Anita B. McBride Historian of First Ladies’ Impact and Legacies and Leader on Global Women’s Rights Anita McBride is an internationally recognized expert with a focus on first ladies and the operations of the White House. In 2023, she co-authored Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women, showcasing the evolving role of the first lady and its historical influence on the American presidency. She also co-authored a first of its kind textbook, U.S. First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies, which fills a long overdue gap in academic literature on the study of first ladies and their influence in history.
Anita is a founding member of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE), affiliated with the American University School of Public Affairs, which aims to create and sustain a network to promote and publicize research and education relevant to the contributions, lives, impact, and lasting legacies of U.S. First Ladies. She has shared her expertise on the changing roles and responsibilities of America’s first ladies on MSNBC, CNN, and FoxNews, as well as with the Washington Post and the New York Times. She also has served as a consultant to HBO’s Emmy-award winning series, Veep. McBride’s expertise on the influence of first ladies on American politics, policy and global diplomacy was acquired through her two decades of White House service. As Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush, she became one of the longest-tenured women in White House history. She directed the first lady’s travel to 67 countries in four years to support U.S. foreign policy objectives in human rights, women’s empowerment, global health and education, and human freedom, including historic visits to Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Thai-Burma border. McBride also served in senior roles under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush.
Throughout her career, McBride has focused on elevating the stories of first ladies around the world. She co-founded the RAND African First Ladies Initiative and Fellowship program, partnering with African first ladies to support their efforts as champions of change in their countries, as well as train their staff and advisors in strategies for managing an effective first lady’s office. She is an advisor to the Laura W. Bush Women’s Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute and a consultant to several other global non-profit institutions. She also is a member of the US-Afghan Women’s Council, the International Republican Institute’s Women’s Democracy Network, the National Italian American Foundation, and is a Founding Advisor of RightNow Women PAC. Currently, McBride is Executive-in-Residence at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, DC, where she directs programming and national conferences on the legacies of America’s first ladies. She is a frequent speaker on the history and operations of the White House.