Meet the new Relief Society and Primary general presidencies
New Relief Society and Primary general presidencies were sustained by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, April 2.
Presented by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, the leaders joined six new General Authority Seventies also sustained during the Church’s 192nd Annual General Conference. The new Relief Society and Primary leaders will begin their service on Aug. 1.
President Camille N. Johnson has been called as Relief Society general president with Sister J. Anette Dennis as first counselor and Sister Kristin M. Yee as second counselor.
President Susan H. Porter has been called as Primary general president with Sister Amy A. Wright as first counselor and Sister Tracy Y. Browning as second counselor.
President Porter will succeed President Johnson as the new Primary general president. President Porter and Sister Wright have been serving as President Johnson’s counselors in the Primary general presidency.
Relief Society General President Jean B. Bingham and her counselors, Sister Sharon Eubank and Sister Reyna I. Aburto, who were sustained in April 2017, will complete their service as the Relief Society general presidency on July 31.
Brief biographies about each member of the general presidencies are included below. A more in-depth profile on each will appear in coming weeks.
President Camille N. Johnson, Relief Society general president
President Camille N. Johnson said she’s “always felt at home” in Relief Society.
“I found sisterhood among women who were different than me,” President Johnson said of her experiences in Relief Society, including 30-plus years in a family ward and in Peru. “I love the vitality and wisdom of the women in Relief Society,” she said.
President Johnson was sustained as the Relief Society general president and will begin on Aug. 1. She has been serving as the Primary general president for the past year.
She found mentors and friends in Relief Society, including those who were older and younger than her.
“We are all sisters with a shared experience in our desire to return to our heavenly home, but with diverse experiences that we can draw upon to help one another,” President Johnson said.
One of her favorite callings has been to teach in Relief Society.
“I loved the opportunity to engage the sisters and to be taught by the Spirit and each other during that sacred hour in Relief Society. It is there that we talk of Christ and rejoice in Christ and address matters of the heart,” President Johnson said.
Read more: How service, trusting in the Lord has shaped the life of incoming Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson
Camille Neddo, 58, was born on Sept. 12, 1963, to Hal and Dorothy Neddo in Pocatello, Idaho, and has lived in Idaho, Texas and Utah. She married Douglas R. Johnson on July 31, 1987, in the Salt Lake Temple. They have three sons and five grandchildren.
She graduated from the University of Utah in English in 1985 and from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law in 1989. She worked more than 30 years as a lawyer, and was the president of Snow Christensen & Martineau law firm.
A former ward Young Women president, President Johnson has also served as a Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society instructor and member of ward Relief Society and Primary presidencies. She and her husband were leaders of the Peru Arequipa Mission from 2016 to 2019.
— Christine Rappleye
Sister J. Anette Dennis, first counselor
After spending her childhood in different places across the United States, Sister J. Anette Dennis thought her dreams had come true when her family moved to Cottonwood Heights, Utah. “I thought everybody in Utah were members of the Church and it was going to be a haven here,” she said.
During her first few days in ninth grade, she was excited to be invited to a party. But then a girl who became her best friend, warned her that this wasn’t the kind of party she wanted to go to and the people there would be using drugs.
This realization devastated her. “I learned very quickly that the world is everywhere.”
Fortunately, her testimony and a gospel-centered home kept her strong throughout school.
Born in Provo, Utah, on June 27, 1960, Jeannie Anette Herrin, 61, was the oldest of Curtis Lamar and Patricia Joanne Herrin’s seven children. Due to her father’s career, the family lived in Mississippi, Tennessee, Iowa, Nebraska and Utah.
Read more: How Sister Dennis learned to trust that the Lord ‘will meet you where you are’
She studied elementary education at BYU and minored in Spanish. During a class trip to Mexico, she met Jorge Dennis, and the two began a correspondence. “He was so good at giving advice,” she said. He moved to Salt Lake City a year later to study English and they began dating. Within a few months, they were engaged. They married in the Salt Lake Temple on Sept. 4, 1980, are the parents of four children, and live in Bountiful, Utah.
Sister Dennis, who was sustained on April 2, will begin serving as first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency on Aug. 1. She serves on the Primary general advisory council and with her husband on the Davis County communications council. She served with her husband as he presided over the Ecuador Guayaquil West Mission from 2013-2016 and is a former assistant to the matron of the Guayaquil Ecuador Temple, stake Relief Society secretary, ward Primary president, ward Relief Society and Young Women presidency counselor, Relief Society teacher and temple ordinance worker.
— Valerie Walton
Sister Kristin M. Yee, second counselor
In a world increasingly marked by division and isolation, Sister Kristin M. Yee has seen healing remedies to those social ills through Christ’s gospel and Relief Society.
“Relief Society unites us under Him,” she said. “Wherever I have traveled in the world, I look for my Relief Society sisters, and I instantly feel loved and known. There is a commonality of Christ and in our testimonies of Him.”
On Aug. 1, Sister Yee will begin serving as second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency. She will transition to that upcoming calling after serving on the Primary general advisory council.
She approaches her new calling with a certainty that she does not work alone.
“The Lord is in charge, and I trust Him,” she said. “I also feel strongly that we need everyone in His work. We all have a role to play, and we can be a part of this work together. … I am so grateful for an opportunity to serve.”
Kristin Mae Yee, 40, was born on May 5, 1981, in Sacramento, California, to Ryan R. Yee and Jaydean Yee McKay. She called the Golden State home for 12 years before moving to Burley, Idaho. She now lives in Utah.
Read more: From Disney artist to general Relief Society leader, Sister Yee is guided by her trust in the Lord
She discovered early both a love and talent for art, which guided her educational and professional paths. She claimed undergraduate degrees in fine arts from Ricks College/Brigham Young University–Idaho and Brigham Young University. In 2019, she earned a Master of Public Administration from BYU.
Sister Yee’s artistic skills and focus led her to a position as an artist and producer at Disney Interactive Studios, where she worked for 13 years. Currently, she manages the Church’s animation team.
Her gospel-themed paintings include portraits of the Savior’s mortal ministry.
Sister Yee brings a wide range of experience to her new Church calling — including stake Relief Society president, counselor and teacher in ward Relief Society, ward Young Women president, Gospel Doctrine teacher and ward missionary. She has also served as an ordinance worker at the Salt Lake and Bountiful Utah temples.
— Jason Swensen
President Susan H. Porter, Primary general president
“One thing that’s been impressed on our minds over the past year is, how can we strengthen children spiritually?” said President Susan H. Porter. “When we talk about strengthening the faith of the rising generation, that has to start in Primary.”
President Porter sees the blessings that come to baptized children as they participate as covenant members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Because it’s often in doing and serving that our testimonies are increased. Children can learn to seek inspiration from heaven,” she said.
Before her call to be the Primary general president, President Porter was serving as first counselor in the Primary general presidency for a year.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Porter said many children could not participate in Primary. She also saw the challenges that single women faced. Her husband, Elder Bruce D. Porter, General Authority Seventy, passed away in 2016.
“There were many Sundays where I did not have the sacrament,” she said.
She said women have connected with her as she has shared her experiences, telling her for example, “The fact that you are serving in the Church gives me a better vision that the Church needs me too,” she said.
Read more: ‘It’s in the doing’ – How Susan H. Porter hopes to help strengthen the faith of children as Primary general president
Susan Elizabeth Holland Porter, 66, was born July 31, 1955, in Ponca City, Oklahoma, to Hans J. and Charlene Coleman Holland and was raised in New York.
She married Bruce D. Porter on Feb. 2, 1977, in the Washington D.C. Temple. They raised their four children in the eastern United States, Germany and Utah, and fulfilled Church assignments in the Europe East Area.
President Porter attended Brigham Young University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She has worked as a lab assistant and part-time math teacher. She has volunteered with various community and civic organizations.
She served on the Relief Society general advisory council for three and a half years. Previous callings include stake Relief Society presidency counselor, ward Relief Society and Young Women president, Gospel Doctrine teacher and Primary music leader.
— Mary Richards
Sister Amy A. Wright, first counselor
Sister Amy A. Wright, first counselor in the newly sustained Primary general presidency, remembers a night several years ago while undergoing treatment for stage 4 ovarian cancer. In so much pain that she was past feeling, fear sank in during the stark darkness.
Despite her faith and testimony in God, the Savior and the plan of salvation, she was in need.
“Even though I knew, I needed to know,” she recalled.
As a young child, she had been taught by her mother and Primary leaders that when feeling afraid, lonely or needing the Spirit, she should sing a Primary song.
First came a dismissive thought: “That’s for children, does that really apply to me?”
Then came the answer — and the song.
“I am a child of God, too,” Sister Wright remembered. “So, in my mind, I started singing ‘Heavenly Father, are you really there?’ — from ‘A Child’s Prayer.’
“That’s as far as I got. Every fiber of my being was enveloped with the love of God. It was tangible, which was strange because I couldn’t feel anything else. But I felt that. I knew He was there, that He knew exactly what I was going through. And I also knew He was a loving God.”
Read more: Sister Amy A. Wright enters ‘new’ Primary call with year’s experience, perspective and emphasis on children’s relationship with the Savior
Amy Eileen Anderson, 50, was born Jan. 6, 1972, in Salt Lake City to Joy Bailey and Robert Anderson. She married James McConkie Wright on June 24, 1994, in the Salt Lake Temple; they have three sons.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in human development and family studies from the University of Utah in 1998. She worked in the student media department in Marquette University’s College of Communication while her husband attended dental school.
Sister Wright served as second counselor in the Primary general presidency for the past year and on the Young Women general advisory council three years previous. Past callings include stake and ward Primary president, ward Relief Society and Primary presidency counselor, Relief Society teacher, Gospel Doctrine teacher and Cub Scout leader.
— Scott Taylor
Sister Tracy Y. Browning, second counselor
Sister Tracy Y. Browning was about 15 years old when her mother saw a Book of Mormon advertisement on a late-night television infomercial and requested a free copy.
Within a short time, Latter-day Saint missionaries knocked on her door, presented the Book of Mormon and began teaching her the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Although young Tracy lived in New Jersey with her father, she visited her mother in New York often and observed with curiosity as her mother progressed toward baptism.
She had attended a Presbyterian church with her grandmother and learned foundational Christian beliefs. Now her mother was adding to that knowledge.
Soon Tracy began attending Latter-day Saint Sunday worship services with her mother.
“She introduced me to the gospel,” Sister Browning said.
The culminating experience came when mother and daughter attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Standing in the Sacred Grove, attending Church and listening to messages of the gospel in new ways moved her. Tracy told her mother she was ready to learn more about the Church.
“She put me in front of the missionaries very quickly after that,” Sister Browning said. “I was baptized.”
Read more: ‘God wants me to love people’: What prepared Sister Tracy Y. Browning to be the first Black woman to serve in a general presidency
Tracy Yeulande Browning, 45, was born in New Rochelle, New York, on Oct. 9, 1976, to Clive Adams and Sharon Cox. She grew up in Jamaica, New Jersey and New York, and married Brady Browning in the Salt Lake Temple on May 2, 1997. They have two children.
Sister Browning studied at St. John’s University. She has worked in financial services for 15 years and is now a director in the Church’s Publishing Services Department. Sister Browning has also volunteered with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Habitat for Humanity and the United Way’s Day of Caring.
Sister Browning has served in numerous Church callings, including ward and stake Relief Society presidency counselor, Relief Society teacher, various Young Women responsibilities and Sunday School instructor. She was serving on the Relief Society general advisory council at the time of her call.
— Trent Toone
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEnJ%2BuqpOdu6bD0meaqKVfZ31zfo5tZnBnYmh%2FcoSXcWtoppWserOxy6Kcn2WjpLCqsdOyZKmqmaKus8WMoJynnaKWuW680Z6qopyVo7CqsdJmqq6rpJa2r7HDZpuuqpmjtG6tz6ugpWViZX9zecaepZ6qkaF6pLvNn5yrnZ6Ysg%3D%3D