Tracy Hyter-Suffern
Tracy Hyter-Suffern joined the National Jazz Museum in Harlem (NJMH) as Executive Director in 2017. She is an accomplished nonprofit leader who has more than 30 years’ experience in arts and culture and their intersections with community, racial justice, poverty, gender and other issues of social justice.
Under her leadership, NJMH has been transformed. Tracy has brought its mission to life by keeping jazz artists working, building an organization that reflects the community it serves and bringing from concept to fruition her vision “to make the jazz in Harlem experience accessible to every person on the planet.” She prioritizes highlighting relevance and inclusiveness of jazz in Harlem; exploring jazz from its origins to its myriad global transformations; drawing links across artistic genres as varied as hip hop, rock, raga, fine art, mental health, fashion and more; and inviting artists, audiences and donors of every diversity to explore their personal connection to this indigenous American music. She is currently spearheading the Museum’s reimagining of audience, visitor and artist experiences through technological transformation and new partnerships.
She has broadened the donor network and attracted new contributors from corporate, institutional, governmental and individual sectors, and has forged new productive business partnerships. During the financial challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the board of trustees, she skillfully steered the organization through crisis, actively securing additional financial backing and first-time support.
Tracy regularly stops walking tour groups in Central Harlem with on-the-spot invitations into the Museum – often opening the doors during “off” hours to introduce them to exhibits and programming that explores intersections between jazz unexpected areas.
She has opened the Museum as a free and open rehearsal space to hundreds of jazz and jazz-related artists; expanded the Museum’s walls with community “stoop” concerts; driven unprecedented growth in its education programming with over 24,000 pre-K to 12th grade students attending the Museum’s jazz workshops since 2020, overseen employing over 1,000 artists since 2023; and ensured over 50% of bands, education events and presentations at the Museum are led by females. Tracy developed and curated the Museum’s first Artist in Residence series to feature local artists who are non-musicians inspired by exemplifies jazz and the first Special Curator in Residence providing a platform and showcase in Central Harlem at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem for artists whose work merit recognition in the jazz genre and are often overlooked by other museums.
Tracy has served as Chief Development Officer, Intersections (5th ministry of the Collegiate Church Corporation that employed the arts and faith as vehicles to advance social justice); Interim Executive Director, Afro Latin Jazz Alliance (aka Belongó); Executive Director, ABFE (formerly Association of Black Foundation Executives) and Urban Bush Women Dance Company; Acting Executive Director, Black Agency Executives (BAE); Director of International Relations, YWCA of the USA National Headquarters; and Senior Programme Officer-Africa Focus, United Nations Nongovernmental Liaison Service.
Tracy is a Staten Island resident who grew up in Stapleton Houses. She is an enrolled tribal member of the Ramapough Lunaape/Lenape Nation and Co-chief of the nation’s Marten Band on Staten Island. She serves on the boards of Project Performing Arts Inc., United Natives and The National Arts Club. She is an alumna of Tufts University and holds a CELTA Certificate (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Cambridge University.
