Join the Adams Presidential Center in partnership with Revolutionary Spaces and the GBH Forum Network for an engaging conversation exploring the remarkable leadership and enduring contributions of John and Abigail Adams and their relevance to America today. Renowned historians and civic education leaders Colleen Shogan, PhD, and Kurt Graham, PhD, will come together at Boston’s historic Old South Meeting House for an insightful discussion of the Adams family’s leadership, civic values, and lasting impact on our constitutional democracy.
Dr. Shogan will also introduce In Pursuit: Lessons of American Leadership, an America 250 project featuring essays on leadership lessons from presidents and first ladies, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, military leaders, and other iconic Americans. She will share highlights from the essays focused on the extraordinary leadership of John and Abigail Adams, as well as John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams, offering fresh perspectives on how their experiences and leadership lessons continue to resonate today.
In Partnership With
Featured Speakers
Colleen Shogan, PhD
Historian and Civics Leader
Dr. Colleen J. Shogan, currently CEO of In Pursuit, served as the 11th Archivist of the United States, the first woman appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to lead the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). A noted author and political scientist committed to civics education, she prioritized expanding public access to NARA’s records and led numerous strategic initiatives to enhance services and make its holdings more accessible, both in person and online, in support of public participation and American democracy. Prior to becoming Archivist, Colleen held several cultural heritage leadership roles: Senior Vice President and Director of the David M. Rubenstein Center at the White House Historical Association, positions in the U.S. Senate, and senior executive roles at the Library of Congress and its Congressional Research Service. She was Vice Chair of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Capitol Historical Society and the Board of Advisers for Historiq, a company combining technology and archival tools to improve public access.
Today, in addition to her role at More Perfect and In Pursuit, Colleen is a Senior Fellow in Civics Education at Stand Together and an Adjunct Professor of Government at Georgetown University. A native of the Pittsburgh area, she holds a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College and a Ph.D. in American Politics from Yale University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. She is the 2024 recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Hubert Humphrey Award for outstanding public service.
Kurt Graham, PhD
President of Adams Presidential Center
Kurt Graham is the inaugural president of the Adams Presidential Center in Quincy, Massachusetts. Previously, he served as the director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. As director, he oversaw a $30M renovation of the principal museum exhibits and dramatically expanded the Library’s educational and public programming. He has also directed the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City.
