Since early in 2019, Anthea M. Hartig has been honored to serve as the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History--the first woman to hold the position since the museum opened in 1964. An award-winning public historian and cultural heritage expert, Hartig is dedicated to making the nation’s richly diverse history accessible and relevant. She earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in history at the University of California, Riverside, her bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Los Angeles and studied as an undergraduate and graduate student at the College of William and Mary.