Kerry is a Professor of Ancient Scripture and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. He received his B.S. from BYU in Psychology with a Hebrew minor, an M.A. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from BYU and his Ph.D. from UCLA in Egyptology with a secondary emphasis in Hebrew Language and Literature. In his final year he was named the UCLA Affiliates Graduate Student of the Year. Before coming to BYU he taught at BYU-Hawaii. He is the director of the BYU Egypt Excavation Project. He was selected by the Princeton Review in 2012 as one of the best 300 professors in the nation. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford for the 2016-17 academic year. He has published 11 books, and over 60 peer reviewed articles. He and his wife, Julianne, are the parents of six children and one grandchild, and together they have lived in Jerusalem while Kerry has taught there on multiple occasions. He created and hosts the podcast The Scriptures Are Real.