Nancy Pelosi Donation Ceremony: Speaker Bios

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.)
House Republican Conference Chair

Cathy McMorris Rodgers represents Washington’s 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. As House Republican Conference Chair, McMorris Rodgers is the top woman and fourth-ranking member of the House GOP leadership. When Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, she was picked to be vice chair of his transition team. 

McMorris Rodgers has been representing eastern Washington since 2004, and before becoming the Republican Conference Chair she was the Conference vice chairwoman during the 111th and 112th Congresses (2009–2012). She also spent a decade in the Washington House, starting at age 24, and served two years as the minority leader of that chamber. 

McMorris Rodgers is the co-chair of eight congressional caucuses: Military Family, Down Syndrome, Lumber, Neuroscience, Hydropower, Northwest Energy, Rural Health Caucus and the mobility Air Forces Caucus. She has been a longtime advocate for members of the military and their families, as well as a powerful voice in health-care legislation, helping to start the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus. In 2008, McMorris Rogers launched the Congressional Hydropower Caucus, and in 2017 she introduced legislation to modernize hydropower policy. 

McMorris Rodgers is from the Northwest, and attended the Pensacola Christian College in Florida. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband Brian Rodgers and their three children. 

Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.)
Smithsonian Board of Regents

Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) has represented the city of Sacramento and its surrounding areas since 2005. As a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, she serves on the Health, Communications and Technology, Environment, and Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection subcommittees. Matsui is the co-chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, co-chair of the High Tech Caucus and co-chair of the National Service Caucus. Before coming to Congress, Matsui served on numerous advisory boards, community organizations and honorary committees. She served as chairwoman of the board for the KVIE public television station in Sacramento, and in leadership capacities for the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento Children’s Home and the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra. 

In Washington, she served on the Woodrow Wilson Center board of trustees and in leadership capacities for the Meridian International Center and Arena Stage. She currently serves as an advisory board member of the National Museum of American History and is on the board of the National Symphony Orchestra. During President Bill Clinton’s first term in office, she was one of eight members of the President’s transition board. She later served as Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House Office of Public Liaison.

Judy Woodruff
National Museum of American History Board Alumna; Anchor and Managing Editor, PBS NewsHour

Judy Woodruff is the anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour and former senior news correspondent, anchor and host of Inside Politics on CNN. Before Inside Politics, Woodruff served as NBC’s chief White House correspondent and was the Today show’s Washington, D.C., correspondent. She also hosted the PBS documentary series Frontline with Judy Woodruff, was a correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and anchored CNN’s nightly news alongside Bernard Shaw. She has covered every presidential campaign since 1976, and several breaking news events, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Woodruff has received many accolades, including an Emmy, an Edward R. Murrow Award and CableACE Awards. She is an alumna member of the National Museum of American History’s board. She resides in Washington, D.C.

Lisa Kathleen Graddy
Curator, Division of Political History, National Museum of American History

Lisa Kathleen Graddy has worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History since 1989 and serves in the museum’s Division of Political History as a curator of American political history, reform movements and women’s political history, which includes the Institution’s First Ladies Collection.

Her most recent work includes the voting rights section, “A Vote, A Voice,” as a co-curator of the new exhibition, “American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith” and the companion book, American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith (Smithsonian Books, 2017).

Graddy’s exhibit work includes “The National Woman Suffrage Parade, 1913,” “The First Ladies,” “A First Lady’s Debut,” “The First Ladies at the Smithsonian” and “Exhibiting George Washington” and as co-curator of the traveling exhibition, “First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image.” She is the co‑author of two books on the Smithsonian’s First Ladies Collection, First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image (Scala Publishers Ltd., 2004) and The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection (Smithsonian Books, 2014). Graddy is currently working on the museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Icons: How We Remember Women’s Suffrage,” as well as books and programs to mark the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland and a Master of Arts from Texas Tech University. 

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