Wheatley Institution of Brigham Young University (BYU) seeks to promote high level scholarship and disseminate ideas broadly. Currently the institution's director is Richard N. Williams.
The organization started in 2007 and was founded through the efforts of Jack Wheatley. Wheatley previously spent more than 20 years on the board of Stanford University's Hoover Institution and wanted the new BYU institution to fulfill somewhat the same role.
In October 2009 the Institution held a forum on combating the New Atheism.
Beginning on January 11, 2010, the institution had several distinguished outside speakers such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and Condoleezza Rice. One of the leading figures behind the institution's success inviting such speakers was one of its senior fellows, Amos Jordan, who previously had been president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.
During the 2012-2013 academic year, the institution sponsored a series of speakers on scientism. Speakers included Daniel N. Robinson, Peter Hacker, Richard G. Swinburne, Bas van Fraassen, Lawrence Principe, Kenneth F. Schaffner, and Roger Scruton.
The board of overseers consists of: