Norwin grad could head National Archives at critical time

A Norwin graduate is in line to oversee the National Archives.

Colleen Joy Shogan, a North Huntingdon native and 1993 Norwin High School graduate, was nominated last month to become the Archivist of the United States. Shogan awaits confirmation by the Senate to become chief administrator of the National Archives and Records Administration.

An Arlington, Va., resident, Shogan declined to comment on her nomination, referring inquiries to the White House. As a nominee, Shogan is not permitted to grant interviews to the news media, said Seth Shuster, a White House spokesman.

President Joe Biden nominated Shogan on Aug. 3, five days before the FBI searched former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and seized more than 11,000 government records that were stored there.

Currently, Shogan is the senior vice president and director of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History at the White House Historical Association.

If confirmed, she would lead an agency that is at the center of a political and legal battle with Trump over the removal of numerous boxes of records, some of which have been determined to be classified, when he left the White House in January 2021, after losing the election to Biden in November 2020.

Shogan will appear at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs before any confirmation vote by the full Senate. The hearing is scheduled for Sept. 21.

In that hearing, Shogan could be questioned by Republican senators on the committee, including high-profile supporters of Trump: Ronald Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Oklahoma.

Retired Norwin teacher Barbara Shrump, said she is certain Shogan would do well under tough questioning.

“She is self-confident, and I don’t see her being rattled by it,” Shrump said.

Shrump said she was not surprised that Shogan was selected to move on to a higher level of responsibility in the federal government.

”She was very, very interested in government and how it can help citizens,” Shrump said.

In college, Shogan earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and a doctorate in political science from Yale University. Shogan worked in the Senate as a fellow from 2005 to 2006, then as legislative staff member. Shogan also taught American politics at George Mason University and Georgetown University.

She was interested in politics in high school, and “I thought she might go into politics,” Shrump said.

She is also the author of six Washington, D.C.-based mystery books.

“She was a very creative and good writer,” Shrump said.

This story was updated to reflect the date of the Senate hearing.