June 12, 2025
Kim Enderle and Hannah Reynolds are selected as Fellows.
Washington, D.C. – The National Archives Foundation, the nonprofit partner of the National Archives and Records Administration, announces the selection of Kim Enderle and Hannah Reynolds as the fifth annual 2025 Cokie Roberts Women’s History Fellows. As part of the fellowship, Enderle and Reynolds will each receive $7,000 along with support for their research projects at the National Archives.
In addition to the Fellows, three finalists—Judi Freeman, Elizabeth Rees, and Sarah Valentine—have been selected as Cokie Roberts Women’s History Commended Scholars, each receiving $1,000 to support their research.
Fifty-Six applicants proposed a wide range of research topics, from the little-known contributions of Black, female cryptographic clerks during the Cold War to the establishment of the Office of the First Lady in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
“My mom worked to uncover the contributions of American women who have greatly impacted our country and added to our nation’s rich heritage. I am confident that this year’s fellows will continue this legacy through their promising research,” stated Rebecca Boggs Roberts, a writer of women’s history, National Archives Foundation board member, and Cokie Roberts’ daughter.
The fellowship is supported by the Foundation’s Cokie Roberts Research Fund for Women’s History, which was launched in 2019 to honor the noted author and journalist Cokie Roberts, who spent her career shining light on the stories of countless women in U.S. history that were previously unknown to the public. Roberts served as a board member of the Foundation for nearly 20 years. The fund was established in her honor and encourages new research at the National Archives in the field of women’s history.
About the Fellows
Kim Enderle is a PhD candidate in the History Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research focuses on Women’s Army Corps veterans of the American war in Vietnam, in which she centers the lived experiences of marginalized warriors, including women, people of color, and the LGBT community. She is a retired U.S. Army aviator, and a member of the Women’s Army Corps Veterans Association, where she serves as Chair of the National Bylaws and Finance and Investment Committees, and as First Vice President and Newsletter Editor of Chapter 33 (Northern Virginia).
Hannah Reynolds is a PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University, where she specializes in women’s history of the nineteenth century. Her research examines the role of women in federal land grant policy, like the Homestead Act of 1862, and how Congress, local land offices, and settlers themselves imagined women and families as contrary to predatory market forces in the West. Before coming to Northwestern, she received her MA in History from Portland State University while working as a Social Studies teacher and Speech and Debate Coach at a public high school on the Oregon Coast.
About the Commended Scholars
Judi Freeman
In a new biography of Dorothy Thompson, a woman who repositioned the role of Journalism in the 1920s-50s, her research aims to hold a lens to many aspects of her life, from her life from her marriage to Sinclair Lewis, to her switching of political parties in 1940, to her political leanings on State affairs.
Dr. Elizabeth Rees
This research is the second volume of a two-book deal with UVA Press. It explores both the changes in the role of First Lady, as well as the changing needs of the staff in the East Wing, both in regards to them individually, and within the larger institution of the Presidency and White House.
Dr. Sarah Valentine
In this research Dr. Valentine will specifically look at the previously untold story of the early NSA’s all-Black Special Processing Division, who read millions of tapped messages from the Soviet Union’s unprotected cable networks in the 1940s-50s. Their work is responsible for the basis of modern computing and big data processing.
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About the National Archives Foundation
The National Archives Foundation is an independent nonprofit that increases public awareness of the National Archives, inspires a deeper appreciation of our country’s heritage, and encourages citizen engagement in our democracy. The Foundation generates financial and creative support for National Archives’ exhibitions, public programs, and educational initiatives, introducing America’s records to people around the U.S. and the world. Learn more at www.archivesfoundation.org.
About the National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration is a federal agency that serves the American people by preserving and making available the records of the United States Government through a nationwide network of archives, records centers, and Presidential Libraries. The National Archives is the custodian of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, on display for all to experience in Washington, DC. Learn more about the holdings of the National Archives at www.archives.gov.
