How Íř±¬ĂĹ Shaped This Alum and Museum Leader’s Career
Allison Hinman G’15, G’16 goes to work every day in a place filled with the historical memory of courageous acts: the Rochester, New York, home of Susan B. Anthony where she fought for women’s right to vote and was arrested for casting a ballot.
As president and CEO of the National  Hinman leads the institution she first interned at while pursuing her dual master’s degrees in museum studies and arts leadership administration in the and . It’s a role that she says set the course of her career.
Going into the internship, Hinman was skeptical she’d learn anything new about the operation of historic house museums, since she’d already interned at the , the historic home of William Henry Seward, who served as a New York State senator, governor of New York, a U.S. senator and secretary of state in the administrations of both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
But her time at the Anthony Museum had a profound impact on the way she thought about her path.
“It was such a transformative experience for me with the type of programming the Anthony Museum was doing and how they were creating programming with community, instead of for community,” Hinman says. “That was really influential in how I wanted to move forward with museum education and thinking about how to work with community. ”
Hinman ended up the Anthony Museum in 2021 as deputy director and was promoted to chief operating officer in 2024. She the new president and CEO as of January 2026.
“I work with the absolute best staff and the best volunteers,” Hinman says. “Everybody is so passionate, and it’s just a great environment to work in, and everybody really views it as a team effort in how we make all of the work happen here.”
Currently, Hinman is focused on overseeing and for a that will include a 6,000 square foot self-guided exhibition space to the museum. She says the new building will allow the museum to expand its programming.
For Women’s History Month, the museum is a series of guest lecturers, and Hinman said she’s looking forward to the historic house once again serving as an early voting location for the 2026 election cycle. In 2024, more than 6,000 visitors chose to vote early in Susan B. Anthony’s backyard.
Below, she delves into lessons she learned from her time at Syracuse and what she hopes current students will keep in mind during their own time on campus.
I always gravitated toward history, though I resisted becoming a history major as an undergraduate. It took me two years to declare that’s what I wanted to do, but I had my first museum internship experience at the Seward House Museum. I didn’t think I actually wanted to work in museums. I had to learn the tour in a week and that was really intimidating. But I did it, and I fell in love with the power of place and storytelling. I caught what I call the “museum bug.” It was from that point forward that I was like, “This is what I’m going to do.”
The Seward House, as much as the Anthony Museum, has been a big part of my development. It was all the different people I got to engage with, the volunteers I got to work with and all the people that were really passionate about the work of the organizations as well as the the stories that you could tell that kept my interests with museums.
We learn new and exciting things about Susan B. Anthony, those she worked with and the world she lived in every day. I think most people aren’t aware that Susan B. Anthony worked for more than just the vote for women.
She was involved in the Temperance, Abolition and Women’s Rights movements. Her values are rooted in liberty, equality, justice and humanity. She believed her work was to improve the lives of more than just one community, she believed her work to be about human rights.
Walking through Susan B. Anthony’s National Historic Landmark home allows visitors to experience the power of place. Visitors can stand in the room Susan B. Anthony was arrested in and roam the attic space that was used by the National American Woman Suffrage Association and served as the headquarters when Susan B. Anthony was its president.
Our staff and volunteer docents are incredibly passionate storytellers that make history come to life for our visitors. We hope that after someone tours the museum they remember that change is made possible by the collective work of everyday people. We hope that they are inspired to support a cause they care about and remember that Susan B. Anthony believed that no matter how small a contribution is to a cause someone cares about, it is still significant.
I loved my time at Syracuse, and a lot of that had to do with the professors that I worked with. I knew I wanted to be in museum administration, so I needed a well-rounded museum background to do that job. I wanted to have an understanding of what each role in a museum is responsible for; I felt that that would help make me a stronger leader, because I can understand what different staff members are responsible for and recognize where there’s pressure during certain times of year and how to better support staff in their positions.
My second master’s degree was in arts leadership administration. Getting to take classes in the Whitman,  Newhouse and Maxwell schools, in addition to the work that I was doing in the visual and performing arts school really was such a perfect marriage of the two degrees and definitely contributed to where I am today.
I would tell them to take advantage of the many opportunities you get when you’re in the graduate program. Also, build your network, stay in touch with the people. Your network is one of the most valuable things that you can develop, and its been so pivotal to my career.
