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The White House Historical Association, chartered in 1961, is a nonprofit historical and educational organization that plays a vital role in preserving the White House and recording its unique history. To enhance the understanding and appreciation of the President's home, the White House Historical Association has published and distributed more than eight million books, as well as videos and other educational materials. The association also sponsors lectures, exhibits, and other outreach programs. Thousands of schools, universities and libraries have received free educational materials about the White House, and traveling exhibits and videos are circulated to the presidential libraries and museums.

Officers

  • John F. W. Rogers, Chairman

    John F. W. Rogers is an executive vice president of Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, John Rogers was a senior fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University. Mr. Rogers served many years in the US government as an under secretary of state, assistant secretary of the treasury, and as an assistant to President Ronald Reagan at the White House. He is a recipient of the Presidential Citizen Medal. Mr. Rogers is chairman of the board of the Atlantic Council, vice chair of the American Academy of Rome, and a treasurer of the Reagan Foundation.

  • Teresa Carlson, Vice Chairperson

    Teresa Carlson is a visionary female leader in the world of tech, working to enact change. She’s an industry disruptor for new and emerging technologies focused on accelerating global resilience in AI, cyber, cloud computing and mission intelligence. A veteran executive of large tech companies Amazon and Microsoft. She has spent her career working to ensure governments securely had the most cutting-edge access to technology. Teresa is a current investor, board member and advisor with General Catalyst, one of the largest investors in emerging artificial intelligence technologies in the United States, Europe and India. Teresa also dedicates time to philanthropic and leadership roles in the global community. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of White House Historical Association, Executive Committee of The Atlantic Council, The Pentagon Memorial Fund and Commissioner at the National Portrait Gallery.

  • Anita McBride, Secretary

    Anita McBride is an internationally recognized expert on first ladies and the operations of the White House. She directs the Legacies of America's First Ladies Initiative at American University where she serves as Executive in Residence in the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies in the School of Public Affairs. Her White House experience spans three decades and four Administrations including as Assistant to President George W. Bush Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush. She is the co-author of two books on the evolving role of the first lady and its historical influence on the American presidency, including the first of its kind textbook filling a long overdue gap in academic literature on the study of first ladies, their legacies on our politics, policy and diplomacy. She is a frequent speaker and media commentator on White House history, its occupants, and presidential transitions. She is actively engaged in philanthropic efforts and organizations nationally and globally supporting women's leadership, the arts, cultural heritage and historic preservation, and civic education.

  • Gregory W. Wendt, Treasurer

    Gregory W. Wendt is a Partner at Capital Group. He holds a master's of business administration from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from The University of Chicago. Greg is in his fourth term as trustee at The University of Chicago and is the founder of a cluster of KIPP schools in Missouri.

  • Stewart D. McLaurin, President

    Stewart McLaurin has been the White House Historical Association president since 2014. Previously, he held senior positions with Mount Vernon, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, Georgetown University and the American Red Cross.

Directors

  • Eula Adams

    Eula Adams is a CPA. His previous positions include CEO, Neuromonics, Inc., COO, Pay By Touch, SVP, Sun Microsystems, EVP, First Data Corporation, and Partner at Deloitte. Serves on the Board of Directors - Grow Generation and is a Transportation Commission for the Colorado Department of Transportation. Adams’ obtained his Bachelor of Science from Morris Brown College and MBA from Harvard Business School. He is married with one son and currently resides in Denver, Colorado.

  • Michael Beschloss

    Michael Beschloss is an award-winning Presidential historian and bestselling author of ten books — most recently Presidents of War (2018). Born in Chicago, Beschloss is an alumnus of Phillips Academy (Andover), Williams College and Harvard Business School, and has served as an historian at the Smithsonian, an associate scholar at the University of Oxford and a senior fellow of the Annenberg Foundation, as well as a trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He is the NBC News Presidential Historian and a contributor to the PBS NewsHour.

  • Gahl Hodges Burt

    Gahl Hodges Burt is Chairman Emeritus of The American Academy in Berlin, an organization which she co-founded with the late Richard Holbrooke in 1996. Additionally, Ms. Burt sits on the boards of International Republican Institute, the Polyphony Foundation, and Bridging Insights. She was also White House Social Secretary for President and Mrs. Reagan.

  • Merlynn Carson

    Merlynn Carson, MD is the award-winning founder and CEO of Myriddian LLC, a Health IT consulting firm that integrates data, healthcare, and workforce solutions for better patient outcomes. Her passion is to harness the power of data to transform healthcare through preventive, predictive, and personalized access. Myriddian has grown into a national firm boasting a clientele of Fortune 100 companies and Federal and state government agencies. Under Dr. Carson’s leadership, Myriddian Health & IT has won numerous awards, including Inc. 5,000 Fastest-Growing Companies, the Moxie Award for boldness in innovation, Emerging Technology company of the Year by Maryland Tech Council.

  • Jean Case

    Jean Case, Chair of National Geographic and CEO of the Case Impact Network, is an investor, philanthropist and impact investing pioneer. Jean co-founded the Case Foundation in 1997 after two decades in the private sector, including as a senior executive at AOL. Jean launched For What It’s Worth in 2021 creating the go-to source for new investors looking to confidently invest for both profit and purpose. She authored national bestseller Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose in 2019.

  • Ashley Dabbiere

    Ashley Dabbiere is the founder of LoGlio, a leading brain cancer research consortium for low-grade gliomas. Since its inception in 2013, LoGlio’s research with its initial private funding of $30 million, has leveraged over $60 million from NIH and additional government and private grants. She is involved with the Brain Tumor Center at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI-Connect) and serves on the board of directors at Oligo Nation. She has also been on the board of trustees at The Lab School of Washington since 2014. At The White House Historical Association, she serves on the executive committee, board of directors, national council and is the chairperson of the development committee. Ashley grew up in Denver, Colorado and is a graduate of the University of Arizona, where she earned her B.A. in Communications. She began her media career in radio, then worked as a television executive for the Meredith Corporation in Kansas City, Nashville and Atlanta. After living in Europe and Asia for several years, she settled into McLean Virginia in 2006. Ashley has four children in their teens.

  • Wayne A. I. Frederick

    Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA, F.A.C.S. is the seventeenth president of Howard University in Washington, D.C., and currently serves as the Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery. A distinguished scholar and administrator, Dr. Frederick has advanced Howard University’s commitment to student opportunity, academic innovation, public service and fiscal stability. He has also secured seven of the eight largest gifts in the University’s history. He currently serves on the U.S. Chamber Board of Directors and Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. He also serves on the public boards of Human Inc., Forma Therapeutics, and Insulet.

  • Deneen Howell

    Deneen Howell, a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP, chairs the firm’s Budget Committee, co-chairs two practice groups, and represents authors, former government officials, journalists, senior executives and other fiduciaries in their professional, academic, media and publishing pursuits. An alumna of Yale College and Stanford Law School, and a past President of the Stanford Law Review, Howell previously served on the board of the Folger Shakespeare Library and currently serves on the board of The Fuller Project, a non-profit newsroom.

  • Thammanoune “Tham” Kannalikham

    Tham Kannalikham is a New York based interior designer. She is passionate about incorporating traditional craftsmanship into the contemporary residential work her firm specializes in. Tham is a current member of the President’s Council at the ICAA. In 2019 she was appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. She is an active supporter of The Alpha Workshop and God’s Love We Deliver. She is a founding member of TED, an education foundation designed to mentor aspiring women in the fields of interior design and architecture.

  • Metta Krach

    Metta Krach is a devoted education advocate, passionate supporter of the arts, and attorney. She serves on the Board of Governors for the San Francisco Symphony, Board of Visitors for Georgetown University Law Center, and works with numerous philanthropic organizations through the Krach Family Foundation. Metta served as a real estate attorney for the New York and Los Angeles offices of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and as Senior Corporate Counsel for Gap Inc.

  • Barbara A. Perry

    Barbara A. Perry, Ph.D., is the Gerald L. Baliles Professor of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited 17 books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties, including Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier.

  • Nicole Sexton

    Nicole Sexton was named the President and CEO of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) in 2017. Prior to joining EIF, she was Chief of Staff of the Central Park Conservancy. Nicole is on the Board of Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts and a member of the board of advisors of SMU DataArts. Nicole serves as Board Secretary of Friends of the Global Fund and has been a member of the FEED Foundation board since 2010.

    • Benjamin C. Sutton

      Ben Sutton is Chairman and CEO of Teall Sports & Entertainment, parent company of three national enterprises - REVELxp, Dyehard Fan Supply and TPG. Sutton was previously Chairman and CEO of IMG College and ISP Sports. In addition to the White House Historical Association, he serves on the boards of the Reagan Presidential Foundation, Wake Forest University, The First Tee, National Football Foundation and the USOC foundation.

    • Tina Tchen

      Tina Tchen is an Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Impact Officer for the Obama Foundation. She is responsible for leading the development, implementation, and monitoring of the Foundation’s strategy and oversees the Girls Opportunity Alliance. Ms. Tchen is an attorney, activist, and lifelong advocate for women and girls. She served in the Obama White House through both terms, and was an Assistant to President Barack Obama,Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama, and Executive Director of the White House Council on Women Girls.

Liaison

  • Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III

    Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III is 19th director of the National Park Service. Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he grew up. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck. Sams most recently served as Oregon Governor Kate Brown's appointee to the Pacific Northwest Power and Conservation Council where he held a position as a council member from March to December of 2021. Prior to the NW Council, he served as executive director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Ex-Officio

  • Lonnie G. Bunch III

    Historian, author, curator, and educator, Lonnie G. Bunch, III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest research, museum, education complex, who was appointed in June 2019. Prior to assuming this position, Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

  • Omar Eaton-Martínez

    Omar Eaton-Martínez is the Senior Vice President for Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he leads the preservation, interpretation, and overall stewardship of 28 historic sites across the country to tell the full American story. Prior to coming to the National Trust, he worked at the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, National Park Service, the Office of the National Museum of the American Latino Commission, NASA, and he also was a K-12 teacher in NYC and DC.

  • Kaywin Feldman

    Kaywin Feldman is Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the Gallery, Kaywin led the Minneapolis Institute of Art as its Nivin and Duncan MacMillan Director and President. She is a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the White House Historical Association, and the Chipstone Foundation, and a member of the State Hermitage Museum International Advisory Board.

  • Carla Hayden

    Dr. Carla Hayden is the 14th Librarian of Congress who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2016. She was the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. Prior to this, Hayden’s most recent role was serving as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. She also served as deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library, an assistant professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and as library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

  • Colleen Shogan

    Dr. Colleen Shogan is the 11th Archivist of the United States, and the first woman appointed to lead the National Archives. A proud Pittsburgh native, she is a recognized political scientist with expertise in the American presidency, political rhetoric, women in politics, and Congress. Prior to her appointment, she was the Senior Vice President and Director of the David M. Rubenstein Center at the White House Historical Association, and she served as a legislative assistant in the United States Senate and as a senior executive at the Library of Congress. Dr. Shogan was the Vice Chair of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission and the Chair of the Board of Directors at the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation.

Directors Emeriti

  • John T. Behrendt

    John T. Behrendt was a litigation partner with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher from 1981 to 2010. He was Global Head of Litigation for UBS from 2010 to 2018. He is active on behalf of a number of organizations associated with the breeding of Thoroughbred racehorses as well as The White House Historical Association. He is a graduate of Sterling College and the University of Minnesota School of Law.

  • John H. Dalton

    John Dalton retired from the Housing Policy Council in June 2017. He serves on the corporate boards of Xactus Corporation and Crius Technology Group and the nonprofit boards of Washington National Cathedral, Community Renewal International, PathNorth and the White House Historical Association. He is grateful for the government service he had as Secretary of the Navy, Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, President of the Government National Mortgage Association and the President’s Advisory Council for the Arts.

  • Knight Kiplinger

    Knight Kiplinger is an economic and business journalist who is Editor Emeritus of Kiplinger Publications and Chairman/CEO of Outlook, Inc., a real estate investment company. He has long been involved in historic preservation and arts leadership in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.

  • Elise K. Kirk

    Elise K. Kirk, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, lecturer and musicologist, whose latest book, "Music at the White House: From the 18th to the 21st Centuries" (White House Historical Association, 2017), is the winner of four major awards. An alumna of the University of Michigan, Dr. Kirk has been a member of the university's national arts council (UMS) and, by presidential appointment, served on the National Advisory Board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

  • Martha Joynt Kumar

    Martha Joynt Kumar is an emeritus professor in the Department of Political Science at Towson University. She serves as director of the White House Transition Project, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that provides information to incoming White House staff about the functions of offices there as well as the responsibilities of the directors.

  • James I. McDaniel

    James I. McDaniel retired from the National Park Service, where he served more than 20 years as Director of White House Liaison. He has written articles on White House preservation for Cultural Resource Management and WHHA Journal. He currently serves on the Audit Committee, Publications Committee and is a trustee of the White House Endowment and Acquisition Trust. He also manages Operation Starfish®, a non-profit charity that does community development projects in Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Honduras.

  • Robert M. McGee

    Bob McGee had a thirty-four year career with Occidental Petroleum Corporation as a Vice President and President of Occidental International Corporation. He is a Trustee and past Board President of the Pan American Development Foundation. He served as a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships for eight years during the Clinton Administration. For over ten years he was on the Board of the Decatur House and was one of the last Presidents of the board prior to Decatur House affiliating with the White House Historical Association when it became the David Rubinstein Center for the Study of White House History. From 2008 to 2021 he served on the Board of the White House Historical Association and now serves as Board Member Emeritus.

  • Harry G. Robinson III

    Harry G. Robinson III, FAIA, AICP is an architect/educator who retired from Howard University as Dean and Professor Emeritus. He has served as chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and president of both the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and the National Architectural Accrediting Board. He served in the U.S. Army with a tour of duty in the Republic of Vietnam for which he was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals.

  • Ann Stock

    Ann Stock is the Chair for the Board of Trustees at Meridian International Center and served as Meridian’s Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees since 2015. She previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for Education and Cultural Affairs and Acting Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy from 2010-2013, Vice President of Institutional Affairs at the John F. Kennedy Center from 1997-2010, and Deputy Assistant to President Bill Clinton and White House Social Secretary from 1993-1997.

  • Gail Berry West

    Gail Berry West is a retired attorney. She formerly headed the Washington Office of Armstrong World Industries and Bellcore. She served in the Carter Administration in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, The White House and In the Air Force Secretariat as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manpower. She is a Board Member Emerita of the National Museum of American History and Vice Regent Emerita of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. She serves on the Board of the Hillwood Museum and was recently appointed A Commissioner on the American Battle Monuments Commission by President Biden.