President Rosemary K. Chibota and her counselors, Sister Nina M. Garfield and Sister Theresa A. Collins, officially began their service as the new Primary general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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The three leaders were sustained in their new callings on April 4 after President D. Todd Christofferson, first counselor in the church’s First Presidency, presented their callings during the Saturday afternoon session of April 2026 general conference.
With their calls now in effect, the new Primary general presidency succeeds former Primary General President Susan H. Porter and her counselors, Sister Amy A. Wright and Sister Tracy Y. Browning, in leading the church’s global Primary organization.
As the new Primary general presidency, President Chibota and her counselors will now serve to strengthen Latter-day Saint children ages 18 months to 11 years and their families, teaching them faith in Jesus Christ and his restored gospel and helping them develop their talents.
Here’s a brief look at each member of the new presidency, as well as a few parting words from outgoing President Porter.
President Rosemary K. Chibota
Born in 1967 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, President Chibota is the first African Latter-day Saint to lead an organization general presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ.
“I am so excited to serve God’s finest, the little children,” President Chibota told the Church News in April, shortly after her call to the Primary general presidency. “I look up to them a lot because the Lord said except we repent and become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”
President Chibota was born to Malawian parents in Zimbabwe and grew up there as the ninth of 10 children. She first learned of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ through a pamphlet about the prophet Joseph Smith that she found when she was roughly 17 years old. She was baptized soon after.
“Immediately, I gained a testimony that this was true and that this boy, Joseph Smith, had seen God and Jesus Christ,” President Chibota said. “I gained that testimony in my room just by myself. I knew that this was what I was looking for.”
President Chibota married Joel Basil Chibota in Zimbabwe in 1996, and the two were sealed in the Johannesburg South Africa Temple in 1997. They have one daughter.
President Chibota earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado Technical University and then a master’s degree from Western Governors University. She worked as a human resources generalist for the Church of Jesus Christ and served as a senior executive assistant in the office of the Seventy.
Prior to her call to the Primary general presidency, President Chibota also served as a district and branch Young Women president; ward Relief Society and Primary presidency counselor; ward activities chair; and Relief Society, Primary and seminary teacher. She also led the Alabama Birmingham Mission with her husband from 2022 to 2025.
Sister Nina M. Garfield
Sister Garfield, first counselor, told the Church News in April she has received “the best of blessings” as a result of joining the Church of Jesus Christ.
She has received “the best of husbands, great kids and opportunities to serve,” Sister Garfield said. “I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, (and) I often think about where I would be if I didn’t have the gospel. … It has blessed my life over and over and over.”
Sister Garfield was born in Tokyo, Japan, in March 1958, and joined the church as a senior in high school in Boulder, Colorado, in January 1976.
She married David R. Garfield in the Ogden Utah Temple in July 1980 and worked as a homemaker as they raised their five children in Colorado and Minnesota.
Sister Garfield’s husband died of pancreatic cancer in July 2019 while serving as president of the church’s San Francisco California Stake.
“We shared a wonderful life together in marriage, our family and the church,” Sister Garfield said. Despite her husband’s death, Sister Garfield and her children are grateful for the miracles that allowed him to live the time he did.
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“God grants us miracles,” she said. “They’re not always the miracles that we want, but God knows our struggles and hears our prayers.”
Sister Garfield has served in the church as stake and ward Relief Society president, stake Relief Society counselor, ward Young Women president and counselor, ward and stake Primary presidency counselor, and ward Primary president. She looks forward to helping Latter-day Saint children and their parents learn more about Jesus Christ in her new calling.
Sister Theresa A. Collins
One of Sister Collins’ greatest desires has always been for her children and grandchildren to know and understand that they are children of a Heavenly Father who loves them.
That desire is now extended toward all children, Sister Collins said in a Church News interview held after her call to serve as second counselor in the Primary general presidency was announced.
“Their Savior sees them,” Sister Collins said. “He knows everything that they’re feeling and thinking, and is always a safe place to turn. He was certainly that refuge for me.”
Sister Collins was born in 1961 in Long Beach, California, and grew up in Texas, North Carolina and Salt Lake City as the oldest of four children.
She later studied special education at Utah State University, where she met her husband, Richard E. Collins. The two were married in March 1982 in the Logan Utah Temple and have four children and 16 grandchildren.
“I am humbled to be asked to serve,” Sister Collins told the Church News in April.
“Accepting such a large stewardship should be crippling, but from the moment I received the call I have felt nothing but peace, gratitude and joy. The fact that I feel this way is evidence that the Lord is with me and will remain with me in all he asks me to do. I’ve relied upon him my entire life.”
Prior to being in the Primary general presidency, Sister Collins’ church service included serving as stake Young Women presidency counselor, ward Relief Society president, ward Young Women president and Primary teacher. She and her husband also served as service missionaries in the Salt Lake Inner City Mission and later led the Arkansas Bentonville Mission from 2021 to 2024.
What President Porter learned from serving God’s ‘little ones’
Outgoing Primary General President Susan H. Porter recently shared that it has been a “joy” to serve in the Primary general presidency.
“I have felt so drawn closer to my Heavenly Father through associating with his precious children,” President Porter said in a July 30 video post.
Outgoing President Porter and Sister Wright initially began their service as counselors in the Primary general presidency in April 2021, when President Camille N. Johnson was sustained as president.
In April 2022, President Johnson was sustained as Relief Society general president. President Porter was sustained as Primary general president with Sister Wright and Sister Browning as her first and second counselors, respectively.
President Porter said in her video that serving with Sister Wright and Sister Browning has taught her that “children have such pure hearts and pure testimonies — when they participate and testify, it lifts us all.”
“What a privilege it has been to travel to do the work, to behold our Heavenly Father’s little ones, to behold them in their homes, to behold them in Primary … when they have borne witness of the Savior … (and) opened their hearts to lead us all to Christ.”
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