Leader Biography

Elder J. Devn Cornish

Elder J. Devn Cornish was sustained a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 2, 2011, at age 59. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy in the North America Southeast Area.

Elder Cornish received a bachelor of arts degree in biology from Johns Hopkins University in 1975. In 1978, he received a medical degree, also from Johns Hopkins University. He completed his pediatric residency at the Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard University. In 1985, he completed a neonatology fellowship program at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center. More recently, he was a professor and vice chair for faculty development in the Pediatric Department at Emory University School of Medicine.

Elder Cornish has served in numerous Church callings, including full-time missionary in the Guatemala-El Salvador Mission, elders quorum president, ward executive secretary, ward mission leader, ward Young Men president, bishop, high priests group leader, stake president, president of the Dominican Republic Santiago Mission (2003-2006), and Area Seventy.

John Devn Cornish was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in April 1951, the son of George Oliver Cornish and Naomi Black. He married Elaine Simmons in August 1973. They are the parents of six children and have 24 grandchildren. They reside in the Dominican Republic.

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