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 Susan B. Anthony Museum & House, Hinman leads the institution she first interned at while pursuing her dual master’s degrees in museum studies and arts leadership administration in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and College of Arts and Sciences. 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 Seward House Museum, 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 joining the Anthony Museum in 2021 as deputy director and was promoted to chief operating officer in 2024. She became 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 fundraising for a 14,000-square foot expansion 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 hosting 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.