Deputy Archivist Adrienne Thomas Retires

After more than 40 years of service to the National Archives, Deputy Archivist Adrienne C. Thomas retired on April 1, 2011.

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 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 served as Deputy Archivist from December, 2007 until her retirement, and as Acting Archivist from December 2008 through November 2009.