Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian, environmental activist, and documentary producer best known for her work in public education and women’s history, as well as her former marriage to actor and filmmaker Robert Redford. She co-founded Consumer Action Now in 1970 and later helped establish Clio Visualizing History, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making American history accessible through documentaries and online educational exhibits.
Although her connection to one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors has attracted public attention, Van Wagenen has built a professional legacy of her own. Her work combines historical research, environmental education, documentary filmmaking, and efforts to bring women’s experiences into the broader understanding of American history.
Who Is Lola Van Wagenen?
Lola Van Wagenen is a public historian whose career has focused on education, environmental awareness, and the preservation and presentation of American history. She pursued higher education as an adult, eventually earning a doctorate in American history from New York University. Her academic background helped shape her later work producing educational documentaries and digital history projects.
Her career is notable because it developed across several fields rather than remaining within traditional academic history. She worked on consumer and environmental education initiatives, supported organizations addressing public-interest issues, and later used multimedia projects to help people understand historical events and social movements.
| Detail | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Lola Van Wagenen |
| Birthplace | Provo, Utah, United States |
| Profession | Historian, activist, documentary producer |
| First husband | Robert Redford |
| Children | Four with Robert Redford |
| Education | Vermont College and New York University |
| Highest degree | Ph.D. in American history |
| Notable organizations | Consumer Action Now and Clio Visualizing History |
| Main areas of work | Public history, environmental education, women’s history |
Van Wagenen’s official biography at Clio Visualizing History is a particularly useful source for understanding her education, professional activities, and documented achievements.
Lola Van Wagenen’s Early Life and Education
Where Was Lola Van Wagenen Born?
Van Wagenen was born in Provo, Utah, and grew up in a religious family environment. Her early life in Utah preceded a career that would eventually connect her with environmental activism, higher education, and public history. Detailed accounts of her private childhood are limited, so claims about her upbringing should be distinguished from the better-documented facts of her education and professional life.
Rather than entering a conventional academic career immediately, she returned to formal education as an adult. This decision became an important turning point, providing the foundation for her later work as a researcher, historian, and educational producer.
Her Academic Journey
Van Wagenen’s educational achievements demonstrate her long-term commitment to learning and historical research. According to her official Clio biography, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Vermont College in 1982, completed a master’s degree in liberal studies and public history at New York University in 1984, and received her Ph.D. in American history from NYU in 1994.
Her studies gave her the research skills needed to examine historical documents, investigate social movements, and explain how past events shaped American society. Public history, in particular, focuses on presenting historical knowledge to audiences beyond universities through museums, documentaries, exhibitions, archives, and other accessible formats.
This approach later became central to her work at Clio Visualizing History. Instead of limiting historical research to academic publications, she helped develop projects that could reach students, teachers, and general readers through digital media and documentary film.
Lola Van Wagenen’s Environmental Activism
Consumer Action Now and Its Mission
One of Van Wagenen’s earliest major professional achievements was co-founding Consumer Action Now (CAN) in New York City in 1970. The nonprofit educational organization sought to explain the relationship between consumer behavior and environmental protection. Its programs encouraged people to understand how everyday purchasing decisions could affect the environment.
This work placed Van Wagenen among the people using public education to address environmental concerns during a period of growing interest in conservation and responsible consumption. Rather than treating environmental protection solely as a matter for governments or scientists, CAN connected the issue with household decisions and public awareness.
For more than a decade, she worked on environmental and women’s issues through education and public-interest initiatives. Her contributions were recognized with an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Pratt Institute, according to her official biography.
Women’s Energy Education
Van Wagenen’s environmental work also extended to energy education. Biographical accounts describe her involvement in efforts to help women understand energy use and conservation, including educational materials developed in cooperation with federal agencies during the late 1970s and around 1980. These initiatives reflected the idea that practical knowledge about household energy consumption could be an important part of broader environmental education.
Her work during this period connected two issues that would remain important throughout her career: women’s participation in public life and the need to make specialized information understandable to ordinary people. These themes later reappeared in her historical documentaries and educational websites.
Clio Visualizing History and Lola Van Wagenen’s Career
Why Did She Co-Found Clio Visualizing History?
After completing her doctoral studies, Van Wagenen helped establish Clio Visualizing History to bring American history to a wider audience. The organization combined academic research with documentaries, online exhibits, and other forms of educational media. Its purpose was to make historical subjects accessible without sacrificing the research and context needed to understand them properly.
Clio began as a company that provided services and developed projects for clients. In 2002, it changed its organizational structure to become a nonprofit focused on its own American history education projects. Van Wagenen’s work included choosing exhibit topics, producing online resources, and collaborating with historians, writers, and advisers.
The organization illustrates an important part of her professional approach. Historical research does not have to remain confined to books or classrooms. Digital exhibitions can combine written explanations, photographs, primary documents, timelines, and film clips to help audiences understand how historical events unfolded and why they matter.
Miss America: A Documentary Film
One of Van Wagenen’s best-known production credits is Miss America: A Documentary Film. She served as an executive producer alongside Jeanne Houck, with the documentary directed by Lisa Ades and produced by Ades and Lesli Klainberg. It aired on PBS’s American Experience in January 2002 and was rebroadcast in December 2004.
The film examines the history of the Miss America pageant, which began in 1921, and explores how the competition reflected changing ideas about women, beauty, commercial culture, and public life. Interviews with former contestants and archival material help place the pageant within the broader social history of the United States. The subject also connects with Van Wagenen’s longstanding interest in women’s experiences and the relationship between popular culture and social change.
The project is significant because it demonstrates how entertainment institutions can provide a starting point for serious historical analysis. Rather than presenting the pageant only as a competition, the documentary examines what it reveals about changing cultural expectations and debates over women’s roles.
Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution
Another important Clio project is Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution, an online historical exhibition launched in 2015. Van Wagenen directed and produced the project with a team of historians and other specialists. The exhibit explores the women’s movement from the 1940s onward, highlighting both prominent figures and grassroots activism.
The exhibition includes 46 film clips drawn from 27 documentaries, along with interactive timelines, essays, photographs, primary documents, and additional educational resources. Its coverage includes women’s experiences in the workplace and family, political participation, social movements, and health-related debates.
The project reflects Van Wagenen’s interest in showing how historical change emerges through both well-known leaders and the collective efforts of people whose contributions may receive less public attention. Its online format also makes the material available to audiences beyond a traditional museum or university setting.
Other Documentary and Digital History Projects
Van Wagenen’s work with Clio extended to projects on photography, marriage, and American cultural history. The organization developed Catching the Shadow: Women at Photography in the 19th Century, which received scripting support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Material gathered for the project later helped inform Clio’s online exhibitions about women photographers.
She also served as executive producer of The State of Marriage, released in 2015. In addition, Clio’s online work has included an exhibition about journalist Lowell Thomas and military officer T. E. Lawrence, using historical materials and multimedia to explore how public figures and their reputations are presented to audiences.
Across these projects, a consistent theme emerges. Van Wagenen has sought to combine research with accessible storytelling, using film and digital tools to help people engage with subjects that might otherwise seem remote or difficult to follow.
Lola Van Wagenen as an Author and Historian
Sister-Wives and Suffragists
Van Wagenen’s academic research produced a substantial contribution to the study of women’s political history. Her work, Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage, 1870–1896, examines the relationship between polygamy, politics, and the women’s suffrage movement in the American West. Her dissertation was published in 2003 through BYU Studies.
The book explores how women in Utah participated in debates about voting rights during a period when questions about polygamy and federal authority shaped the territory’s political life. It considers the activities of women in both polygamous and monogamous marriages and challenges simplified accounts of how women’s political engagement developed.
The historical context is important. Utah women’s suffrage became entangled with national disputes over the territory’s institutions, religious practices, and political status. Van Wagenen’s research examines these competing forces rather than treating the suffrage movement as a single, uniform campaign.
The study also draws attention to women whose political contributions have sometimes received less attention in broader histories of the American women’s rights movement. Its value lies in examining the specific conditions in Utah and showing how local circumstances influenced the struggle over voting rights.
Her Approach to Public History
Van Wagenen’s academic and educational work complements each other. Her scholarship investigates the historical record, while her online exhibits and documentaries present research through formats that can reach a broader audience. That combination has been central to Clio Visualizing History’s mission.
Her work is particularly relevant to women’s history because it looks beyond famous individuals to the social conditions, institutions, and community activities that shaped women’s lives. This approach allows audiences to see historical change as a complex process rather than a series of isolated achievements.
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Lola Van Wagenen and Robert Redford’s Marriage
How Did Lola Van Wagenen Meet Robert Redford?
Lola Van Wagenen became widely known to the public through her marriage to Robert Redford, the acclaimed American actor, director, and producer. Biographical accounts report that the couple met in Los Angeles in 1957 and married in 1958. Their relationship began before Redford became one of the most recognizable stars in American cinema.
Their marriage lasted for more than two decades and coincided with the growth of Redford’s acting and directing career. While public interest often centers on the Hollywood connection, Van Wagenen was also pursuing her own interests in education, activism, and historical research.
The couple’s marriage is commonly reported to have ended in 1985. However, some historical accounts have noted uncertainty surrounding the timing of their formal separation and divorce. The mid-1980s is the safest general description of when their marriage ended.
Why Did Lola Van Wagenen and Robert Redford Divorce?
Van Wagenen and Redford kept much of their private relationship away from public scrutiny. Although biographical sources commonly list 1985 as the year of their divorce, detailed, reliably documented explanations of the private reasons for their separation are limited.
It is therefore best not to present speculation about infidelity, personal disagreements, or other alleged causes as established fact. Their relationship is a part of Van Wagenen’s biography, but it does not fully explain her independent career or her contributions to education and historical research.
Lola Van Wagenen’s Children and Family
Lola Van Wagenen and Robert Redford had four children: Scott, Shauna, James, and Amy. The family experienced significant personal losses, including the deaths of their first child during infancy and their son James in 2020.
Their children have pursued different paths, including the arts and documentary filmmaking.
| Child | What is publicly known |
|---|---|
| Scott Anthony Redford | Died in infancy in 1959. |
| Shauna Redford | Became an artist and married author Eric Schlosser. |
| James, also known as Jamie Redford | Worked as a filmmaker and documentary producer; died in 2020. |
| Amy Redford | Works as an actress, director, and producer. |
These details are documented in published profiles of the Redford family.
The Loss of Her Son Scott
Scott Anthony Redford, the couple’s first child, died in 1959 at approximately two and a half months old from sudden infant death syndrome. The loss was an early tragedy in the family’s history.
Although this event is frequently mentioned in accounts of Robert Redford’s personal life, it is important to discuss it respectfully. Public information about the family’s grief does not provide a basis for making further assumptions about Van Wagenen’s private experiences.
Her Son James Redford’s Death
James Redford, often known as Jamie, became a documentary filmmaker and worked on environmental and social issues. He died in October 2020 at the age of 58 after battling cancer. His work included documentary storytelling and environmental initiatives, continuing some of the public-interest themes associated with his family.
His death was another major loss for the family. It also brought renewed attention to the family’s involvement in filmmaking, environmental advocacy, and public education.
Who Is Lola Van Wagenen’s Husband Now?
Public biographical records identify George Carleton Burrill as Van Wagenen’s second husband. They married in July 2002 in Shelburne, Vermont. Burrill is described in biographical sources as an international development professional who founded ARD, an international development firm.
Unlike her first marriage, this relationship has received comparatively little entertainment-media attention. Van Wagenen has generally maintained a private personal life, and reliable public information about her day-to-day activities is limited.
Robert Redford later married German artist and environmentalist Sibylle Szaggars in 2009. He died on September 16, 2025, at the age of 89. Van Wagenen was his former wife, not his spouse at the time of his death.
Lola Van Wagenen’s Awards and Public Service
Van Wagenen’s career has included recognition for both her academic achievements and her public-interest work. Her official Clio biography records several notable honors and appointments.
Her documented achievements include:
- Honorary Doctor of Science: Awarded by Pratt Institute in recognition of her work related to environmental and women’s issues.
- NYU Distinguished Alumni/Alumnae Achievement Award: Received in 2012 from New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Science.
- UN International Year of the Child: Served as a commissioner for the initiative.
- U.S. Committee for UNICEF: Served as a board member.
- National Audubon Society: Served as a board member.
- Vermont Historical Society: Served as a trustee for approximately a decade.
- Shelburne Farms: Listed by Clio as a board she serves on.
These roles show that her professional involvement has extended beyond producing films and writing about history. She has also contributed to organizations concerned with education, children, environmental protection, and historical understanding. The exact dates and duration of individual appointments are not available for every role in the public biography.
What Is Lola Van Wagenen Doing Today?
As of October 2026, Clio Visualizing History lists Lola Van Wagenen, Ph.D., as its president. The organization’s official leadership page provides a current institutional reference for her continuing association with public history.
Clio’s educational resources continue to provide historical exhibits, essays, and multimedia material for readers, students, teachers, and researchers. Its projects focus on making American history understandable through carefully researched online presentations.
Van Wagenen’s current public profile is relatively low-key compared with that of her former husband. There is limited reliable information about her private schedule or personal activities, so it would be misleading to suggest that every detail of her present life is publicly known.
Her documented career nevertheless shows a long-running commitment to public education. From consumer and environmental awareness programs to women’s history and documentary production, her work has consistently focused on explaining important issues to a wider audience.
Lola Van Wagenen’s Net Worth
Lola Van Wagenen’s net worth has not been established by a reliable, publicly available financial disclosure. Some biography websites may publish estimates, but without documented information about her assets, investments, property, income, and liabilities, those figures should not be treated as verified.
Her career has included nonprofit leadership, educational projects, historical research, and documentary production. These activities establish her professional accomplishments, but they do not provide enough information to calculate her personal wealth accurately.
It is also important to distinguish her finances from those of Robert Redford. His earnings from acting, directing, producing, and other business interests cannot be used to determine Van Wagenen’s individual net worth. Any specific dollar figure attributed to her without reliable financial evidence remains unconfirmed.
Why Is Lola Van Wagenen Important Beyond Her Marriage?
Van Wagenen’s professional life offers a broader perspective on a person often introduced through a celebrity relationship. Her contributions to environmental education began in the early 1970s, while her later work brought academic history to audiences through films and online exhibits. Both parts of her career demonstrate an interest in using education to increase public understanding.
Her research into women’s suffrage also highlights the importance of examining historical experiences that can be overlooked in broad national narratives. By studying the relationship between polygamy and women’s political participation in Utah, she explored how regional circumstances, social institutions, and political debates influenced the struggle for voting rights.
Her legacy is therefore best understood through a combination of scholarship, activism, and public education. Rather than defining her only as Robert Redford’s former wife, a complete biography recognizes her own work as a historian, environmental activist, and documentary producer.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lola Van Wagenen
1. Who is Lola Van Wagenen?
Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian, environmental activist, and documentary producer. She co-founded Consumer Action Now in 1970 and later helped establish Clio Visualizing History, a nonprofit organization focused on American history education.
2. How old is Lola Van Wagenen?
Biographical databases list her birth date as December 19, 1938. Based on that date, she is 87 years old as of October 2026 and will turn 88 in December 2026.
3. Was Lola Van Wagenen married to Robert Redford?
Yes. Van Wagenen married Robert Redford in 1958. Their marriage ended in the mid-1980s, with 1985 commonly cited as the divorce year.
4. How many children did Lola Van Wagenen have?
She had four children with Robert Redford: Scott, Shauna, James, and Amy. Scott died in infancy in 1959, and James died in 2020.
5. Is Lola Van Wagenen married to George Burrill?
Public biographical records identify George Carleton Burrill as her second husband. They married on July 17, 2002.
6. What is Lola Van Wagenen’s net worth?
Her net worth has not been reliably verified through public financial disclosures. Online estimates should be treated cautiously because there is no authoritative figure establishing her personal wealth.
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