Alondra Nelson, a prominent academic and advisor, has resigned from two federal advisory boards in a blistering protest against the Trump administration’s control over science and knowledge.
In a powerful Time Magazine op-ed, Nelson called for urgent action against what she described as an “authoritarian” shift in the way knowledge is managed in America.
Nelson, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and a former White House science advisor, announced her resignation from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council, condemning the administration for suppressing expert voices and using political control to replace objective oversight.
“My resignation is not a surrender of responsibility, but an assertion of it,” Nelson wrote.
Nelson explained that, over time, she encountered barriers that made it impossible to give honest, unfiltered advice to the government. She argued that these obstacles weren’t just personal frustrations—they were signs of a deeper problem: the erosion of democratic principles in the pursuit of political control.
“These repeated obstacles of procedural circumvention… represent not just personal frustration, but institutional regression,” Nelson stated.
The former advisor was especially critical of the National Science Board, which she said had completely lost its purpose. Once intended to provide independent oversight to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the board, under the Trump administration, had become a tool for political manipulation.
“The meaning of oversight changed with the arrival of DOGE,” she wrote, referring to the Division of Grant Excellence, which she claimed had gained excessive power under Trump’s appointees.
Nelson provided a troubling example from a recent board meeting, where she said NSF staff openly admitted that DOGE could approve or reject grant applications at will, bypassing the usual expert review process.
“I listened to NSF staff say that DOGE had by fiat the authority to give thumbs up or down to grant applications which had been systematically vetted by layers of subject matter experts,” Nelson wrote.
She also criticized DOGE consultant Zachary Terrell, claiming that during a critical meeting, he showed more interest in his water bottle and cuticles than in the matter at hand, even blocking the release of approved grants.
“This episode reflects a deeper concern: the erosion of meaningful guidance,” Nelson wrote. “When grant applications are vetoed and whole organizations restructured, the freedom to speak becomes meaningless when disconnected from the possibility of being heard.”
Nelson’s resignation comes amid growing concern over the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity and inclusion in federal institutions. She pointed to the dismissal of Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, who was removed after being accused of promoting controversial diversity policies and allowing children access to “inappropriate books”—claims Nelson described as false and deeply troubling.
“The ouster of Hayden is part of a broader pattern of political targeting of women and Black public servants across the federal government,” Nelson wrote.
Nelson, who is Black, framed Hayden’s firing as part of a broader, disturbing trend of political interference in public service and knowledge management.
Just days later, the White House dismissed Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights, after her office issued a report on the risks of generative AI. Nelson linked these firings to the administration’s broader attempt to control the flow of information.
“The creeping normalization of authoritarian approaches to knowledge management and academic freedom,” she warned.
Nelson made it clear that her resignation wasn’t about surrendering responsibility. Instead, she framed it as a bold refusal to participate in a system that no longer values truth and expertise.
“What then, is the responsible course of action?” Nelson asked. “For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging. My resignation represents such a refusal, not a surrender of responsibility but an assertion of it.”
In her op-ed, Nelson calls on others to join her in resisting what she describes as an ‘authoritarian takeover’ of science, knowledge, and public institutions.
