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As Republicans intensify scrutiny of the Smithsonian Institution, numerous former Democratic staffers and employees of progressive nonprofits are holding senior positions throughout the nonprofit, while officials responsible for hiring emphasized diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
A Fox News Digital review of public biographies and social media profiles identified roughly two dozen individuals employed by the Smithsonian in leadership positions or as curators who worked for Democratic offices or progressive nonprofits before being hired. Leadership biographies and political donation records indicate the pattern extends beyond a handful of senior employees.
That former Democratic staffers and individuals previously employed by liberal nonprofits now hold leadership positions at the Smithsonian is likely to further fuel conservative criticism that the sprawling museum and research organization has developed a left-of-center bias.
In recent weeks, Republicans have accused the Smithsonian, particularly its National Museum of American History, of promoting progressive ideology, emphasizing identity politics and giving insufficient attention to the nation’s founding and traditional historical figures. Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration also have criticized specific exhibits addressing gender identity, diversity and social justice, arguing that museum leaders have allowed political activism to displace the neutral presentation of history.
These allegations follow years of DEI-centric leadership.
Roshni Lal, the director of the Smithsonian’s office of academic appointments and internships — which has significant influence over staffing — has had a career-long commitment to advancing DEI in hiring, professional biographies show.
Lal previously was the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges & Employers, where she oversaw policies, training and programming she characterized as anti-racist and rooted in social justice, according to her Smithsonian biography. She also held DEI-related roles at the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Colleges and Employers before joining the Smithsonian, per Lal’s LinkedIn page.
In a 2024 podcast appearance, Lal discussed her dedication to “identity-based career services,” partially through connecting with “students of color” through “culturally inclusive” job placement.
Public Smithsonian biographies show that several curators at the National Museum of American History describe their work as focusing on race, identity and social justice, themes that also appear in a number of the museum’s exhibits and initiatives.
The current chairwoman of the National Museum of American History political history division, which is responsible for overseeing exhibits about American presidents, for instance, also oversees the Smithsonian’s Center for Restorative History, which says on its website that it exists to “spotlight the people and stories that have been excluded from our national narrative using the principles of restorative justice” by bringing together “diverse voices.”
Among the center’s flagship programs are an effort to preserve the history of the Black Lives Matter movement by centering the perspectives of activists and a “decolonization working group,” according to its website.
Multiple other curators at the National Museum of American History approach their jobs with a similar focus on racial identity, per their Smithsonian biographies. These include one curator who is working on “stitching social justice throughout the Americas” through their exhibit work as well as multiple scholars who primarily study race.
While Lal started her role at the Smithsonian in November 2023, her predecessor, who held the position for 11 years beginning in 2012, previously worked for the Clinton White House, the Obama State Department and as a special assistant to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Lal did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital Tuesday.
“The Smithsonian is a nonpartisan institution, and politics does not factor into our hiring practices,” a spokesperson for the institution told Fox News Digital. “Our hiring is solely based on qualifications to fulfill the responsibilities of any given position.”
Leadership at the Smithsonian is not monolithic. The institution’s chief legal officer worked in the Bush administration and the chief of staff to the organization’s regents clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts on the Supreme Court as well as Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his time on D.C.’s federal appellate court, per their institutional biographies.
Congressional Republicans held two hearings to investigate allegations that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has used taxpayer money to promote left-wing narratives about race, gender and oppression while minimizing the nation’s founding ideals and achievements. Following the hearings, conservative lawmakers are expected to be using Congress’ spending authority in an attempt to restrict Smithsonian funding to pressure it to remove exhibits they feel are inappropriate.
“These leaders have commandeered an institution that the nation entrusted to them to ensure the transmission, and thus continuance of American culture and heritage, and have perversely turned it into its opposite, a hothouse for anti-American activism,” Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez said during his July 21 congressional testimony on the Smithsonian. “These leaders often reveal, in their own words, that they see the world in terms of power dynamics — who has dominance and how to wrest it from them by dismantling the American narrative, all deeply Marxist and Gramscian constructs.”
Other senior Smithsonian staffers who came from left-of-center backgrounds, according to LinkedIn profiles and other online biographies, include the National Museum of American History head librarian, who previously worked for the liberal Urban Institute; an advisory board member who was a senior staffer for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein; the institution’s undersecretary for education, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of education during the Obama administration; the Smithsonian’s associate director of advancement for strategic initiatives, who came from the NAACP; and the director of communications for the National Museum of American History, who worked as a senior staffer for House Democratic leadership before joining the institution.
Curators with liberal backgrounds, per LinkedIn profiles and online biographies, meanwhile, include the recently departed director of curatorial affairs at the National Portrait Gallery, who held multiple DEI-related positions at colleges; an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian who was involved with a militant civil rights organization in the 1970s; and a curator of time-based media for the Smithsonian American Art Museum who previously worked for a feminist art gallery.
Fox News Digital considered groups that publicly align with the Democratic Party, or those that focus on issues such as environmentalism, racial justice or left-of-center economic policy as liberal for the purposes of its review.
The Smithsonian has roughly 6,400 full-time employees with varying degrees of public documentation. Fox News Digital’s review covered a relatively small slice of that total, focusing on publicly identified leadership at the top of the institution as well as leaders at the National Museum of American History and individuals identifying themselves as curators on LinkedIn.
While a full accounting of the political beliefs of the Smithsonian’s senior staff and curators is impossible to glean from public records alone, political donations can provide some insight.
Only about 1% of donations made by individuals identifying themselves as Smithsonian employees have gone to Republican committees this cycle, according to campaign finance records reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reached each Smithsonian employee mentioned for comment.
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