Shirley R. Heater lives in Oak Grove, Missouri with her husband Dennis. She was raised in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Upon the major mainstream Protestant changes in that church, Shirley chose to attend one of the several Restoration branches, which had formed to maintain their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph.
Shirley earned a B.A. degree with honors in anthropology from University of Missouri where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She also studied at the Universidad Ibero-Americana in Mexico.
From 1984 to 1999, Shirley served as project manager and researcher at Zarahemla Research Foundation, a non-profit Book of Mormon oriented research group similar to FARMS.
Currently, (2016), Sister Heater is Vice President of the Pre-Columbian Studies Institute and Founder and Chairman of Quetzal Archaeology Center for Mesoamerican Research, successor of the Zarahemla Research Foundation where she has established a museum and issues a quarterly newsletter called Quetzal Codex. (Shirley Heater biography)