Women have quietly shaped the library and archival fields for years, but in the past decade, they have emerged as leaders of federal archives and top libraries.
Among them is Colleen Shogan, BC ’97, who was appointed the 11th head of the United States National Archives and Records Administration, making history as the first woman to ever hold the position. She hopes her examples will ensure she is not the last.
“When you have women leading these institutions, it gives them the hope that someday, if they stay on this path, if they want to continue to work in libraries, museums, archives, that they too could run one of these large agencies or institutions,” Shogan said.
Previously, Shogan served as senior vice president at the White House Historical Association and had extensive experience at the Library of Congress. In 2022, President Biden appointed her to lead the National Archives.
Shogan’s interest in working in the United States government began long before her current role. While at Boston College, Shogan majored in political science and later earned a Ph.D. in political science at Yale.
After graduating from Yale, Shogan taught American politics at George Mason University. Seeking a more direct role in the federal government, she applied for a fellowship with the American Political Science Association, which allowed her to work in Congress.
Although the fellowship was meant to last only a year, she became deeply engaged in the work it involved.
“I took a year off from George Mason to do that, and that proved to be really a defining moment in my career because after I left to do that fellowship, I never went back full-time to academia,” Shogun said.
While working on Capitol Hill as a defense fellow, Shogan met Purva Rawal, who was then a health fellow for Senator Joseph Lieberman. Currently, Rawal serves as the chief strategy officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center and adjunct assistant professor at the School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University.
Shogan and Rawal collaborated on bipartisan legislation aimed at providing increased support for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“[The military] didn’t have a lot of the programs and infrastructure in place to support those service members that were suffering from PTSD or, unfortunately, having traumatic brain injuries in combat,” Rawal said.
Shogan’s advocacy for the rights of others continued at the National Archives, where she is currently developing a project that will showcase original documents that have been instrumental in securing the rights of marginalized groups throughout American history, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the 19th Amendment.
“The 19th Amendment enabled the largest enfranchisement in the history of the United States, removing voting restrictions for more than half of all Americans,” Shogan said in a press release. “We are adding it, and the Emancipation Proclamation, to the Charters of Freedom in the National Archives Rotunda to share a more complete story of our nation’s ongoing pursuit of a more perfect union.”
Robert Newlen, interim director of the Congressional Research Service, has known Shogan for over 20 years and said she is a “change agent” who embraces innovation.
“Colleen is also a change agent. She’s not afraid of change. She knows how to manage it,” Newlen said. “That’s a real art in the management world to have that skill and it’s both here at the library and the archives.”
Making archives and records accessible online has taken priority in recent years as the government adapts to an increasingly digital landscape. Despite the challenges, Shogan said this shift has made it much easier for the National Archives to achieve its goal of making information more accessible to the public
“Our biggest challenge at the Archives today is our transformation from being a paper-based—the technical term is analog—physical archive with physical materials and physical items in our collection to becoming a predominantly digital archive,” Shogan said.
Though the modernization of the National Archives is a relatively new project, Shogun has long incorporated digital tools into her work. While at the White House Historical Association, she created a virtual, 3D tour of the public rooms of the White House after in-person tours were halted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the Archives’ recently digitized collections features the papers, writings, and personal testaments of Rosa Parks, the iconic Civil Rights Movement activist. Once a little-known collection, it reveals a deeply personal side of Parks’ life and work, Newlen said.
“[Parks] was a poet,” Newlen said. “People had always thought that she didn’t write a lot. In fact, she did,” Newlen said. “She wrote on the back of napkins. She wrote on the back of church programs that we digitized, all that. I get goosebumps thinking about it because it’s such a fabulous collection.”
The National Archives has begun encouraging people to creatively incorporate its resources into books and movies. One recent example is the 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon, which relied heavily on the Archives’ documents.
Following the film’s release, author David Grann, director Martin Scorsese, and lead actress Lily Gladstone were invited to the National Archives, where they were honored with the Records of Achievement Award, the agency’s highest distinction.
“We give [the award] to a person or a team of people who have used our records in ways that are uniquely able to share them with the American people,” Shogan said.
Shogan is no stranger to creative writing herself. After researching the many White House ghost stories to find out more about the historic building’s history, she published her first mystery novel, Stabbing in the Senate. The book follows Senate staffer Kit Marshall who finds her boss, Senator Langsford, impaled on a stainless steel statue one day.
“She would joke when we were in the Senate that she had these ideas for writing murder mystery novels, and then she went and did it,” Rawal said. “We all talk about, ‘Oh, I’d love to write a book. I’d love to do this.’ And then Colleen talks about it, then she just goes out and does it, and it’s amazing.”
Reflecting on her time at BC, Shogan advised BC students to take full advantage of their liberal arts education, as it prepares them for future careers while fostering a balanced life.
“We were really supportive of BC athletics, and one of my roommates was the BC Eagle, so we had a lot of fun with that,” said Dr. Shogan. “But we were also serious about our schoolwork, knowing we were preparing for graduate school or jobs, which made for a great balance and really represented the best of Boston College.”
Shogan views her work at the National Archives as an opportunity to not only preserve the nation’s history but also empower future generations by making these records more accessible—a sentiment Newlen echoes.
“Some people say, and I agree, that the Library of Congress was the best gift that the U.S. Congress ever gave to the American people,” Newlen said.
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