The White House and Beyond

Dole Fellow and former Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan is joined by White House alums John Bridgeland (Bush 43 and Obama) and Cecilia Muñoz (Obama) to provide insights on public service and governing in the White House.

Dr. Colleen Shogan served as the 11th Archivist of the United States – the first woman to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). She currently serves as a senior fellow at More Perfect where she leads In Pursuit, an ambitious history-based nonpartisan civics initiative that is identifying the most insightful and timeless lessons from the past 250 years of American history. Shogan was recognized at the Dole Institute’s Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership Lecture in early 2026.

John Bridgeland is the Founder & CEO of More Perfect, an alliance of all 44 Presidential Centers (from Washington’s Mount Vernon through the Obama Foundation), the National Archives Foundation, and more than 100 organizations working to protect and renew American democracy through foundational Democracy Goals, initiatives connected to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, and civic moonshots that bring Americans together to solve public problems. Bridgeland was also Founder & CEO of COVID Collaborative, which partnered with the Ad Council on a $330 million vaccination education campaign, and serves as Co-Chairman of Welcome.US, which mobilized millions of Americans to support the resettlement of Afghan, Ukrainian, and other refugees. Bridgeland served as Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Assistant to the President of the United States, and the first Director of USA Freedom Corps after 9/11 under President George W. Bush, and later served as a Member of the White House Council for Community Solutions under President Barack Obama.

Cecilia Muñoz is Co-Chair & Senior Advisor to More Perfect and a national leader in public policy and public interest technology with more than three decades of experience advancing civic, nonprofit, and public-sector initiatives. She spent two decades at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), where she became a leading voice on immigration and civil rights and received a MacArthur Fellowship for her work. Muñoz served for eight years in President Barack Obama’s White House, including as Director of the Domestic Policy Council—the first Latino to hold the position—and previously led intergovernmental affairs in the West Wing. She also serves on the boards of several leading nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.