Worthen earned an associate"s degree from the College of Eastern Utah (CEU), where he was co-captain of the varsity basketball team and graduated co-valedictorian in 1978. In 1982, Worthen graduated summa cum laude and first in his class from Brigham Young University"s J. Reuben Clark Law School.
He served previously at Brigham Young University as the Advancement Vice President and as dean of the J. Worthen is a native of Carbon County, Utah and was raised in Dragerton, Utah. He served as an Latter- Day Saints (Mormons) missionary in Monterrey, Mexico. While at CEU, Worthen worked summers as a coal miner.
He earned the distinction of Order of the Coif.
Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey on the United States. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia He practiced law in Phoenix, Arizona from 1984 to 1987 with the law firm of Jennings, Strouss & Salmon. Dean, J. Reuben Clark Law School As a Fulbright Scholar, he also spent a year working as a visiting instructor at University of Chile Law School.
Worthen is a recognized expert in American Indian law, and his theories on cultural and ethnic assimilation are also widely repeated. Worthen was a 1995 contributor to Cohen"s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, and in 2002, served as vice-chair of the Utah Constitution Revision Commission.
While working for Brigham Young University, Worthen has served as faculty athletic representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association for four years and as chair of the University Athletic Advisory Council from 1992 to 2000.
He has also been the Hugh West. Colton professor at Brigham Young University. Brigham Young University Advancement Vice President In June 2008, Worthen was appointed Brigham Young University"s Advancement Vice President, with responsibility for university relations, communications, athletics, and philanthropies. In 2010 Worthen was made the chair of the membership review committee of the Association of American Law Schools. Brigham Young University President On March 11, 2014, Henry B. Eyring, First Vice Chairman of the Brigham Young University Board of Trustees announced that effective May 1, 2014, Worthen would succeed Cecil O. Samuelson as the president of Brigham Young University. Worthen was officially inaugurated as the 13th president of Brigham Young University on September 9, 2014, in a special devotional assembly.
Eyring gave the installation charge and spoke at the event.
He graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor"s degree in political science from Brigham Young University in 1979. He also wrote an article entitled The National Collegiate Athletic Association and Religion: Issues of non-state governance that was published in the Utah Law Review.
In 1987, Worthen returned to Brigham Young University as a member of the Law School faculty and served as dean of the Law School from 2004 to 2008. Other members of the board were also in attendance, along with former Brigham Young University presidents and presidents of other universities.
