Dr. Anthea M. Hartig is the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She began her tenure in 2019 as the first woman to hold the position since the museum’s opening in 1964. Hartig oversees more than 250 employees, a budget of over $40 million, and a collection that includes 1.8 million objects and more than three shelf-miles of archives. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hartig has put in place two task forces: one on collecting around the current crisis and the other a digital response team to create new content, particularly in the area of K-12 education. An award-winning public historian and cultural heritage expert, Hartig is dedicated to making the nation’s richly diverse history accessible and relevant. She is currently leading the museum in crafting a vibrant new strategic plan. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s ratification granting women the right to vote, the museum presented new exhibitions in 2020 that are powerful contributors to the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, including “Creating Icons: How We Remember Woman Suffrage” and “Girlhood (It’s Complicated).” Hartig was previously executive director and CEO of the California Historical Society.