Howard University alumna Kenvi Phillips has been named the inaugural director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library at the National Archives. She will lead the first-ever digital Presidential Library. She is in charge of leading all library activities, including planning, administration, and programming, per a report by Culture Type.
“As the Director of the first digital presidential library in our system, Kenvi will help shape a new course for how we think about access to, and engagement with, the stories and decisions that helped shape our nation,” said Colleen Shogan, archivist of the United States.
Phillips has been a historian for more than two decades. She has worked at multiple libraries, historic sites, and academic institutions specializing in collections, research, archives, and programming. Prior to her new position, Philips was the first director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Brown University Library. She was also the first Johanna-Marie Frankel Curator for Race and Ethnicity at Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library. Philips was also the assistant curator of manuscripts at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. She was also a historian at the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
She is also a two-time graduate of Howard University. Phillips received a doctorate in U.S. history and a master’s degree in public history. She also has an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Tulsa.
Operated by the Obama Foundation, the Obama Presidential Center is now under development in Chicago, Illinois. It will include a museum with works by artists such as Richard Hunt. In contrast, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), a federal organization with its headquarters located in College Park, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., is in charge of the presidential library system, which includes the Obama Presidential Library.
“The Obama Foundation is excited to work with Dr. Kenvi Phillips as Director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library at the National Archives,” Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said in a statement. “Her strong experience in archives and collections will help make the digitized records a great asset that will be available to everyone, everywhere, including historians, researchers, educators, and students. We look forward to continuing to work with the National Archives as they provide access to these historic records, and we look forward to displaying artifacts from the Obama Presidential Library in the Foundation’s Obama Presidential Museum, which we will open on the South Side of Chicago in Spring 2026.”
