As Republican criticism of the Smithsonian Institution grows louder, a number of former Democratic aides and employees from progressive nonprofit groups are now serving in senior roles across the organization, while key hiring officials have publicly emphasized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
A Fox News Digital examination of public biographies and social media profiles found about two dozen Smithsonian employees in leadership or curator positions who previously worked for Democratic offices or progressive nonprofits. Leadership profiles and political donation records suggest the trend is not limited to only a small group of top officials.
The presence of former Democratic staffers and people with backgrounds in liberal advocacy organizations in prominent Smithsonian posts is likely to add momentum to conservative claims that the vast museum and research network has taken on a left-of-center tilt.
In recent weeks, Republicans have charged that the Smithsonian — especially the National Museum of American History — has advanced progressive ideology, focused heavily on identity politics and failed to give enough weight to the nation’s founding principles and traditional historical figures. GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration have also objected to particular exhibits dealing with gender identity, diversity and social justice, contending that museum leadership has allowed activism to overtake a neutral presentation of American history.
Those accusations come after years in which DEI-focused leadership has played a visible role within the institution.
Roshni Lal, who directs the Smithsonian’s office of academic appointments and internships — a role with substantial influence over staffing pipelines — has long been committed to advancing DEI in hiring, according to professional biographies.
Before joining the Smithsonian, Lal served as director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges & Employers, where she managed policies, training and programming described in her Smithsonian biography as anti-racist and grounded in social justice. Her LinkedIn page also lists DEI-related positions at the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
During a 2024 podcast appearance, Lal spoke about her focus on “identity-based career services,” including efforts to reach “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.
