09/30/2024

First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE) Announces Allida Black, Ph.D., as the 2024 Lewis L. Gould Award Recipient

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –

Allida Black, Ph.D., today received the 2024 Lewis L. Gould Award. She is a Distinguished Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute of the University of Oxford, Special Adviser and Historian to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Managing Director of the Allenswood Group, LLC, a collaborative she founded to strengthen democracy through education and civic engagement and to preserve women’s political history. In January 2024, she completed a three-year term as a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

The annual award, presented by FLARE, recognizes distinguished contributions to the field of first lady research and education and a commitment to excellence while furthering the study of American first ladies. 

In responding to this honor, Dr. Black said, “Lewis Gould challenged history to move beyond gendered stereotypes and treat the lives of First Ladies with the same intelligence and intensity their husbands receive. I have always been honored to be associated with Lew and the standard he set. For FLARE to recognize my work with an award named for Lewis Gould is an unexpected, exciting honor and a tribute to the women whose lives I study.”

Dr. Black has a long and distinguished career in promoting research and education on the lasting legacy of America’s first ladies. She founded and co-directs the Hillary Rodham Clinton Oral History Project at the Miller Center, a policy-driven exploration of her service as the nation’s 67^th Secretary of State and advises the Secretary on her archives and other history-based initiatives. She is also recognized as a leading expert on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At The George Washington University, she conceptualized and directed The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, a documentary collection of archival material. Among many other accomplishments, she has written and edited 10 books as well as a variety of articles on women, politics and human rights policy and has curated exhibits for presidential libraries, the United Nations, national historic sites and private museums.

Nancy Kegan Smith, President of FLARE and Retired Director of the Presidential Materials Division, National Archives and Records Administration: “It is my pleasure to announce that the 2024 Lewis L. Gould award recipient is Allida Black. Allida is so deserving of this award given her long and eminent career of scholarship, research and education increasing our knowledge of the contributions, lives, impact and lasting legacies of US First Ladies particularly Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton and putting that knowledge to work in new ways today.”

Stacy Cordery, Chair of the Gould Award Committee, FLARE Board Member and Historian at Iowa State University: “The Lewis L. Gould Award is given to those whose scholarship and/or public-facing work ascends to the ‘quality, academic rigor, and influence’ that characterized Dr. Gould’s distinguished career. Dr. Allida Black is indeed a worthy recipient. She has dedicated herself to broadening the audience for two exceptional First Ladies: Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Through her own scholarship and publications, her commitment to reissuing Roosevelt’s books, her foundational labor in digitizing and making broadly available Roosevelt’s papers, and the timely nature of the Hillary Clinton Oral History Project, Dr. Black truly deserves FLARE’s Gould Award.”

Lewis L. Gould, the historian and author for whom the award is named, pioneered the scholarly study of America’s first ladies 40 years ago. He developed the nation’s first course on presidential spouses and has authored more than a dozen books. Professor Gould encouraged and inspired a generation of scholars and others to research and has served as a guiding light to FLARE.

The award presentation can be viewed on YouTube or Facebook.

About FLARE: The mission of FLARE is to create and sustain a network to promote and publicize research and education about the contribution, lives, impact, and lasting legacy of U.S. first ladies. FLARE celebrated its three-year anniversary in June 2024. Learn more at FLARE-net.org, Instagram @theofficialFLARE, Twitter @FirstLadiesARE, Facebook and YouTube.

Media Contacts:
Nancy Kegan Smith
nksnancy@aol.com
703-409-1085