The chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Shelly C. Lowe, left her position on Wednesday “at the direction of President Trump,” the agency said.
Dr. Lowe, a scholar of higher education and the first Native American to lead the agency, was nominated by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in October 2021 and confirmed by the Senate in February 2022. Michael McDonald, the agency’s general counsel, was named its acting chairman on Wednesday.
“I can confirm that, at the direction of President Trump, Shelly Lowe has departed her position as chair of N.E.H.,” a spokesman for the agency, Paula Wasley, said in a statement. She said Mr. McDonald would serve as acting chairman “until such time as the president nominates and the Senate confirms a new N.E.H. chairman.”
Agency chairs are appointed for four-year terms, though some have served across administrations. Maria Rosario Jackson, the chair of the endowment’s sister agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, announced her resignation on Jan. 17, shortly before Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
The National Endowment for the Humanities was founded in 1965 and has awarded more than $6 billion in grants to museums, historic sites, universities, libraries and other organizations, according to its website.
Dr. Lowe’s departure comes as Mr. Trump has moved to put his stamp on federal cultural agencies, most prominently the Kennedy Center, where he purged Biden appointees from the bipartisan board, fired the center’s president and had himself elected chairman.
The president has also issued sweeping executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government while calling for the promotion of “patriotic history.” In one order issued in January, Mr. Trump included the heads of both the art and humanities endowments as members of his newly created Task Force 250, which is charged with providing “a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American independence.”
Last month, the arts endowment, which is led by an interim chair, Mary Anne Carter, announced that it was canceling this year’s “Challenge America” grants, a relatively small program aimed at supporting projects serving underrepresented groups or communities.
Potential applicants were instead encouraged to apply for the agency’s much larger main grant program, which according to its website encouraged projects that “celebrate and honor the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity” during the lead-up to the 250th commemoration in July 2026.
In his first term, Mr. Trump repeatedly vowed to eliminate both agencies, which have an annual budget of roughly $200 million each. But they survived.
Information was not immediately available about any staff or budget cuts or shifts in its programs at the humanities endowment.
