Who Is Lola Van Wagenen? The Complete Story of an American Historian and Activist

Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian, consumer activist, and documentary executive producer who co-founded Consumer Action Now in 1970 and Clio Visualizing History in the mid-1990s. Many people first hear her name because of her marriage to actor and director Robert Redford, but her own record in public education, environmental advocacy, and film stands apart from that connection. Born in Provo, Utah, in 1938, she built a career that moved from kitchen-table activism in New York City to a doctorate in American history and award-winning television. This article explains who she is, what she built, and why her work still matters.

Who Is Lola Van Wagenen?

Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian and activist who has focused on public education since 1970. She holds a Ph.D. in American history from New York University and leads Clio Visualizing History, a nonprofit that produces films and online exhibits about the American past.

She first gained public attention as a consumer and environmental organizer. In 1970 she helped start Consumer Action Now, a New York group that taught shoppers how their buying habits affect the environment.

Later she turned to scholarship and media. She earned her degrees as an adult, wrote a doctoral dissertation on Utah suffragists, and then helped build a company that brought history to general audiences.

Her best-known screen credit is as executive producer of Miss America, a documentary that aired on PBS in 2002. She has also served on the boards of several Vermont and New York charities.

Lola Van Wagenen Bio at a Glance

The table below collects the main facts about Lola Van Wagenen from her organization’s biography, news coverage, and public records. Sources disagree on a few dates, and the notes under the table explain where.

Detail	Information
Full name	Lola Jean Van Wagenen
Known as	Lola Redford (during her first marriage)
Born	December 19, 1938, in Provo, Utah, United States
Nationality	American
Occupations	Historian, activist, documentary executive producer
Education	Vermont College (B.A., 1982); New York University (M.A. in public history, 1984; Ph.D. in American history, mid-1990s)
Dissertation topic	Polygamy and the politics of woman suffrage, 1870 to 1896
Organizations co-founded	Consumer Action Now (1970); Clio Visualizing History (mid-1990s); History Institute for Media and Education
Best-known film credit	Executive producer, Miss America (PBS, American Experience, 2002)
First spouse	Robert Redford (married 1958; divorced 1985)
Second spouse	George Burrill (married July 17, 2002)
Children	Four, including Shauna, James, and Amy Redford
Residence	Vermont

Her New York University doctorate carries two dates in published sources. Clio’s own biography gives 1994, while other profiles say 1995. Clio’s founding year also varies between 1995 and 1996 depending on the source, so this article says “mid-1990s.”

The sources also differ on the exact end of her first marriage. Most profiles list a 1985 divorce, though news coverage notes that she and Redford separated in the late 1970s.

Early Life and Family Background

Lola Van Wagenen grew up in Provo, Utah, as the oldest of six children. Her father ran a small radio station, and her family had strong roots in the Mormon faith.

She briefly attended Brigham Young University, which sits in her hometown. Her brother, Sterling Van Wagenen, later became a filmmaker and worked for many years as a director of the Sundance Institute.

She moved to Los Angeles as a teenager. There she met a young actor and art student named Robert Redford in 1957.

The Utah upbringing shaped her later scholarship. Her doctoral research returned to the history of Mormon women, which gave her academic work a personal connection to the place she came from.

That background also explains her interest in how communities organize themselves. She saw early on how faith, family, and local institutions shape what people believe about public life.

Marriage to Robert Redford

Lola Van Wagenen married Robert Redford in Las Vegas on August 9, 1958, when she was 19. The couple first lived in New York City and later in Utah, where Redford’s career grew from stage and television roles into major film work.

They had four children. Their first child, Scott, died in infancy in 1959. Their other children are Shauna, James, and Amy.

James Redford became a documentary filmmaker and activist before his death in 2020. Amy Redford works as an actress and director, and Shauna Redford has worked in family environmental and business ventures.

The marriage lasted about 27 years on paper. The couple separated in the late 1970s and divorced in 1985, and both stayed involved as parents.

Redford died in September 2025. Van Wagenen’s professional record, however, rests on work she began long before and continued long after the marriage.

Consumer Action Now and Early Activism

Consumer Action Now, known as CAN, was the first major organization Lola Van Wagenen helped found. She started it in 1970 in New York City with Ilene Goldman, author Linda Stewart, Cynthia Stein, and other women.

CAN was a nonprofit educational group. It taught consumers how their purchases affect the environment and encouraged households to buy more carefully.

Her activism started even earlier. In 1968 she worked with Another Mother for Peace, an anti-war organization that campaigned against the Vietnam War.

Van Wagenen served as a co-chair of CAN for about ten years. During that time she spoke at public events and appeared on local and national television to promote the group’s goals.

In 1972 she organized the Environmental Action Forum. The gathering brought together consumer and environmental activists to share strategies, and it showed how closely she linked everyday shopping choices to larger ecological problems.

Mother Earth News profiled her and Goldman that same year. The article helped introduce CAN’s ideas about household conservation to a national readership.

Education and Academic Career

Lola Van Wagenen returned to school as an adult and earned three degrees. She finished her bachelor’s degree at Vermont College in 1982, then completed a master’s degree in public history at New York University in 1984.

She continued at New York University and received her Ph.D. in American history in the mid-1990s. Her dissertation, titled Sister-Wives and Suffragists, examined polygamy and the politics of woman suffrage between 1870 and 1896.

The study looked at an unusual political alliance. Eastern suffragists and Utah’s Mormon women worked together for the vote, even though they disagreed deeply about plural marriage.

The University of Oklahoma Press later published the research as a book. It remains a standard reference for readers interested in Utah history and the early women’s rights movement.

Her studies also changed her career. A documentary she watched in a university course about a Japanese American unit in World War II showed her how film could teach history, and that idea led directly to Clio.

Clio Visualizing History

Clio Visualizing History is the organization that turned Lola Van Wagenen’s scholarship into public projects. She co-founded it in the mid-1990s with historian Jeanne Houck, a classmate from New York University, and named it after the Greek muse of history.

The early company produced CD-ROMs, interactive kiosks, websites, exhibits, and films for clients. Its goal was to bring American history to people outside universities.

She also founded the History Institute for Media and Education about six months after Clio launched. That nonprofit handled development, fundraising, and conceptual planning, while Clio served as its production arm.

In 1997 she organized a retreat for historians in Vermont. The meeting produced the idea for a documentary series called American Originals: Women in Popular Culture, which planned films about women photographers, dancers, comedians, and musicians.

Clio changed its structure in 2002 and 2003. It stopped working for outside clients and became a not-for-profit that makes its own educational films and online exhibits from its base in Shelburne, Vermont.

Its public exhibits include Visualizing Votes for Women and Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution. The organization has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and its advisers have included novelist Julia Alvarez and historian Melanie Gustafson.

Miss America and Other Film Work

Lola Van Wagenen and Jeanne Houck served as executive producers of Miss America, a documentary directed by Lisa Ades. The 96-minute film traces the pageant from its start in 1921 through 1998.

PBS broadcast it on American Experience on January 27, 2002, and aired it again in December 2004. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before reaching television.

Critics praised the film for treating the pageant as a mirror of American women’s changing roles. Women Make Movies distributes it for classroom and community use.

Van Wagenen said the film earned its Sundance slot on its merits and not because of her famous former husband. The credits and reviews support that view, since the project grew out of Clio’s own plans for a women’s history series.

She also served as an executive producer of The State of Marriage. Both projects reflect her habit of choosing subjects that explain how ordinary social institutions shape American lives. Her film credits and her teaching materials share one goal: they give general viewers accurate context without requiring a history degree.

Later Life, Marriage to George Burrill, and Community Work

Lola Van Wagenen married George Burrill on July 17, 2002, in Shelburne, Vermont. Burrill founded the international development firm Associates in Rural Development and serves as New Zealand’s honorary consul to Vermont.

The couple visited New Zealand when a deadly earthquake struck Christchurch in 2011. After they returned home, they organized a fundraiser that raised more than $70,000 for recovery programs.

Van Wagenen has served on the boards of Shelburne Farms, the Vermont Historical Society, and the New York Women’s Foundation. She has held charitable roles since the 1970s.

She lives in Vermont and keeps a private public profile. Most reliable information about her comes from Clio’s website, news interviews, and film credits, so readers should check those sources before trusting a celebrity biography site.

Why Her Legacy Matters

Lola Van Wagenen matters because she connected three fields that rarely overlap: consumer advocacy, academic history, and public media. Each stage of her career built on the one before it.

At CAN she learned how to explain complex issues to ordinary households. At New York University she learned how to research them rigorously, and at Clio she combined both skills to reach a wide audience.

Her work also supports a broader view of women’s history. Her dissertation, her exhibits, and her films all place women at the center of political and cultural change.

Her story also shows that a public career can begin late. She earned every degree after raising her children, and she launched Clio in her fifties.

Readers who search for her name often find thin or inaccurate profiles, including pages that give wrong birth dates and invented details. The most dependable sources are Clio’s biography, Seven Days and Rutland Herald coverage, PBS credits, and the Mother Earth News profile of CAN.

Conclusion

Lola Van Wagenen built a career on teaching people how the world works, first as a consumer activist and later as a historian and film producer. Her organizations, her research, and her documentaries continue to bring accurate American history to students and general viewers. She deserves recognition for that body of work, not only for her first marriage.

Frequently Asked Questions About Lola Van Wagenen

Who is Lola Van Wagenen?

Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian and activist born in Provo, Utah, in 1938. She co-founded Consumer Action Now in 1970 and Clio Visualizing History in the mid-1990s. She holds a Ph.D. in American history from New York University and has produced documentaries for public television.

How old is Lola Van Wagenen?

Lola Van Wagenen was born on December 19, 1938, which makes her 87 years old as of November 2026. Some low-quality websites list other birth dates, but Wikipedia, IMDb, and other biographical references agree on December 19, 1938, in Provo, Utah.

What is Lola Van Wagenen known for?

She is known for co-founding Consumer Action Now, leading Clio Visualizing History, and executive producing the PBS documentary Miss America. She also wrote a doctoral dissertation on polygamy and woman suffrage, and she serves on several nonprofit boards in Vermont and New York.

Was Lola Van Wagenen married to Robert Redford?

Yes. Lola Van Wagenen married Robert Redford in Las Vegas on August 9, 1958, when she was 19. They had four children, separated in the late 1970s, and divorced in 1985. Redford died in September 2025. She later married George Burrill in 2002.

Who is Lola Van Wagenen’s current husband?

Her husband is George Burrill, whom she married on July 17, 2002, in Shelburne, Vermont. Burrill founded the international development firm Associates in Rural Development and serves as New Zealand’s honorary consul to Vermont. The couple lives in Vermont and remains active in local causes.

How many children does Lola Van Wagenen have?

She had four children with Robert Redford: Scott, Shauna, James, and Amy. Scott died in infancy in 1959, and James, a documentary filmmaker, died in 2020. Shauna and Amy Redford are living and pursue work in family business, acting, and directing.

What is Consumer Action Now?

Consumer Action Now, or CAN, is a nonprofit educational group that Lola Van Wagenen helped found in New York City in 1970. It taught consumers how their buying choices affect the environment. She served as co-chair for about a decade and organized the 1972 Environmental Action Forum.

What is Clio Visualizing History?

Clio Visualizing History is a Vermont-based nonprofit that Lola Van Wagenen co-founded with historian Jeanne Houck in the mid-1990s. It creates documentary films and online exhibits about American history, including Visualizing Votes for Women. It has received National Endowment for the Humanities grants.

What education does Lola Van Wagenen have?

She earned a bachelor’s degree at Vermont College in 1982 and a master’s degree in public history at New York University in 1984. She completed her Ph.D. in American history at New York University in the mid-1990s, writing on polygamy and woman suffrage.

Where does Lola Van Wagenen live today?

Lola Van Wagenen lives in Vermont, in the Shelburne and Charlotte area near Lake Champlain. Clio Visualizing History operates from Shelburne. She keeps a private profile, so Clio’s website, her organizations, and recent local news coverage offer the best source of updates.