National Administrative Professionals Week 2011 -- Welcome!

In honor of National Administrative Assistants Week, April 24-30, I am officially launching the Washington Secretaries History Project blog.

This is an endeavor inspired by my interest as a former White House secretary, now a journalist, to document the rich history of secretaries and administrative professionals who have served in American politics and government for more than 200 years.

As background, I was six-weeks shy of my 23rd birthday in 1971 when I was hired as a secretary in the speech writing department of the Nixon White House. Prior to this, beginning at 19, I was a secretary in public relations at the Republican National Committee while a journalism student.

With the convergence of the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the Watergate break-in and, of course, the women's movement, I recognized that I was a witness to a pivotal time in American history. I vowed to one day write a book.

Three decades later I began the task of planning a memoir while working as a freelance reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune, writing local history stories for the Sunday paper on a regular basis.

Background research soon revealed that my experiences were part of a larger, grander American story that could only be told by those who served in similar capacities before and after me.


This blog was created to generate a dialogue among veteran secretaries as well as today’s administrative professionals, working in the Information Age, who have never known what it was like to smear carbon paper on their fingers or been on the receiving end of the comment, “My girl will get it for you.”

Please jump in, tell your colleagues, and let the dialogue begin. If you prefer, email me directly at washingtonsecretaries@gmail.com. For more information about the project, visit: www.washingtonsecretaries.com.