Deputy Archivist of the United States Adrienne Thomas Retires
Press Release · Thursday, March 24, 2011

Washington, DC

Washington, DC…After more than 40 years of unparalleled service to the National Archives, Deputy Archivist Adrienne C. Thomas announced her retirement, effective April 1, 2011.

“Adrienne has witnessed and played a key part in the transformation of the Archives from a paper-based storage facility to a vital independent information agency,” said Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero “Her institutional knowledge, her roles in creating the National Archives College Park facility and in the major renovation of the National Archives Building, and her financial leadership are lasting contributions which will not be forgotten. We are truly grateful for her public service.”

Ms. Thomas started her career at the National Archives as an archivist trainee in the Office of Presidential Libraries. She went on to serve as a special assistant to the Deputy Archivist of the United States during a revolutionary time in records access as the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act became law and as new Executive Orders laid the path for establishing the first Declassification Division in the Office of the National Archives.

She served as the Director of Planning and Analysis, where she was responsible for establishing the infrastructure and processes necessary to get the National Archives up and running as a newly-independent agency after the National Archives regained its independence from the General Services Administration in 1985.

As Deputy to the Assistant Archivist for Administrative Services from 1987 to 1994, Ms. Thomas devoted the majority of her time to the successful design, construction and move into the state-of the art archive facility in College Park, Maryland. In 1994 Ms. Thomas was appointed Assistant Archivist for Administration and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), with responsibility for the agency's financial and budget operations as well as space and security management, procurement, human resources, organization and staff development, and the management of both the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and the College Park, Maryland, facility. In this role she oversaw the renovation of the National Archives Building and the building of a new regional archives facility in Atlanta.

Ms. Thomas provided superb financial leadership as CFO that helped define the agency’s strategic direction while continuing to ensure that the National Archives activities and programs operated efficiently. Her knowledge of Archives business, customers, and stakeholders, and her work with OMB and Congress in support of the agency’s budget requests, enabled her to steer the Archives through both good times and bad.

Ms. Thomas has served as Deputy Archivist since December, 2007, and as Acting Archivist from December 2008 through November 2009.

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For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.

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