Campus Life

Heard on Campus: David Ferriero at the Penn State Forum

David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, was the guest speaker at the Penn State Forum Speaker Series held Dec. 4 at the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus. Credit: Patrick Mansell / Penn StateCreative Commons

"One of the nicest things about being the archivist is sitting as the chair of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, which is a granting agency within the National Archives. So for the first time in my professional career, I'm giving away money instead of begging for it."

David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, at the Penn State Forum, held today (Dec. 4) at the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus. Ferriero's talk took the form of a conversation with Timothy D. Pyatt, Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and head of Special Collections in Penn State’s Eberly Family Special Collections Library. Pyatt previously worked for Ferriero as associate director of the rare book, manuscript and special collections library at Duke University.

Ferriero was sworn in as 10th archivist of the United States,  on Nov. 13, 2009, and is the first librarian and first Vietnam veteran appointed to the position. The archivist of the United States, appointed by the president of the United States, is the head of the National Archives and Records Administration, an agency of the executive branch of the federal government. Previously, Ferriero served as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries and, earlier, served in top positions at two of the nation's major academic libraries, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., and Duke University in Durham, N.C.

The next speaker in the Penn State Forum Speaker Series is Penn State alumnus David Teplica, a plastic surgeon and photographer, who will speak on "Architecture of the Body, Anatomy of Gender and the Art of Surgical Pleasure" on Jan. 23 at the Nittany Lion Inn ballroom. 

Last Updated December 4, 2013

Contact